Android 4k Optik Picture quality issues

[Montell]

I keep seeing these posts every week on reddit, but they dont seem to post them here. I also have the new Optik android 4k platform and feel the picture quality is not as good. Almost anyone choosing a cable provider will cite picture quality and channel lineup as the two most important factors when picking a provider, so this is a big issue.

I have a 77 lg oled c2 and it seems there is more compression on channels then my old fibre/legacy optik setup. Can this be addressed? Like I said I see complaints weekly on telus reddit forum where I dont think hardly any people from telus who can address this lurk. It just seems like the bitrate is quite a bit lower compared to my old optik tv fibre install. And yes I am hard wired in from my telus fibre router.

The other big elephant in the room is the fact the android box cant output color properly. Quite a few android boxes have software solutions to output the correct color space. Right now everything is output as HDR even when 99% of channels are not created in HDR format. This is also a problem as the colors are then wrong. My nvidia shield running android has a match color space option.

Thank you.

[Joseph2]

It seems like you're experiencing a difference in picture quality with your new Optik Android 4K platform compared to what you've seen in posts on Reddit, and you're concerned about this issue. Picture quality is indeed a crucial aspect when it comes to choosing a cable or TV service provider. Ensure that your TV or display settings are correctly configured. Make sure you have selected the appropriate resolution for your TV and that settings like brightness, contrast, and color are adjusted correctly.  that picture quality can be affected by multiple factors, including both hardware and software components. It's essential to work closely with your service provider's support team to diagnose and address the specific issues you're encountering. Additionally, engaging in discussions on platforms like Reddit can provide insights and suggestions from others who may have experienced similar concerns. 

[Montell]

I think you misread. I did not say I am noticing a difference in picture quality compared to users on reddit. I am saying every week there is a user on reddit telus forum complaining about how bad the picture quality is and I have not seen anything on this forum where telus employees like @Optik-Kate lurk and its time us android optik users get together to complain on here.

My box is set to 4k, I am using excellent 4k high speed cables that have been tested with my denon avr to pass 40gbps. Its purely a telus issue where the channels appear to be more compressed with a lower bitrate and that needs to be fixed by telus.

Also the HDR always on needs to be addressed by telus dev's. Again reddit is littered with these posts of people complaining about the picture on the new platform but I seen hardly anything on here.

[viperdiablo1]

• As the original post stated. The telus tv digital box always has HDR on. This effects the picture quality including colors on all SDR programming. Which as mentioned is like 99% of the programming on telus tv. Telus need to fix this by allowing a setting for adaptive HDR or match dynamic range.

[Optik-Kate]

Hi @Montell, I did take this back to our internal teams and we've identified that it's unfortunately outside of our control. There's a dependency on the chipset vendor that we work with and we've been trying to push them to make this setting adjustable for the past several months. It's something that we're working on, but it's definitely not something that we can change with a snap of a finger. 

[Montell]

Thanks for the reply @Optik-Kate  i assume you are referring to the Colorspace HDR issue and not what appears to be lower bitrate channel feeds on the new optik android platform vs the old platform?

To currently get around the incorrect HDR colors I have an Edid doctor so it thinks my display cant play HDR and then sends it SDR colorspace. But its not a good solution and wont be acceptable to 99%. Its a pretty big issue though that the manufacturer who I assume telus is a fairly big customer for, should fix as soon as possible because everyones colors are incorrect when watching tv on these boxes. But applications like nvidia shield I believe had to find a solution years ago and come up with there match colorspace option.

The bitrate and quality/compression of the channels I assume is something telus should be able to improve? It just looks like its lower bitrate feeds coming from telus compared to my old optik/fibre local setup. I see more compression artifacts on the telus feed on the optik android platform, and I see similar complaints especially when watching sports. Is the channel bandwidth/bitrate the same as the old optik platform if someone was on fibre?

[Rocky3]

Montell, for someone that does not understand what you are saying, how would one know the colour is wrong?

[Montell]

Its outputting the wrong color space for SDR filmed programs. Cable tv is almost 99% regular sdr color space. So when you see a box outputting HDR for the nightly news, thats incorrect. When you attempt to output HDR color for something without HDR information it blows out colors and makes them look cartoonish, the brightness levels are also then incorrect. Your basically corrupting the source content and trying to make it display in a way the content was not intended for.

You can read months of content on HDR and SDR on google with some highly technical articles, you would have to do some research, but SDR cable tv is not intended to be output in HDR format, the old optik system worked perfectly, this one just outputs HDR for everything even if the content was not filmed or intended to be displayed in HDR format.

Thats why on netflix or other streaming services content has a HDR or dolby vision logo. And for an apple tv or nvidia shield you can set it so it outputs HDR content to your tv in HDR format or dolby vision, or Standard definition content as sdr color space.

[Richardkm]

Has anyone seen an ETA for fixing this problem? I moved to Telus a couple of months ago, and the quality in non-4K channels/programs is brutal!!

[Craigvee]

I also recently received the new box and confirm it is significantly worse than the Arris box.

I am now using both boxes simultaneously.

[KHR]

Hi @Montell @Craigvee @Richardkm 

The HDR to SDR switching requires a firmware update from Android 10 to 12; this was a setting with our chipset manufacturer that is resolved with new firmware. We’re in late stage testing of ATV12, but there is no firm ETA.

@Craigvee - it's worth noting that you may experience synchronization issues between the new equipment and old equipment (bookmarks and recordings for example), so the recommendation would be to choose one or the other.

[Craigvee]

Thanks for the follow up. I will patiently await this critical update.

[A-B]

It's definitely on our team's roadmap. I'll flag it to our development team again to hopefully get a definitive answer, thanks.