Picture quality issues

THanks for the info on Forced HDR. I thought this DIRECTV STREAM box is a brand new offering from them. Didnt realize its an old bug. I have a 2015 samsung 4K tv. I do have a UHD source setting - mapping will try that

I did try fire tv on my other tv. Picture did get better but was still was very painful to adjust and not sure still as good as directv. Also its much better to use the native remote for guide and recordings. 

I am wondering if i just cancel this and go back to directv. This is really bad picture quality. 

I also noticed that even on ipad the stream is pretty washed out (colors) and showing artifacts (i.e. not smooth). Both directv and YouTube tv streaming on ipad was much better

i cant see any controls on the ipad streaming (except a silly choice between best, better, good quality) to improve the stream quality. 

Also not to mention no 4K. directv at least has World Cup soccer, olympics in 4K. I am still surprised why my ipad streaming colors are off and the picture is not that “smooth”. Its clear but doesnt look that good as directv or YouTube on ipad

i understand the box issue now

Using the box, I get orange instead of red - sometimes.  This makes the picture appear washed out overall.  I’m on my third box and they’ve all done the same thing, although the third has failed to ever start up with proper color, which the first two would do most of the time.  I have not seen this effect on the iPad or Firestick apps.  The TV (a Sony) has only Auto/Full/Limited settings for dynamic range, but none of these correct the problem.

I’m pretty sure that this is not going to end well.  DIRECTV STREAM support claims they’ve not heard of anyone else having this problem, which appears to be a lie.  I’ve spent WAY too much time trying to make this work.

Besides that issue, we have occasional “loading” delays.  I have gigabit download speed, and box is wired in, so that’s just inexcusable.

Thats really bad.. i hope your problem gets solved.

in my case, i actually got it working - picture quality is really good now. The samsung UHD setting worked perfectly with it. Also i had to completely tweak my settings but after playing around quite a bit, i can say that the picture quality now is awesome. Definitely much better than YouTube TV.

of course the issue with no 4K, no live rewind etc. too much saturation on ipad remain (ipad - you cant calibrate ipad like you can do on TV). 

The “loading...” issue is so bad on recorded programs tonight that they are unwatchable.

Yes- there was some issue last night. I also couldnt watch properly for 10 minutes. The recorded program wasn’t loading

This isn’t the first time that we’ve had this issue.

I’m not putting up with it.

@lydian You mentioned bugs that were being reported during the beta but remain unresolved. Can you elaborate on that? Started supporting the product (along with internet, and DTV previously) a little over a month ago and I've noticed some trends but could definitely use a list so I know what to look for.

I did find an "Enhanced HDMI Signal" setting under "External Inputs" on my Sony TV (XBR75X850D) which, once enabled, allowed for HDR input to be recognized - SOMETIMES.  It is very hit-or-miss.  I am not familiar with the metadata communications involved, but it appears that the box is not complying.

I have to surmise that the box is outputting an HDR signal, but the TV is not in HDR mode (which cannot be selected manually, so far as I can tell), and this is the core problem.  When they're both in HDR mode, the picture is good - quite good.

Note that I have used these boxes with three different TVs (the Sony and two Samsungs) and all have suffered the same problem.

With one of the Samsungs, it appeared that the box was not coming up fast enough on power-up; the TV would require that we choose the input channel.  That didn't happen if the box was already on.  With the Sony, there is always a few seconds of the screen showing a "No input signal" message while the box starts up.

Anyway, I post these observations in case DIRECTV STREAM is actually investigating this problem, and takes some action to solve it if that is even possible.  As it is, the device is simply defective, and my suspicion is that it is defective by design, whether in software, hardware, or both.

Mark from DIRECTV STREAM this is a very real issue. So I tried DIRECTV STREAM today as my Spectrum account is about to roll in the second year...and I get home and instantly noticed the Roku app is a million times better looking than the Android box app (which has the surround sound).   I run Netflix programs and HDR shows look much better still can't hold a candle to DirecTV picture) so I wonder what's going on.  Then I realized just as above said that it's Auto forcing the box into HDR mode. This is not going to work when the content is not HDR so it screws everything up where the colors look washed out and everything is blurry and is unusable. I'm probably going to change the box out but it doesn't look like that's the issue. Has anyone from DIRECTV STREAM looked into this very big problem? I have a screenshot of a washed-out football game and the screen in blaring HDR mode if I could send that somewhere to show...

Alternatively Mark do you know if the Roku app which is excellent by the way can handle 5.1 surround sound for the music and movie channels like the main box can?

A trend we've been noticing with picture quality issues like you're describing is that if you go into input settings (on the TV, not the DIRECTV STREAM menu) and enable UHD color for that particular input it clears up (I know HDR and UHD aren't exactly the same things, but they're related and it has been resolving a whole range of picture issues). You may have to change your HDMI port you're using, as it seems some ARC ports won't allow that to be enabled.

As far as the 5.1 surround sound on the Roku app, I just checked and the app does support it ~if the roku player does~ (it seems like some do and some don't, depending on model).

Hope this helps,

Mark

I donappreciate an answer other than hit the reset button or change HDMI cables which obviously have been done. Unfortunately my TV which is a 2016 Sony (the last Model that had 3D) does not have that feature you described. And that doesn't work cuz when you want HDR you can't get it. It really needs to be fixed in the Box itself-- and apparently they have had two years to do and it haven't done so yet.

The built-in Netflix on my TV from 2016 was smart enough 2 jump from HDR and no HDR depending on whether it's actually encoded that way-- there's got to be a way to fix it on the box itself.

I see some people here are going to Apple TV which is called a kludge and unacceptable. I'm not going to shelve my my DIRECTV STREAM box and go Roku and pay at least $10 a month for nothing for the DIRECTV STREAM box. Somehow I doubt they will remove that. Instead I'd opt to just take it back under the 14-day trial until they fix it and this thing is more ready for primetime..

Definitely changing the UHD setting on my samsung made a world of difference. The NFL transmissions are amazing - smooth and in great colors

One other thing i noticed - if i watch from the cloud DVR the picture quality is pathetic. Doesnt even look HD. On the other if i watch the same program using the On Demand feature, the quality is even better than live streaming. Looks Iike on demand streams as proper UHD and cloud DVR - DIRECTV STREAM is doing some compression to save space? For me the DVR is almost unusable for movies.

I tried the above with the new Fargo series and the difference was very noticeable.

Also the Fire app is a massive pain - every time have to select the DIRECTV STREAM app to access it and also no live pause/forward and guide has no flexibility to be ordered by channel number

I can't test 5.1 sound just yet. Does anyone know if you record a 5.1 show on the DVR it stays 5.1 on playback?   As mentioned that takes a lot of bandwidth and they may be saving space by not allowing that but that's not going to fly for music and movie recordings.