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Apple TV+ Offers Highest Quality 4K Streaming, Averaging Up to 29Mbps

Baymowe335 said:
Netflix constantly degrades for me despite a 100MB/s fiber connection.
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Could be ISP side peering or throttling issue, I have had speeds half that with no issues. You can have gigabit speeds and still have buffering issues if there's a peering or throttling issue. YouTube is another one that some ISPs like to throttle/have peering issues with. Try a VPN you will know if your ISP is the reason for it.

I'm sure Apple will run into the same issue with the likes of Comcast when the traffic gets high enough forcing them to pay for better peering deals.

I believe they try to keep bit rate down to a certain level so people don't end up burning through their usage limits. Comcast for me is 1TB, never use it all up but, I'm sure other peoples usage patterns and family sizes may make it a tough balance.
 
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bladerunner2000 said:
Bitrate means nothing. It's the compression settings that matter more. If anyone's used handbrake with some advanced settings, you'll know that bitrate only matters so much. I can compress a full length 2hr 1080p movie down to about 3.5gb in file size with almost no noticeable difference in picture quality unless you pixel peek overlaying the original and compressed still frames. Granted, the 3.5gb file size is typically with movies where there isn't a lot of noise/grain.

Furthermore, bitrate is absolutely a moot point when the content sucks. Given Apple's inability to produce a solid product even in their own tech market... I have ZERO confidence in Apple knowing how to make a movie or TV series.
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Man, I really wish MacRumors would bring back the downvote button so people would know how incorrect this is.
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mtneer said:
Is this really perceptible in a common man's living room or is this just a spec brag that is real only on paper??
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Remember how everyone complained about the Game of Thrones episode called "Long Night," because it looked terrible on most TVs due to it being very dark. Well, that's because HBO streams at a pretty low bitrate and thus is required to compress the video quite a lot - compression that caused the blacks to be crushed and look bad in almost all common man's living rooms. Although the BR is not out yet, I am sure it will be 100x better on BR disc where there is a much higher bitrate and much less compression.

As another example, NFL buffs watch games on OTA antenna instead of cable, because cable tv compresses the video more, and thus tiny details get slightly blurred. It doesn't seem like it matters, but I have switched back and forth A-B-A-B before, cable-OTA-cable-OTA, and the difference is noticeable.

So yea, bitrate and compression matter.
 
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As nice as this is. It appears to ignore forced download quality. So those with data caps want to be mindful. It ate up around 80GB for me watching 6 episodes.
 
Baymowe335 said:
Netflix constantly degrades for me despite a 100MB/s fiber connection.
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Netflix also focus on "adaptive streaming."..when set to "Auto"under your Neflix account. I would like to guess more problems would be with manual intervention like Apple, where that is user controlled on the users side, not on the server side.

At least with adaptation streaming you'd have "less" problems, not more.. due to the service auto-adapts based on current bandwidth/bottlenecks at the time, thereby less interruptions.

Quality of Service (QoS) can only take you so far.
 
mtneer said:
Is this really perceptible in a common man's living room or is this just a spec brag that is real only on paper??
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Yes it is.

I guess if you're watching on a 5" phone screen with cheap earphones on a noisy train or bus you'll never notice the difference. But even a half-way decent moderately sized TV and mid-range sound system will show a world of difference.
 
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This is no surprise to me. Apple TV+ offers supreme dynamic range with bottomless blacks. No visible artefacts or colour banding, even in typically problematic dark scenes. For me, watching on an OLED panel, ATV+ is vastly superior to both Netflix and Amazon. Amazon in particular seems hit and miss on black depth, and Netflix sometimes appears to have a problematic implementation of HDR.
 
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MacRumors said:



Apple TV+ has the highest 4K streaming quality offered by a streaming service that supports 4K, according to testing conducted by FlatpanelsHD founder Rasmus Larsen.

Larsen says that the Apple TV+ offers higher quality 4K streaming than most iTunes movies, based on averages of the variable bitrate employed by the service.

dickinsonappletv-800x453.jpg

"See" had the highest bitrate of an Apple TV+ show tested, averaging a 29Mb/s video bitrate and a 41Mb/s peak.

"The Elephant Queen" averaged right around 26Mb/s for video bitrate, and other content, such as "Snoopy in Space" also performed well.

According to Larsen, the Apple TV+ offers 1.5 to 2x the video bitrate of a typical HD Blu-ray disc and around half of a typical UHD Blu-ray disc.

Comparatively, Netflix's 4K bitrate appears to max out at right around 16Mb/s, though Netflix requires a 25Mb/s connection to stream 4K content.

Article Link: Apple TV+ Offers Highest Quality 4K Streaming, Averaging Up to 29Mbps
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All this is great and I’d love to subscribe but neither my Samsung Smart Tv or 3rd Generation Amazon Fire device are offering the App . So currently no pint in doing so! Very disappointin!
 
cycomiko said:
Awesome. Cannot wait to buffer for 10 minutes.
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Curious, because last night we tried watching Dickenson on our ATV 4K connected to a 4K TV, and every time we tried any movie on ATV+, the little spinner just spun. After about a minute, I gave up. After multiple tries, I rebooted the ATV4K and Dickenson immediately started playing. To be honest, I'm not sure if it was 4K or 1080p.

Does it take considerable time to buffer a 4K stream before it starts playing?
 
waquzy said:
No surprise here, when Apple does it, it does it better than the rest!
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Not quite - I’d love to subscribe but neither my newish Samsung Smart Tv or 3rd Generation 4K Fire device offer the relevant Apple TV app - so no go at the moment. Why haven’t Apple organised with others for the swift release of working apps? Seems short sided in terms of sales!
 
cycomiko said:
Awesome. Cannot wait to buffer for 10 minutes.
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Early on with iTunes and Apple TV I only had a 6Mbps connection. With 1080p movies it would tell me your movie will be ready in 6 hours and 47 minutes. o_O In that same era Netflix and Hulu would queue up in 5-10 seconds. Even running at 'only' 40Mbps iTunes 4k movies load right up. I don't miss those early iTunes days.
 
HiVolt said:
I was impressed with the sharpness & quality on my old Apple TV 3rd Gen, on my 5 year old Samsung 1080p TV. I only watched The Morning Show, but it looked really good.
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I can echo the same, but on my six year old LG 1080p 120Hz TV. Looks great to me.
 
dmylrea said:
Curious, because last night we tried watching Dickenson on our ATV 4K connected to a 4K TV, and every time we tried any movie on ATV+, the little spinner just spun. After about a minute, I gave up. After multiple tries, I rebooted the ATV4K and Dickenson immediately started playing. To be honest, I'm not sure if it was 4K or 1080p.

Does it take considerable time to buffer a 4K stream before it starts playing?
Click to expand...

It’s pretty much instant on mine
 
bladerunner2000 said:
Bitrate means nothing. It's the compression settings that matter more. If anyone's used handbrake with some advanced settings, you'll know that bitrate only matters so much. I can compress a full length 2hr 1080p movie down to about 3.5gb in file size with almost no noticeable difference in picture quality unless you pixel peek overlaying the original and compressed still frames. Granted, the 3.5gb file size is typically with movies where there isn't a lot of noise/grain.

Furthermore, bitrate is absolutely a moot point when the content sucks. Given Apple's inability to produce a solid product even in their own tech market... I have ZERO confidence in Apple knowing how to make a movie or TV series.
Click to expand...

Reading this from the biggest anti-Apple evangelist, and seeing the same people liking his post as usual, I'm convinced that Apple TV+ may actually be great!

By the way, "Apple's inability to produce a solid product even in their own tech market"? Are you kidding me?

Here is what an Android fanboy, who is also a long time Pixel user, and an audio/photo expert says about recent Apple products:

"Apple's 2019 Pro releases:
- Powerbeats Pro, sensational.
- Beats Solo Pro, even better.
- iPhone 11 Pro, best phone ever.

And now AirPods Pro with the most sought-after addition of noise cancelling.
Only thing left is a MacBook Pro with a good keyboard."
 
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Well, they stream three shows to five customers. It's a pilot not a service (not yet). Let's see if the quality stays the same as the service grows.
 
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