Forum Discussion

ROGERCPOST's avatar
ROGERCPOST
Channel Surfer
3 years ago

poor youtube 720p interpolation up to 1080p tv

my roku is connected to a 1080p tv. i am noticing that youtube videos that are 720p look awful, poor interpolation up to 1080p. youtube 1080p material is fine. my tivo for comparison plays youtube 72...
Mnale's avatar
Mnale
Binge Watcher
3 years ago

Thanks. Tried that several times. No difference.

I would be interested if anyone else sees poor upscaling (YouTubeTV & Roku at 720p on 1080p TV) and if this is a new phenomenon. 
Just as a comparison, if I take the Roku out of the equation and stream YouTubeTV on my computer LG 2K monitor, everything looks great either at 720p or 1080p.
I know the Roku can interpolate YouTubeTV 720p great, but only after I restart it and go immediately to a 720p channel (and staying there).  
Anonymous's avatar
Anonymous
3 years ago

Hi  Mnale

Thanks for keeping in touch!

Many channels on Roku are maintained by the channel provider themselves. Since the error only occurs on the YouTube channel, that's an indication that there's likely an issue within that specific channel that needs to be addressed with an update from them. We indeed recommend contacting YouTube Support to report the issue and get help.

Thank you for your understanding.


Warm Regards,
Lianna   

  • Mnale's avatar
    Mnale
    Binge Watcher
    3 years ago

    Ok, let's review... We've confirmed that Roku Ultra displays a YouTubeTV 720p channel properly (Fox,ESPN, ABC etc) after a Roku reboot and directly viewing a 720p channel.

    This means that Roku does the proper 720p upscaling - temporarily - and then gives up adjusting proper quality with a channel change to 1080p.
    I've also shown that if the Roku is taken out of the equation (YouTube TV streamed on my PC 2K Monitor) there are no upscale issues at 720p switching to 1080p channel and back.
    I'll run this with YouTube TV support - if possible. I would hope that the Roku engineers concurrently check it out on their end - easy to reproduce.
    • ROGERCPOST's avatar
      ROGERCPOST
      Channel Surfer
      3 years ago

      I sent an email to Anthony Wood awood at roku dot com, Roku's CEO about this, copy below (sorry, I tried to insert the images but this forum can't handle them).

      Dear Anthony,

      As an investor in Roku, I love my little Ultra box but there appears to be a video quality bug in playing 720p videos on Youtube.

      My Roku is connected to a 1080p TV and I am noticing that YouTube videos that are 720p look awful, poor interpolation up to 1080p. YouTube 1080p material is fine. My Tivo for comparison plays YouTube 720p videos with great quality. Why does the Roku do such a poor job of playing 720p YouTube video?

      For example take this image from a 720p video by ABC's Good Morning America:


      This inset shows the awful up-res quality:


      Restarting, going to YouTube and viewing a 720 video first, results in good quality as seen below. However, as soon as you view a 1080 video and go back to a 720, the quality is awful and remains so for all 720 videos.


      Here is the YouTube version info:


      Here is the Roku version:


      I hope that your engineers will work with YouTube and figure this out, it's a major headache to have to restart the Roku every time you want to watch a lower res YouTube video.

      Thanks!
      Roger Dawson

      President
      Tel cell direct: (650) 218-XXXX
      Component Post Associates, Inc.
      Motion Picture Post Production Services
      • Mnale's avatar
        Mnale
        Binge Watcher
        3 years ago

        Here's the latest I've done to prove this issue is caused by my Roku Ultra (and not YouTubeTV)...

        As I documented, I've not seen any 720p upscaling issue streaming YouTubeTV to my 2K PC monitor.

        So as an additional hardware test, I pulled out my $19 Amazon Fire Tv Stick and hooked it up. Guess what... NO PROBLEMS with YouTubeTV 720P channels on my 1080p TV!

        I think that this may be a relative new software issue with Roku because I don't recall it ever being this bad. If anyone would like to confirm my test(s), please do.

        And to ROKU, the ball is in your court.

        Thanks