Is HBO Now on Apple TV in 1080p and with 5.1 sound?

Well, my receiver says it's providing 5.1 sound - I have no way of definitively checking if it's 1080p, though. It certainly "looks good." (At least as good as Netflix.)

It does look good, but is anyone getting some artefacts or some drop in quality when fast forwarding through the stream?

- On a side note, when using a US itunes account and a random location. Where does the payment go when you use a US itunes gift card? To the random billing address in the US or my paypal account set in Australia?
I've already posted this question, but no one has got back to me.

macbroadcast said:

It does look good, but is anyone getting some artefacts or some drop in quality when fast forwarding through the stream?

- On a side note, when using a US itunes account and a random location. Where does the payment go when you use a US itunes gift card? To the random billing address in the US or my paypal account set in Australia?
I've already posted this question, but no one has got back to me.

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Artifacts/drops in quality WHILE fast forwarding? That's pretty normal for any streaming service.

What do you mean "where does the payment go"? When you use the card it's value is transferred to your apple ID account. The physical address is just for online verification.

Thanks for the reply.

I think I'm just confused how the systems works when using a US itunes account and buying a US giftcard.

"What do you mean "where does the payment go"? When you use the card it's value is transferred to your apple ID account. The physical address is just for online verification."

When you say its transferred to my apple ID account. That apple ID account is set to the US with a random location. Won't things get mixed up. How does all this work??. Sorry its my first time doing this.

No problem

You're not buying the iTunes gift cards from Apple unless you have a US credit card (and if you got one of those then you won't need gift cards). The place you buy the gift cards from have already bought the gift card from Apple. Gift cards aren't registered to any account yet, so it doesn't matter what address is registered to your Paypal or Non-US credit card since you weren't the buyer. You're the gift recipient.

Primalsage said:

No problem

You're not buying the iTunes gift cards from Apple unless you have a US credit card (and if you got one of those then you won't need gift cards). The place you buy the gift cards from have already bought the gift card from Apple. Gift cards aren't registered to any account yet, so it doesn't matter what address is registered to your Paypal or Non-US credit card since you weren't the buyer. You're the gift recipient.

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Thank you So bascially im going to buy a US gift card from here: http://itunesdirect.com.au/ (using my Australian paypal account, not itunes)

Once thats done, where does the money on the US giftcard go to on the monthly subscription using my US itunes account?

Your monthly subscription will draw funds from the payment method you selected on the billing page of the iTunes account. In your case this will be iTunes Gift Card. Think of it as if you're buying Paypal gift cards and using them to top up your Paypal Wallet and then buying something on Ebay using that balance.

So buy the gift card and receive a code by email.
Log into your US iTunes account and redeem the code.

Now your iTunes account has money on it and the HBO subscription can draw funds from it.

...And from doing this no private billing information goes to the random us account? Talk about anxiety problems. I do apologies. :O

Thank you your help with all my questions

Thanks for this thread. Having 1080p video and 5.1 sound is a deal maker for me.

I haven't had any pauses or noticeable drops in quality so far (2-3 hours of watching,) which is surprising since I have slowish broadband, and both Netflix and Hulu pause at least 2-3 times per hour.

Its def not 1080p as I have a digital copy of the first episode of The Wire and its night and day difference with HBO Now - also some films are clearly SD like Sunshine but aren't listed any differently. I would say its 720p at best.

n1ck said:

Its def not 1080p

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1080p is a resolution, not an image quality.

your digital download probably has a higher bit-rate than the streaming services do. (blu-ray is higher than them both)

one good way to check the compresssion on your image is underwater scenes, the background typically has a nice even fade, on compressed video it tends to turn into a lot of bands instead of a smooth fade.

also why you get a better image off an antenna than cable for your local stations, since cable compresses them to fit more channels.

a little more in-depth article if you care.
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This doesn't apply to those not in the US, but the first month of HBO now is free, just cancel before they bill you at the beginning of the second month.

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HBO has announced that shows will be available for streaming when they start on the east coast, with the possible exception of some live sporting events, which should show up within a few hours.
I'm guessing they'll be in 5.1, so they don't have to deal with 2 different copies at different times.

Well if it is heavily compressed 1080p then they are absolute amateurs at providing a quality streaming service.

n1ck said:

Well if it is heavily compressed 1080p then they are absolute amateurs at providing a quality streaming service.

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I wouldn't say that, in my unprofessional and otherwise useless opinion its on par with most other streaming services.

Once we start seeing better hardware and these streaming services can use better compression we'll have better 1080p streaming. Of course then we will be complaining about the low quality 4k.

Yea, this is why I would rather the tv / streaming / media companies focus more on perfecting 1080p encoding and compression, instead of shoving 4k down our throats. But it seems that stuffing more pixels into a panel is easier than figuring out efficient compression algorithms.

oneMadRssn said:

Yea, this is why I would rather the tv / streaming / media companies focus more on perfecting 1080p encoding and compression, instead of shoving 4k down our throats. But it seems that stuffing more pixels into a panel is easier than figuring out efficient compression algorithms.

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Can't wait for H.265 to become mainstream and supported by Apple.

I've been watching some movies on HBO NOW and have been experiencing some pixilation and noise during fast action scenes or when there is a lot going on screen. Does anyone else experience that?

The streaming runs fine at 1080p and does look clear, its only with the fast action scenes

(internet speed 100mbps)

If it's the same streams as HBO Nordic (likely) then the reason is they are using a lower bitrate than Netflix. I experience the same thing.

I've been enjoying the quality of HBO Now, though the video still gets artifacts when there's a lot of action and motion.

Based on my MRTG graphs, the bitrate is around 5Mbps. This works out to around 2.2GB an hour, give or take. I suspect they picked this bitrate because it can be handled by most broadband connections out there; on the other hand I wish they had a higher bitrate for those of us with faster connections. My 50mbps pipe needs filling!