Does streaming video decoding vary from device to device?

[Foebane72]

I have three streaming video playback devices:

YouTube website on my PC (direct broadband connection)
YouTube app on my Android phone (wi-fi)
YouTube app on my Fire TV (4K) stick (wi-fi)

I also have various movies bought from Google Play (so they run directly from the YouTube apps) and whereas most of them are fine, others exhibit artifacts that are visible on only one or two of the players. They only last a frame or two but they can be distracting, like part of the picture appears shifted across the screen or corrupted in some other way.

It occurred to me it may be wi-fi signal loss, but they usually happen in the exact same moments every time, so it leads me to conclude that not all decoders are created equally.

Is that the case, that playback will vary from decoder to decoder?

 

[Foebane72]

Seriously, does no-one know? Or care?

 

[Redneckerz]

17 hours ago, Foebane72 said:

I have three streaming video playback devices:

YouTube website on my PC (direct broadband connection)
YouTube app on my Android phone (wi-fi)
YouTube app on my Fire TV (4K) stick (wi-fi)

I also have various movies bought from Google Play (so they run directly from the YouTube apps) and whereas most of them are fine, others exhibit artifacts that are visible on only one or two of the players. They only last a frame or two but they can be distracting, like part of the picture appears shifted across the screen or corrupted in some other way.

It occurred to me it may be wi-fi signal loss, but they usually happen in the exact same moments every time, so it leads me to conclude that not all decoders are created equally.

Is that the case, that playback will vary from decoder to decoder?

 

Decoders depend on whether the hardware supports the right codecs and which ones.

• On PC, hardware accelerated playback is often done on the video card.
• On Android phone, it is tied to the version of the OS and (potentially) also through which SoC (System on Chip) is used.
• On Fire TV Stick, codecs will vary. At which resolution are you trying to play your videos? See additional info here.

Then there is the codec - Names like h.264, h.265, VP8, VP9, AVC1 and what not exist here. I would have to check which codec YouTube serves through which platform but i don't have the time for that at the moment (Im at work). But this page demonstrates that different codecs are used across different machines (PC and FireTV)

5 hours ago, Foebane72 said:

Seriously, does no-one know? Or care?

 

A lot of threads go by without notice - Even informative ones.

[Foebane72]

2 hours ago, Redneckerz said:

• On Fire TV Stick, codecs will vary. At which resolution are you trying to play your videos? See additional info here.

 

I can only play at max 1080p on my display.

 

I only have a 1080p display, but I got the 4K cos it was the only HD model available, and on the off-chance I might upgrade my display, it would be future-proof.

 

I have a video (attached) of a typical glitch that I see in some videos (in the middle of a video, a corrupted image on top of the houses).

 

glitch.7z

Edited May 1, 2020 by Foebane72

[Redneckerz]

37 minutes ago, Foebane72 said:

 

I can only play at max 1080p on my display.

 

I only have a 1080p display, but I got the 4K cos it was the only HD model available, and on the off-chance I might upgrade my display, it would be future-proof.

 

I have a video (attached) of a typical glitch that I see in some videos (in the middle of a video, a corrupted image on top of the houses).

 

glitch.7z

On which one does this glitch occur? You mention up to two players where this happens.

Furthermore, what are the specs of the PC (Processor, RAM, GPU) and your phone (Name of brand, model of phone)?

[Foebane72]

9 minutes ago, Redneckerz said:

On which one does this glitch occur? You mention up to two players where this happens.

Furthermore, what are the specs of the PC (Processor, RAM, GPU) and your phone (Name of brand, model of phone)?

 

This particular glitch only occurs on the Fire TV stick. (I did say only one or two, it seems to vary from movie to movie)

The PC is an Intel Core i3 8100 with 8Gb, GTX 960 with 4Gb, Windows 10. (glitch does not happen here)

The phone is a Samsung J3 2017 (glitch does not happen here)

 

[Redneckerz]

18 minutes ago, Foebane72 said:

 

This particular glitch only occurs on the Fire TV stick. (I did say only one or two, it seems to vary from movie to movie)

The PC is an Intel Core i3 8100 with 8Gb, GTX 960 with 4Gb, Windows 10. (glitch does not happen here)

The phone is a Samsung J3 2017 (glitch does not happen here)

 

Look at this.

 

Particularly:

• At what Hertz is the TV configured for?
• Are you using BEST AVAILABLE in the sound setting?
• Is MATCH ORIGINAL FRAME RATE set to ON?

[Foebane72]

1 hour ago, Redneckerz said:

Look at this.

 

Particularly:

• At what Hertz is the TV configured for?
• Are you using BEST AVAILABLE in the sound setting?
• Is MATCH ORIGINAL FRAME RATE set to ON?

 

It was 60Hz, but changing it to 50Hz didn't do a thing.

Best available is in the audio, yes.

"Match Original Frame Rate" was set to on, but is off now since I set it to 50Hz.

 

I've been playing around with the settings, and they seem to have no bearing on the glitch, and I think it's down to the bitrate and encoding that was used for the video when it was made. The glitch mentioned above is from The Sixth Sense with Bruce Willis, and I have another movie where there are more glitches like that one and are more frequent, namely The Others with Nicole Kidman. I notice they have the same relatively poor PQ, too.

 

It reminds me of a problem I had with MP3 files years ago, where audio artefacts would be heard on a portable player, but not on my PC (where I made them). I think it really is down to the player and the encoding used for the media file.

 

[Redneckerz]

18 hours ago, Foebane72 said:

 

It was 60Hz, but changing it to 50Hz didn't do a thing.

Best available is in the audio, yes.

"Match Original Frame Rate" was set to on, but is off now since I set it to 50Hz.

 

I've been playing around with the settings, and they seem to have no bearing on the glitch, and I think it's down to the bitrate and encoding that was used for the video when it was made. The glitch mentioned above is from The Sixth Sense with Bruce Willis, and I have another movie where there are more glitches like that one and are more frequent, namely The Others with Nicole Kidman. I notice they have the same relatively poor PQ, too.

 

It reminds me of a problem I had with MP3 files years ago, where audio artefacts would be heard on a portable player, but not on my PC (where I made them). I think it really is down to the player and the encoding used for the media file.

 

What you could do is to download the original video and see what it is encoded with.

 

I do like to mention that in my search numerous Fire Stick 4K users reported of similiar issues.