Sorry to bring this thread back up again but I'm still really struggling to get rid of the picture judder.

If I watch iPlayer (in either SD or HD) the picture is perfect, on mlb.tv there is only an occasional jump but otherwise the quality is spot on, while other sites like lfc.tv are pretty good.

But after watching the United v Chelsea game last night on Sky Go the picture is perfect until the camera pans or the pace of the action picks up.

I've tried changing the resolution on the laptop to every possible variation, as well as altering the refresh rate. I've also changed the different picture sizes on my telly 16:9, full, cinema etc but all to no avail. I've even switched from HDMI 1 to HDMI 2 on the back of the TV but still no luck.

There are times when after switching the resolution it looks like there's a minimal improvement but the next time I watch a similar programme on the same setting it looks jumpy again.

I am aware that both my telly and laptop aren't the best, but as I can get excellent picture quality on other sites it makes it look like it's a Sky Go issue...but despite reading pages and pages of threads with people saying similar things it seems there is no answer. Maybe it is the Silverlight software that Sky Go uses but it's really frustrating.

Are there any other suggestions about what could be causing this problem or what I could do to make Sky Go more watchable on my TV?

Thanks

I would presume it's a limitation of your laptop?, not fast enough to do the decoding?.

Are you mirroring the playback on laptop and TV at the same time?

Try switching it to TV only if you are. One screen is less work for it than two.

Although, having just had a quick look to see what "Sky go judder" brought back, it sounds like a common problem with the app.

That is a strong possibility but having seen so many posts on other sites even people with fairly high spec laptops have mentioned similar problems. Surely if that was the root of the problem, though, I wouldn't be able to watch the likes of iPlayer (online HD) which shows no stutter or mlb.tv which only has very occasional judder.

It obviously depends on the relative compression and bandwidth used.

I've currently got it set to just TV, although have also tried cloning and extended desktop.

I'm watching via the online version but it also seems like there are problems with the app, with a recent update for the xbox constantly buffering.

I'm really not clued up on this type of thing but does that mean Sky aren't offering enough bandwidth for the streams? Just seems strange you can get an HD type picture from other sites, but Sky is so limited.

Quite the opposite, Sky generally use higher quality, so you need more bandwidth to view it. This is why Sky HD OnDemand is so much better than others.

At a guess it's down to content being 50Hz refresh and the laptop outputting at 60Hz. Try setting the resolution to 1280 x 720.

I've only got 1280 x 768/800/960 & 1024 options, so should I try x 768? And also drop the refresh rate down to 50Hz?

Initially try dropping the refresh rate to 50Hz if the laptop lets you. If that doesn't work then try dropping the resolution as well to 1280x768.

Also try 1280x768 @ 60Hz to see what if any difference that makes. It could be either resolution or refresh rate so worth trying both separately just to see what happens.

It's always best to do one change at a time and test each change fully before you change something else. if you change too many settings all at once you might make things worse or might crack it but not know exactly which setting change made the difference.

I've just tried both of those suggestions but sadly with no success, plus a variety of other settings.

It's just a shame because the main body of the picture is actually quite crisp and smooth, that's until there's any major movement and then on some occasions you can't always see judder. Having said that it is always clearly noticeable on every resolution and refresh rate on the Sky Sports News ticker and during fast action in football.

The only time ticker-flicker is marginally reduced is when I drop resolution to 1024 x 768 and up the refresh rate to 75Hz...but that particular refresh rate is only available on that resolution and because it reduces the visible screen size on the TV I then have to change the TV setting to Cinema as every other option doesn't give full screen.

I just looked up your laptop (netbook to be more accurate).

I suspect it will be struggling here. Atom N270, 2GB of RAM and XP. Is that right?

Thats going to struggle with higher resolution outputs. My old netbook was an Atom N270. But I had 3GB of RAM, dedicated GFX and an SSD in it. It could cope with HD but had to be set up right.

If your netbook is in anything but tip-top shape (super clean, no other stuff running in the background, etc etc) then it's going to struggle ....

If you have judder then it's either inherent in the source material or there a refresh rate or issue. The refresh rate issue may be a limitation of the hardware.

Start with having a look at the capabilities of the VGA input. Is it capable of accepting a 50Hz refresh rate signal? Can it take this at the TV's native resolution? i.e. 1080p @ 50Hz.

Next, you want a source that we know should work okay at 50Hz. A UK DVD (not a Blu-ray) will be fine for this. A feature film will do. Better still though if its a video-based piece; some UK originated TV drama or comedy.

Get the laptop set to output the source at 50Hz and at the native resolution of the TV.

Now switch off any overscan feature in the TV. This might be via the aspect ratio menu and selecting a mode such as "just" or "direct" or "native" or something similar. Normally we would associate this with resolving scaling issues to achieve 1:1 pixel mapping. But here we just want to strip out
anything that could be getting in the way.

If you've hit a brick wall along the way, or you are still seeing judder, then have a look at the options for 3rd party software that may help overcome some of the issues. http://www.avforums.com/forums/home-entertainment-computers/

I think nuttybutty is using an unspecified Toshiba laptop now not the netbook from the initial post. See post 14.

Yep. You're right. My bad, didn't backread the entire thread.

Since I last posted here I've managed to get my grubby little mits on an xbox 360 and have linked that up to my TV. However I'm still not convinced I'm getting the best quality picture.

I tried linking it up with the AV cable that came with the machine, which means I can only switch between PAL-50 and PAL-60. But on one setting I can't get a fullscreen picture, whichever setting I change it to on my TV. The other setting fills the screen but text is really blurry.

I don't seem to have the necessary connections on the back of my TV for an xbox HD AV cable.

I've also used two separate HDMI cables and linked them into port 1 and port 2, as well as trying changing the settings from 1080i/1080p/720p/480p and 1024 x 768, altered screen size on my TV and changed the refresh rate, but still think the picture could be better.

It is a lot better than it was through the laptop, but I can still see some judder on the Sky Sports News ticker and when the camera pans during live sport, ie like during today's Eng v Aus game. When there's not so much movement the picture looks fairly crisp, including with a longshot overhead view.

I have noticed during today's game that when one of the player's moves in front of a group of spectators, the background image looks blurry and squiggly.

Now I'm aware about frames per second etc and that there have been some issues with picture quality since the xbox app was updated and because the quality setting for the sports channels is only limited to auto, but I was wondering if there are any settings on my TV or xbox in which I could improve the picture, including lessening blurriness? If I watch UK Gold, for instance, the picture is perfect.

By the way I've also currently got my TV set to game mode and have disabled or reduced the level of some other enhancements.

Download a couple of full HD files, such as trailers from the web.

Play them.on your laptop screen when it is NOT displaying on the TV?. Is there judder on the laptop screen or only on the TV?

If there's a juddering picture on your laptop screen as well as on the TV ensure no other programmes are running in the background on your laptop, including anti virus software. Check task manager before trying again and once everything else is not running. Is there plenty of memory free and a very low processor load?. If so, try playing the files again. What's the result this time?. If there's no judder, problem solves but if there is still judder the problem lies with the laptop, it's probably not powerful enough for full HD decoding. You might try installing the very latest graphics drivers for your laptop, sometimes those shipped with a laptop are older drivers and issues such as yours may have been solved later on with newer drivers.

If there's now no juddering when played back on the laptop, try hooking up your TV and try again, but disable ALL picture enhancements/picture processing options in the setup menu of your TV.

If there's no juddering with downloaded files then try streaming the same clips from the web. If you then do see judder, the problem is with your internet connection.

The only thing is I'm now relating my current questions to an xbox rather than a laptop.

Also I've watched a couple of documentaries on Sky Go this evening and the picture was perfect without a single problem. I'm now watching baseball on the mlb.tv app on xbox at 1080p and 60hz refresh rate and again it's perfect.

So it looks like the slight judder I see from watching the cricket earlier is related to the fact Sky has limited the sports channels to auto quality only, a poor FPS in relation to what MLB offer, which in turn affects faster moving images.