MLB TV Picture Quality

After yesterday's announcement, I excitedly ordered MLB.TV to watch on my AppleTV 2nd Gen.

Picture quality was a disappointment. Watched 2 spring training games. Detail was very poor, even on a game that was widescreen (presumably HD?). Motion is very stuttery, as if the frame rate is low.

My downstream bandwidth exceeds 17Mbps, and Netflix and Apple rentals work fine.

Anyone else tried it yet?

BTW: MLB.TV says it can be cancelled "at any time", but the fine print says you can only get a refund in the first 5 days!

Posted on Mar 10, 2011 6:30 AM

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Posted on Apr 2, 2011 7:11 PM

The reason the quality of the picture is not comparable to Sat or cable is that those services stream those games with a bitrate ranges from 16-91mpbs/second. MLBTV maximum bitrate which is stated on their website is 3mpbs/second. With those low bit rates you will see a highly compressed signal. I am having similiar video and audio issue with choppy audio and video. This atop the compression artifacts that jump at you with any fast motion. These streams have 5 to 6 times the compression as a sat or cable HD feed. **** a standard dvd has a bit rate of 6-8mpbs. Have called MLBTV and the level 2 tech agreed and told me that the current bit rates were designed for computer streaming and not large screen HDTV sets. Received a email from MLBTV stating they are currently working on raising bit rates for streaming devices. I would encourage everyone who is not happy with the servicce to call MLBTV and complain about the low bit rates. State my numbers to them. I have called several times and no tech has argued that I was wrong. They all agreed and apologized. I can tell you that the audio and video choppyness that I am experiencing is a MLBTV app PS3 issue. I can stream MLBTV through Playon and the stream is clean. Only 480p and still full of compression artifacts but no audio or video stuttering.
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MLB TV Picture Quality

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