Wimbledon Tennis streaming from BBC iPlayer from ALL courts in Full HD (4K if your tv/box allows)

John L

Certainly enjoying watching some of the Tennis. I know this is not a new feature, past years have just been a few extra streams during Wimbledon fortnight/extra SD channels via Red Button etc. But this year the BBC are streaming from all courts onto the iPlayer.

The picture quality certainly seems slightly sharper than Full 1080P HD, so it must be a 4K stream being feed, which would explain the quality. I checked on the BBC webpage & this is certainly confirmed. They are trying the 4K streams on various TVs & equipment: 
Can I watch programmes in Ultra HD on my connected TV? | iPlayer help (bbc.co.uk)

Is anyone else enjoying the Tennis/tried out the newer iPlayer features? The only bug I have found so far is if you press Info, it takes you straight out of stream, back to main iPlayer menu. Seems rather silly, when you want to use info button, while watching a match. John L

jimb

Just tried watching with a Samsung TV.
Totally unimpressed. 
Looks like someone turned down the contrast - a lot. 

John L

jimb said:

Just tried watching with a Samsung TV.
Totally unimpressed. 
Looks like someone turned down the contrast - a lot. 

Must be your tv? Our 2 larger Samsung's are fine. What happens when you adjust your contrast? We only can get HD and not 4k, although one TV is 4k, but not one of the newer models as per BBC website. John L

jimb

John L said:

jimb said:

Just tried watching with a Samsung TV.
Totally unimpressed. 
Looks like someone turned down the contrast - a lot. 

Must be your tv? Our 2 larger Samsung's are fine. What happens when you adjust your contrast? We only can get HD and not 4k, although one TV is 4k, but not one of the newer models as per BBC website. John L

Are you watching UHD or not? 

John L

jimb said:

John L said:

jimb said:

Just tried watching with a Samsung TV.
Totally unimpressed. 
Looks like someone turned down the contrast - a lot. 

Must be your tv? Our 2 larger Samsung's are fine. What happens when you adjust your contrast? We only can get HD and not 4k, although one TV is 4k, but not one of the newer models as per BBC website. John L

Are you watching UHD or not? 

No @jimb, but everything fine viewing HD streaming. I'm very happy with the picture so far.  I mentioned earlier about 4K streaming/BBC information page. Are you viewing streaming on a UHD tv/maybe it is not in 4K, could be HD only? John L

jimb

jimb said:

Just tried watching with a Samsung TV.
Totally unimpressed. 
Looks like someone turned down the contrast - a lot. 

Sorry, should have made clear that this is watching UHD with iPlayer on a 4K TV. 

kodikid

Excuse my ignorance but if I watch the tennis on a T4000 though a 4k tv but on ADSL am I experiencing UHD?

jimb

kodikid said:

Excuse my ignorance but if I watch the tennis on a T4000 though a 4k tv but on ADSL am I experiencing UHD?

I don't think so. The iPlayer app on the T4000 doesn't offer you the option of watching UHD. The iPlayer app on my 4K Samsung TV does. 

Darren

I have been enjoying some of the tennis on the BBC and the extra courts via BBCi player. It's got that all the tennis is in HD.
I have noticed that when you press red button on a BBC channel a new look BBC red button/iPlayer menu now pops up.

jimb

That may not be correct (my previous post).
This afternoon my Samsung TV iPlayer app offered UHD for the live centre court coverage. 
Right now my T4000 isn't showing any Wimbledon in 4K, and neither is the Samsung app!

zulu17

@jimb Centre Court matches are the ones in UHD. There isn't a specific night session only a potential overrunning day session that could extend into the evening , so once the Centre Court schedule finishes so will the UHD stream.

jimb

zulu17 said:

@jimb Centre Court matches are the ones in UHD. There isn't a specific night session only a potential overrunning day session that could extend into the evening , so once the Centre Court schedule finishes so will the UHD stream.

Thanks. But does the iPlayer app on the T4000 offer the UHD live stream?

zulu17

I  believe so , sometimes finding it may be more challenging as BBC may be focus on matches on other courts (eg Brits in action or conclusion of other matches) and give more prominance to them in Iplayer menus.

By the way it is not the BBC filming it in UHD it is the host broadcaster WBS.

Wimbledon Broadcast Services, took over the role of host broadcaster of The Championships in 2018. WBS provides multi-camera coverage of all 18 Championships courts, with Centre Court in UHD/HDR.

With approximately 35 broadcasters on-site, rights holders receive their feeds via a ground-breaking IP infrastructure alongside global distribution to some 200 territories.

.

jimb

zulu17 said:

I  believe so , sometimes finding it may be more challenging as BBC may be focus on matches on other courts... 

Finding it this afternoon was dead easy - it was clearly labelled on the opening screen of iPlayer 

Roy

Assuming it’s not just because I am using an old original Humax remote 😛 I can perfectly well get 4K from the BBC iPlayer on my T4000.

I can’t show you the tennis working right now, as it seems to be UHD only when it’s live, but here’s a screenshot from His Dark Materials:-

The colour balance is altered so the little ‘UHD’ bottom left is clear to see.

As above, the UHD is only for Centre Court matches, so other courts, and miscellany programmes that cover multiple courts, won’t be in UHD even when showing Centre Court footage.

jimb

kodikid said:

Excuse my ignorance but if I watch the tennis on a T4000 though a 4k tv but on ADSL am I experiencing UHD?

@kodikid I completely missed the point of your question which was about broadband speed.
The BBC website says "You'll need an internet connection of 24MBit/s for the full 3840 pixel Ultra HD experience, or 12MBit/s for 2560 pixel Ultra HD."
I would guess that if your broadband speed is too low you'll just experience buffering problems. But maybe iPlayer does something smarter than that. 

kodikid

No it doesn't buffer at all.
Watched the recent Champions league final on YouTube in 4k and there was definitely a improvement over HD.
Just perplexed as it appears you need fibre broadband to fully appreciate it and sadly we're stuck with ADSL so not sure if I'm actually watching UHD. 

Roy

kodikid said:

No it doesn't buffer at all.
Watched the recent Champions league final on YouTube in 4k and there was definitely a improvement over HD.
Just perplexed as it appears you need fibre broadband to fully appreciate it and sadly we're stuck with ADSL so not sure if I'm actually watching UHD. 

@kodikid

Does it say it is UHD?

What does fast.com say your internet speed is? Preferably measured on another wired device; my laptop, in wired mode, reports speeds rather in excess of those on WiFi.

kodikid

2.91 mbps.
Just clicked on the UHD option and as Jimb predicted started to buffer. 
So frustrating having all the kit and  being denied the pleasure. 
Bizarrely our road is cabled up to receive Virgin superfast fibre but opinion on Virgin ranges from bad to horrific so not going there.
At least with BT we get Wi-Fi everywhere in the house and garden just not that fast.
Also does this mean UHD will never be available on Freeview,?

Darren

I get better wifi since BT upgraded me from the Home Hub 4 to the Home Hub 6(Smart Hub) in January last year. Wifi in the back garden is not full strength but enough to surf the net on iphone or iPad and listed to Spotify.
I must have a lest 18 things connected via wifi using the Home Hub 6(Smart Hub) and at lest 11 of them are connected to wifi all the time.
I get just under 70mb most of the time when in the house.
@kodikid 80% of my area has had Virgin cable since 2019 and I have heard some people love Virgin. While others say their customer service help is not the best.
I do t have UHD(4k) but the HD on the BBC for the tennis even via iPlsyer looks very good.
Im at my sisters next weekend so will see what the tennis looks like on her Samsung 2019 4k smart TV. Have watched a UHD(4k) movie at my sisters via Amazon Prime video and it looked a but better than HD.
My sister also got a sound bar connected to her TV that has a base button.

Roy

kodikid said:

2.91 mbps.
Just clicked on the UHD option and as Jimb predicted started to buffer. 
So frustrating having all the kit and  being denied the pleasure. 
Bizarrely our road is cabled up to receive Virgin superfast fibre but opinion on Virgin ranges from bad to horrific so not going there.
At least with BT we get Wi-Fi everywhere in the house and garden just not that fast.
Also does this mean UHD will never be available on Freeview,?

@kodikid

Have you had a chat with BT to see if they can improve on 2.91 Mbps? As we had ADSL before we went ultrafast, and that (just about) climbed over 24Mbps. 

And to make our transition from the old house to the new house seamless, BT gave us a mini hub, to use in the meantime.

And you can buy the mini hub, with a data plan, from BT, and they have a full-size data hub as well. A bit pricey, perhaps, but a bit of arm-twisting about your rubbish speed and what you are paying now, might help.

Here’s a link; there’s plenty of BT official links you can chase, but they are a bit light on the little details, like prices!, so here is the inside skinny:-

https://community.bt.com/t5/Broadband-Extras-Apps-from-BT/How-to-Purchase-a-4G-mini-hub-with-Data-plan/td-p/2064869

I’m sure other providers have similar offerings, maybe cheaper.

The devices are WiFi only, but can be coupled to a YouView box with, e.g. a TPLink nanorouter.

Apropos of UHD on Freeview, it’s a bandwidth issue at the transmitters, where UHD = 4*HD; you can get UHD over satellite, but the internet is more scalable. The writing was on the wall when Arqiva, who run all the terrestrial transmitters, quit Freeview Play, where the other stakeholders are probably thinking about UHD over IP, so Arqiva would have been contributing towards something that at the least was no benefit to them, and at the extreme, would put them out of business. So they declined to be turkeys voting for Christmas…