Level 1

11 points

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

Top-ranking reply

theroys88

Level 1

0 points

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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187 replies

Sep 18, 2013 10:22 AM in response to robbieturner

I'm experiencing the exact same thing. It seems like it started happening in the past few weeks. I have an AppleTV 2 and an AppleTV 3. Both have awful picture quality, hang, and are virtually unwatchable. Resetting and restoring don't fix the problem. I am able to watch the same game, on the same network, in near perfect quality on iPad, iPhone or desktop computer just fine. Network bandwidth tests on the AppleTV don't indicate a problem and my wireless reception is "excellent." This is clearly an AppleTV problem from MLB.

To top it all off, MLB has started consistently showing commercials between innings. AppleTV seemed like the last outpost of serentiy where the silence between innings was a feature worth the cost of the service. Add obnoxious, repetitive commercials to the lack of quality from mlb.tv and it is all plain unacceptable.

MLB: fix the picture quality.

Apple: Make them dump the commericals.

Klon99

Level 1

8 points

Apr 4, 2011 4:41 PM in response to caa100

Got the ROKU XDS. Much better picture. Say GOODBYE APPPLETV

Atavist

Level 1

5 points

Apr 4, 2011 5:40 PM in response to Klon99

Klon99 wrote:
Got the ROKU XDS. Much better picture. Say GOODBYE APPPLETV

Read comment @ Amazon that ROKU installation was a pain. True?

Hadsus

Level 1

0 points

Mar 29, 2011 11:26 AM in response to Hadsus

Quick follow-up....called up MLBTV customer support and they told me that this isn't a case of a poor picture source due to spring training as this is a true HD feed. But the problem might be that my computer was on and there might have been some programs pinging the internet. I did have iTunes up and running. Hopefully I'll be able to test other HD games soon.

PaulLu

Level 1

9 points

Apr 1, 2011 7:51 PM in response to caa100

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.

Hadsus

Level 1

0 points

Apr 2, 2011 7:06 AM in response to frank grimes jr

I've tried MLBTV on an iPad, laptop, and Apple TV. I think there's going to be a bit of an apples (pun not intended) to oranges problem in the comparison. Simply because watching stream problems on a big screen TV is going to reveal issues much more obviously. I don't think Apple TV is all that terrible. I see the same motion/pixelization problems on an iPad and laptop but the screens are so small in comparison, it's not as noticeable. The bit streaming rate of MLBTV I think is substandard for HD viewing. I just got Apple TV and I'm keeping it because it streams and manages Netflix extremely well and I also like watching the podcasts. Only paid $60 for it so that factors in.

Apr 2, 2011 4:47 PM in response to Macaby

Macaby wrote:
First, I would like to state again that MLB on ATV2 works for me. For someone to say that it's UNWATCHABLE is way over the top. That said...

Earlier today I ported a game from my MBP to my Samsung through the HDMI interface and while it's hard to say without seeing side-by-side video, I think the picture might have been a bit better than ATV2.

Next, since I have access to DirecTV Extra Innings in their free preview mode, I compared a live game from DTV to a game playing on my MBP and while DTV was a clear winner, the video on my MBP was very good.

Finally, I compared my MBP video to my ATV2 video and the first thing I noticed was that the video on ATV2 was about 30 seconds behind the MBP video. Comparing the MBP above to DTV, the MBP video was only about 2 seconds behind.

Since the MBP video came down the same line as the ATV2, somewhere in the system the video from the ATV2 is getting a serious drag on it. Apple server? ATV2 buffer? Perhaps this accounts for some of the de-pixilation that occurs.

Interesting stuff, thanks for posting your experience with that. It really does seem to be a software/hardware issue with the ATV itself, or at least with the way the stream is getting from the servers and through the ATV. I will say that the issues I'm having absolutely DO make it unwatchable, without a doubt. At least every minute the video will hang for 10-20 seconds at a time....very frustrating.

Apr 3, 2011 10:24 AM in response to caa100

Seems like there are two different problems... this morning, at 9:15 am PDT, I could watch an archived game without it freezing every 30 seconds. The picture quality was pretty bad, though, cycling between crystal clear for five seconds, then pixelated, then blurry beyond belief, and back to clear again. Yesterday (Saturday) in the afternoon, it froze up every 15 seconds or so, plus it had the same picture issues. Now I am watching the beginning of Detroit-Yankees, and it hasn't frozen yet. The pinstripes are nauseating, however- they shimmer so badly- this isn't really watchable. Calling MLB now...

Apr 3, 2011 12:02 PM in response to Matt Larson2

UPDATE: getting a much improved quality on appletv now...watching Jays v Twins HOME broadcast...audio now NEVER drops...still intermittent image freezing...seems to me MLB may be adjusting the bitrates or something...maybe trying to find out how much more they have to boost them up in order to give a decent experience on AppleTV...I tested with a bunch of other games and they all seem to be improved...Yankees games is the only one that seems kind of weak...about a 100% improvement from yesterday's unwatchable experience...anybody else seen an improvement today?

Macaby

Level 3

923 points

Apr 4, 2011 5:48 PM in response to Klon99

Klon99 wrote:
Got the ROKU XDS. Much better picture. Say GOODBYE APPPLETV

Just took a look at the Roku website. For $99, looks like a nice option. If everything else was the same, it might still be worth going that route for the component option AND the remote control that looks like it might be easy to use.

Apr 8, 2011 7:59 PM in response to frank grimes jr

I called MLBTV and they have now admitted that there is a problem with the feeds to my PS3 and they are going to have a firmware by mid April. Still no information on why they stream these HD games with such a low bit rate. The 720p games look better since there is less compression then the 1080i broadcasts like NESN HD or Yes HD which look poor with tons of compression artifacts. Went to a local sports bar and they had MLB extra innings via Directv on a 60" Samsung DLP and the HD looks fantastic. No artifacts and as clear as glass. The audio problems and choppy video are bad enough but the compression artifacts are horrible. I got banned from the support forum for continuing to post the bit rates compared to bit rates of sat and cable feeds. The moderators never responded to my post and after one day banned me without a email. Rude! Here is some rates in Texas to give you guys a feel on how they run:http://www.widemovies.com/dfwbitrate.html

Apr 20, 2011 8:45 PM in response to baseballcrazy1

This definitely classifies as unwatchable. Very high pixelation, freezing and lagging, and MLBtv app simply quits and returns me to the Apple TV main menu 5 or 6 times per game.

I'm doing a complete restore of the Apple TV right now and will report back. Pretty big let down so far.

May 1, 2011 12:38 PM in response to Atavist

It seemed to be getting better but it's going bad again. The quality of the picture has improved but watching the Cards Braves game so far the picture has frozen about six times and the ATV 2 has totally reset itself 2 times.

Bottom of the seventh. Overall it's better but there is still a bug in it. I've never seen a flawless game on ATV2 yet but I have on my iMac. I'm still thinking it's something in the way ATV2 interprets something coming from the internet. Plus you can throw in the fact that ATV goes through HDMI and iMac doesn't. I have no other issues with ATV than MLB so HDMI is probably not an issue.

May 1, 2011 2:33 PM in response to Kenneth Hayden

its all MLB TVs fault their feed is horrible and they have done nothing to help any of us out. dont waste any time in the MLB support forum either they just give lame excuse and fixes (ie restart ur apple tv) its sad cuz there is good potential but apple tv is not to blame when it works flawlessly with everything EXCEPT MLB TV...

Sep 30, 2011 11:04 PM in response to caa100

I was interested in the picture quality of mlb tv for Apple TV since I also feed games through a PS3. The PS3 picure is clearer, but studders (action feels like 20FPS) more than the Apple TV feed. If Apple could look at the picture quality of the PS3 to clean up the picture quality, and still have the smooth flow of action that I receive on my Apple TV feed I would be elated! It appears that the Apple TV feed is a bit over-sharpened too with pixel halos around any sharp line which can be fixed in software.

One other comparison. PS3 has a fast forward that shows the action in the timeline of the game and scans faster than the Apple TV remote. Maybe a customized tweak would be in order.

Nothing beats the picture quality of an HD game from my cable company yet, but cable tv stacks games and overlapping can occur which is very annoying. Doesn't happen on MLB TV.

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MLB TV Picture Quality