How things have changed

[navychop]

I'm so old, I remember a few evening shows being on five nights a week.

 

[Bruce]

So much of streaming is a waste but you still have to pay for it if you want 1 thing.

How is that different than Traditional Paid Live TV?

Based on how little new scripted content is available, you are definitely getting less with Paid Live TV.

At least with streaming, you get all the new content ( plus the older stuff) from Paid Live TV, along with the streaming shows and movies, in better quality with a less expensive price.

If you watch limited amount, this is better. If you watch sports, broadcast or cable programming, and premium is now worse as everyone is moving programming to their own apps. So you aren't saving anything, have a bunch of different apps instead of a unified platform (some devices help with this), have to manage subscriptions separately, etc.

If you added it all together, it is still less than Dish, DirecTV, Comcast, etc.

Now prices can be raised any time and you have limited options.

Again, how is that different than Cable/Satellite TV.

Some things are better, some things are worse. At best it is a wash for most people.

I believe it is a lot better, I remember constantly going up and down the TV guide trying to find something to watch when I had Paid Live TV, easy to find something now.

 

[navychop]

Let's talk about this "better quality" thing.

I get macroblocking on DTV MyEntertainment. I don't on Dish. I have 1G/1G.

 

[Bruce]

Let's talk about this "better quality" thing.

I get macroblocking on DTV MyEntertainment. I don't on Dish. I have 1G/1G.

Talking about services like Paramount, Discovery, Netflix, etc.

Content on Streaming Paid Live TV is up converted.

Content via on demand streaming services is in real 1080P and 4K, for example, the majority of current CBS shows on Paramount+ are in 4K/DV/HDR, new FX shows are in 4K on Hulu , Food Network is in real 1080P on Discovery+. etc.

 

[AZ.]

Everyone wanted a la carte, now that they have it, I bet most people want to go back now. I like the flexibility of streaming but I costs are going to be a lot higher or the same for less now.

Sent from my SM-T970 using Tapatalk

we have it now? kinda maybe. I had it better with Cband

 

[ncted]

Talking about services like Paramount, Discovery, Netflix, etc.

Content on Streaming Paid Live TV is up converted.

Content via on demand streaming services is in real 1080P and 4K, for example, the majority of current CBS shows on Paramount+ are in 4K/DV/HDR, new FX shows are in 4K on Hulu , Food Network is in real 1080P on Discovery+. etc.

I gotta say, lately, it seems like they have been upping the compression or bit-starving the streams somewhat. I mainly see it on HBOMAX and Peacock, but I've seen it some on Paramount+ and Netflix as well. Disney+ and AppleTV+ still look great for the most part. Mostly what I see is posterization and some obvious softening, so we're not talking about the macro-blocking I see on everything my parents watched when they had Spectrum.

 

[Bruce]

I gotta say, lately, it seems like they have been upping the compression or bit-starving the streams somewhat. I mainly see it on HBOMAX and Peacock, but I've seen it some on Paramount+ and Netflix as well. Disney+ and AppleTV+ still look great for the most part. Mostly what I see is posterization and some obvious softening, so we're not talking about the macro-blocking I see on everything my parents watched when they had Spectrum.

Do not have HBO currently, I never seem to watch Peacock ( awful service), but all others look great, but I also have Fiber now, so no slowdowns.

 

[ncted]

Do not have HBO currently, I never seem to watch Peacock ( awful service), but all others look great, but I also have Fiber now, so no slowdowns.

Yeah, it isn't a bandwidth issue on my end. This looks an awful lot like certain streaming services are trying to limit their bandwidth bills by reducing quality, just like cable and satellite have done.

I can see the difference in my bandwidth graphs on my router. The roughly 20-30Mb spike from 19:15-20-05 is us watching Foundation on ATV+, while the subsequent utilization is other services, which included ST: Strange New Worlds on Paramount+ last night:

I currently have the highest resolution subscription option for all services I subscribe to. Obviously, non-UHD/HDR content will use less bandwidth.

Streaming quality is still better than cable/satellite, but I am starting to see some reduction.

 

[savarese04]

Yeah, it isn't a bandwidth issue on my end. This looks an awful lot like certain streaming services are trying to limit their bandwidth bills by reducing quality, just like cable and satellite have done.

I can see the difference in my bandwidth graphs on my router. The roughly 20-30Mb spike from 19:15-20-05 is us watching Foundation on ATV+, while the subsequent utilization is other services, which included ST: Strange New Worlds on Paramount+ last night:

View attachment 184954

I currently have the highest resolution subscription option for all services I subscribe to. Obviously, non-UHD/HDR content will use less bandwidth.

Streaming quality is still better than cable/satellite, but I am starting to see some reduction.

you're not wrong. there's definitely some "enhanced" compression going on. I imagine some of it is due to needing to maintain some semblance of backward compatibility with older devices, most services need to stay on more data hungry codecs and the only way to slim down is to compress more.

Also, the biggest expense to every streaming service is the CDN and the less bandwidth you use, the lower your expenses