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Old 09-04-2010, 02:46 PM   #135
Roast Beef
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Quote:
Originally Posted by FanIn80 View Post
If you read through that thread, you'll notice that most people were not actually getting 1080p. Zune will stream content to you according to your internet connection. It has a bar/logo/text system to show you which level of compression you are currently receiving. 1-3 bars are various levels of SD, the HD logo means 720p and the 1080 text means (obviously) 1080p.

The people in that thread had some combination of 1-3 bars + logo, meaning they were getting 720p at the most.
I tried that last night. I streamed some episodes of the Guild and watched some movie trailers. I had a rock solid 1080p stream the entire time and I must say it looked really good. I tried it again with 2HD and 1SD streams recording on my Telus TV. That way I had the minimum possible starting bandwidth. Even then it never went below 3 bars and was in the 720p range for a good chunk of the time. It still looked pretty good with lower bandwidth but you get noticeable macroblocking in all the usual places (fast action, fades, darker scenes etc)

The 1080p streaming was really impressive, but what impressed me most was Microsoft's solution to fluctuating bandwidth. The videos never hitched or stuttered. There were no jarring transitions as it changed compression levels to keep the stream going. This is how streaming video should be done and I hope that Apple looks at implementing a similar solution.
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