Sky Sports UHD (NOW) vs TNT Sports Ultimate

[naylor2006]

Just wondering if anyone lately has Sky Sports UHD on NOWTV (or Sky for that matter) and is able to provide some opinions on this. Whilst there have been a few different provoking discussions on the quality of TNT Sports Ultimate since it was migrated there from BT, I never had SS UHD and  BT Sport UHD at the same time to contribute. I neither am able to reliably say that the change to TNT has had any positive of negative effect on the image quality.

Ive never had Sky since UHD was a thing, I had Virgin Cable TV for years where it was possible to watch BT Sport Ultimate which looked good, better than the NOW TV App Sky Sports HD I had at the same time. So there was a clear upgrade noticeable between the two.

With the advent of Sky Sports UHD coming to NOWTV I am now beginning to see what alot of folks are complaining about and where I have been defensive of TNT Sports Ultimate in the past I may have to climb down a little.

I watch a ton of Premier League Football, probably all of it that is broadcast so I can now safely say that Sky Sports UHD HDR (via NOW App on Apple TV 4k Gen 3) is notably crisper then TNT Sports Ultimate HDR (via EETV EPG or Discovery Plus).

I have a 65" LG C3 with zero image processing switched on, I watch everything in GAME mode which turns everything off, everything goes into my AVR so only one hookup to the TV to one HDMI. Point is no two devices are having different image settings.

TNT Sports Ultimate HDR looks more blurry which becomes obvious when you get a little closer to the TV, around the players is noticeably less crisp then Sky Sports UHD. One evening, as I have said before, Porto vs Arsenal was broadcast on TNT Sports Ultimate HDR and the image was outstanding, it was better than normal and noticeably so, even getting close to the TV, this is more like what Sky Sports UHD looks like all the time.

TNT Sports Ultimate is still a nice viewing experience and far better than normal HD, especially on big TV's like my own, but I am of the opinion it could be better.

Anyone else noticed the comparison? 

[Brucemeister5]

@naylor2006 Is that a typo in your 4th paragraph? I think you probably meant to say can but it’s come out as cant.

[naylor2006]

Thank you 😛

Corrected now.

[Brucemeister5]

I’m not in a position to offer an opinion, but what a pity that United’s game at Porto on Thursday isn’t going to get the TNT Sports Ultimate treatment. If that Arsenal game is close to what we’re going to get when we finally get Sky Sports UHD on EETV, then it will be worth the wait.

[rbz5416]

I have a 65" Samsung S90C & watch both on the TV's own apps. I sit around 10' away so a little beyond the ideal for 4k, but don't notice any significant difference between the two, or indeed Prime's coverage last night.

[naylor2006]

@rbz5416 says:

I have a 65" Samsung S90C & watch both on the TV's own apps. I sit around 10' away so a little beyond the ideal for 4k, but don't notice any significant difference between the two, or indeed Prime's coverage last night.

I found the coverage of Arsenals game last night on Prime matched what I see on TNT Sports Ultimate. I dont sit much further then 10 feet away, that being not as 'nice' as Sky.

@Brucemeister5 says:

I’m not in a position to offer an opinion, but what a pity that United’s game at Porto on Thursday isn’t going to get the TNT Sports Ultimate treatment. If that Arsenal game is close to what we’re going to get when we finally get Sky Sports UHD on EETV, then it will be worth the wait.

Sometimes the only thing that is good about United games is the picture quality....

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Its quite hard to do like for like, some camera angles are further away, the Old Trafford one is miles away but Selhurst Park is closer for example, this will also have its effect, with that said Im seeing Sky Sports UHD is crisper generally. I might try and take some stills this weekend and probably end up proving myself wrong.

[Colesy7]

@naylor2006 Perhaps I’m not so much of an idiot anymore and my earlier posts not laughable?😅

anyone with eyes can see TNT sports ultimate is blurry and for £30 month it simply isn’t good enough. It’s quite clearly upscaled 1080p/1440p and simply the worst ‘4K’ broadcast I’ve ever seen. Whoever is responsible for this channel needs to sort this out because they have changed something for the worse. When Ultra boost comes in the TNT UHD channel is going to be shown up big time by Sky Sports UHD. Perhaps this is what they’re stalling over as they know they have a much inferior product.

can’t wait for so called experts to still defend it lol…

[naylor2006]

@Colesy7 I think the sometimes the issue was how you communicated, too many bold claims borderline accusational, similar to how you have replied here:

Perhaps this is what they’re stalling over as they know they have a much inferior product.

They arent stalling and if it shows up TNT Sport then so be it

You also came in with its 1080p at best if I remember correctly, sometimes if you want to get people on side we have to approach the conversation the right way. IIRC your post was also drawing comparisons between how it used to look in BT Sport, which was also another comparison I wasnt able to make. It is only now that I am seeing Sky Sports UHD that I can see that Sky Sports is better, which doesnt prove that BT/TNT Sports got worse which is what alot of historic posts are about.

Where we agree, the TNT Sports Ultimate picture could and should be better but I dont think theres a conspiracy and alot of it is up to parent broadcaster isnt it...

We'll see, I am waiting for SS UHD to come to EETV and ill have a good look.

[Colesy7]

@naylor2006 sorry but this is where I’ll disagree. I was just stating my opinions on the matter and it was never my intention to upset anybody so apologies.  I’m hoping your post gets somewhere and isn’t just brushed under the carpet as there has been a downgrade in quality (I know this as I was a BT Sport Ultimate customer.)

the 1080p comment was just my way of trying to describe the issue, I would still say the difference between the two channels is like going from 1080p to 4K. TNT is significantly less detailed.

It is only now that I am seeing Sky Sports UHD that I can see that Sky Sports is better, which doesnt prove that BT/TNT Sports got worse

Correct, but TNT is significantly inferior to BT Sport Ultimate so something has definitely been changed in terms of production- this has been recognised by multiple users. 

Where we agree, the TNT Sports Ultimate picture could and should be better but I dont think theres a conspiracy and alot of it is up to parent broadcaster isnt it...

if sky sports are able to broadcast in such clarity why aren’t TNT?

im looking forward to SS UHD as I have missed watching football in that clarity (even if I am a United fan)

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IN SUMMARY:  BT Sport ultimate used to be as good as Sky Sports UHD is now but theres now a noticeable gap between the two which can only point to changes for the worse on TNT’s part. 

[naylor2006]

Oh I didnt mean you had to apologise because anyone was upset, I wasnt upset, but I maintain your approach was a bit off in at least the threads and also in the reply to me:

Perhaps this is what they’re stalling over as they know they have a much inferior product.

This type of thing gets peoples back up, its suggesting that the people working on EETV are deliberately part of a conspiracy, its not going to make someone from EETV (if they ever would anyway) want to post. You can disagree with me, if anything you sound like a younger me....

Moving on...im not upset.

I dont know if you caught any of the BBC HDR Coverage of the EUROs...where you could add HLG to the normal BBC feed via iPlayer, that was 1080p with HDR, that looked a ton better than ITV and BBC's normal feed, even looked crisper but it was still someway from what TNT Sports Ultimate HDR is now. TNT SU HDR isnt blurry due to refresh rate, its the still image that is blurry around the edges which is easily spotted on players given how small they are against the giant background, the ball also. Sitting back on my sofa its still a good experience, but now that I have SS UHD which is crisp around the edges I have started to look a bit more closely. Problem is TNT Sports HD looks so bad that Ultimate looks so much better, I do think its mostly worse on the bigger TV's for obvious reasons. United being on TNT Sports 2 will be a sad watch although hopefully ETH will get sacked, this is one of my gripes about TNT, there should be 2 Ultimate channels at least and we should be seeing Ultimate even when the Prem team is away. It seems sometimes there is no Ultimate broadcast when the Prem team is away.

I wanted the extra UHD content that I signed up for Now with another email address, whilst I still have Big Sport with EE TV I now have a separate account with Now for SS UHD, and its not disappointed. I am looking forward to it coming to EE TV to save me the money I am spending extra now, but its taking its time, hasnt even been an announcement yet.

Nothings going to come of my post, I just wanted to see if others had noticed it given there is more uptake on SS UHD now via Sky, I dont know what TNT are doing generally, even the CL final was not shown in UHD, some 1080p with HDR I think, for me that isnt right, also the point about how the Ultimate channel would just be there cycling the preview video even when there are other fixtures broadcast on the other channels, there should always be one, neither semi final of the CL was shown.