I have been testing channels and I am enjoying it so far. One thing I noticed is that the resolution on a channel I watch often is better on cable than on channels via the fire tv stick app for channels. When I look at the resolution info the cable broadcast from the cable box is at 1980x1080 and looks great. On the channels broadcast the resolution is 3840x2160 . I checked the dvr server for settings and I don't see anything that would change that except where it is a spot under webplayer and that is set for server quality of 1080 @10mbs. Both are very watchable, but of course I want the better picture quality. Any ideas where to look? I am going to investigate the firestick settings, I only got the firestick 4K set up yesterday so I am not that familiar with it. The speed of the menu is amazingly fast on the firestick.
Update: I found a setting for resolution on the firestick and set it to 1080p and that made the resolution match, but the color still looks different, more red in the cable box broadcast. Both are good though and I can live with that. Any other tips to improve firestick 4K would be welcome. Also I am guessing that higher resolution is the 4K standard and when it is less than that it is modified to adapt and hence looks less clear and crisp... Just a guess though.
If you are using TVE, it maxes out at 1080p from the source regardless of what goes over cable. Channels tries to compensate by up-scaling the content to 4K. It does a really good job but it will never be as good as a high quality source.
XFINITY quality in my area is worse than TVE my channels are only 720p H264. The only thing XFINITY cable has over TVE is the 5.1 audio.
If I want to watch good quality Cable I use my XFINITY app on my FireTV 4K
The 3840X2160 is the display resolution, not anything to do with the video source.
The "red" difference you're seeing may simply be the different source picture settings - does it look better if you switch the input of the fire stick?
Not sure what you mean by change the input of the firestick, I see the difference when I switch inputs on the TV between Cable box and Firestick, They are on separte hdmi inputs. I did find a setting on the firestick for color, don't remember exact name, but it was set at the lowest setting of bits and I set it to the highest. Actually I like the color of the firestick broadcast, looks more natural.
By inputs, I mean the HDMI port on the TV.
Example: your cable box may be plugged into HDMI1, vs the Fire Stick on HDMI2. Many TVs save distinct settings on each input, so interested if the Fire Stick looks "better" on the same input normally reserved for the cable box.
Ok, Got it. I did not know TV saved settings for HDMI inputs. I can try that and indeed that may be the case since I have an hdmi multiswitch connected to HDMI 1 . The TV only has 2 HDMI inputs. I originally had the firestick on the multiswitch but it was flakey, for lack of a better term. I put firestick on HDMI 2 and it is much easier to manage that way.
Just swapped inputs and the picture quality stays the same per device, in other words changing the ports didn't change quality for firestick. Difference is in the input device not the port. The only other thing I even went straight into HDMI 1 with cable box, bypassing the switch, and the differnce is still there. Interesting but not a real issue as they both look fine, I would say its like color temperature is different...
Try changing Settings > Playback > Advanced > Video Decoder
As I said it's not an issue for me as the picture is acceptable in borh formats, but I don't see the setting you are referring to in either channels settings or firestick settings.