# Mobile DVR picture quality



## wijamie (Apr 16, 2008)

My apologies if this has been addressed already- I couldn't find anything in a search. I really like Mobile DVR and am using it on my iPad and iPhone. However, I'm disappointed in the picture quality. Whether I stream or download first, it seems to be less than even DVD quality, let alone HD. Is this the way it's supposed to be, or is this unique to me? You'd think with all the advances in streaming, we'd be able to get a better picture out of this. 

Thanks in advance....


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## tylorert (Sep 7, 2016)

Are you on mobile data or Wi-Fi? At home or some ware else?


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## wijamie (Apr 16, 2008)

I'm home, on my Wi-Fi.


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## tylorert (Sep 7, 2016)

Who is your provider for internet? Have you done a speedtest?


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## jimmie57 (Jun 26, 2010)

wijamie said:


> My apologies if this has been addressed already- I couldn't find anything in a search. I really like Mobile DVR and am using it on my iPad and iPhone. However, I'm disappointed in the picture quality. Whether I stream or download first, it seems to be less than even DVD quality, let alone HD. Is this the way it's supposed to be, or is this unique to me? You'd think with all the advances in streaming, we'd be able to get a better picture out of this.
> 
> Thanks in advance....


Try turning your tablet off and let it sit for a couple of minutes and then turn it back on. See if that helps. It should be very good.
I have it on an ipad2 ( old ) and an Android tablet and it looks very good on each of them.

Edit: I just realized that I am streaming using the internet and not using the Mobile DVR at all.


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## wijamie (Apr 16, 2008)

Restarted my iPad, same thing. My Internet is UVerse, getting 40+ mbps. I stream a lot of other stuff (Netflix, MLB.tv, networks' individual streaming apps, etc.) and always get an instant, HD stream. 

When playing from my DVR playlist (or downloading and then playing), it's decent, but definitely not HD. Like I said, maybe DVD quality.


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## wijamie (Apr 16, 2008)

I should also note that when I stream Live TV, it looks perfect. This is only happening with recorded content from my DVR.


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## tylorert (Sep 7, 2016)

Try to reboot the DVR. Make sure that the DVR is connected via Ethernet for best performance. Check the resolution on the dvr then set it to max resolution then play the same thing on your dvr.


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## Barry in Conyers (Jan 14, 2008)

tylorert said:


> Who is your provider for internet? Have you done a speedtest?


Don't see what the ISP / speed has to do with picture quality while viewing DVR content on the OP's home network.


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## prushing (Feb 14, 2007)

The transcoded content from you DVR is very low. You can't change it right now, hopefully DTV gives us the option or improves the resolution.

Sent from my Venue 8 7840 using Tapatalk


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## texasbrit (Aug 9, 2006)

The OP is correct. transcoded quality is very poor. Nothing you can do about it. It's been this way since the early testing of the "GeniGOApp" as it was originally called. I had hoped DirecTV would improve this before the app was actually released but they haven't.


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## zmancartfan (Mar 23, 2012)

texasbrit said:


> The OP is correct. transcoded quality is very poor. Nothing you can do about it. It's been this way since the early testing of the "GeniGOApp" as it was originally called. I had hoped DirecTV would improve this before the app was actually released but they haven't.


I thought you all were nuts talking about the picture quality being bad. With a GG2, I thought the picture quality was great - both on streaming and transcoded content. It looked clearly HD, or at least really close to it.

But then I switched over to MDVR today.

WOW. The picture quality absolutely sucks through the Genie. Even my nine-year-old daughter commented on it riding in the car just now trying to watch a transcoded show on an iPad Air 2. "Why is it so blurry?"

As soon as I got home, I stopped the auto prepare that has been running for the past few hours. I guess it's actually a good thing that the transcoding is so much slower through the Genie. Since it takes at least twice as long now as it did with the GG2, I only got half as much crappy video. As far as I can tell, there's no way to delete that content unless I delete the original recording.

I also noticed that streamed content both on home wifi and cellular is awful, too, except for content that is obviously coming from another source like CNN for example.

I'm hoping that it will improve. If this is the best I'm going to get, I'm going to be really angry. I mean not only do I lose being able to transcode content from an HR24, but I get video that looks like it was shot on a flip phone?

I'm wondering, though. Does it have anything to do with how much free space you have on the Genie? Could it somehow be overcompressing to fit content into a small space? I've only got 23% free, but it also doesn't appear that it went down as content was transcoded, so I'm guessing it's just the transcoder in the Genie that's so bad.


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## peds48 (Jan 11, 2008)

Not sure how much better can It get

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## zmancartfan (Mar 23, 2012)

Yours looks better than mine. Much better.

This is from a transcode.


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## zmancartfan (Mar 23, 2012)

Here's a couple of screenshots from a stream of a local station.


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## prushing (Feb 14, 2007)

I get better quality using Slingbox than with GG2. Based on file size, etc the quality is not high.

Sent from my Venue 8 7840 using Tapatalk


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## peds48 (Jan 11, 2008)

For video on a phone that is still watchable. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## zmancartfan (Mar 23, 2012)

peds48 said:


> For video on a phone that is still watchable.
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


I'm not saying it's not watchable. But on an iPad, it sucks. It also sucks, by the way, on my Galaxy phone.

I wish I could post a video. The stills don't convey how bad it is. The compression is much more noticeable in motion.

Perhaps if I hadn't seen how good it looked with a GG2, I might not be as critical. But back-to-back, the quality of the MDVR is awful. Whereas before the iPad for all intents and purposes served as a perfectly legitimate mobile TV, it's now a novelty.


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## peds48 (Jan 11, 2008)

I also had the GenieGo before, but the quality of the video never bother me. I guess my expectation bar is lower than your for video on a mobile device. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## zmancartfan (Mar 23, 2012)

That's fair. I agree that it does come down to individual tolerance. I will also say that I'm even more critical because I feel like I've lost functionality that I paid for.

Question, peds, where did you get that capture you posted? Was that by any chance from a direct stream? Or was that truly from a transcode? Because if it was a transcode, I'd love to know what's different about your setup.


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## daniloni (Jul 31, 2013)

As an AT&T data user, I was quite excited about the announcement that watching through the DTV app wouldn't count against the data allotment, so I started watching through the app both on cellular and within my home network the last few days (on both an iPhone and an iPad). The channels that you can watch regardless of whether Mobile DVR is enabled look perfect on wifi and are perfectly acceptable even on cellular. But the channels that stream though the Genie via only through the Mobile DVR function look awful regardless of whether on home wifi or outside cellular (or wifi). I don't have any experience with the Genie Go, but I have a Slingbox and have also used the similar product that Tivo Roamios have had for a couple of years. Assuming the cellular connection is good enough, slingbox will stream HD up to 6000 kbps (on an iPhone or iPad and up to 8000 kbps on a computer), and even when I enable the function to limit it to 1024 kbps via cellular, it looks perfectly acceptable on an iPad (albeit not HD). The Tivo streamed in HD within my home wifi network (frankly don't remember what it looked like over cellular).


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## Hot Tub Johnny (Feb 24, 2012)

The streaming quality is fine. The transcoded and downloaded is _really_ bad. I thought it had gotten better when i tried it out again this weekend, but then realized i was on my wifi and it was sneakily streaming when i thought it was playing the downloaded version. Even on a 5" phone screen, it's noticeably poor. It drops frames, is worse than SD quality, just bad. 
Still, better than nothing, but surprisingly bad given how well other companies are doing similar things. i've used amazon prime video downloads, Starz downloads, and XFinity downloads, and all were way better than this.


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## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

Hot Tub Johnny said:


> The transcoded and downloaded is _really_ bad.


Likely one of two reasons for this, IMHO:

1) Not enough available CPU horsepower in the HR44/54 to transcode at higher quality without impacting other functions of the box.

2) Higher quality transcodes will consume more disk space needed for regular recordings.

If it's "1", assuming they've already tweaked the box as well as they can during the testing phase, probably nothing to be done until they bring to market a Genie with a faster CPU or dedicated transcoding chips.

If it's "2", the customer should be allowed to choose higher picture quality over storage space. Just my .02.


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## trh (Nov 3, 2007)

How much free space do you guys have on your Genie's?


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## zmancartfan (Mar 23, 2012)

Steve said:


> 1) Not enough available CPU horsepower in the HR44/54 to transcode at higher quality without impacting other functions of the box.


If it's "1," then it's inexcusable that they dropped GenieGo support especially when the GG was a paid purchase.


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## zmancartfan (Mar 23, 2012)

trh said:


> How much free space do you guys have on your Genie's?


23%

Under the System Info tab of the Mobile DVR setting screen on my iPad, it shows I have "159.3 GB free of 701.0 GB."

Also, it would be interesting to note if there's a difference between HR44s and HR54s. I have a 44.


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## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

zmancartfan said:


> If it's "1," then it's inexcusable that they dropped GenieGo support especially when the GG was a paid purchase.


Like I said, that's assuming the box can't be tweaked better. That said, they've been testing it for a while, so you'd think it's fully optimized by now.


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## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

and if it's #2, here's how TiVo deals with it, e.g. You decide:


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## trh (Nov 3, 2007)

zmancartfan said:


> 23%
> Under the System Info tab of the Mobile DVR setting screen on my iPad, it shows I have "159.3 GB free of 701.0 GB."
> Also, it would be interesting to note if there's a difference between HR44s and HR54s. I have a 44.


I read that you need 25% free on your Genie. I wonder if that is impacting your MobileDVR quality?


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## zmancartfan (Mar 23, 2012)

trh said:


> I read that you need 25% free on your Genie. I wonder if that is impacting your MobileDVR quality?


I thought so, too, but only for automatic transcoding of all content. When I clicked on that option, though, the app mentioned only 15% is needed, and it said something about that if it was less than that not all of the content may be transcoded.


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## texasbrit (Aug 9, 2006)

No, it does not affect picture quality. Even with my Genie virtually empty the picture quality is still lousy.


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## trh (Nov 3, 2007)

texasbrit said:


> No, it does not affect picture quality. Even with my Genie virtually empty the picture quality is still lousy.


I guess you're going to have to see what peds48 is doing differently. I'm still using my GenieGo so i can't compare my quality to yours. His appears to be the same as my GenieGo transcodes shows.


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## zmancartfan (Mar 23, 2012)

trh said:


> I guess you're going to have to see what peds48 is doing differently. I'm still using my GenieGo so i can't compare my quality to yours. His appears to be the same as my GenieGo transcodes shows.


I'd bet a buck peds' capture was not from a transcode.


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## daniloni (Jul 31, 2013)

jimmie57 said:


> Try turning your tablet off and let it sit for a couple of minutes and then turn it back on. See if that helps. It should be very good.
> I have it on an ipad2 ( old ) and an Android tablet and it looks very good on each of them.
> 
> Edit: I just realized that I am streaming using the internet and not using the Mobile DVR at all.


The streaming over the internet (meaning from the DirecTV servers) looks perfectly fine, even if streaming over cellular. Unfortunately, once you enable Mobile DVR all the channels show the same "streaming plus" icon whether the transmission commences from the DirecTV servers or commences from the DVR. They should have different icons, given the huge differences in picture quality.


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## jimmie57 (Jun 26, 2010)

daniloni said:


> The streaming over the internet (meaning from the DirecTV servers) looks perfectly fine, even if streaming over cellular. Unfortunately, once you enable Mobile DVR all the channels show the same "streaming plus" icon whether the transmission commences from the DirecTV servers or commences from the DVR. They should have different icons, given the huge differences in picture quality.


From some of the stuff I have been reading I believe they are changing the pics to a 480p resolution.


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## daniloni (Jul 31, 2013)

jimmie57 said:


> From some of the stuff I have been reading I believe they are changing the pics to a 480p resolution.


They do degrade to 480p over cellular for the channels which were previously available away from home, but they were already doing this. It looks fine, albeit not HD. This is different from the out of home streaming now available through mobile DVR for channels that DirecTV did not previously have rights to stream over the Internet. For these channels, the DVR encodes the stream and then transmits the stream over your home network or the Internet. These look horrible both over the cellular or wifi (be it within the home network or a remote wifi network). Unfortunately once you enable mobile DVR, all channels are shown as available as live with the same icon, even though some channels are streamed over the Internet from DTV servers, while others are encoded from your home. So they're different products with vastly different PQ being grouped together as the same thing assuming you have mobile DVR enabled.


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## prushing (Feb 14, 2007)

trh said:


> I guess you're going to have to see what peds48 is doing differently. I'm still using my GenieGo so i can't compare my quality to yours. His appears to be the same as my GenieGo transcodes shows.


My GG2 isn't that good. Streaming was terrible comparing to Slingbox and while transcoded is watchable, the file size is only ~550MBs for 1 hour and a Vulkano recording at 640x480 is ~950MBs.

While some compression could be the cause, not 400MBs. It's the least quality option and they don't give us a choice to get better quality.


zmancartfan said:


> I'd bet a buck peds' capture was not from a transcode.


It did look better, but the background was out of focus, so it could just be the image.


jimmie57 said:


> From some of the stuff I have been reading I believe they are changing the pics to a 480p resolution.


It's probably a little better than that, but you can do the math with the file size.

Sent from my Venue 8 7840 using Tapatalk


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## zmancartfan (Mar 23, 2012)

Noticed there was an update to the iOS app posted yesterday I believe.

I could swear picture quality is a little better, even on material that was transcoded before the update. I mean it's still not as good as it was with the GG, but at least things like titles and credits don't look like they were produced on an Atari 2600 now.

Or is it just my imagination?


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## b52pooh (Mar 10, 2011)

Mobile DVR
Downloads content into VGA 640x 480 formats only.
30-minute program uses approximately 300 megabytes
1-hour program uses approximately 610 megabytes
2-hour program uses approximately 1.2 gigabytes


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## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

b52pooh said:


> Mobile DVR
> Downloads content into VGA 640x 480 formats only.
> 30-minute program uses approximately 300 megabytes
> 1-hour program uses approximately 610 megabytes
> 2-hour program uses approximately 1.2 gigabytes


If my math is right, that works out to between 1.3 and 1.6 mbps. That should be high enough to produce decent PQ on a phone or tablet, IMO. I'm thinking standard DVD quality.


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## NR4P (Jan 16, 2007)

With GG, if I deleted a show on my iPAD that was exactly 1 hour, I recovered about 560MB of memory.

Have not tried mDVR to see if that changes. Should be easy for others but they should be sure its 1 hour


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## texasbrit (Aug 9, 2006)

Just to be clear.
there is no problem with picture quality on live streaming.
The picture quality on transcoded material (recordings on your DVR) is terrible. It has been this way since the original beta test of the software.
Nothing in your DVR (amount of free space etc) will change that.


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## zmancartfan (Mar 23, 2012)

texasbrit said:


> Just to be clear.
> there is no problem with picture quality on live streaming.


No, live streaming of channels that have to be transcoded are terrible, too.

Only channels that are streamed directly from another source are ok.


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## trh (Nov 3, 2007)

zmancartfan said:


> No, live streaming of channels that have to be transcoded are terrible, too.


huh?


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## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

trh said:


> huh?


Different definition of "live streaming", I guess. 

I think zman is on the same page as texasbrit, but is lumping the streaming of recordings in with OD streaming.


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## zmancartfan (Mar 23, 2012)

What I consider streaming is viewing any content that is not directly stored on the device being used to watch the content. I was referring to viewing content that has to pass through the DVR in order to view. This includes channels other than those that have direct streaming ability like ESPN, CNN, etc. and would include your local channels (in most locations) and even DVR-stored content that has not been transcoded and downloaded.

The comment was that there are no picture quality issues with streaming, but I don't think that's 100% correct since the source of the streamed content does effect picture quality.

Yes, I think we're probably on the same page, too. But what's "OD?"

By the way, I've noticed on transcoded downloads from HBO that the quality is so bad that the HBO splash screen that looks like old analog snow or static goes down to about 2 frames per second.


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## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

zmancartfan said:


> Yes, I think we're probably on the same page, too. But what's "OD?"


On Demand shows or live programming.


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## inkahauts (Nov 13, 2006)

Personally what I am Finding is this...

Any show being watched on the mobile device that is originating from your actual DVR is awful. 

Any show originating from a DIRECTV server somewhere is ok.


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## Chazon (Jun 5, 2010)

I have 3 major issues (flaws in my opinion) with the MobileGo that I wished I had known before making the switch! I have used GenieGo for 2 years now, and have been satisfied with its operation to the date of the switch.

1) My biggest issue! I use my laptop for watching my shows remotely and the new Mobile DVR service I found out afterwords only works on Apple and Android devices leaving me without the ability to watch my shows on the go on my main source.

2) The new Mobile DVR only transcodes and allows downloads of shows on the Genie DVR. My GenieGo transcoded shows from both my Genie and my HR24 (Which has all the shows that I watch!), now I can no longer download any of my recordings that are on my HR24. 

3) The quality is a lot poorer on the Mobile DVR. I had a show on my iPad from the GenieGo as well as a show from the Mobile DVR - BIG difference in quality - the MobileGo is noticeably worse!

To make matters worse, I hooked my GenieGo back up, as this Mobile DVR does not work for my needs, and I figured I could use it until the October deadline. The system will not let me switch back to it - it gives me an error every time I try.

I contacted suppport, and their response was just "sorry" and "watch our website for improvements to the system". No addressing of the money ($100) for the discontinued system, or the downgrade in function and service. They also could not help me with getting my GenieGo system, as they "are no longer supported". 

I am very agrivated with DIRECTV for this! Why did they discontinue the GenieGo when the new service does NOT provide the same service???


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## texasbrit (Aug 9, 2006)

Chazon said:


> I have 3 major issues (flaws in my opinion) with the MobileGo that I wished I had known before making the switch! I have used GenieGo for 2 years now, and have been satisfied with its operation to the date of the switch.
> 
> 1) My biggest issue! I use my laptop for watching my shows remotely and the new Mobile DVR service I found out afterwords only works on Apple and Android devices leaving me without the ability to watch my shows on the go on my main source.
> 
> ...


Agree on all points. Watching sports on mobile DVR is terrible. Soccer just has these colored shapes instead of players, and you can see pixelation "streaks" behind the ball.


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## texasbrit (Aug 9, 2006)

If watching live channels via mobile DVR involves the DVR transcoding a live channel, does that means it uses a tuner?


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## dbronstein (Oct 21, 2002)

Chazon said:


> 1) My biggest issue! I use my laptop for watching my shows remotely and the new Mobile DVR service I found out afterwords only works on Apple and Android devices leaving me without the ability to watch my shows on the go on my main source.


You can use the GenieGo windows app. It's totally unintuitive that you would think of using the GenieGo app without a GenieGo, but it works.


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## trh (Nov 3, 2007)

Chazon said:


> I have 3 major issues (flaws in my opinion) with the MobileGo that I wished I had known before making the switch! I have used GenieGo for 2 years now, and have been satisfied with its operation to the date of the switch.
> 
> 1) My biggest issue! I use my laptop for watching my shows remotely and the new Mobile DVR service I found out afterwords only works on Apple and Android devices leaving me without the ability to watch my shows on the go on my main source.
> 
> ...


I'm sorry you weren't here when the Mobile DVR was available in a few states. A number of people recommended not shifting off the GenieGo because of many of the issues you mentioned above.

Do you still have the GenieGo software on your PC? Have you tried that?


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## Chazon (Jun 5, 2010)

trh said:


> I'm sorry you weren't here when the Mobile DVR was available in a few states. A number of people recommended not shifting off the GenieGo because of many of the issues you mentioned above.
> 
> Do you still have the GenieGo software on your PC? Have you tried that?


I have tried it. Unfortunately, a hard drive issue forced an os reinstall around the same time. I reinstalled the GenieGo program, and when I go to add your PC, I get the unable to add device "missing one or more system requirements".


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## inkahauts (Nov 13, 2006)

I get the feeling a solution for laptops is in the works... mainly because how could it not be?

The picture quality is my main concern. It is pretty awful.


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## trh (Nov 3, 2007)

inkahauts said:


> I get the feeling a solution for laptops is in the works... mainly because how could it not be?


While it seems logical for DIRECTV to do this, they don't always take that path.


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## JVW (Apr 27, 2016)

Mobile DVR playlist -> iPad = VLD (Very Low Definition)
DirectV claims to be UNAWARE OF THE PROBLEM!!!


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## poppo (Oct 10, 2006)

Maybe it's just my imagination, but it always seems like the commercials have better resolution than the show (talking strictly about the on the fly transcoding).


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## shedberg (Jan 20, 2007)

I was told today that my GenieGo will not work after 11/4. Is this true or just that it won't be supported after that?


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## trh (Nov 3, 2007)

Unknown. DIRECTV announced late last year that this would happen. My GenieGo app on my tablet says it will no longer be supported.

Some reported the email they received (and I haven't received one yet) with an end date of 10/18. Others are now getting emails that says 11/4. 

For various reasons, I'm not activating the MobileDVR until I have to.


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