TVNZ+ Upgrade - What's Changing?

Forums › Online streaming services › TVNZ+ Upgrade - What's Changing?

1 | ... | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19

9329 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 4968

#3494091 20-May-2026 16:34

@Oblivian that is very interesting, because I tried (briefly) watching that same episode of From last night on ATV and gave up after about a minute. Still dreadful low res, but watching the DVB-S version is fine. Other shows come through fine on the ATV - it's very much show dependent - so comfortable it's not a local network/client issue.

mobiusnz

494 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 125

#3494096 20-May-2026 16:51

RunningMan:

@Oblivian that is very interesting, because I tried (briefly) watching that same episode of From last night on ATV and gave up after about a minute. Still dreadful low res, but watching the DVB-S version is fine. Other shows come through fine on the ATV - it's very much show dependent - so comfortable it's not a local network/client issue.

Where my experince is quality on Apple TV is flawless - When I can get it to play. Basically each evening I have to fully restart the Apple TV for it to refresh episode lists and play any content. An App forced close isn't enough.

Doesn't seem to be any consistency between peoples experiences - One thing I might be different on is mine is an older Apple TV - Its the 4th Gen non 4k.

Matt Beechey Mobius Network Solutions

RunningMan

9329 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 4968

#3494102 20-May-2026 17:21

@mobius can you try playing an episode of From? Season 4 is the current one. For me it's I think the 432p stream, so very low res, soft looking picture. If you skip forward to an ad break, the ads will be the same res, and the fine print text at the bottom of the screen on some ads is illegible.

Also using an ATV, but the current model. @Oblivian was playing S4E4 above as a comparison.

mobiusnz

494 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 125

#3494162 20-May-2026 18:26

RunningMan:

@mobius can you try playing an episode of From? Season 4 is the current one. For me it's I think the 432p stream, so very low res, soft looking picture. If you skip forward to an ad break, the ads will be the same res, and the fine print text at the bottom of the screen on some ads is illegible.

Also using an ATV, but the current model. @Oblivian was playing S4E4 above as a comparison.

Interesting - I just tried playing Season 4 of From and you are right. It looks like its an upsampled playback of a low res stream.
I then flicked to Celebrity Treasure island and watching closely now which i wasn't before (its Celebrity Treasure Island) and I do think its a better quality stream. Still not amazing HD but hair looked like hair not pixels.

Perhaps somehow TVNZ cheaped out and payed less for a lower quality version? I'm already watching From, up to Season 3 on an "alternate" streaming service (plex) and it was really noticible how back it looked on TVNZ in comparrison. I didn't realise it was available on TVNZ

Interestingly tonight the app behaved differently. Turned on the Apple TV (or woke it) and went into TVNZ and it just froze on the purple background but then after a few seconds lauched the splash screen logo and asked me who was watching so its as if it stalled and relaunched itself.

Then it played whatever I asked for which it wasn't doing a couple of nights ago. I did remove the app and redownload it a couple of nights ago though to clear any local data / cache completely so maybe thats improved things?

Matt Beechey Mobius Network Solutions

RunningMan

9329 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 4968

#3494166 20-May-2026 18:57

Yeah, the picture quality issue definitely relates to the show. However, given a few posts above, someone has the 1080p stream of From, it must be available to TVNZ, they just choose to reduce the quality for some client platforms.

Suspect the freezing splash screen was a server side error tonight as I was seeing the same thing at about the same time.

They do have From the same day as overseas release, but the quality is so poor, I've waited until the following Saturday when it's on broadcast TV at a more acceptable quality.

Oblivian

7374 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2143

ID Verified

#3494168 20-May-2026 19:06

I need to plug the mini pc into something with better picture processor. It may be the stream profile I'm seeing is saying 1080 when the Media's not or being upscaled. It's certainly not broadcast 1080 standards where you see every pore etc.

Hard to tell on old hardware and graphics card, as its software decoding and a full screen window, but logos etc seem crisp. Compared to a few weeks ago before the backend changes and code had to be rewritten to address login/tokens. Certainly more audio channels.

Quic Broadband

Move to New Zealand's best fibre broadband service (affiliate link). Free setup code: R587125ERQ6VE. Note that to use Quic Broadband you must be comfortable with configuring your own router.

mobiusnz

494 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 125

#3494316 21-May-2026 07:15

Ive got a NUC connected to my TV in the lounge. Its mostly a Plex client as I do other streaming services on Apple TV now. I'll fire up Chrome and login to TVNZ and see what From plays like there. For me watching it on Apple TV it was being upscaled - Not sure if stream or the Apple TV was doing it but it looks pixelated (Hair and fine details) but when you looks close the pixels appeared round and smooth looking.

I'll see tonight what it plays like on PC and do some frame grabs of it, another program on TVNZ (probably something home grown like Treasure Island or Grand Designs) and also play it from another streaming source and grab some screenshots there too.

Its very subjective that when I initially plays From it looked acceptable but once I actually looked at it again it was terrible quality. I played Treasure Island and it was a lot better but the From scenes were dark which often shows up compression artifacts more and a higher contrast TV makes them stand out further.

My gut says the From was dreadful and Treasure Island acceptable but still not anything close to a live digital broadcast. It looks like TVNZ are doing their best to keep their data / streaming costs down across the board.

Matt Beechey Mobius Network Solutions

RunningMan

9329 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 4968

#3494567 21-May-2026 18:31

I was using Downton Abbey as a comparison. Was much higher bitrate, obviously better picture, but don't know of a way on the ATV to determine the actual resolution.

mobiusnz

494 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 125

#3494580 21-May-2026 19:05

So I just tried tonight watching two things on the NUC in a browser. From still looked pretty dreadful. Low resolution for sure. Celebrity treasure island looked good.

I then went to the Apple TV and again found I couldn't play anything. Tried exiting the app via the settings menu and re-launched and still couldn't play anything, just get a black screen with the spinning wheel.

Restarted the whole ATV and then run TVNZ and it gave be the fancy new football video splash screen. Played Lost - Hard to say as couldn't look at them side by side easily but it looked the same possibly with some Apple upscaling going on.

Celebrity treasure island looked as good as it did in the browser or very very close at least.

Doesn't seem to matter what the device is - From looks like crap on TVNZ online.

Apple TV TVNZ app still sees be rebooting the entire apple TV fully for it to work 24 hours later.

Matt Beechey Mobius Network Solutions

Oblivian

7374 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2143

ID Verified

#3494581 21-May-2026 19:11

You should be able to use developer tools in browser to get stream information.

I'd recommend trying KODI with SG tvnz plugin on the NUC. Browsers not going to be the same experience either. But you have 2 options if it's got an OS.

mobiusnz

494 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 125

#3494583 21-May-2026 19:13

Oblivian:

You should be able to use developer tools in browser to get stream information.

I'd recommend trying KODI with SG tvnz plugin on the NUC. Browsers not going to be the same experience either. But you have 2 options if it's got an OS.

Even then it would report the size of the stream delivered to me which might be 1080 but its upsampled from garbage.
I'll stick to my Plex as its 1080p x265 and I'm not going to watch TVNZ's advertisers to be delivered garbage quality.

Matt Beechey Mobius Network Solutions

AliExpress

Shop now on AliExpress (affiliate link).

Oblivian

7374 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2143

ID Verified

#3494584 21-May-2026 19:17

I wasn't suggesting using it as your primary source. But given I'm the only one thus far to report actual stream data from a player it's all presumption.

TVNZ:

“There’s no 4K or Doby Atmos coming at this stage,” the spokeswoman confirmed. “Audio has been improved to 5.1 and picture quality has improved to full HD where available.

“The HD can already be seen across live sports streams and this is rolling out across video on demand content.”

Anyone like OIA requests.. might be worth asking the question again now. Interesting response in 2022. Admission of cost and licences

https://fyi.org.nz/request/21087/response/79645/attach/html/5/L.F%20Smith%20OIA%20Response.pdf.html

RunningMan

9329 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 4968

#3494587 21-May-2026 19:30

Oblivian:[snip] I'm the only one thus far to report actual stream data from a player it's all presumption.

Thanks. I have been having an educated guess at resolution based on subjective assessment of picture, and comparing the measured bitrate to this table from @RedactedRetracted

RunningMan

9329 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 4968

#3494595 21-May-2026 20:25

Apple TV app v 7.0.3 is out and has the new splash screen. If only they'd fix the bugs instead of adding fancy splash screens.

Swapping between live channels still doesn't work. Sometimes ends in audio but no video. Picture quality still awful low res on some shows.

It's been five weeks since this was launched, difficult to believe how little has been fixed.

eracode

Smpl Mnmlst
9461 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 6343

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#3494596 21-May-2026 20:34

RunningMan:

Apple TV app v 7.0.3 is out and has the new splash screen. If only they'd fix the bugs instead of adding fancy splash screens.

Swapping between live channels still doesn't work. Sometimes ends in audio but no video. Picture quality still awful low res on some shows.

It's been five weeks since this was launched, difficult to believe how little has been fixed.

Just watched E1 of Under Salt Marsh - a premium UK series with a great cast. Resolution and audio were total crap. It deserves better. They should be ashamed of themselves.

Sometimes I just sit and think. Other times I just sit.

1 | ... | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19