Just to clarify: all Sky TV customers are Q users going forwards. But in order to get what they call Ultra HD content they have to have the 2TB box and multiroom subscription. Which is a very costly commitment.
and as an owner of Q for the last 12 months, and now no longer a Q user, I can say it was poor to say the least with regards to 4K stuff. Not only was there a real lack of content, unless you paid for Sky Sports, the quality was questionable. I full 2 hour movie was only a 15GB download, and I can honestly say was only marginally better than 1080!
@impydave - As a current Q full package subscriber, I totally agree. I wonder if the 50FPS will make much difference (F1 UHD). I started out watching it but over the last few months have been ignoring it and going straight for the YouView box. I actually went onto it the other night (to see if I had received the new update) and stayed on it watching the FA Cup football on BBC, and in the end had to go back to the YouView box as the sound kept dropping out every 10 minutes for a second or two (very irritating).
I'm quite surprised to hear that with it being flagship. As a point of reference, how many GB is a typical 4K disc? "Unless you paid for Sky Sports, the quality was questionable." Is it not broadcast at the same quality as 4K linear entertainment and On Demand content?
I'm now happy with the disagree icon, because its gone.
I believe a 4K Blu-ray disc has a capacity of up to 100GB that remember the video on an optical home video disc is usually lossless video certainly isn't going to be lossless for TV content and IP video streams , so the 4K video might not take as much data as you think in the case of TV content
In theory, a quad layer Blu-ray disc can store up to 125GB
You and me both, when I left Sky I did say one of the main reasons was poor 4K content, only to be told by the adviser that "We have never said we broadcast in 4K, only UHD" that made me chuckle.....as for on demand content, I watched the series Mars in UHD and each hour long episode was only about an 8GB download, and although parts of it did look better than HD, but the one thing that made it obvious to me was when my wife said "I thought you said you were watching this in 4K? you spent all that money on a 4K TV and then watch things in HD" :) at that moment it was made very clear there was little difference.
I full 2 hour movie was only a 15GB download, and I can honestly say was only marginally better than 1080!
I've no experience with 4K, but wasn't that one of the reasons why the industry felt the need to include HDR as part of the UHD spec? I'm sure I read that a jump from 1080p to 4K wouldn't be a significant enough change to warrant people upgrading. Increasing the dynamic range is supposed to be a much more significant (noticeable) upgrade. I guess if Sky are using too much lossy compression, and no HDR, then the upgrade is going to be minimal at most, certainly at your average viewing distance.
Is BTTV using HDR yet?
Edit: just found old posts of mine in this thread with links to HDR & 4K, those must be the articles I'm remembering
That's just it though, I have a few 4K blu-rays and the quality is outstanding, and again was another reason I dumped Sky Q as side by side (I used The Martian as a test) the difference was beyond obvious from the disc to Sky.
That's just it though, I have a few 4K blu-rays and the quality is outstanding, and again was another reason I dumped Sky Q as side by side (I used The Martian as a test) the difference was beyond obvious from the disc to Sky.
UHD Blu Ray is always going to look superior to just about any broadcast or On Demand service , the reason I can't see myself getting into UHD Blu Ray is the £20- £25 cost per movie.
On my BT YouView, I've downloaded The Martian in HD only, ready to watch on a 4K TV. Though I've done that on a few. They're not 4K, but are definitely the best HD pictures I've ever seen. The same with live BT Sport too. I have no interest in upgrading to 4K Ultra kit at this time.The markets too young, and theres just not enough kit or content out there which a mass market would consider to be an affordable price. Niche to say the least.Though given time things will improve.
I'm now happy with the disagree icon, because its gone.
That's a good read.....agree with the Netflix app on BT TV, not that good, and the 4K pic is a lot softer than the one my Samsung TV inbuilt app gives me.
As someone who lived with Sky Q from launch, I totally disagree with them saying that Sky was the "runaway" winner! I found Q unreliable, with a cumbersome UI, and 4K content that was really very little better than HD, so the fact that state Sky's 4K content wins hands down is not true to reality in my opinion.
Always take these reviews with a pinch of salt. I think they also mean the Netflix app as a whole on the YouView boxes (it just happens to be the G5 box on review). There are a lot of complaints about Netflix because YouView boxes don't change output (25 or 50HZ only) like TV's etc do, so you get the 24FPS stutter.
I never had Sky's 4K sport as I refused to pay £27.50 a month for sport, but as I moved to BT Broadband I now get BT's sports channels for free and must admit what I have watched on the 4K sports channel has even been commented on by the other half saying how good it looks, and she really isnt interested in stuff like that but I did press the "info" button on my TV once and it said it was 50hz or something like that, and it really does look good.....strange why the inbuilt apps in the box can't change to it then.
That's the issue..the G5 box outputs everything at 50FPS (50Hz) and the other YouView boxes at 25FPS (25Hz) which is standard PAL output. Unfortunately NTSC content is done at 30FPS or 24FPS for some films etc - (sorry I know this is a generalisation but don't really want to get too deep into this) and Netflix show a lot of US content. TV's adjust the output for this but the YouView boxes don't therefore on a 24FPS film scaled up to 50FPS output on a G5 box means you have to repeat a frame every second to fill the missing time frame and this presents itself as a slight pause, hardly noticeable on less action scenes but action scenes (especially panning shots) you can notice the pause which looks like jittering.
I know people will tell me there are different ways of filling the time and more technical detail but I did say I was generalising :-)
@scott I'd much rather take the word of long term (TV )user like yourself of both systems then rely on a marketing magazine, which may have an agenda. Maybe something like Which? magazine could be more objective? Not sure about What hi-fi ? Something doesn't add up when reviews don't necessarily tally with a users personal experience.
Regarding the Netflix frame rate issue on Youview, there is a really long thread on it here But scott sums up the problem nicely.
For those with 4K kit, I would like to highly recommend watching the film Logan. The Ultra HD version disc uses 10-bit video depth, a Wider Colour Gamut (WCG) and High Dynamic Range (HDR), and is encoded using the HEVC (H.265) codec. And the sound is a Dolby Atmos track, based around Dolby TrueHD 7.1 core. Heres the AV review - https://www.avforums.com/review/logan-4k-ultra-hd-blu-ray-review.13628 I'd also like to recommend the film, as well.
I'm now happy with the disagree icon, because its gone.
For those with 4K kit, I would like to highly recommend watching the film Logan. The Ultra HD version disc uses 10-bit video depth, a Wider Colour Gamut (WCG) and High Dynamic Range (HDR), and is encoded using the HEVC (H.265) codec. And the sound is a Dolby Atmos track, based around Dolby TrueHD 7.1 core. Heres the AV review - https://www.avforums.com/review/logan-4k-ultra-hd-blu-ray-review.13628 I'd also like to recommend the film, as well.
£45, or wait till July 10th?
‘Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful’ Wm Morris
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(Sorry, no URL, as I can't seem to stop them showing my postcode:-(
But look for Xbox 1 S Minecraft, and open the second deal).
Heres the link and an article on it -
https://recombu.com/digital/article/the-bbc-wants-to-know-how-big-your-tv-is-and-how-far-away-you-si...#
4k iPlayer should give the UHD box a boost, due to the utility of scrolling back in the Guide, but most 4K TV's will have iPlayer anyway.
http://www.techradar.com/news/the-fast-and-the-framerate-why-skys-ultra-hd-f1-season-is-its-biggest-...
Though it doesn't mention using FOMs Ultra HD infrastructure.
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/headlines/2016/9/tata-communications-readies-sky-for-f1-in-uhd-in...
"Unless you paid for Sky Sports, the quality was questionable." Is it not broadcast at the same quality as 4K linear entertainment and On Demand content?
In theory, a quad layer Blu-ray disc can store up to 125GB
I guess if Sky are using too much lossy compression, and no HDR, then the upgrade is going to be minimal at most, certainly at your average viewing distance.
Is BTTV using HDR yet?
Edit: just found old posts of mine in this thread with links to HDR & 4K, those must be the articles I'm remembering
I have no interest in upgrading to 4K Ultra kit at this time.The markets too young, and theres just not enough kit or content out there which a mass market would consider to be an affordable price.
Niche to say the least.Though given time things will improve.
http://www.whathifi.com/features/bt-tv-g5-vs-sky-q-vs-virgin-tv-v6-which-best-4k-tv-service
Interestingly, they are highly critical of Netflix UHD on a G5.
As someone who lived with Sky Q from launch, I totally disagree with them saying that Sky was the "runaway" winner! I found Q unreliable, with a cumbersome UI, and 4K content that was really very little better than HD, so the fact that state Sky's 4K content wins hands down is not true to reality in my opinion.
That's the issue..the G5 box outputs everything at 50FPS (50Hz) and the other YouView boxes at 25FPS (25Hz) which is standard PAL output. Unfortunately NTSC content is done at 30FPS or 24FPS for some films etc - (sorry I know this is a generalisation but don't really want to get too deep into this) and Netflix show a lot of US content. TV's adjust the output for this but the YouView boxes don't therefore on a 24FPS film scaled up to 50FPS output on a G5 box means you have to repeat a frame every second to fill the missing time frame and this presents itself as a slight pause, hardly noticeable on less action scenes but action scenes (especially panning shots) you can notice the pause which looks like jittering.
I know people will tell me there are different ways of filling the time and more technical detail but I did say I was generalising :-)
Something doesn't add up when reviews don't necessarily tally with a users personal experience.
Regarding the Netflix frame rate issue on Youview, there is a really long thread on it here But scott sums up the problem nicely.
And the sound is a Dolby Atmos track, based around Dolby TrueHD 7.1 core.
Heres the AV review -
https://www.avforums.com/review/logan-4k-ultra-hd-blu-ray-review.13628
I'd also like to recommend the film, as well.