Firestick 4k Auto/2160p/1080p/720p?

[Rowan88]

This is how I use my device and app settings so that the TV knows the native resolution, frame rate and refresher rate.
The black screen is the device and app switching the settings and is normal.

Not sure what settings you should use for a Hisense TVs as I have never owned one.
Also I would imagine 720p image upscaled is not going to look that great on a 75 inch TV but that will also be down to how good the TVs upscaling capabilities are and this varies from each manufacturers on low, mid and high end TVs.
You will have to find specific reviews for your TV and their views on how good the upscaling is on it.

Tbf to the Hisense U8k the 720p upscale is pretty decent, but as mentioned I may order a Shield Pro from Amazon to test against it to see if the upscaling is worth the value vs TV (as we already know it beats firestick).

When I have Match Frame Rate set on my 4k max Firestick it goes black for few secs on my Samsung tv as well

Yeah after testing this is the resolution changing between each channel (720/1080/2160).
The only anomaly I noticed was I put a SD channel on but Hisense detected this as 3480x2160 but I wont use many SD so not complaining lol.


And lets hypothetically say the Shield Pro is better than TV for upscaling. That means I disable the Tivimate settings (Screen Resolution Match & Refresh Rate) so that the Shield can take the 720p and upscale it itself rather than the TV?

 

[Aristotle]

Tbf to the Hisense U8k the 720p upscale is pretty decent, but as mentioned I may order a Shield Pro from Amazon to test against it to see if the upscaling is worth the value vs TV (as we already know it beats firestick).

I would hope the TV does a better job of upscaling than a cheap firestick.

Yeah after testing this is the resolution changing between each channel (720/1080/2160).
The only anomaly I noticed was I put a SD channel on but Hisense detected this as 3480x2160 but I wont use many SD so not complaining lol.

I too have had anomalies when testing SD channels, but they are not something I watch as SD are not a great viewing experience

And let’s hypothetically say the Shield Pro is better than TV for upscaling. That means I disable the Tivimate settings (Screen Resolution Match & Refresh Rate) so that the Shield can take the 720p and upscale it itself rather than the TV?

I think you will still need to use screen resolution matching and refresh rate either on Tivimate or the Shields settings so that the Shield knows what the incoming image actually is.
It’s worth trying, but I can’t see there being a big improvement in image quality.
How does FHD 1080p channels look? Ideally, you should be really watching these on a 75 inch TV if they are available.

 

[Rowan88]

I would hope the TV does a better job of upscaling than a cheap firestick.

I too have had anomalies when testing SD channels, but they are not something I watch as SD are not a great viewing experience

I think you will still need to use screen resolution matching and refresh rate either on Tivimate or the Shields settings so that the Shield knows what the incoming image actually is.
It’s worth trying, but I can’t see there being a big improvement in image quality.
How does FHD 1080p channels look? Ideally, you should be really watching these on a 75 inch TV if they are available.

Thats why I wanted to clarify how I can make sure on the firestick the TV does the upscaling but on the Shield it would do it.

Most channels look great. Its more so on a club football channel they only have 720p so watching fast pace can make it look bad.

 

[Aristotle]

Thats why I wanted to clarify how I can make sure on the firestick the TV does the upscaling but on the Shield it would do it.

That I can’t give you an answer to.

Most channels look great. It’s more so on a club football channel they only have 720p so watching fast pace can make it look bad.

That may be more down to refresh rate and frame rate.
For fast paced moving images, you want higher FPS especially sport.
50 or 60fps depending on the part or the world the image is being broadcast from.
25fps fast moving images on sport doesn’t look great on IPTV from what I’ve experienced anyway.
Not sure what the club football channels FPS is but if it’s 25fps there is nothing that you can do about that and you are stuck with it.

 

[gaz82]

That I can’t give you an answer to.

That may be more down to refresh rate and frame rate.
For fast paced moving images, you want higher FPS especially sport.
50 or 60fps depending on the part or the world the image is being broadcast from.
25fps fast moving images on sport doesn’t look great on IPTV from what I’ve experienced anyway.
Not sure what the club football channels FPS is but if it’s 25fps there is nothing that you can do about that and you are stuck with it.

100% this!

Picture quality isn’t just about the resolution, you also need to consider the frame rate and the bit rate.

I’ve seen “full hd” 1080p channels streamed with a low bitrate and frame rate which results in a stuttery blurry mess even though it’s “full hd”

I’ve also seen very good SD streams before with high bit rate and 50fps which was a much more enjoyable viewing experience!

There’s also some IPTV providers out there that will take a low quality source and re-stream it as “1080p 50fps” to fool people into thinking it’s better than what it is!

 

[Rowan88]

Yeah my Rangers TV is 720p 25fps, sometimes it goes to 1080p but still 25fps.

Dont think ive ever seen a RTV stream at 50/60hz.

 

[Aristotle]

100% this!

Picture quality isn’t just about the resolution, you also need to consider the frame rate and the bit rate.

I’ve seen “full hd” 1080p channels streamed with a low bitrate and frame rate which results in a stuttery blurry mess even though it’s “full hd”

I’ve also seen very good SD streams before with high bit rate and 50fps which was a much more enjoyable viewing experience!

Yes I have tested and monitored bit rate on my suppliers iptv channels and they seem very similar.
It is important but out of the users control as is frame rate and resolution, other than the upscaling that your hardware can achieve.
The higher the better in all cases including resolution

There’s also some IPTV providers out there that will take a low quality source and re-stream it as “1080p 50fps” to fool people into thinking it’s better than what it is!

That is the problem with IPTV and providers vary on the quality that you are receiving.
I think that’s why you have a lot of users on here into satellite because the quality is probably better than what you can get on IPTV.
Though still dependent on resolution, frame rate and refresh rate.
Also dependent on the quality of your hardware.

 

[Rowan88]

Thanks for all the info.

Right now ive got Firestick on Auto.

In terms of Tivimate im swapping between AFR ON (use TV upscaling) or OFF (use firestick upscaling) and so far I feel the TV does it better. The black screen switching is the only complaint.

But I will test more to confirm all this.

Then its down to does Shield warrant the purchase to beat the TV upscaling.

 

[Aristotle]

Thanks for all the info.

Right now ive got Firestick on Auto.

In terms of Tivimate im swapping between AFR ON (use TV upscaling) or OFF (use firestick upscaling) and so far I feel the TV does it better. The black screen switching is the only complaint.

But I will test more to confirm all this.

Then its down to does Shield warrant the purchase to beat the TV upscaling.

AFR has nothing to do with resolution upscaling so I wouldn’t worry about it, but I still use it so that the correct frame rate is being used to match the incoming image.
This will help stop the image juddering.

 

[gaz82]

Agree with the above, you want to keep AFR on to avoid stuttering.

 

[Rowan88]

So I should keep AFR on and always have Switch Refresh Rate on so that matches the FPS to reduce stuttering.

But I turn on/off the Switch Screen Resolution if I want TV or Firestick to upscale?

 

[Aristotle]

So I should keep AFR on and always have Switch Refresh Rate on so that matches the FPS to reduce stuttering.

But I turn on/off the Switch Screen Resolution if I want TV or Firestick to upscale?

I would say try to match them both FPS and resolution.
What I can’t say is which device will handle resolution upscaling better, only you can see that for yourself.

 

[Rowan88]

Ok so either both on or both off.. tv vs firestick.

Cheers

 

[Aristotle]

Ok so either both on or both off.. tv vs firestick.

Cheers

I have them on with my device but I can’t change them on my LG TV.
But the TV knows what image resolution and FPS it is receiving when they are on.
Then processes it how it needs to.
I don’t use Amazon devices but just set resolution to Auto and it hopefully will match incoming image and the same with AFR.
Not sure how well the auto resolution or AFR works on firesticks.
AFR will not effect upscaling but the TV needs to know what resolution the image it is receiving from the Firestick so auto will switch it to correct resolution and the TV will receive the image and upscale it if is not a 4k image.
AFR should help with judder on the image as it is switching to the correct frame rate.
This how it should work whether it is doing that, is another matter.

Edit.
Try it with them on and off if there is no difference in image quality then choose which suits you best.

 

[Alex456]

Annoyingly with both my Shield and my stick I have to manually adjust depending on content, I hoped that having automatic resolution and frame rate adjust on, would be fine but especially when watching Sky Sports through now if I don't have it set to a 50HZ resolution, then the picture seems slightly juddery, presume even though I have it set to automatic resolution and frame rate matching on it just sets to 60HZ.

 

[Aristotle]

Annoyingly with both my Shield and my stick I have to manually adjust depending on content, I hoped that having automatic resolution and frame rate adjust on, would be fine but especially when watching Sky Sports through now if I don't have it set to a 50HZ resolution, then the picture seems slightly juddery, presume even though I have it set to automatic resolution and frame rate matching on it just sets to 60HZ.

That sounds like it doesn’t work correctly.
On my device if I watch a European channel 50hz 50fps then the frame rate switches to 50fps.
If I watch a US channel 60hz 60fps then the frame rate switches to 60fps.
I use my device’s resolution and AFR matching.
If you have Tivimate try using the resolution and AFR matching on that instead of your device’s and see the results.
But don’t have the device and Tivimate resolution and AFR matching on together.