TVE picture quality doesn't seem to be as sharp as Directv Now. Just curious if this is the norm or if I have some settings wrong.
Can you give an example of some channels?
Where are you watching from?
Watching on an apple tv 4k and some example channels are Hallmark, MTV, and ESPN are a few I've noticed.
You can try comparing the video quality on http://www.hallmarkchanneleverywhere.com/hclive.html for example
Yeah, I’m seeing the same thing. CNN on the AppleTV app is HD... on Channels (live or recorded) it’s just SD. Directv (not DTV now), running on Linux.
Can you post some photo examples?
We watch CNN and it doesn't look like SD.
I've been seeing the opposite: some TVE channels look higher quality than the OTA or Xfinity channel. Since "turning on" TVE, I've been comparing channels from OTA & Xfinity vs. the TVE version. Whichever one looks best wins the spot in my FAVs list. This has resulted in a mix of channels in my FAVs... but all that means to me is that several channels now look better because I watch the TVE version instead of the same from the other sources.
In particular, OTA sub-channel SD channels vs. TVE almost always look better via TVE (probably because OTA sub-channels tend to be bit-starved). But there's also been a few vs. Xfinity channels too. Generally, in TVE vs. SD, TVE seems to win... TVE vs. HD channels need some eye-of-the-beholder comparisons.
Thank you Channels developers for adding TVE functionality! Your lone app makes my AppleTVs farrrrrrr more useful than they used to be.
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Mine have been in HD.. the red sox game last night on ESPN was extremely sharp. Also using a apple tv4k box.
Quality has been great for me with TVE.
Could it be caused by the login used by TVE?
Like, if you're cable subscription doesn't include HD but is valid for TVE, would TVE know that and exclude HD streams?
There is only one set of TVE streams and they're used by everyone. This is because the streams come from the network websites, not your provider.
Ive tried all Streaming services and will say Tve is better than all other services except Dtv Now which streams at a higher bitrate.
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I prefer to use the TVE stream over the OTA as much as possible as OTA has the tendency to have dropouts or pixealtion randomly, or times where weaker channels don't work at all at certain times of the day or weather. (the nature of antenna tv)
I guess it really depends on the TVE network stream.
For example, ABC, the website livestream is 720p 2922 kbps, vs OTA for me is 720p 60fps 15 Mbps.
(since Channels has no "stats for nerds" that one can pull up on screen to view raw data steam stats....I can use Emby to see OTA stream stats.)
I also am assuming here that the TVE stream Channels pulls is the same as the one you load via web browser. (Please Correct me if I am wrong devs 
)
EDit: i look in the log file for the client device....the res and fps of the TVE stream as its passed to mpv, but not video bit rate.
Correct.
It's also not fair to compare bitrate because the TVE streams are h.264, a incredibly more efficient codec than MPEG2 that requires 4-5x the bitrates to get the same quality.
Another thing to consider here is scaling. H.264 video scales up WAY better than MPEG2 does. So if you have a large TV, you might see that the TVE channels look better. They might look a little softer, but they'll have less artifacts.
Well, for me comparing the OTA and TVE of ABC.....the OTA is far sharper and detailed looking. Do not see any artifacts. The TVE stream is very soft and mushy, lacking any details and i see compression alot.
This is just one channel though. Each one will vary of course.
Edit: One thing i notice, is since TVE is 720 30fps for that channel, the built in Nvidia AI Enhance thing on my Nvidia Shield activates and does its thing. The OTA is 60fps and it only works on things 30fps or lower says Nvidia. When that is on, it will depend on how you already have your TV/Monitor set, but Low, Med, High does increase sharpness, and for me, anything higher than Low is over-sharpened.