IPTV - quality of picture

[heyho]

I've had a Vu+ Uno for a while now and was thinking of retiring it to the bedroom. I am considering a replacement box and was looking at the possibility of an IPTV set. I know that the card sharing route (I am not endorsing this by the way) only allows channels such as Sky sports in SD. My question is, some of the IPTV subscription services advertise channels such as Sky Sports as HD. Is this true and what is peoples experience of the quality of IPTV with HD channels.

I find the HD channels I have on my Vu box (BBC, ITV etc) are fine even though the Vu 'only' outputs at 720p. My limited experience of IPTV through Kodi (the Beast) that is installed on my Android based Sony TV is that the picture quality is disappointing in general. A little juddery, blacks leech, grainy etc despite being advertised as 1080p.

[holmroad]

I find that many of the HD IPTV channels I watch via my MAG 250 are mostly watchable, but do sometimes seem a little jerky in HD (1080 or 720P), which I've always put down to my 'superfast' fibre broadband performance, rather than the MAG 250, OR my TM5402HD M3 quality of display, but in MY humble opinion the IPTV is nothing like the 'live' HD quality shown on both my Sky HD box or my TM5402HD M3!
Hope this makes sense?

[heyho]

Makes perfect sense holmroad and backs up what I am thinking

[BB Mac]

I have a mag 250 and 254 both the same really only difference mag 254 has built in wi-fi
Now to picture quality it really depends on server and sub as I've had sum trials and sum
We're better than others in the picture quality department. Looks best though on smaller
Tvs imo well under 40inch..Now tv with plex on HD channels was slightly better imo.
You can't beat a dedicated receiver as mentioned but for gadgets n streams these do a pretty
Good job for what they are.

[geoffh]

I watch iptv via the smart iptv app on my samsung tv and it all depends on what you are watching and when and if you have a good provider i.e.
watching cricket at 8.0 am in the the morning and the picture is almost as good as the real deal (films as well any at time).
Start watching 3.0 pm kick offs and that's when things start to deteriorate. its all down to the loading on your providers server and how good his server is.
Incidentally the better samsung blu-ray players now have access to this app so you don't need the telly.
Saves on the box count.

[heyho]

I must say I am liking the Kodi experience but with one MAJOR negative over the Satellite receiver route most of us like to play with on here. Namely the front end experience of managing potentially 100's of channels is so much better on Satellite. I use the Blue (SKY) skin and coupled with the brilliant and regularly maintained Catseyes channel list I am presented with an easy to navigate front end.

Yes the Kodi skins available are great but most IPTV providers (I don't subscribe but have tested) just give you a long single list containing 100's of channels. So hard to navigate.

Kodi does have the attraction of HD (and the IPTV suppliers I have tested are proving to be stable, flicker free and as well as either 720p or 1080p they have 5.1 surround) but until I can have an easily navigatable channel front end I am sticking with my Vu+ satellite receiver thank you very much. SD and all.

[3tv]

I find iptv pq acceptable on my small bedroom tv 43" sat/laying 14 feet away but the same content on the 65" down stairs it doesn't cut it. As long as your not viewing on a big screen or sat to close its fine. As for SD i'll only ever watch that on a tablet/phone