There are no quality settings on the display on the iPad with “inOne TV Air”.
There is no diamond on the standard image and only the grayed out diamond is hidden behind the 3-point menu.
Here is the additional screen:
The picture is not bad on an iPad Pro, but feels less sharp than the live streams from the SRF Sport app.
At Swisscom, the TV resolution for mobile devices is not 720P anyway, but reduced because it is assumed that this is of no use on small displays anyway.
That may still be true for the iPhones, but no longer true for the large iPads.
Hobby-Nerd ohne wirtschaftliche Abhängigkeiten zur Swisscom
@Werner wrote:
…
At Swisscom the TV resolution for mobile devices is not 720P anyway, but reduced because it is assumed that this is of no use on small displays anyway….
… and you can also keep the amount of data for the stream smaller. It has two advantages: a) you need less bandwidth, so you can still stream even when network coverage is poorer, and b) you prevent outages and the resulting hotline calls or other negative publicity when streaming over other (probably worse competing) networks.
If you notice that other networks are also good, you will certainly continue to improve the image quality (hopefully).
And if you think a little further, sooner or later the quality will no longer play a role, whether you get blue TV via the Swisscom network or from another provider.
To get back into the discussion, which has now become a bit heated. I don’t want to use the AppleTV because I don’t want to spend the money on a Swisscom Box. I have 2 televisions and 2 UHD Swisscom boxes here, with the largest subscription… I just want the convenience of only having 1 device on my main TV with which I can access all of my content and everything I want there (e.g. also Atmos in Netflix).
I was extremely happy that BlueTV was now running on the Apple Box and I bought one to replace the Swisscom Box with it and finally have the “jack of all trades” in the living room. When I saw the difference while watching TV, I immediately regretted my decision… 🙂 So my question was simply based on the hope that maybe not everything is “finished” with the BlueTV app. But as it reads now, that’s the intention, regardless of whether you’re a paying subscriber, a Swisscom customer or a FreeTV viewer. I find that a bit of a shame.
@NoIdea2021 wrote:
I was extremely happy that BlueTV was now running on the Apple Box and I bought one to replace the Swisscom Box with it and finally have the “jack of all trades” in the living room. When I saw the difference while watching TV, I immediately regretted my decision… 🙂 So my question was simply based on the hope that maybe not everything is “finished” with the BlueTV app. But as it reads now, that’s the intention, regardless of whether you’re a paying subscriber, a Swisscom customer or a FreeTV viewer. I find that a bit of a shame.
@ThomasS Maybe as feedback for your product management:
I felt like @NoIdea2021. I had high hopes for the announced blue TV app for Samsung, LG TVs and now especially the Apple TV-Box. And now I’m disappointed.
I pay Swisscom around 3,000 a year for the two inOne subscriptions with Fixnet, Internet and TV (plus several mobile subscriptions): once for my home and once for my holiday apartment. I read somewhere on Swisscom’s behalf that with the Blue TV app, for example, the “home subscription” can also be used for your own holiday apartment and you no longer need two TV subscriptions for this. I now also have to realize that the image quality is visibly limited and I am disappointed. Even if your website says that the STB offers the “best TV experience” and UHD and Dolby Digital are not available via the app.
In my case, I could of course reduce costs (300 p.a.), which is not necessarily in Swisscom’s interest. I understand that. But Swisscom stopped offering second homes a few years ago, which led to significant additional costs. Since it was now explained that the “main subscription” could also be used for your own second home via the app, I had high expectations. I can now use my “home TV subscription” in my apartment, but with limited picture and sound quality.
What I also find offensive is the fact that you have to pay an extra CHF 5 per month for it. For worse quality? I would consciously forego the advantages of the STB, even with an extra CHF 5. But I don’t understand that the picture/sound quality is limited. Especially if you are used to getting things like 4K/UHD, HDR, Dolby Digital/Atmos etc. from streaming services like Netflix, Disney+ & Co. on smart TVs and Apple TV-Box.
Is a business decision. But he is not understood here. The (raised) expectations are disappointed. I would find it appropriate to waive CHF 5.-. Or at least match the quality in HD with the STB.
There are no longer any differences in quality between the corresponding subscriptions. No matter whether you are a TV Air Free or a inOne customer.
An HD stream on the big screen apps (Apple TV, LG, Samsung, etc) is ideally transmitted at 1280×720p50 with 6.3 Mbit. UHD goes up to 3840×2160p50 with 17.7 Mbit.
On the smaller screens (smartphone / tablet / web) you usually get 1280×720p25 with 3.2 Mbit.
@madaley wrote:
What are the streaming resolutions and bandwidths including codecs at Netflix? Does that change all the time?
Netflix uses a completely different codec to Swisscom for BlueTV (H265 and/or VP9) and delivers these with quite decent bit rates (for 4K, which makes up the majority of the Netflix library, 16Mbit), plus they also have 768kbit/s for Atmos Audio and can deliver both HDR and HFR in parallel. I don’t think they have a problem with that.
@RomanE wrote:
There are no longer any differences in quality between the corresponding subscriptions. No matter whether you are a TV Air Free or a inOne customer.
An HD stream on the big screen apps (Apple TV, LG, Samsung, etc) is ideally transmitted at 1280×720p50 with 6.3 Mbit. UHD goes up to 3840×2160p50 with 17.7 Mbit.
On the smaller screens (smartphone / tablet / web) you usually get 1280×720p25 with 3.2 Mbit.
Thanks Roman, that explains the significant difference in quality. If the apps only output 720p but Swisscom’s own 1080p, then the difference in quality no longer surprises me.
@RomanE wrote:
An HD stream on the big screen apps (Apple TV, LG, Samsung, etc) is ideally transmitted at 1280×720p50 with 6.3 Mbit.
I have to disagree with that. The picture quality is visibly worse on the Apple TV Box. See posts here with image attachments. The blue TV app on Apple TV draws approx. 4 Mbit/s, the Swisscom TV Box for the same program (SRF1= 720p50) draws approx. 6 Mbit/s. A different codec and/or a different bit rate is definitely used.
Please check, thx.
@RomanE wrote:
There are no longer any differences in quality between the corresponding subscriptions. No matter whether you are a TV Air Free or a inOne customer.
An HD stream on the big screen apps (Apple TV, LG, Samsung, etc) is ideally transmitted at 1280×720p50 with 6.3 Mbit. UHD goes up to 3840×2160p50 with 17.7 Mbit.
On the smaller screens (smartphone / tablet / web) you usually get 1280×720p25 with 3.2 Mbit.
Exciting statement. How exactly should we understand the big screen apps? As I understand it, are you already making a distinction from blue TV with the Swisscom box? The general tenor here is that the picture on the apps (I now only know the app and the picture quality on the Apple TV box) does not come close to that on the Swisscombox.
Or how else do such differences come about, as described by @Stephan_76 [here](https://community.swisscom.ch/t5/Nutzung-mit-TV-App-Web/blue-TV-App- Finally shown on Apple TV/m-p/678322#M11685)?
@RomanE wrote:
There are no longer any differences in quality between the corresponding subscriptions. No matter whether you are a TV Air Free or a inOne customer.
An HD stream on the big screen apps (Apple TV, LG, Samsung, etc) is ideally transmitted at 1280×720p50 with 6.3 Mbit. UHD goes up to 3840×2160p50 with 17.7 Mbit.
On the smaller screens (smartphone / tablet / web) you usually get 1280×720p25 with 3.2 Mbit.
Thank you @RomanE
With the exception of the upcoming SRF 1080p streams, at what resolution will the HD content of all other TV Box channels be transmitted? Unfortunately I can’t find any information from Swisscom about this anywhere.
At best, someone can watch it via VLC. Just the unencrypted channels. It works like this: [https://www.tuxone.ch/2014/04/iptv-auf-dem-pc-schau.html](https://www.tuxone.ch/2014/04/iptv-auf- dem-pc-watch.html)
All HD channels on the box come with 720p50. The SRG now has a 1080p signal, and they are currently clarifying whether and how this will work. But then we are talking about different bit rates than today.
On paper, there are almost no differences between an Apple TV HD stream and a stream on our TV-Box. But different encoders are used for the TV box than for the OTT devices. OTT devices are adaptive bitrates and on the box they are constant bitrates.
I have little to do with the OTT products. Since I don’t like fruit, I don’t have an Apple TV. I can therefore say little about these differences in quality. If we look purely at the bit rates and profiles, then I would expect comparable quality. However, it may very well be that the TV has to be set up differently for Apple TV than for the STB streams. That could also make a difference (just a guess)
Questionable statement for a Swisscom representative… 😕 Not funny.
Does anyone know how this behaves on LG and Samsung TVs? Are there any quality losses as described here for ATVs?
It’s well known that Apple doesn’t like all codecs. But other apps/providers do it in better quality. In my opinion, Netflix uses new AV1. SC is not Netflix, of course…
@RomanE wrote:
(…) different encoders are used for the TV box than for the OTT devices. OTT devices are adaptive bitrates and on the box they are constant bitrates. (…) However, it may very well be that the TV has to be set up differently for Apple TV than for the STB streams.
Thx. That’s my guess too. If applicable. different codec plus variable bit rates. Helps conserve bandwidth. However, in my opinion, the loss of quality is too obvious and it probably needs some readjustment.
But it doesn’t explain why they don’t use audio formats. This is more of a business decision.
Therefore, the extra CHF 5 for such a technically low-end offer is questionable.