Sky Sports picture quality on NOW EPG channels vs NOW app on BT Pro TV box

[Brucemeister5]

I’d appreciate opinions on the relative merits of watching Sky Sports in terms of picture quality via the two different methods mentioned. Am I correct in assuming that BT have direct control over the quality of the EPG channels but not those that are streamed via the NOW app?

[ozsat]

I guess BT is like VirginMedia in that they get a feed direct from Sky for the sport channels - but have no control over the quality.

There are quite a few threads in the Sky and VirginMedia forums about the lack of picture quality with the Sky Sports HD channels.

[NigelB72]

We've got the hd Boost and I find the picture quality on Sky Sports to be exceptional...

[Brucemeister5]

Yes, it’s awful without the Boost, but can you distinguish between the EPG channels and watching via the NOW app?

[NigelB72]

The only time I watch Sky Sports on the app is on my mobile when picking my wife up from work.

When we had the entertainment package, I used to watch box sets via the app, again with the HD Boost, and found the picture quality also to be excellent but Sky do pump out full 1080p with the Boost. It's not far off Blu-ray quality.

If they're using dynamic bandwidth on the app, it might be defaulting to a lower resolution if it can't deliver the full 1080p with HD Boost. 

This wouldn't happen via the EPG because of multiplex delivery on the live channels.

[Will168]

@Brucemeister5 I’ve not tried with the Now TV app on the BT TV Pro. But I have watched the Sports channels on yhe BT TV Pro EPG and watched the Now TV app on a Roku 4K box and personally think via the EPG is much better than the Now app.

I have the HD boost and when I’m at home, I watch on the EPG on BT TV Pro. When I’m at my parents’ house, I watch on the Now TV app on the Roku 4K. We both have the same LG OLED TV model. The BT Sport app for BT Sport channels on Roku is noticeably better than the Now TV for Sky Sports streams too. It’s almost as if the Now app is 720p vs BT Sport app at 4K levels of difference.

Parents are on fibre 150 with little loads and I’m on 900, so both have more than sufficient bandwidth to stream on full quality settings.

Plus, aside from quality, even if both were the same, I’d still use the multicast, as it doesn’t have the 30-60 second delay that the app does.

[gomezz]

The app stream is better quality than the SD channel stream but I find the latter tolerable for F1 and cricket(*) but less so for football where I make more of an effort to watch live on the app.

(*) For cricket only a fast moving ball hit for a boundary racing across the outfield shows up as being surrounded by ghost bees.  F1 cars are large objects filling the screen being tracked by the camera so look OK.  The main wide shot on football is the one that shows up worst with both players and ball surrounded by ghost bees.

[NigelB72]

@gomezz I've never heard digital artifacting called ghost bees before 😆.. I like your term more 👌