When I use my Now TV box for BBC iPlayer, the quality is fine, no problems.

When watching live sport, however, the PQ is noticeably different. It's perfectly clear, no juddering or smearing like some other users appear to get. My gripe is that it has the 'filmic' effect that you sometimes get on TV soaps for example and which many viewers complain about. Although I'm watching a live game it looks like I'm watching a film.

Is there anything I can change on my TV to remove this effect, or am I stuck with it?

(I think I already know the answer!)

It's a side effect of them using Microsoft Silverlight , happens on PC too. Silverlight is no good for sports, or anything else really, but that doesn't stop Sky and BT and the other major UK streaming providers from using it.

Microsoft themselves don't support it anymore, you can't watch Silverlight videos on their Edge browser nor Chrome for that matter.

The companies seem to stick with it for security because it's harder to screen grab than Flash or supposedly HTML5 but it's getting silly as it becomes more dated.

It's not just silverlight though is it. Flash is as bad. The BBC HTML iPlayer Beta gives a wonderful smooth viewing experience as opposed to Adobe's Flash. It's all down to the packet munchers in the software that overworks your pc to stop you saving the cache !

You're stuck with it.

It's because the Now TV box is based on the American made Roku boxes which run at 60Hz, but in the UK/Europe we use 50Hz. This causes the uneven frame rate, often described as 'motion judder'., and gives everything a filmic look.

You should notice it on all apps including BBC iPlayer, ITV etc. It doesn't affect movies, and many dramas which are 'filmic' anyway, but it's especially noticeable on sport or news.

The XBox One also suffered a similar problem in the UK when used to watch TV: http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2013/11/50h...-judder-in-uk/ and Chromecast is affected too: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/11..._judder_issue/

It's not related to Microsoft Silverlight.