[IanJRedman]

@Larry the Loafer -

Is frame interpolation (whatever name it goes by on your TV) enabled?

[Larry the Loafer]

@Larry the Loafer -

Is frame interpolation (whatever name it goes by on your TV) enabled?

It is, but it's never been able to display 25/30fps like it's 50/60fps. As I say, everything else that's wrongly filmised still looks filmised on the same TV with the same settings.

Maybe I'm just having a funny turn... 

[Neil Jones]

I, like the entire country I'm sure, have been watching Home Improvement since its long awaited debut on Disney+ and it looks a lot smoother... almost as if they've actually uploaded it (or whatever the correct term is) in 50/60fps. Is it just my imagination, or are the streamers actually finally considering frame rate of their deinterlaced content?

I have the DVDs of the first four seasons of Home Improvement (in my opinion it was a show that sort of went off the boil a bit after that, but that's another discussion), and I feel the copies on Disney+ look a little bit washed out compared to those. They appear to be the same copies though, even down to the Buena Vista distribution slide that is also on the DVDs.

Aside from that, there's something a little bit off about them, and I don't know what it is. As that whole show was done on tape (even the actual location stuff, though some of the bigger "outdoor" scenes were done in studio), it should be ripe for presenting as clean as possible. And it isn't. And I don't know why. I don't think this is a filmic effect, but I don't know what it is.

To be honest I was half expecting a botch job on that when it finally turned up on Disney+. It could have been worse.

[Larry the Loafer]

False alarm, folks. Apologies. I was watching something on YouTube today that was definitely 30fps but looked a lot smoother than it should've done. I don't know if my TV just suddenly got really good at smoothing after 12 years, but it's definitely back to "normal" when smoothing is turned off.

[Neil Jones]

False alarm, folks. Apologies. I was watching something on YouTube today that was definitely 30fps but looked a lot smoother than it should've done. I don't know if my TV just suddenly got really good at smoothing after 12 years, but it's definitely back to "normal" when smoothing is turned off.

And here's Larry watching his TV that fixed itself


But glad it worked out for you in the end

[Neil Jones]

I'm pretty sure its just me but coming back to Home Improvement, the earlier seasons as per previous discussion look semi-decent but by the time we get to Season 5 and particularly Season 6 everything's sort of started looking a bit mushy, almost as if the uploads/stream doesn't have enough bandwidth to render it properly, and it looks even more washed out than the earlier seasons do.

Far as I know nothing changed with the production of that show halfway through the run (bar maybe some behind the scenes equipment) and I haven't seen an app update so...?

[Neil Jones]

There are tootings that Disney+ is due to introduce a new ad supported tariff which will follow the same sort of arrangement as Netflix.

UK wise, £4.99 with adverts, £7.99 without them (but no 4k) and £10.99 with no ads but 4k/Dolby Atmos. Existing subscribers will move to the £10.99 package at their next biling date after November 6 unless you intervene otherwise.

www.cordbusters.co.uk 

Disney+ UK’s New Subscription Plans And Prices Revealed | Cord Busters
Disney+ UK is adding an ad-supported tier to its streaming service. Here ar…
  Source: www.cordbusters.co.uk

On a related note there seems to be musings that Disney is in trouble. Not necessarily financial trouble but recent movie productions have flopped (some major big time) and some stuff does well to break even, Disney+ isn't breaking even and there are ongoing issues with Disney Parks, in particular Disney World Florida.

[thomalex]

There are tootings that Disney+ is due to introduce a new ad supported tariff which will follow the same sort of arrangement as Netflix.

UK wise, £4.99 with adverts, £7.99 without them (but no 4k) and £10.99 with no ads but 4k/Dolby Atmos.  Existing subscribers will move to the £10.99 package at their next biling date after November 6 unless you intervene otherwise.

www.cordbusters.co.uk 

On a related note there seems to be musings that Disney is in trouble.  Not necessarily financial trouble but recent movie productions have flopped (some major big time) and some stuff does well to break even, Disney+ isn't breaking even and there are ongoing issues with Disney Parks, in particular Disney World Florida.

It does seem there's a move away from the now traditional Netflix subscription model to an ad supported model. I feel this was somewhat inevitable as the number of streaming services increased. The Netflix sub model worked where they were the only, or one of the few, major players but the more content is spread out across multiple services people just aren't going to pay for several subscriptions. So after a period of sharp growth in streaming the market is only now going to get smaller for individual services as consumers pick one or two services, and they are likely to favour the cheaper, ad supported ones.

Regarding Disney it does seem that they are in need of a reset. They seem to be releasing a huge number of films no doubt at huge cost but they make very little impact and the streaming market is more competitive than the probably bargained for when they entered the market. The parks are also getting quite long in the tooth and could do with some reinvention to appeal to a new generation. I feel it's a classic case of just doing too many things and they need to take a step back and focus on doing less but doing it better.

[WillPS]

It'll be interesting to see what happens to Club Lloyds customers, who can currently select 'Disney+' as an annual benefit. Presume it won't be the 4K tier but hopefully not the ad funded one.

[gottago]

It does seem there's a move away from the now traditional Netflix subscription model to an ad supported model. I feel this was somewhat inevitable as the number of streaming services increased. The Netflix sub model worked where they were the only, or one of the few, major players but the more content is spread out across multiple services people just aren't going to pay for several subscriptions. So after a period of sharp growth in streaming the market is only now going to get smaller for individual services as consumers pick one or two services, and they are likely to favour the cheaper, ad supported ones.

This is only part of it I think. The streamers are at a point where they have such a hold of the TV market that they can now tap into an incredibly lucrative advertising market that will probably in the long term end up bringing them more revenue than subscriptions alone. Netflix has stuttered a bit with moving people to the ad tier and even filling ad spaces but now they're ditching the basic ad-free tier, and adding more features like being able to use the ad tier on multiple screens, I expect their ad tier will become dominant soon enough. 

Getting subscribers to pay you to watch advertising is basically a win-win for the streamers, as long as the content remains strong enough to keep people subscribing. Not unlike Sky, especially when it was at its peak and people didn't seem to care that their channels were full of ads.