Who has HBO?

[boomhower]

How is the sound compared to BR? I have setup a decent set-up and wondering if I'll get good sound out of the investment.

 

[destrekor]

I too am interested.
Specifically, I'd love to know the video bitrate and audio bitrate, including codecs if at all possible. I'm assuming, for video, AVC/H-264, or VP9 perhaps? Audio is probably AC-3, Dolby Digital, or Vorbis.

 

[boomhower]

Went ahead and bought it. My receiver does't get to specific on the details but with the newest movie they have playing at the moment shows Dolby Digital, 48kHz, 384kbps, 720P.

 

[smitbret]

I too am interested.
Specifically, I'd love to know the video bitrate and audio bitrate, including codecs if at all possible. I'm assuming, for video, AVC/H-264, or VP9 perhaps? Audio is probably AC-3, Dolby Digital, or Vorbis.

I am assuming that BR= Blu-Ray

and that

HBO=Home Box Office (the premium cable/satellite channel)

Most of these are actually going to depend on your rebroadcaster. DirecTV for instance will carry the HD feeds for HBO in .h264/ac3 5.1. I can't tell you the exact bitrate, but I know that about an hour of an HD broadcast with Dish Network is about 2-3GB and my eyes tell me that DirecTV is slightly better. However, when I get up to about 3 feet from my 50" plasma I can definitely see a lot of artifacts to where the picture is certainly not in the same league as some of the .h264 encodes that I have done to a similar size.

I imagine most of the major providers will be very similar.

 

[purbeast0]

cable is very far from getting bluray quality video and sound in general. the infrastructure simply isn't there for hd audio and non-compressed 1080p video.

that said, it still looks great.

 

[olds]

I am on Dish.
According to my TV, HBO is broadcasting at 720P.
Audio is Dolby Digital but I am not sure how to tell which flavor or bit rate.

 

[destrekor]

cable is very far from getting bluray quality video and sound in general. the infrastructure simply isn't there for hd audio and non-compressed 1080p video.

that said, it still looks great.

Yeah, at first I was thinking of HBO Go. We all know that pretty much any internet stream provider is going to beat the quality of cable/satellite. Netflix and Amazon Instant absolutely trounce the cable quality here, both video and audio. I have to turn the volume down and can hear better localization whenever I switch from watching cable to, well, watching any other source material (disc, streaming, games, etc). Not that the cable is bad - well it is is modern comparison to what can be reasonably achieved (if cable upgrades their equipment, at least. satellite... not sure.. more spectrum, more satellites above?), but it's terrific compared to what we had.

Audio is basically just shy of DVD quality, I think.

I am on Dish.
According to my TV, HBO is broadcasting at 720P.
Audio is Dolby Digital but I am not sure how to tell which flavor or bit rate.

If a receiver says Dolby Digital, it most likely is the basic Dolby Digital encode.
Usually, there is more appended, like on Netflix you'll see Dolby Digital Plus on much content, which is better. Then there's Dolby Digital TrueHD, which is usually seen as DD TrueHD.

 

[purbeast0]

Yeah, at first I was thinking of HBO Go. We all know that pretty much any internet stream provider is going to beat the quality of cable/satellite. Netflix and Amazon Instant absolutely trounce the cable quality here, both video and audio. I have to turn the volume down and can hear better localization whenever I switch from watching cable to, well, watching any other source material (disc, streaming, games, etc). Not that the cable is bad - well it is is modern comparison to what can be reasonably achieved (if cable upgrades their equipment, at least. satellite... not sure.. more spectrum, more satellites above?), but it's terrific compared to what we had.

Audio is basically just shy of DVD quality, I think.



If a receiver says Dolby Digital, it most likely is the basic Dolby Digital encode.
Usually, there is more appended, like on Netflix you'll see Dolby Digital Plus on much content, which is better. Then there's Dolby Digital TrueHD, which is usually seen as DD TrueHD.

streaming media like amazon prime and netflix still don't hold a candle to bluray with both image and sound. i use amazon prime somewhat frequently and while the quality is still doable (720p with DD most of the time) it still isn't quite up to par with the 1080p and hd audio tracks on the majority of bluray's i watch. they still sound great and look great, but i'll pretty much only stream old movies or comedies on prime because i'm not as picky about sound and image quality on those types of flicks.

i actually compared the same scenes in terminator 2 one day on amazon prime with my bluray copy, and the difference in sound was pretty significant. the video quality wasn't as big of a jump but the sound was extremely noticeable to me. someone like my wife though, she probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

 

[boomhower]

I am assuming that BR= Blu-Ray

and that

HBO=Home Box Office (the premium cable/satellite channel)

Most of these are actually going to depend on your rebroadcaster. DirecTV for instance will carry the HD feeds for HBO in .h264/ac3 5.1. I can't tell you the exact bitrate, but I know that about an hour of an HD broadcast with Dish Network is about 2-3GB and my eyes tell me that DirecTV is slightly better. However, when I get up to about 3 feet from my 50" plasma I can definitely see a lot of artifacts to where the picture is certainly not in the same league as some of the .h264 encodes that I have done to a similar size.

I imagine most of the major providers will be very similar.

Stats I posted were DirecTV.

 

[destrekor]

streaming media like amazon prime and netflix still don't hold a candle to bluray with both image and sound. i use amazon prime somewhat frequently and while the quality is still doable (720p with DD most of the time) it still isn't quite up to par with the 1080p and hd audio tracks on the majority of bluray's i watch. they still sound great and look great, but i'll pretty much only stream old movies or comedies on prime because i'm not as picky about sound and image quality on those types of flicks.

i actually compared the same scenes in terminator 2 one day on amazon prime with my bluray copy, and the difference in sound was pretty significant. the video quality wasn't as big of a jump but the sound was extremely noticeable to me. someone like my wife though, she probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

I would never compare the streaming services to Blu-ray. I've in fact argued that streaming can't replace BD for me on numerous occasions.

There is a reason I own a BD player, and those movies I expect to enjoy the most I buy on disc.
It's also why I try to focus on what's available at a nearby Redbox before I look to stream movies.
I'm not even sure if I've streamed a movie yet. Usually I rent or buy a disc, or give up and wait until I can get a good price for the disc if I can't find it to rent.

I mostly stick to streaming for TV shows. Disc sets are expensive. It's a rare show that I want to buy on disc.

 

[gar655]

BD>Vudu HDX, Apple iTunes HD> Amazon>DirecTV. I don't have netflix but I'm guessing it's about on par with Amazon maybe a little worse.

Blu-ray is by far the best for audio and better in video but the difference in video is not as great as the difference in audio is.

Vudu and iTunes both have really good video quality, only when there is a lot of low light or shadows does it lose out to blu-ray. Audio wise it's about like DD off a DVD.

Amazon video is pretty good but the audio is generally terrible. Something wrong with the compression. It's all bass. I have to turn the bass down by at least 6dbs to even begin to be able to hear the other audio. The poor audio is the reason I won't rent or buy movies from Amazon, only prime videos I watch.

Satellite and cable have long way to go just to catch up with Vudu and iTunes let alone blu-ray.

 

[KeithP]

There is a reason I own a BD player, and those movies I expect to enjoy the most I buy on disc.

Not to take the post off-topic but don't most streaming services like Netflix and even cable channels like HBO crop 2.35:1 aspect ratio films? To me, that is even a bigger problem than quality or lack thereof.

-KeithP

 

[destrekor]

Not to take the post off-topic but don't most streaming services like Netflix and even cable channels like HBO crop 2.35:1 aspect ratio films? To me, that is even a bigger problem than quality or lack thereof.

-KeithP

I haven't seen this in practice. I've seen many films displayed with black bars top and bottom on my 16:9 set (1.77:1), so I reckon the original anamorphic ratio is preserved.

I think this used to happen, at least for some cable channels, as I remember having seen disclaimers at the beginning saying, "this film has been cropped and edited to run in the allotted time." I don't actually recall actually seeing "cropped", though I know for sure I've always seen the "edited for time" thing. Maybe it's been so long (16:9 TVs were once not very common in homes - much like 4K won't be common for awhile) that my brain is completely fuzzy on the entire concept of life before Blu-ray.
Also, I rarely ever watch movies, especially from start to finish, on TV. I spoil myself by limiting to Blu-ray, and, when feeling less snobbish, Netflix or Amazon.
TV shows I'll typically just record and watch when I want (or delay 20 minutes from the broadcast time so I can skip commercials ) - movies, I want as close to Reference Quality as possible.

 

[destrekor]

BD>Vudu HDX, Apple iTunes HD> Amazon>DirecTV. I don't have netflix but I'm guessing it's about on par with Amazon maybe a little worse.

Blu-ray is by far the best for audio and better in video but the difference in video is not as great as the difference in audio is.

Vudu and iTunes both have really good video quality, only when there is a lot of low light or shadows does it lose out to blu-ray. Audio wise it's about like DD off a DVD.

Amazon video is pretty good but the audio is generally terrible. Something wrong with the compression. It's all bass. I have to turn the bass down by at least 6dbs to even begin to be able to hear the other audio. The poor audio is the reason I won't rent or buy movies from Amazon, only prime videos I watch.

Satellite and cable have long way to go just to catch up with Vudu and iTunes let alone blu-ray.

Netflix is actually pretty awesome for video, if your ISP and device support SuperHD.
Audio, I don't think they've really bumped up, which is a bummer. Perhaps in time. It's not BAD, not at all. I think it's better than DVD audio, but it's probably somewhat close. It's Dolby Digital Plus, which is a better encode than the standard DD that Amazon offers. Netflix definitely provides superior resolution (1080p) and video bitrate compared to Amazon.

I really do need to look into Vudu some more. I swear by Blu-ray (buying or renting through Redbox) for any video where I truly demand the best picture and audio quality, but sometimes, for other videos, I do wish the audio was at least a little closer to the encodes found on disc. As long as I can get a strong, full quality video stream from Netflix, I'm usually quite impressed. And of course, it blows my cable out of the water.

Vudu isn't terribly expensive - and for some movies, especially ones I can't find at a Redbox but otherwise would really like the highest quality possible, I could probably settle happily for Vudu. Yet, not all of those movies do I really want to buy.
More often than note, I usually do - but sometimes, finances don't line up with frivolous expenses, so instead of gambling by buying a movie I'm pretty sure I'll like and will watch at least twice, I'd sometimes rather just rent and, if I want to rewatch in the future, figure out the best route at that point in time.

 

[dagamer34]

Don't bother watching a movie via the HBO channel. MPEG-2 with 19Mb/sec at 1080i = absolute trash. Audio for most services is still just Dolby Digital, you need to get a Blu-ray to get anything better.

 

[MrChad]

Question for HBO GO users. We have FiOS and Verizon gave us free HBO for 3 months. I signed up for HBO GO using my Verizon login information and it worked fine. How often does HBO GO pull subscription information from Verizon? When my HBO subscription runs out on Verizon, will HBO GO stop working immediately?

 

[Anubis]

How is the sound compared to BR? I have setup a decent set-up and wondering if I'll get good sound out of the investment.

its crap compaired to a BR at least on TWC, actually im pretty sure that the HBO Go stream has better audio quality

MrChad, on TWC you loginto the HBO ap using your TWC credentials i assume you woudl do the same and it would know if you had HBO or not

 

[boomhower]

its crap compaired to a BR at least on TWC, actually im pretty sure that the HBO Go stream has better audio quality

MrChad, on TWC you loginto the HBO ap using your TWC credentials i assume you woudl do the same and it would know if you had HBO or not

I ended up getting it. Guess I'll compare and contrast with DirecTV and Go.

 

[biostud]

I have HBO nordic, which is pretty much the same as HBO go.

 

[cmdrdredd]

BD>Vudu HDX, Apple iTunes HD> Amazon>DirecTV. I don't have netflix but I'm guessing it's about on par with Amazon maybe a little worse.

Blu-ray is by far the best for audio and better in video but the difference in video is not as great as the difference in audio is.

Vudu and iTunes both have really good video quality, only when there is a lot of low light or shadows does it lose out to blu-ray. Audio wise it's about like DD off a DVD.

Amazon video is pretty good but the audio is generally terrible. Something wrong with the compression. It's all bass. I have to turn the bass down by at least 6dbs to even begin to be able to hear the other audio. The poor audio is the reason I won't rent or buy movies from Amazon, only prime videos I watch.

Satellite and cable have long way to go just to catch up with Vudu and iTunes let alone blu-ray.

Netflix now has movies encoded with what they call SuperHD that beat Vudu's bitrate. That doesn't mean it's clearly better as the encoding may be different between them. That said, Netflix SuperHD is pretty darn good I must say. It's not Blu-Ray but no streaming is and likely never will be because lossless audio + full bitrate video is going to be near impossible to stream without fiber internet.

Netflix is actually pretty awesome for video, if your ISP and device support SuperHD.
Audio, I don't think they've really bumped up, which is a bummer. Perhaps in time. It's not BAD, not at all. I think it's better than DVD audio, but it's probably somewhat close. It's Dolby Digital Plus, which is a better encode than the standard DD that Amazon offers. Netflix definitely provides superior resolution (1080p) and video bitrate compared to Amazon.

Your ISP doesn't need to support SuperHD. It's available to anyone with the proper device and connection speed now.

It appears that OpenConnect (Netflix's attempt to get ISPs to allow them free network space) has largely failed and they simply opened up the streams for anyone who can keep the download speed up.

 

[olds]

How do I find SuperHD on Netflix?
I am using a windows 8 computer with Start8.

 

[cmdrdredd]

How do I find SuperHD on Netflix?
I am using a windows 8 computer with Start8.

You can get super HD from their windows 8 app. Not the web browser. Titles will be labeled super HD. On some devices, you can get super HD but it won't say so in the netflix app. For example on the ps4.

 

[destrekor]

its crap compaired to a BR at least on TWC, actually im pretty sure that the HBO Go stream has better audio quality

MrChad, on TWC you loginto the HBO ap using your TWC credentials i assume you woudl do the same and it would know if you had HBO or not

HBO Go sure as hell better have better quality than the cable channel.

I have also been completely unable to figure out why Cable is still reliant on MPEG-2?
If they switched to MPEG-4 Part-10 (H.264/AVC), they could give us far better image quality, and STILL send out likely a lower bitrate than they do now, except for the really low, bad bitrates some providers/channels can be. At worst, those low 4-6Mbps channel bitrates can support good stream-quality content if they switched to H.264.

 

[destrekor]

Your ISP doesn't need to support SuperHD. It's available to anyone with the proper device and connection speed now.

It appears that OpenConnect (Netflix's attempt to get ISPs to allow them free network space) has largely failed and they simply opened up the streams for anyone who can keep the download speed up.

Huh, I had no idea that finally flopped.

I'd love to know what makes the P2P technology behind Vudu work so swell with ISPs, yet Netflix's method annoyed them.


I'd curious to know which one truly was better - there must be a fairly objective way to determine which has a better Image Quality when both SuperHD and HDX is delivered at peak throughput.
Both usually come along with DD Plus, up to 7.1, though I do also want to know if one of them pushes a higher bitrate for audio, even if its only marginal. Both will be under a megabit, I'm fairly certain, so marginal differences of a hundred or two kilobits could positively impact overall audio imaging.

I know Netflix and Vudu both state recommended connection speeds to see their top standard, and in that way, Netflix's stated minimum speed is much higher for SuperHD than HDX...
hang on, it looks like with opening up SuperHD to all ISPs (though OpenConnect lives on for those ISPs that support it), they also clarified their bitrates.
Essentially, peak SuperHD is 6Mbps. The peak video encode is 5800Kbps. That leaves roughly 200Kbps for DD Plus 7.1.
Huh - I'm impressed with how good the audio sounds if it's truly only 200Kbps.

I just checked on the Windows 8 app, which does get SuperHD, and both House of Cards and Olympus Has Fallen (to test TV and Movie) will stream at 5800Kbps video, 192Kbps audio (Dolby Digital Plus).
Online reports are saying that wasn't always the case, that they used to use a 384Kbps audio track as standard. Either they switched encoders and feel confident the new encoder can match the previous track, or... they're skimping out for bullshit reasons. I don't know why they are going so low. What is the difference, truly, between a 6Mbps stream and a 6.2Mbps stream? It's not going to eat caps that much, and really isn't enough savings to justify audio degradation if they want to ever-so-slightly save bandwidth from Netflix servers.

So... we have the Netflix stats. Anyone care to dig up what peak and sustainable bitrates Vudu can deliver? On their website, they talk of 4.5Mbps being the bandwidth requirement to receive an HDX stream. They also then state the stream will vary and can climb as high as 20Mbps during scenes that deserve it, according to their algorithms, yet go as low as 2Mbps if scenes don't need that much.
Will they send out sustained speeds at any speed if your network can handle it? Say, they'll stream 8Mbps and you'll never go lower, sometimes rising even higher though.

 

[olds]

You can get super HD from their windows 8 app. Not the web browser. Titles will be labeled super HD. On some devices, you can get super HD but it won't say so in the netflix app. For example on the ps4.

Meh, I don't use the tiles