Sky Sports Golf on YouTube - pixellation

[cliveb]

I don't have Sky, but was pleased to find they are streaming the Evian on YouTube.

However, I've noticed a fair amount of pixellation on the stream.
Are people watching on broadcast SkyTV seeing the same?
If there is this amount of pixellation on the broadcast, that would seem a little unacceptable to me.
(I'm assuming that they are just streaming their standard broadcast, although the lack of advert breaks might indicate otherwise).

 

[stevieb15]

No issues on Sky

 

[LincolnShep]

I don't have Sky, but was pleased to find they are streaming the Evian on YouTube.

However, I've noticed a fair amount of pixellation on the stream.
Are people watching on broadcast SkyTV seeing the same?
If there is this amount of pixellation on the broadcast, that would seem a little unacceptable to me.
(I'm assuming that they are just streaming their standard broadcast, although the lack of advert breaks might indicate otherwise).

Is it just Sky or do you suffer pixelation on other live streams? It could be your broadband speed.

 

[cliveb]

No issues on Sky

Is it just Sky or do you suffer pixelation on other live streams? It could be your broadband speed.

It's certainly not bandwidth limitation - you'd get buffering in that case.
This is classic pixellation you get from compromised reception of a broadcast.
Surely Sky's YouTube stream isn't being created by receiving their own broadcast?
And if it is, why would they be using a dodgy reception?

The conspiracy theorist in me wonders if it's deliberate because they don't want the free stream to be as good as the satellite feed.
But why bother to stream it at all in that case?

 

[Imurg]

Just watched a couple of minutes before going out and I got some pixellation almost immediately
Obviously something about their connection from the normal Sky images to the stream..looks hot down there so atmospherics could be playing a part....
Their previous streams haven't had this issue..

 

[Brads]

I can’t see the pixelation for the adverts.

 

[SatchFan]

I normally watch through Virgin TV but I've just checked and the Sky Sports YouTube content is really good on my computer monitor.

 

[Backsticks]

Watching on sky sports over broadband. Perfect picture quality.

 

[Jigger]

I’ve suspected for a long time that sky broadcast SD channels in a worse bit rate to get people to pick up HD packages. It wouldn’t surprise me if their YouTube channel is the same.

 

[cliveb]

I’ve suspected for a long time that sky broadcast SD channels in a worse bit rate to get people to pick up HD packages. It wouldn’t surprise me if their YouTube channel is the same.

Well yes, of course SD is typically broadcast at a lower bit rate than HD.
But I don't see how that's relevant to the issue of pixelation, which is caused by damage to the data stream.

The fundamental question here is why is Sky streaming a damaged feed on YouTube? Others on here have confirmed it's ok via their satellite broadcast and via their broadband feed (Sky Glass, presumably?), so it's not the raw signal coming off the course that's compromised.

 

[Jimaroid]

Lot of nonsense being posted here. What is meant by pixelation? All images are pixelated so it’s not describing the problem well. You might be describing low resolution or compression artefacts which are very different issues for example.

To get a better idea of what the problem is, when you’re watching the video in YouTube, go to the menu and enable “Stats for nerds”. Google it to find where it is on your device. This will tell you exactly what resolution, quality and errors are occurring in the video playback.

If other videos on youtube aren’t suffering the same problem it could be a problem anywhere from the broadcast to your device.

YouTube Live streaming is often variable quality, it’s complicated, but it could be intentional, accidental, or an indicator of some other unconnected internet issue.

 

[cliveb]

Lot of nonsense being posted here. What is meant by pixelation? All images are pixelated so it’s not describing the problem well. You might be describing low resolution or compression artefacts which are very different issues for example.

I'm not talking about deliberate pixelation (such as is used to obscure details of things like faces) or the fact that all digital images are built from pixels.

I'm referring to the well-known effect where the video picture occasionally becomes "blocky" and the frames get scrambled. It's an intermittent issue; most of the time the picture is just fine. As far as I'm aware, the term "pixelation" is widely used to describe this problem. It's caused by the data stream being corrupted, usually by interference in the broadcast reception. It's not anything to do with compression artefacts or resolution, and is certainly not a symptom of inadequate bandwidth.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

I've been getting some this last week...thought it was me overloading my broadband...

 

[Jimaroid]

It's caused by the data stream being corrupted, usually by interference in the broadcast reception. It's not anything to do with compression artefacts or resolution, and is certainly not a symptom of inadequate bandwidth.

A screenshot would help help especially if it has the Stats For Nerds display on it.

You can’t rule out bandwidth being an issue. It could be an issue at any point in the network between you and the broadcast. The speed of your own broadband isn’t the only factor.

 

[Crow]

Here you go, it's nothing to do with the bandwidth as it's still there if you go back and replay so it must be in the recording.

 

[Jimaroid]

Thanks Crow. That type of image is generally an mpeg encode+decode issue where the compression settings aren’t right, there aren’t enough i-frames being generated OR an i-frame was lost somewhere in transport before decode. The image is being reconstructed as best it can from the temporal p-frames and it degenerates into that type of smeary mess.

Many ways for it to happen unfortunately. If you get lots of good high resolution images interspersed with these types of images off and on, switch the video quality setting from auto to something fixed like 720p instead and it can stabilise.

If none of the manual resolution options improve it, it’s probably something in the source YouTube or broadcaster video compression settings, it’s directly related to data costs. Sky’s video streaming has always been a little too compressed for me but YouTube live video also introduces another set of issues.

 

[cliveb]

Here's a less extreme example of the pixelation, with stats for nerds overlayed:

 

[Jimaroid]

Cool, your connection speed of 3047 Kbps is a little low but they are mpeg artefacts that have were present in the video stream sent to YouTube. That can be confirmed because I can see them identically at the same time index.

So it's an encode or compression issue introduced somewhere in the chain between the camera, the high speed radio networks installed at the event, the satellite links, the host broadcaster (e.g. CBS or whoever their contractor is), more satellite and internet links to regional broadcasters (e.g. Sky) and who has ultimately delivered the stream to YouTube, which might or might not be Sky. There are video encode/decode/transcode steps across all those links where errors can be introduced. The stream used for satellite broadcast won't be the same for YouTube upload so observing differences between internet and set-top-box are to be expected.

I don't think it's possible to pin point the problem any further but these type of problems are more likely video feed issues at the event itself.

 

[cliveb]

Cool, your connection speed of 3047 Kbps is a little low but they are mpeg artefacts that have were present in the video stream sent to YouTube. That can be confirmed because I can see them identically at the same time index.

My connection speed is low because I'm currently running off a LTE router with a SIM card. Have been waiting over a year for Jurassic Fibre (local FTTP company here in Devon) to hook me up. But there's a decent 4G signal here and I generally get around 5 to 10 Mbps which is enough for simple streaming (Netflix, YouTube, etc).

So it's an encode or compression issue introduced somewhere in the chain between the camera, the high speed radio networks installed at the event, the satellite links, the host broadcaster (e.g. CBS or whoever their contractor is), more satellite and internet links to regional broadcasters (e.g. Sky) and who has ultimately delivered the stream to YouTube, which might or might not be Sky. There are video encode/decode/transcode steps across all those links where errors can be introduced. The stream used for satellite broadcast won't be the same for YouTube upload so observing differences between internet and set-top-box are to be expected.

I don't think it's possible to pin point the problem any further but these type of problems are more likely video feed issues at the event itself.

The only reason I started the thread was to ask if actual Sky subscribers were seeing the same pixelation. Since they aren't, I conclude that it isn't an issue with the feed at the event, but something is up with whatever chain of encoders they're using to generate the YouTube stream. I don't really care, it's free after all, but it does somehow smack of negligence or indifference.