Is it just me, or has the quality of MLB.tv on the Apple TV improved?

[machpost]

This is the second year that I've subscribed to MLB.tv, and last year, my opinion of the service on the Apple TV was mixed. While the interface is nice and the picture quality was usually good, you could always count on pixellation during rapid movement or fast camera panning, and the frame rate always looked like it maxed out at 24fps, which is really not good at all for any scenes with fast action. It was really noticeable.

Fast forward to this season, and things look to be much improved, at least to my eyes. I don't see the stuttering when there is a lot of action and movement, and I see much less pixellation. You especially notice it in the score bug and the graphics. Is it possible that Apple or MLB.tv has switched to a different codec or upped the frame rate for the games? Or have I lost my mind?

 

[devnull42]

This is the second year that I've subscribed to MLB.tv, and last year, my opinion of the service on the Apple TV was mixed. While the interface is nice and the picture quality was usually good, you could always count on pixellation during rapid movement or fast camera panning, and the frame rate always looked like it maxed out at 24fps, which is really not good at all for any scenes with fast action. It was really noticeable.

Fast forward to this season, and things look to be much improved, at least to my eyes. I don't see the stuttering when there is a lot of action and movement, and I see much less pixellation. You especially notice it in the score bug and the graphics. Is it possible that Apple or MLB.tv has switched to a different codec or upped the frame rate for the games? Or have I lost my mind?

I noticed the same thing. I was thinking it might just be my ISP, but it sounds like MLB tweaked the delivery. I did notice that I couldn't skip between innings like I used to be able to. Maybe it's just because they are spring games, but it would only let me jump to action points and not every 1/2 inning.

 

[machpost]

I noticed the same thing. I was thinking it might just be my ISP, but it sounds like MLB tweaked the delivery. I did notice that I couldn't skip between innings like I used to be able to. Maybe it's just because they are spring games, but it would only let me jump to action points and not every 1/2 inning.

My ISP has upped my download rate from 10mbps to 25mbps since the end of last season, but I can't imagine that would've had an effect, since MLB.tv streaming in HD is probably still pulling around 5mbps or less.

MLB also let it slip that the MLB.tv interface on the Apple TV is supposed to receive some updates and enhancements for 2012, so I'm curious to see what that will look like.

 

[darster]

Generally it has always looked better during spring training as not many people are streaming yet. Wait until opening day to judge the quality when their servers really get hit.

 

[machpost]

Generally it has always looked better during spring training as not many people are streaming yet. Wait until opening day to judge the quality when their servers really get hit.

I know it's early in the regular season and there aren't a lot of games being streamed concurrently, but so far the picture quality and frame rate look fantastic. Seems like a pretty nice improvement over last season.

 

[Moyank24]

I know it's early in the regular season and there aren't a lot of games being streamed concurrently, but so far the picture quality and frame rate look fantastic. Seems like a pretty nice improvement over last season.

I'm watching as we type, and I have to agree. Great quality so far...hopefully this continues throughout the season.

 

[darch77]

This is also my second year using mlb.tv with my apple tv2, and I also noticed that this year I'm not able to skip around by 1/2 innings like last year. What I've found out so far from mlb.tv is that this feature it's only available in archived games and not in live games like last year. Why they would remove a feature, I have no idea. They won't say if it's a feature they plan to bring back or not, but I'm disappointed because it was my favorite feature to use. I also called apple support to see if they had a fix for it, but they told me that all apps on the apple tv (ie mlb.tv or netflix) are written by their respective service providers. Anyone else researching the same issue? Any info or advise would be helpful...

Thanks!