Poor video quality of Apple TV on sky stream almost every time

[Ryn1]

Not sure why sky constantly wants to throttle the resolution on Apple TV on their stream platform. Their excellent selection of programs is being poorly served by a platform that clearly doesnt give a crap. Its not a one off, this problem has persisted for at least the 9 months Ive had it and theyve made no effort whatsoever to fix it. If you're not going to commit to offreing apple TV in its intended quality, you really shouldnt claim to offer it at all. All your doing is just ruining everybodies experience of the platform.

[MarkGoldsmith]

The likelihood is that the issue is on the Apple end. All the Apps that are available on Sky Glass and Sky Stream aren't owned by Sky, they are owned and managed by the developers of that app and Sky have to work with the developers to get the apps available and working on their platform.

[Ryn1]

Perhaps it is something to do with Apple but ive never had any problems with it on the native TV app or previously on our sky q boxes so at the very least there are some kind of compatability issues with apple TV specifically when running on sky stream boxes that needs to be ironed out (I get the same issue on all 3 of ours). I dont think it helps that apple TV is less watched by the masses than netflix or amazon, which is why its been allowed to continue for so long without action, but sky if you do read these messages, can you divert some resources to fixing this as its mega annoying, and presumably fixable.

[Nigelb1972]

I have the same issue with AppleTV on Stream and it seems to be because the app defaults to Dolby Vision as its HDR choice and if you're TV doesn't support Vision, it drops back to HD rather than UHD. It's the only app that does it so it's definitely being triggered by that app. For this reason, I use the app on my TV which will happily play UHD HDR10.

[Exiled-in-HH]

@Ryn1  does your TV support Dolby Vision?

[Ryn1]

Ive got and LG G2 as my primary TV and that has dolby vision. If I play the Crown on Netflix on Sky Stream then it plays in UHD and dolby vision. If I play something on apple TV on Sky stream then the TV wont even show HDR options in the picture settings. The TV itself recognises only a poor quality SDR HD input when playing Apple TV so the quality is being throttled before it hits the TV. I cant say for certain whether its sky or apple TV causing teh problem but the problem only occurs when playing apple TV on the stream so somethings wrong. I would be very surprised if sky are not aware of this, I just wish they would address it, if only to say yes they are awarev and are working on a fix. I might seem pedantic but I find stuff like this really frustrating when you are already made to pay extra for picture quality upgrades.

[MarkGoldsmith]

I agree with Sky's lack of openiness when it comes to providing updates on known issues.

I did actually ask a Sky Employee on this forum if Sky would consider publicising their roadmap for Glass/Stream ( as many software companies do, and most of the issues they have are software based), but it sounded like Sky had no plans to do that.

Would certainly be useful as a way for us to see they are acknowledged common issues that have been reported to them and at least are looking at solutions. Thats kind of all we need to know right.

[Nigelb1972]

@Ryn1 I can understand your annoyance... If it's not picking up your Dolby Vision compatible set, it might be that Apple have limited the output while working on a fix. It's still not good enough though. Personally, if I'm watching a streaming platform in UHD, I'll use the native apps on my Samsung QLED. 

[purpleparrotuk]

I watch Bucaneers through Stream on my Sony AF9 and the picture is breathtaking. Haven't tried many other shows though. 

[Nigelb1972]

@purpleparrotuk do you watch via the Stream AppleTV app or the native one on your TV? If it's the Stream app, are you getting UHD with HDR? 

[purpleparrotuk]

@Nigelb1972 Sorry it's not playing Dolby vision. I'm sure it was the other day. Ignore me then seems to be broken. 

[purpleparrotuk]

@Nigelb1972 Just rebooted and it's now playing in Dolby vision HDR. Not sure why you have to reboot though. 

[Exiled-in-HH]

@Ryn1 what sort of HDMI cable connects the Sky Puck to the LG G2 TV?

[Nigelb1972]

@purpleparrotuk there could have been an update which needed a reboot to kick in .. I'll try it in a bit on ours 👌

[Ryn1]

I probabaly should have mentioned that unplugging and plugging back in the puck does sometimes fix the problem but never for long. Normally next time you go on to the apple TV app on the puck its back to poor quality video again and its much easier to switch to the TV version of apple TV than have to go through this process everytime. The fact that it can work on UHD indictates to me thatit can be fixed but how long we will have to wait for that who knows?

Ive been reading elsewhere that Apple TV is set up to automatically downgrade the quality of the video to avoid buffering if it thinks the connection is not good enough. Im just speculating now but it feels like they perhaps Apple TV app is getting false readings from the puck which is is causing apple to automatically lower the resolution in response. Why they wouldnt let the viewer decide this for themself is beyond me however as id much sooner switch to something else than have to sit though SD versions of shows in 2023.

The wait continues.