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BBC iPlayer video quality

Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2022 8:56 pm
by 00derek
I'm having an issue watching BBC iPlayer downloads and I wonder if it's my TV settings. Any suggestions?

The problem isn't easy to describe, but it's like the video rapidly pauses & unpauses during playback. For low motion scenes, (e.g. static images, fixed camera position) it isn't apparent. But for fast moving images, (e.g. landscapes seen from a helicopter or drone, natural history), it is very apparent, and in fact uncomfortable to watch.

The TV is a Samsung 82" Class Q7D QLED Smart 4K UHD TV (2019), MODEL NUMBER: QN82Q7DRAFXZA - it's Samsung QLED - for the sake of classification, is that considered LCD or OLED?

These are downloaded programs, so it's not an internet speed issue. And I don't see it from any other video source - streaming services, Blu-Ray, etc. Now that I typed that last sentence I wonder if it's related to the computer hardware - BBC iPlayer gets downloaded to a mag disk hard drive on a Windows HTPC. Now I need to try playing a show from my laptop, which has a SSD.

Re: BBC iPlayer video quality

Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2022 11:19 am
by aquadextrous
Check your refresh rate, if i have my PC set to 60Hz some live tv and iPlayer video during fast shots or smooth scrolling news tickers etc seem really jumpy, setting it to 50Hz fixed it for me. I believe that UK broadcasts and iPlayer are in 25/50Hz so anything not a multiple of that has dropped or extra frames. Might not work for you, but it's easy enough to try out.
The other thing i did (on a 65" LG OLED) is turn off pretty much all of the TV's enhancement features - smooth motion, super resolution etc from the picture settings menu and this (to me at least) made everything seem more natural and easier on the eye. YMMV obviously, but play around with those type of settings too.

Re: BBC iPlayer video quality

Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2022 2:04 pm
by 00derek
Thank you, looks good so far!

refresh rate was at 29 for some reason - I've never looked at it before, so it's been that way from new.

cheers