why do purchased movies and Netflix look so much better on an Apple TV vs an Xbox one? The colors seem more rich and the resolution seems slightly improved. Anything to do with the Apple TV hardware being geared towards video and the Xbox being designed for games? Please educate me.
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Apple TV vs Xbox
- Thread starter KevinRightWing
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I do not know the answer, but I noticed a similar effect with a Netgear multimedia streamer we have. All the colors and stuff were real washed out and the image quality just looked like crap. Same TV, same resolution. Even the menu's looked like crap on the Netgear (not the layout, but actual picture quality). Even though it was on a secondary TV I ended up taking it out of usage and just bought another Apple TV. It made me wonder how many people watch stuff in that kind of picture quality without knowing it's subpar. And I'm not talking hardware snobbery, we are talking similar price points using standard hardware.
I have watched some Bluray's on our Xbox One (for when I haven't pre-ripped a movie to watch through AppleTV) and the image quality is very good. But that is high bitrate stuff and not the same as Netflix or something meant for streaming.
Going outside the original topic, I will also say that the AppleTV responsiveness is much better then other systems I have used.
I have watched some Bluray's on our Xbox One (for when I haven't pre-ripped a movie to watch through AppleTV) and the image quality is very good. But that is high bitrate stuff and not the same as Netflix or something meant for streaming.
Going outside the original topic, I will also say that the AppleTV responsiveness is much better then other systems I have used.
There's certainly nothing shabby about the XBox One's picture output. Amazon's Instant Video app is producing the best pictures I've seen for 1080p streamed content on my plasma screen, and Netflix is about the same as ATV. It sounds like it hasn't detected your TV's capabilities automatically, or else the TV is set to a different picture mode for each source.
Something to check...
Most TVs have separate picture/color adjustments for each input. Are you sure that both of your inputs are set identically? Or, if your HDMI cables are running through an AV Receiver, is that AVR performing any picture processing (many do by default, and you need to turn it off).
I was at someone's house this past weekend and she clearly had 2 different sets of settings for 2 different HDMI inputs on her TV. Her cable picture vs. her Chromecast picture (where she plays Netflix) looked as though they were 2 completely different TVs.
Most TVs have separate picture/color adjustments for each input. Are you sure that both of your inputs are set identically? Or, if your HDMI cables are running through an AV Receiver, is that AVR performing any picture processing (many do by default, and you need to turn it off).
I was at someone's house this past weekend and she clearly had 2 different sets of settings for 2 different HDMI inputs on her TV. Her cable picture vs. her Chromecast picture (where she plays Netflix) looked as though they were 2 completely different TVs.
Funny, I kinda noticed that myself after purchasing Inside Out. The colors were brilliant on the ATV4 and I can't recall seeing anything similar in quality on my XB1.
J
Mine is auto-detected but is set to Colour Space: Standard (Recommended) and Colour Depth: 24 bits per pixel.
What I'm finding out is that Netflix throttles down on slow DSL connections (like mine) on my consoles, where the AppleTV does not - it seems to output 1080p high quality no matter what, hence my constant pausing/loading.
Your XBox may be doing something else in the background like updating a game so Netflix on it isn't using the full bandwidth but will still enable you to watch the program at a lower quality.
I'm finding the same for all the video apps (Hulu, PBS). Probably an Apple spec for developers - all video must be at 1080p.
Your XBox may be doing something else in the background like updating a game so Netflix on it isn't using the full bandwidth but will still enable you to watch the program at a lower quality.
I'm finding the same for all the video apps (Hulu, PBS). Probably an Apple spec for developers - all video must be at 1080p.