MLB TV Picture Quality

Go to MLB.tv and see what teams are blacked out based on your zip code.

Thanks.Looks like the home team is always blacked out.

Watching the Tigers vs. Yankees opener on MLB.TV (Premium) via Apple TV (via WiFI) I was very disappointed in the quality of the picture - frequent pixilation, staccato action and picture freezing. I went to the Apple Store where I bought on Tuesday - and got not any help. They did not informed that MLB.TV was available on Apple TV - neither yesterday, nor on Tuesday, when I purchased it. The best they could offer was a "network" throughput problem.

I also watched the same game on my MacBook (UniBody) and the picture was flawless. The TV netcast was lagging behind the MacBook netcast. When the inning began on the MacBook the TV was just cutting to commercial between innings. On the way home, I stopped by a new Mac repair shop in my neighborhood to inquire. The owner said to increase my throughput for video, so I called Comcast.

The Comcast support rep happened to be a baseball fan with MLB.TV on Apple TV, who had the same problem as me, and was sympathetic. He immediately suggested I return the unit to Apple and have them test it, implying that there was a hardware defect or software update error. He had purchased his at Best Buy and he returned for the BB "Geek Squad" to examine, and BB tendered a replacement unit, which is working well.

Tomorrow I'm going to view the early games with my 20MBps and see what shows. If the problem resumes, I taking it to the Apple Store and demand a replacement unit.

I've been an Ex-Innings subscriber with Comcast for five years, and last season all games were HD, and looked well. Last season, I noticed that not a full schedule of games was on Ex-Innings, when there was not any reason for a blackout in my market, e.g. a Dodger/Padre game ws not available in San Francisco, when there ws no an evident programming conflict. I like that MLB.TV allows one can the choice of home or away broadcasts.

Also, I noticed these small font caveats with regard to premium feature of MLB.TV on this page http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/subscriptions/index.jsp?product=appletv

+*Features not available when viewing your MLB.TV® subscription on Apple TV.+

+**DVR Functionality on the PC is limited to MLB.TV Premium.+

No DVR functionality on Apple TV, which is a definite negative versus Ex-Innings on cable.

I report more tomorrow.

When I accessed MLB.TV this morning on Apple TV it said "MBL.TV not available now. Try again later"; yet, it was being then net cast on my MacBook.

Accessed, and even with increasing throughput to 20MBps it's unsatisfactory: First half inning was adequate with mild pixilation, next half inning the picture froze. Returned to menu and selected game again ('Stros v. Phils - home) - more pixilation and stop action then shortly it froze and stayed frozen for more than 10 minutes, and I returned to menu resume again froze again.

caa100 wrote:
My suggestion is to open a ticket with MLB support. They need to improve the quality of their service.

Yes i have sent email to MLB support and to Apple support. Was thinking bout calling apple over weekend to complain as well.

http://www.apple.com/feedback/appletv.html

customerservice@website.mlb.com

Something must be done about this poor quality when clearly is far inferior to streaming Netflix iTunes or using your laptop or even iPhone. Its frustrating when u know it should be better and just is not even close. But is it an Apple TV problem or a MLB TV problem or both? I was very pleased with my Apple TV until now im thinking bout returning it and going a different direction 😟

I'm seeing the same problems on my new ATV -- especially the picture starting and stopping, and the pixelation. I have a Roku player connected to the same TV -- both the ATV and Roku are connected via ethernet. MLB.TV looks greats on the Roku. Terrible on the ATV. Leads me think it's the ATV that's the problem (or how MLB.TV communicated with the ATV).

Well at this point I dont know what else to do except maybe return it (even tho Ive been very pleased with Apple TV until now) I cant imagine an update fixing anything so quickly if they even acknowledge there is a problem in the first place. Im still waiting to here back from MLB support. Good thing there is a free preview of Extra Innings on DirecTV this week...PLEASE Apple fix this problem Thank you.

You could get a Roku Player ($60 - 100, depending on the model). It can play MLB.TV. I'm watching it now... works great (I used it most of last year, too.... pretty flawless).

Here is my 2 cents.

Even though I live in Florida I am a New Joisey native. Love the yankees. Bought MLB the show 11 and decided to try free trial of MLB.tv

I am very disappointed in my apple tv. The picture quality is horrible. it is blocky and just looks bad. I got about a 9md download rate.

I tried it on my ps3 and the picture was a little better, but nothing to really shake a stick at.

On my Imac 21" 1yr old machine I finally got some decent pictures, but I dont want to watch it on this. I hope it is something with a software update on apple tv. Or I will not be purchasing mlb.tv

Added my $.02 here: http://discussions.info.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2803122

Bottom line is that this appears to be something specific to AppleTV and mlb.tv, as my testing shows that Netflix works fine, as does streaming from other devices. Hopefully they can fix this on the back end, and soon.

Bought my ATV on Tuesday and returned it for an exchange today. The "Genius" tried to tell me that its was a problem with my "network." I explaned that I was getting flawless reception on my MB, but not via ATV.

I surmise from my exchange that Apple probably knows that there's something wrong. Why? I asked if they were not going to test my returned unit for a defect, and she respond not- flippantly that <paraphrasing> they would just toss it. I would expect the if a client were to return a product claiming it was defective hardware or erroneous software, Apple would want to know, and would test to see if so; but not. From her casual response to my query it seemed to me that apparently Apple expects a certain number of defective returns and just tosses them out, without acknowledging anything is amiss with the product.

Will report performance after installation.

Message was edited by: Atavist

Hey Guys,

Extra .02

I just ordered the High end rook from amazon. I am getting it on Monday. I should have went with the Rouk as I am a amazon prime member and get access to all those unlimited movies. Once I hook it up Monday I will let you know the results. If it works, say goodbye to the AppleTV

J

We have a MAC but not apple tv. We stream MLBTV through our PS3. The problem with the picture is not the orignal feeds but with the low bitrate. To enlight everyone on bit rates. A standard dvd has a bit rate of 6-8mpbs/second. ESPN HD at 720p is 16mpbs/second. A blu-ray movie is 40mpbs/second. MLBTV bit rate for their HD feeds are 3mpbs/second. So compared to a ESPN HD feed of Sunday Night Baseball, MLBTV feeds have more then 5 times the compression in the stream. A adverage 1080p CBS stream has around 19mpbs/second. Meaning that the feeds that are orignally shot in 1080i have 6 times the compression in the MLBTV feed then the CBS feed. What does that mean for picture quality? A highly compressed picture that exhibits compression artifacts! On a computer screen not in full screen the picture will look very good. In full screen it will look Ok. On a large HDTV screen you will see macroblocking, tearing, blurring and lots of artifacts when there is motion. Unfortunately baseball has a lot of motion so you will see lots of motion artifacts. I have called MLBTV to complain about the low bit rates and the techs agree that the 3mpbs was orignally designed for computer screens. Have made similiar post on the support forum and have been banned for these exact comments. MLBTV support forum is not a open forum for discussion so beware of what you post on that site. I encourage all Apple tv users that have MLBTV to call the site and ask for tier 2 support and complain. The only way they will increase the bit rates for these feeds is for us to complain in mass. They have called back twice and I spoke to two gentlemen from the Phillipines who read information that was scripted and told me to check my bandwith which is 15,000 mpbs up and 5000mpbs down. Then the second gentleman told me to delete my app and reinstall it, which I had already done. If anyone has any questions please pm me. Thanks