Why does Sky Sports Fan Pass not look as smooth as Netflix etc.

Forums › Online streaming services › Why does Sky Sports Fan Pass not look as smooth as Netflix etc.

danepak

1124 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 85

#195277 13-Apr-2016 10:29

My setup is an older LG TV (720p) with a Chromecast (new, which supports 5G).

Internet is fibre with 100mbit download.

When watching Youtube and Netflix, the quality is perfect. You wouldn’t know if you were watching ‘normal TV’ or something streamed from the net to your Chromecast.

I’ve tried Sky Sports ‘Fan pass' and have been using them a few times.

It looks good. HD quality and no lagging, when streaming to Chromecast.

However, it doesn’t look exactly as smooth, as if you watch it on ‘normal TV’.

It’s hard to explain, but it’s like it’s using less frames.

From memory, even the ad breaks during a live game looks better. It's more when you watch the actual game, that it looks like it's using less frames.

Why is this? Just out of curiosity.

(I hope my question makes sense - I’m a novice)

KrazyKid

1247 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 616

#1532407 13-Apr-2016 10:42

Fanpass is 720 while Netflix is 1080 so a slight resolution drop. Maybe the TV has a sports motion mode that is compensating and the reduced resolution is effecting this slightly?

Here is some info on motion blur that may help.

danepak

1124 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 85

#1532415 13-Apr-2016 10:56

OK, thanks.
It might be motion blur.

Jaxson

8172 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1332

Trusted

#1532419 13-Apr-2016 11:08

The TV shouldn't know it's watching sports content automatically though.

There was some debate about the framerate in use early on. I saw a lot of what I call 'micro pauses' initially, but this all went away when I moved to the chromecast.

The other issue may be in the bitrate of the capture. Sports can be extremely hard work to compress nicely, given often the whole frame is changing. TV shows tend to be a slower pace, (on average), so a direct comparison to Netflix might not be completely apples for apples.

Also I noticed there was no quality option on the fanpass app recently, so there wasn't a way to force it to best like I'm sure there used to be.

NonprayingMantis

6434 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1528

#1532422 13-Apr-2016 11:12

streaming live tv is quite a bit different than streaming pre-loaded content.

Two main reasons

The nature of sports streaming in most cases means lots more fast camera pans and tracking shots. Lots of long shots with very small things moving quickly across the screen (golf balls, footballs etc). Compared to TV shows where there are many more static backgrounds, close ups with little movement (talking heads basically) sport streaming is a nightmare a nightmare to compress adequately.

Netflix etc has loads of time between receiving the content and actually streaming it to do things like optimise the compression, check and double check the quality for each show etc.

With live tv, they have about 3 minutes between the event happening and it appearing on your screen - there is no time to correct errors, adjust for artifacts in the stream, send it back if it's bad, adjust the compression etc

So yes, I wouldn't expect the quality of a live streamed broadcast to be as good as ondemand.

danepak

1124 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 85

#1532423 13-Apr-2016 11:14

OK, thanks for the explanation.

richms

29098 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 10208

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1532449 13-Apr-2016 11:21

Sky mangle everything to 50Hz, chromecasts only do 60, so anything in 50 has 10 duplicated frames per second. This screws up motion interpolation badly.

The decision to put 50Hz content onto the internet is an absurd one, but local broadcasters are still stuck in the mentality of "Herp derp must make everything 50Hz because that is what old analog broadcasts were" - Until google either sort chromecast out to change dynamically to 50 (Unlikly since they are a US company and TV's sold there generally will not support 50Hz) or sky stop butchering the frame rates to fit obsolete standards, this will happen.

Richard rich.ms

Mighty Ape

Shop now at Mighty Ape (affiliate link).

wasabi2k

2102 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 860

#1532452 13-Apr-2016 11:23

Livestream NRL is also MUCH better quality that SKYGO in my experience - but even that varies.

Unsure if that is due to different source networks or just planetary alignment.