BBC iPlayer picture quality

searchlight123

can anyone in the know please shed some light on this for me. the picture seems much sharper when I watch HD streams through iPlayer directly with the app built into my Samsung smart tv than when I use the same app through my 4k firestick. Both apps have the picture quality set to highest available. My wife can't see the difference but then she struggles between HD and SD on Sky as well so maybe it's a man thing?

It just seems that bit sharper on the tv app than the firestick one but I thought they were both the same app. Any reason for this? The only one I could think of is maybe the processing power of the tv is better than that of the firestick and somehow that translates to a sharper picture?

The tv is a Samsung UE55TU8500 (2020) HDR 4K if that makes a difference.

Many thanks.

neilmcl

Are you watching a 4K stream on the iplayer?

If not your TV screen will upscale to 4K so there will be a difference between what comes from the inbuilt app and the processing of the TV and the picture processing from the Firestick. A "sharper" picture doesn't necessarily equate to a better one.

Neil_Jones

The Fire Stick comes in six different versions:https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201640900

Only the most recent ones (with 4k in the title) is 4k capable.  The older ones are only 1080p, so the TV, if forced, will upscale to 4k.

You may need to enable "enhanced HDMI" or similar in the settings for the TV. possibly on a per port basis, as otherwise they default to an older safe, but not full range, standard.

neilmcl

Neil_Jones said:

The Fire Stick comes in six different versions:https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201640900

Only the most recent ones (with 4k in the title) is 4k capable.  The older ones are only 1080p, so the TV, if forced, will upscale to 4k.

You may need to enable "enhanced HDMI" or similar in the settings for the TV. possibly on a per port basis, as otherwise they default to an older safe, but not full range, standard.

The OP has said he has the 4K version.

[Deleted User]

If it is UHD (4K) content you are watching as part of the iPlayer trial then there is a problem with Firesticks meaning that BBC had to pull the trial whereas your TV is on the supported list:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/help/questions/supported-devices/uhd-supported-devices/

There is a recent thread over on the AV forums about this with some replies from an enquiry to the BBC and it looks like the 4k Firestick has been limited to 720p on iPlayer as a result of falling out of the trial.

https://www.avforums.com/threads/fire-stick-4k-iplayer-stream-resolution.2349720/

searchlight123

neilmcl said:

Are you watching a 4K stream on the iplayer?

If not your TV screen will upscale to 4K so there will be a difference between what comes from the inbuilt app and the processing of the TV and the picture processing from the Firestick. A "sharper" picture doesn't necessarily equate to a better one.

hi neil
no. not watching a 4k stream just watching a normal BBc stream in high quality. the pic is defiitely 'higher' quality on the built in Samsung app as opposed to the iPlayer app on the firestick.

searchlight123

[Deleted User] said:

If it is UHD (4K) content you are watching as part of the iPlayer trial then there is a problem with Firesticks meaning that BBC had to pull the trial whereas your TV is on the supported list:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/help/questions/supported-devices/uhd-supported-devices/

There is a recent thread over on the AV forums about this with some replies from an enquiry to the BBC and it looks like the 4k Firestick has been limited to 720p on iPlayer as a result of falling out of the trial.

https://www.avforums.com/threads/fire-stick-4k-iplayer-stream-resolution.2349720/

it's not 4k content. could be anything - a rerun of match of the day or repair shop etc but it just seems to be a better picture using the samsung built in iPlayer app compared to the firestick iPlayer app which on the outside appear identical.

jamesd

iPlayer doesn't see to have a way to tell you what resolution and bandwidth is being used but Youtube does. So you might try experimenting with Youtube on both and use the "stats for nerds" feature to see what you're getting and see whether you can change that and whether it makes a difference in perceived quality.

That might or might not reveal whether the issue is the TV doing a better upscaling job or not.

While the difference isn't great, Youtube will sometimes send 4k VP9 video to my lowish spec computer and 4k AV1 to the more modern TV. You seem to be getting far greater effects than that sort of difference.

debitcardmayhem

Question are the TV and the firestick both using wi-fi? and is the TV in direct line of sight to the router compared to the firestick?

searchlight123

debitcardmayhem said:

Question are the TV and the firestick both using wi-fi? and is the TV in direct line of sight to the router compared to the firestick?

firestick is hard wired and tv is on wifi. both within 3 feet of the router.