AS 1.1.0. Prime - Disappearing Resolutions

[zanetti]

ok, so here's a weird one. prime video. britbox prime channel. yes minister TV series. episode 1,2,3 of season 1 highest resolution reported in AS is 768*576, the next lower one is 720*576. episode four of the same season, all of a sudden two more resolutions appear: 960*720 and 1440*1080! BUT, 720*576 disappears!

download 768*576 224kbps DD+ stereo audio = 220mb file (avg/max bitrate 829kbs/2471kbs)
download 1440*1080 224kbps DD+ stereo audio = 2.18gb file (avg/max bitrate 10.4 Mbs/15.4 Mbs)
also, 768*576 reports Main@L3.1 while 1440*1080 reports High@L4.

same thing happens with episode 5, both higher resolutions available and 720*576 is dropped. but then episode 6 loses those two higher resolutions, but gains the 720*576 and finally episode 7 doesnt have those two highest resolutions AND it drops 720*576.

since the thread about file sizes fluctuating immensely during a season (be it on NF or prime) is dead now (with last reply providing some info from neftlix's blog about resolutions blah blah), i'm not sure what to think now. i'd like to think there's nothing wrong with AS, but am not so sure now. ok, i can accept that episodes with complex scenes can yield a bigger file size, but this is now becoming really weird.

on the other hand, i've snagged some documentaries from PBS prime channel, 1080p, and all the files were about the right size, give or take 200-300mb on a 2-3gb file. no disappearing resolutions. the day before, i've also snagged something from britbox on prime, and there too i've had instances of resolutions disappearing (three seasons, 20 episodes in total, it happened two or three times).

now, is this britbox problem, or AS problem? how could britbox do such a crappy job of offering 10-15mbit stream for two episodes, and much lower bitrates for the rest of the season? also, what about those disappearing resolutions between episodes?

am providing logs for both 768*576 (small) and 1440*1080 (large) downloads of the same episode (s01e04). can someone try this on their end? britbox has a 7 day trial, so you don't have to pay for anything. would like to know is it me, is it britbox, is it AS, what is going on???? i mean, a 220mb 1500kbs file looks fine, but a 2.18gb 12Mbs file looks waaaay better, even if we're dealing with a TV show from way back in 1981.

thank you!

 

[Don922]

First, you should upgrade to v1.1.1.1. It fixes a lot of issues. Second, AS can only display what is provided to it in the manifest presented by the provider. In other words it can only offer what the provides says is available.

 

[Prospere]

@zanetti Thank you for the log files!

First, please do as @Don922 suggests - using the latest version is always better, as it gives us more logging and contains fixes that eliminate certain issues found in previous builds.

However, the situation you are describing in your post is hardly related to any bug in AnyStream. Neither does it mean that you are doing something wrong. The logs seem OK. Both of them. Except just one thing - both logs report the same playlist (MPD file) name and location, however, in each case, the content of the MPD is different. We surely will investigate this and, should we find that we can somehow influence this, such thing will be implemented.

 

[zanetti]

hi, thanks for the reply.

first of all, i've upgraded to 1.1.1.1 i've then proceeded to download s01e04 and s01e05 in both 1440 (large) and 768 (small) resolutions and am providing 1.1.1.1 log files for those. also, i've noticed that in season 2, episode 4 was also magically available in 1440, but others (including s02e05) were not. season 3 had all episodes capped out at 768 resolution, so no shenanigans there. i'm also providing 1.1.1.1 logs for both 1440 (large) and 768 (small) s02e04.

also, i'd like to ask someone to check all of this on their end, as i've said, britbox on prime has a free 7 day trial, so if anyone is willing to help out, that would be greatly appreciated. i'm really wondering whether the same thing will manifest there too. it would be great if we could get to compare different locations (US vs EU vs Other etc), maybe it's a regional thing, who knows.

also, i'd like to find out what resolution and bitrate those episodes are running at when played in firefox, on both windows 7 and windows 10. is there a way to find out? i've checked prime settings, and video quality is set to 'best' in general settings, thought maybe it was set to auto and therefore that might somehow confuse AS, but nope. if AS is pulling those from prime manifest, or whatever it's called, i'm really curious which of those resolutions and bitrates are delivered when watching through a web browser, or via roku, or firetv etc. i'm perfectly aware all these services usually do a pi__ poor job of converting these oldschool 4:3 TV series to digital for streaming (e.g. a lot of interlacing, jagged edges, weird framerate issues, horrible pan judder, incomplete subtitles - only fools and horses on britbox even has some weird effect where every now and then the entire picture would start to wobble, really weird and strange, i suggest people check it out), but to offer a 12mbps stream for only one or two episodes out of 25 and the rest at 768 max, now that's a first. that's not even any sort of 'optimization pet title' voodoo, right?

anyways, thank you. much appreciated. cheers.

edit: ive just started downloading top gear UK which is available on prime, not via britbox channel, and same thing. s02e01 available in max resolution of 960*520 and s02e02 in max resolution of 720*576. funny thing, first one ends up being 851mb in size, while the second one ends up being 1.06gb in size. k, whats going on????

 

[0x0x0x0x0]

Resolutions really aren't "everything" with old material. For example, I pulled BBC's Hustle @1080p and it looks worse than scaled-up 576p DVDs that I have. With some other old US shows, I ended up getting 480p because that looked way better than prime's 1080p even when scaled up on an iPad Pro, so mileage does vary, and perhaps there's a reason why neither flix nor d+ bother to scale up old material... Another show I'm getting is offered at 540p and 576p (as well as the usual 720p and 1080p), and I am leaning toward getting the 540p because it just looks crisper and the HD/FHD versions have ghosting/ringing artefacts from upscaling...

As for things that might not be there, if you go File->Show log messages, you will see the MPD manifest AS relies on, you can download that file yourself in any web browser and see what resolutions are really offered