NHL Game Quality

[Turfarea]

Hey VMEDIA fans,

Moving to Ottawa (Orleans Area) in Jan. Stopped by a Canada Computers location and noticed VMEDIA end cap showing the service and it was interested. I'm a SENS fan and see they are offering TSN5 which the SENS play on. Could anyone please describe the picture quality of hockey games on VMEDIA for me? I looked on YouTube to hopefully find a video showing quality but there isn't to many posts. If anyone can help me out that would be great! All the best.

[TMLVCLAK]

I haven't had any issues with hockey in terms of picture quality... Sound is sometimes out of sync, but not too often. Many people on the forum seem to have issues with tsn and sportsnet buffering though. Overall, I haven't had issues with hockey and I doubt you will either.

[leshka]

Some people complain because when CIK speeds drop in the evening and vbox is not getting enough speed it's trying to reduce bitrate and eventually buffer.

[habsfan]

I have had no issues with freezing picture; rather the quality of the picture in terms of blur and judder (which I have seen in other areas of the forum to be caused by vmedia delivering hockey at a lower bit rate; though it has also been stated that they will be increasing this starting with the sports channels http://forum.vmedia.ca/forum/tv-tech...-qualtiy/page2 ) It is almost like watching a 60hz tv; slight lag on the refresh rate. In the same post you will see someone talking about fine tuning your television picture (which does indeed help) but this is definitely a source issue as opposed to a television issue; I'm running a fully calibrated LG 4K televsion and other sources are beautiful; pre recorded stuff on vmedia (any tv series) looks great as well, but live sports causes the issues with blur and lag. It has been watchable, and some channels are better than others (tsn channels being on the lower end of the quality spectrum, while games on CBC and Sportsnet have been ok). Really hoping the promise of increased bitrates is fulfilled as live sports is the only real reason I keep a cable package at all. Any word on this Leshka? I know you've had your hands full with the PVR update and firmware issues...waiting patiently

[Turfarea]

Thanks for the input habsfan. I wish I could say I have the same 4k set up like you! I'll most likely be running a 42" 720p Toshiba. I'm not expecting top notch perfect picture but something that I can tolerate. Set up won't be till Jan 14th anyways. Maybe some improvement to bit rate before then if I'm lucky! All the best and tanks for reply!

[habsfan]

in fairness the "fully calibrated" refers to my own work thanks to the great god Google Just search "calibration settings for (your make and model TV)" and if it's less than 4 or 5 years old there will almost assuredly be many lists of settings from ISF certified techs/reviewers of TV's and/or people who paid for the calibration and posted the final settings; the only real work you need to do is grab a beer and use the remote ...some things that are different television to television is white balance and brightness (dependent on your rooms ambient light) but these sites also typically list a whole host of combos for you to try till you're happy. Don't pay the 300 bucks from Fut**e Shop or B Buy ...do it yourself, but definitely do it makes a world of difference regardless of what you're watching

[jgroves]

When the service is working properly, hockey quality is reasonable but not quite as good as Rogers/Bell...if you've ever seen the Gamecenter streams, it's probably equivalent quality level to a 3000 Kbps stream.