NowTV - 1080 and/or surround anytime soon?
mafrost
Posts: 1 Forum Member
Has anyone heard anything more than speculation that NowTV will actually be available in 1080 and/or also offer surround sound anytime soon.
There doesn't seem much point improving the set top box, as they have, if the underlying service is unable to meet, what are today, basic service features. As we know Netflix and Amazon both do it very well, so why not NOW TV?
Thoughts please?
There doesn't seem much point improving the set top box, as they have, if the underlying service is unable to meet, what are today, basic service features. As we know Netflix and Amazon both do it very well, so why not NOW TV?
Thoughts please?
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Comments
I honestly can't see the justification in paying £21 (ish) without boxsets when you get a similar service for £6.99.
Though to be fair the 720p is actually quite good, at least on the Super League anyway.
I am quite impressed with the PQ on Now TV. I am cancelling Sky and I think this alternative will do nicely. Yesterday I was watching Oceans 11 downloaded from Sky Cinema on demand. I then watched some of the same film on Now tv and there really wasn't that much difference.
As for the price you can get that down even further by buying two or three month passes. I was in PC world earlier and they had a display stand full of now tv passes. For £15 you can get a two month movies pass so thats £7.50 pm or a three month entertainment pass so £5 pm. Look on E bay and its even cheaper. I picked up a one month entertainment pass for £2.49.
I'm sure to an extent it's about hampering the service, but 1080 would also require more bandwidth which is more cost for them.
What device are you watching on? And if it has the setting have you set that device to output at 50 Hz?
LG TV app or Chromecast in 50Hz mode. Part of the problem is that LG disable TruMotion in 720p; using the Chromecast I can whack it up to full but that still doesn't entirely stop the judder. Also get weird ghosting effects at times.
It's 720p25 that's badly converted on the fly from the original HD interlaced signal. That's the issue. The boxsets are fine, and I thought the SD live channels were fine too. It's just live sport that's poor.
There's more to PQ than pixels.
Even with a higher resolution output and multichannel audio, I don't think it would have a direct impact on their satellite service, the main attraction there has to be the ability to record and store content, plus the vast amount of channel choice.
Saying that, the new Now TV box has got options for 1080p and DD/DD+? Whether they are active I don't know, but the provision for higher quality video and audio are there, a future upgrade maybe.
I think it's likely Now TV will stay pretty close to how it is now until Sky Q hits a certain number in terms of percentage of customer base - then that may give the Now TV level product a bit more leeway to offer an improved service.
The BBC's live Iplayer streams are the best I've seen at 720P and a tad above 5000 kbps, they are much better than NBC Sports 7000 kbps 1080P streams, I would go so far as saying Iplayers live content is the closest I've seen on any platform to broadcast HD.
I don't know what bitrates and resolution they use but BT Sports via the Windows app and Now TV via the new smart box are a little further behind but still a lot better than most other and in theory better services I've watched,
it seems to me decent encoding at the source plays a major part in getting good watchable live TV online.
That being said if Sky really want Now TV to compete with Netflix and Amazon at the very least they need to make the movie and TV catchup/on demand content available in 1080P with 5:1 sound.