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.

View in context

187 replies

Apr 1, 2011 4:17 PM in response to caa100

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 😟

Atavist

Level 1

5 points

Apr 2, 2011 10:55 AM in response to theroys88

theroys88 wrote:
Apple will most likely say it is MLBTV's issue. That is what Playstation told me. I would focus all the effort against MLBTV. You guys need to call and complain. Any questions you can pm me.

I meant to suggest that Apple is a greater countervailing power to MLB than our chirping at MLB. Apple as a pecuniary interest in protecting and promoting Apple TV and iTunes, it barking at MLB will get real attention as it is being damaged in a manner that likely breach their agreement with MLB, because Apple is being damaged indeed by MLB's parsimonious and incompetent service.

Hadsus

Level 1

0 points

Apr 2, 2011 11:13 AM in response to caa100

caa100 wrote:

Hadsus wrote:
I tried the MLBTV speed test several times....never under 3k....averages around 4.5k.

Assume you mean 4500kbps / 4.5mbps, right? 🙂

Yes. I get out to my local test server at 22,0000 kbps via speedtest on my computer. On my laptop and ipad I'm between 12,000 and 18,000 via wi-fi.

Apr 2, 2011 12:37 PM in response to Macaby

Macaby wrote:
No, mlb on either a computer or through ATV is NOT going to result in the same picture quality as Extra Innings as delivered via Directv.

I am not, nor have ever subscribed to Directv, so I can not comment upon the claim you make based upon your experience.

However, the picture quality I received through Time Warner Road Runner Broadband for the 2010 season on a 2.66Ghz core 2 duo MacBook Pro via ethernet w/ 27" LCD Cinema Display, as well as for the current 2011 season to both the same set-up as well as a 1.86Ghz core 2 duo 13" MacBook Air via Wifi was and is comparable to the picture quality I received for the 2009 season with the Extra Innings package on Time Warner Cable w/ a 42" Sony LCD TV.

The Apple TV 2 should be entirely capable of providing the same image quality over WiFi to a LCD TV in the 42"-60" range as would be received over coaxial from a Cable provider, or from satellite.

As I stated previously, if it is not, or if it would require a wired ethernet connection with a LCD TV less than 42", whether the reason falls to Apple or to MLB, it should be disclosed prior to purchase of an MLB.tv package as clearly myself and numerous other subscribers have been led to believe otherwise.

Apr 2, 2011 3:14 PM in response to caa100

Same problems as everyone else using MLB TV on Apple TV: I have 7+ Mbps coming down through cable, nothing else running on the network. Picture on any computer in the house looks fine and I have yet to see it freeze, same with my Touch abnd iPhone. I can even use the HDMI output from my laptop to the TV and it looks good.

But when I try to play through Apple TV, there's a constant shift back adn forth to terrible to pixellation, and complete freezing at least twice a minute. Even my 5-year-old asks what's going on. Power cycling everything and connecting Ethernet to the Apple TV makes no difference. It is completely unwatchable.

I bought the Apple TV purely for baseball when it was listed as a new supported device last month. This is awful for Apple's brand, since it's obvious no one at Apple actually bothered to test it before adding MLB to the ATV.

I bought MLB premuim yesterday. Tomorrow I'll be cancelling it and returning the Apple TV to the store

This is the worst customer experience I've had in ages.

Apr 2, 2011 5:39 PM in response to Macaby

Macaby wrote:

tipsymcstaggers wrote:
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.

If that's what you're getting, I wouldn't watch it either. I'm not getting any of that. What I do get is intermittent pixilation which only happens occasionally.

This is interesting and makes me think it's a hardware issue if you're getting much better results on Qwest. I suppose the only other possibility if it's NOT the ATV software/hardware is that maybe cable modems just don't play well with the way the stream comes down the pipe from MLB. Maybe we should all start posting our internet providers?

Since you're having much better success, think I'll try and return my ATV for a different one and see if I get a different result. Thanks again for posting your experiences with it.

Macaby

Level 3

923 points

Apr 3, 2011 9:27 AM in response to theroys88

theroys88 wrote:
Thus cable/sat hd feed 16-19mpbs MLBTV feed 3mpbs. Not hard to see why video quality *****. Please folks call call call!

Are you saying that the cable MLB feed to computers is 16-19Mbps while the MLB feed to ATV is 3Mbps?

Macaby

Level 3

923 points

Apr 3, 2011 11:51 PM in response to tipsymcstaggers

As per my posts in this thread, my experience has avoided most if not all the problems. I have yet to see a screen freeze. However, when there is a lot of motion (running the bases or snagging down a fly ball,) there is minor pixilation issues which I assume is caused by lower frame count.

I'm wondering how much of the problem is caused by the excitement of the early going with more people tuning into the action which results in "rationing" the signal. Does anyone know if the ATV MLB signal is routed through ATV servers? I've timed the difference in the game on my computer using MLB.com verses watching the game on ATV. The ATV version yesterday was about 30 seconds behind the game as viewed on my MPB verses on my ATV. I realize both signals came down the same Qwest DSL pipe, but 30 seconds seems to be a huge difference.

In truth, the only reason I signed up for the service was to be able to watch some of the Yankee-Red Sox games and maybe parts of a few other games. I think there are about 17 NYY-BOS games so my cost comes to around $6 a game. However, several of those games will be on ESPN, etc.. I think MLB has priced their product correctly as I wouldn't pay more than $99 for it, especially with the option to jack up the ante and go with Extra Innings where it all is HD with NO pixilation.

PaulLu

Level 1

9 points

Apr 4, 2011 1:10 PM in response to caa100

It seems marginally better today, but there's no way for me to tell if that's because they've made improvements or because there's fewer games right now, so there are fewer people watching. There are still random hangs, and one reboot out of the app entirely, and the picture quality is not good even acknowledging that true HD isn't possible regardless of how it's marketed.

Apple & MLB are both responsible for this. There's no way MLB built this app entirely on its own given Apple's previous history with ATV. It was at best a partnership, and both parties knew the deadline for getting it done. So far, they've failed, and they need to either fix it or start issuing partial refunds.

dizgonap

Level 1

0 points

Apr 9, 2011 12:23 PM in response to caa100

I just moved from San Francisco to LA. I signed up for MLB via Apple TV so I can see all the Giants games....

Bad idea... It's unwatchable! the games take 15 -20 minutes to start and when they do, they're pixilated, and blurry... although sometimes a nice high quality image appears for a few seconds but 90% of the stream is un-watchable. (i'm streaming archived games).

I have the fastest connection speed TW cable offers in my area, 15mgbs/s which should be ample. My netflix archived streams come in crystal clear.

I want my money back!!! Don't sell a product if it doesn't work

Trying to get help on this from MBL is useless they refer me to apple... apple refers me to MLB. The typical run-around. nobody is taking responsibility and the consumer gets f'd. apple, i thought you were better than that.

Apr 9, 2011 4:33 PM in response to caa100

I'm watching the games going on right now and things are looking the best they've been all season. Maybe they're still working to solve the problems in various parts of the country, but the way things look now is very encouraging. Very little pixelation, if any. It's able to switch from different camera angles with no "redrawing" visible. The picture is quite sharp on my 50" plasma. Not quite HD but quite good. And I'm just using AT&T DSL (their fastest version). Let's hope everyone has this experience soon.

Apr 13, 2011 10:48 PM in response to Macaby

UPDATE: some games are pretty good..while others are still awful...today, i found Yankees, Phillies games were terrible...would range from totally pixelated to not bad to resetting my AppleTV...not sure what's going on...if it's really an issue of how many people are watching the feed then that would be an MLBTV server issue...but, it feels like they maybe bumped up the bandwidth of the streams but maybe not enough...also feels like the AppleTV itself still has a problem buffering the stream.....I love how we are doing all their testing AND paying THEM for it..such suckers we are!

George_T

Level 1

5 points

Apr 15, 2011 6:44 AM in response to soarch

I've had the opposite experience this year with apple TV 2 vs. Roku. My use of the Roku was a disaster when I had it the first few days of the season. Much pixilization/freezing/looping of feeds. Feeds were unwatchable.

My aTV 2 picture has been sharp and clear. Not quite HD quality like DirecTV feeds, but close. Feeds begin almost immediately versus having to wait 15-30 seconds on the Roku, if they loaded as all. There were a lot of things I liked about the Roku, but I bought it mainly for MLB.TV, and so I sent it back. Glad that I did.

Rudegar

Level 10

180,222 points

Apr 21, 2011 3:27 AM in response to TheInnerSun

well if their stream is of lower quality then there is nothing anybody but the people offering the stream can do

don't have those sports thingy but somebody said that some streams would only be good quality in bigger matches not the practice ones

jsimone

Level 1

0 points

Apr 23, 2011 1:11 PM in response to caa100

I've been trying to watch the Cubs-Dodgers game this afternoon and am about ready to throw my ATV through a window!!! Every other game appears to be steaming fine, but I don't want to watch the Mets-Diamondbacks game. I've been searching many forums to see what everyone else is saying about their experience with ATV and MLB.tv. I've read on some that the sheer number of people attempting to stream a specific game is the cause of streaming issues, which give me concerns as a Cubs fan seeing as they are one of the most popular teams nationwide. Everything that I read would lead me to believe it is an MLB.tv issue more so than an ATV issue - but either way it needs to get fixed soon or there will be many unhappy Apple/MLB customers. Besides the fact that I have to listen to my wife complain about how much I spent on yet another ATV, MLB subscription and new receiver that supports HDMI.

My ATV is hooked up via wired Ethernet to a Sony plasma. Of course as I type this the streaming seems to be improving! ;-)

Go Cubbies!

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MLB TV Picture Quality