Hotstar Relay quality is horse $#!@

[sachinchavan 15865]

Netflix 4k has 799 a month tariff. It would be as good and contingent in quality to what they are charging subscribers. Hotstar new flicks, for instance Cuttputlli has reasonable quality for a 1000 rupees a year subscription.

I was only contesting your statement “Everything boils down to internet speed” with my experience. But now you are justifying Hotstar’s quality by their lower subscription rate. So I guess you are accepting Hotstar picture quality is poorer than Netflix, (irrespective of any justification - valid or otherwise).

As for pricing of a streaming service, it’s not just a function of picture quality. The content itself is the King to begin with. Netflix can still command a premium over all other movie OTTs because of the quantum, variety and popularity of its content, combined with its rock-solid user interface and reliable quality. Also, they don’t get subsidised through advertisements like Hotstar plays in its sports feeds.

 

[Donivlapog]

I was only contesting your statement “Everything boils down to internet speed” with my experience. But now you are justifying Hotstar’s quality by their lower subscription rate. So I guess you are accepting Hotstar picture quality is poorer than Netflix, (irrespective of any justification - valid or otherwise).

As for pricing of a streaming service, it’s not just a function of picture quality. The content itself is the King to begin with. Netflix can still command a premium over all other movie OTTs because of the quantum, variety and popularity of its content, combined with its rock-solid user interface and reliable quality. Also, they don’t get subsidised through advertisements like Hotstar plays in its sports feeds.

Well, my hotstar quality improved when i went ethernet over a 200 mbps airtel fiber.

 

[dillihifi]

Well since I am longtime user of Hotstar (maybe since the days they rolled out) so let me put across the major issues faced.

Initially I subscribed to Hotstar (still am ) which used to stream delayed content (usually 5 mins) to free users of live sporting events and introduced an premium subscription for live. Since I used to travel a lot and do watch a lot of sports so have taken premium subscription since ages. The major issue faced is that in the fast moving scenes the higher frame rate gives a smoother picture without dropping any in between frames though the ones at 24fps are quite watchable in slow moving scenes. As sports are generally fast moving so it is generally broadcast at 30fps and some broadcaster do it at 60fps. (see the 100Hz camera used in Hawkeye in tennis).

As regards compression as the same codec is used for streaming of all the content so it is generally may not be a problem of compression rather maybe a issue of server sizing/ serving up of the same stream to multiple viewers at the same time which may lead to these kind of streaming issues. As pointed out by others generally the streaming quality in Hotstar for movies and TV shows are better in comparison to sports. Further they generally are catering to their target customer that is the persons with 6inch mobile screens where the video and audio quality do not seem to be that important. Have been talking back and forth with their customer care over twitter regarding quality improvements and bugs in their app since the last 5 years however there is a lot left to attain.

 

[Spinekar]

Well since I am longtime user of Hotstar (maybe since the days they rolled out) so let me put across the major issues faced.

Initially I subscribed to Hotstar (still am ) which used to stream delayed content (usually 5 mins) to free users of live sporting events and introduced an premium subscription for live. Since I used to travel a lot and do watch a lot of sports so have taken premium subscription since ages. The major issue faced is that in the fast moving scenes the higher frame rate gives a smoother picture without dropping any in between frames though the ones at 24fps are quite watchable in slow moving scenes. As sports are generally fast moving so it is generally broadcast at 30fps and some broadcaster do it at 60fps. (see the 100Hz camera used in Hawkeye in tennis).

As regards compression as the same codec is used for streaming of all the content so it is generally may not be a problem of compression rather maybe a issue of server sizing/ serving up of the same stream to multiple viewers at the same time which may lead to these kind of streaming issues. As pointed out by others generally the streaming quality in Hotstar for movies and TV shows are better in comparison to sports. Further they generally are catering to their target customer that is the persons with 6inch mobile screens where the video and audio quality do not seem to be that important. Have been talking back and forth with their customer care over twitter regarding quality improvements and bugs in their app since the last 5 years however there is a lot left to attain.

compression when compared to other streaming services could be high on hotstar hence bad quality, whatever the reason they are just doing bare minimum in terms of quality both audio and video ( but still are the highest subscribed OTT platform in india)
so the miniscule ( compared to subscribers who don't care for quality) people on this forum who do want/expect high quality, at least a decent quality audio and video looking elsewhere for the content that we are paying for
@dillihifi nice of you to keep in touch with these guys, hope they improve, they have some great content

 

[OM_2K19]

House of dragon video quality is bad and more importantly audio is 2.0

HoD is available in 4K HDR, ATMOS only in HBO Max. On the rest of the platforms, including Hotstar, it's available in 1080p and DD 5.1 formats.