New Freeview SmartVU streaming device: Chromecast, 4K HDR, Android TV

Forums › Freeview (DVB-T/DVB-S) › New Freeview SmartVU streaming device: Chromecast, 4K HDR, Android TV

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#2146175 16-Dec-2018 17:16

sbiddle:

There is still significant cost to the broadcasters to have their video on a CDN, and the bandwidth requirements (and cost) for a 1080P HD broadcast are going to be significantly higher than offering 720P.

Maybe it's something we can all hope for is this box sells well - a bit more co-operation between networks to deliver an IP solution that makes their OTA broadcasts.

There is also a significant cost for antennas on hills and losing on ad revenues because you send the same thing to everyone rather than base it on their demographics.

Richard rich.ms

JimmyH

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#2146228 16-Dec-2018 18:29

richms:

Yuck at all those 25's and 50s in the list. Should be 24 or 60 IMO. Who makes content for those oddball old PAL framerates?

It's historical legacy. 25/50 is no more, and no less, oddball and weird than 30/60 or 24. They are all standard.

25 frames per second (and therefore 50 frames interlaced) are the standard for PAL countries (NZ, Australia, UK etc), and not all that. 30 frames per second (actually 29.970 because of limitations of frequency divider circuits at the time the US colour standard was finalised) and therefore 60 frames interlaced are standard for NTSC countries (the US, Japan etc). Personally I think the PAL standard looks better than the US one because, despite the lower frame rate, it has 576 lines instead of 480. 24 frames per second is the cinema standard, because of the way film cameras worked back in the day.

The framerates just carried on. So broadcast material produced tends to be multiples of 25FPS in the PAL world and 30 in the NTSC world. Because of the way our TVs differed from US ones, the broadcasters here used to convert frame rates for broadcast.

But it's irrelevant. Most decent TVs now can handle all framerates and resolutions (although some still don't do 24p native). Personally, I wish the broadcasters would leave it alone and stop converting now - most material looks best at the native framerate it was produced at, and bad frame rate conversions can make some material close to unwatchable. They should just send it out in the native format it was produced in.

jnimmo

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#2146959 18-Dec-2018 10:50

Can anyone advise whether it is possible to use behind a captive portal, i.e. public wifi where you have to accept terms and conditions eto get internet access?

SirHumphreyAppleby

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#2146981 18-Dec-2018 11:07

JimmyH:

Personally, I wish the broadcasters would leave it alone and stop converting now - most material looks best at the native framerate it was produced at, and bad frame rate conversions can make some material close to unwatchable. They should just send it out in the native format it was produced in.

Mixing frame rates wasn't possible with analogue television, but I suspect it's not permitted with DVB either due to the potential problems it would introduce with stream timing. Neither the DVD nor Blu-ray specs allow mixed NTSC and PAL disks let alone programme or transport streams.

robjg63

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#2146983 18-Dec-2018 11:11

jnimmo:

Can anyone advise whether it is possible to use behind a captive portal, i.e. public wifi where you have to accept terms and conditions eto get internet access?

I imagine it would work in a similar way to (say) an android phone.

https://9to5google.com/2015/12/18/heres-how-to-manually-access-a-public-wifi-login-page-on-android/

If you have a phone can you connect ok?

I guess it wouldnt be as seemless as a regular wifi connection - but "should" work....

Probably depends how often it bugs you to log in as well.

I guess the other thing is, with public wifi, the bandwidth is also often a bit reduced - so it might not be great for streaming anyway.

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

richms

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#2146984 18-Dec-2018 11:13

bluray does 24FPS which is what most content that gets ruined for broadcast here was originally in. Im sure I have seen that on a disk with 60FPS bonus features, but I generally get my rips of just the main movie not the entire disc.

Of course for a FTA broadcaster a 4% speedup is a good thing since that gets more space for the ads.

Just like radio with the pitch slightly up on the music.

Multiple frame rates isnt a problem for streaming services, so if they cant get their act together with the broadcast to compete with that, they could at least not use it as a reason to cripple their online services with their often shoddy framerate conversion (looking at you choice tv) and sped up movies.

Richard rich.ms

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sbiddle

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#2146986 18-Dec-2018 11:17

jnimmo:

Can anyone advise whether it is possible to use behind a captive portal, i.e. public wifi where you have to accept terms and conditions eto get internet access?

If you install a web browser to enter the captive portal URL and then your password/login it would work fine with many captive portals.

Groucho

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#2148236 20-Dec-2018 10:21

JimmyH:

richms:

Yuck at all those 25's and 50s in the list. Should be 24 or 60 IMO. Who makes content for those oddball old PAL framerates?

It's historical legacy. 25/50 is no more, and no less, oddball and weird than 30/60 or 24. They are all standard.

25 frames per second (and therefore 50 frames interlaced) are the standard for PAL countries (NZ, Australia, UK etc), and not all that. 30 frames per second (actually 29.970 because of limitations of frequency divider circuits at the time the US colour standard was finalised) and therefore 60 frames interlaced are standard for NTSC countries (the US, Japan etc). Personally I think the PAL standard looks better than the US one because, despite the lower frame rate, it has 576 lines instead of 480. 24 frames per second is the cinema standard, because of the way film cameras worked back in the day.

The framerates just carried on. So broadcast material produced tends to be multiples of 25FPS in the PAL world and 30 in the NTSC world. Because of the way our TVs differed from US ones, the broadcasters here used to convert frame rates for broadcast.

But it's irrelevant. Most decent TVs now can handle all framerates and resolutions (although some still don't do 24p native). Personally, I wish the broadcasters would leave it alone and stop converting now - most material looks best at the native framerate it was produced at, and bad frame rate conversions can make some material close to unwatchable. They should just send it out in the native format it was produced in.

CRT TV's had their frame rate dictated by the frequency (cycles) of the country's electricity supply. NZ and much of the world runs at 50hz (cycles) so 50 frames interlaced or 25fps. The US runs 60hz so 60 frames interlaced or 30fps.

vulcannz

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#2148294 20-Dec-2018 11:36

Anyone noticing quality drop in the streams? I dunno if I'm imagining it but some of the streams like tv1/2/3 seemed to have dropped in quality (during peak times like 6pm), I wonder if they're already experiencing to much load? I flick to less popular channels like 3 life and the quality is noticeably better.

Elmoz

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#2149343 22-Dec-2018 16:13

Tip for setting these up if you have a similar issue - I purchased one and set it up fine. A relative who had just moved back to NZ from Australia purchased two and asked me to set them up. I used their google account to set it up (made sure the device was on English New Zealand, firmware updated etc) and the freeview app didn't appear and pressing the freeview button did nothing. Got relative to change personal settings in google to NZ but that didn't seem to work so I reset the devices to factory settings, setup with my google account and the freeview app appeared and worked - added relatives google account and then removed mine and all works fine now.

Took me a while to work out what was going on and why the freeview app wasn't appearing.

Declan224

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#2152368 30-Dec-2018 19:26

I am looking at getting one of these, they look like they have streaming all covered. I presume since it's running Android TV that it has an internet browser? Maybe one that I can watch Prime Video with?

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richms

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#2152477 31-Dec-2018 03:04

Declan224:

I am looking at getting one of these, they look like they have streaming all covered. I presume since it's running Android TV that it has an internet browser? Maybe one that I can watch Prime Video with?

There is an apk for prime video floating around that you could try loading onto it. I was going to try it on my mibox before I updated it and it became a functionally useless doorstop with the latest release.

Richard rich.ms

ajw

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#2152499 31-Dec-2018 09:08

richms:

Declan224:

I am looking at getting one of these, they look like they have streaming all covered. I presume since it's running Android TV that it has an internet browser? Maybe one that I can watch Prime Video with?

There is an apk for prime video floating around that you could try loading onto it. I was going to try it on my mibox before I updated it and it became a functionally useless doorstop with the latest release.

The latest APK for prime video is here.

https://www.apkmirrordownload.com/apk/amazon-prime-video-3-0-238-10341-238010341-apk/

jfanning

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#2152553 31-Dec-2018 10:09

Declan224:

I am looking at getting one of these, they look like they have streaming all covered. I presume since it's running Android TV that it has an internet browser? Maybe one that I can watch Prime Video with?

Can't you install the Prime Video app onto it?

Declan224

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#2152633 31-Dec-2018 13:52

jfanning:
Declan224:

I am looking at getting one of these, they look like they have streaming all covered. I presume since it's running Android TV that it has an internet browser? Maybe one that I can watch Prime Video with?

Can't you install the Prime Video app onto it?

I don't have one yet so I don't know.

Can someone confirm that it has a browser or is compatible with one?

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