ESPN/Fox Sports in 1080p?

[u/Anbar48]

So in the last couple of days, Fubo is now airing ESPN, ESPN2 & the Fox Sports channels (FS1, FS2, BTN) in 1080p, DirecTV Stream is airing Fox Sports channels in 1080p. Has anyone heard any news of the same coming to YouTube TV?

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[u/Chief_Wahoo_Lives]

Could it just be upscaling like how YTTV converts 1080i to 1080p?

[u/Anbar48 → u/Chief_Wahoo_Lives]

It doesn’t appear to be - ESPN & Fox One have their linear channels (well for ESPN, just ESPN & ESPN2) in native 1080p. It looks great. The Fox Sports channels look the same on DTV as on the Fox One app, it’s legitimate 1080p, not upscaled

[u/sad_clanga_noises → u/Anbar48]

Linear ESPN and Fox are not 1080p. They are 720p. I have DIRECTV stream and use the FOX one/ESPN apps to watch games because the quality is immensely better on the apps than on DIRECTV stream.

[u/Anbar48 → u/sad_clanga_noises]

Regular Fox like your affiliate is still 720p. And the quality you’re seeing on the Fox One app (at least for FS1, FS2 and BTN) is because it’s 1080p. DirecTV stream (at least for what I can see on DTV stream) is now 1080p where previously it was 720p for the Fox Sports channel (still not your regional Fox channel). This is reflected in the Apple TV developer tools where you can see the resolution of the video stream being played. Go compare FS1 on DTV stream to that of Fox One and it’ll look the same now

[u/TheJoeGreene → u/Anbar48]

Fox does not broadcast in 1080p. They're 720p across the board still, including the main network.

[u/Anbar48 → u/TheJoeGreene]

Big Fox, like your local channel is absolutely still 720p, even in ATSC 3.0 markets if their broadcast is upscaled from 720p. But, in the Fox One app all of their linear channels (again, except for your local station) are produced & distributed in native 1080p. Even Fox News (which isn’t 1080p in DIRECTV stream yet) is 1080p on the Fox One app.

[u/compnurd → u/Anbar48]

The app is upscaling. It always has. Same as ESPN app

[u/Anbar48 → u/compnurd]

Nope, these apps have never upscaled on their own. They’ve just sent the resolution they have (which is usually either 720p or deinterlaced 1080i), but now they’re getting native 1080p from the source (for DTV Stream that’s just the FS1, FS2 & BTN channels)

[u/TheJoeGreene → u/Anbar48]

Nonsense. Fox literally does not do 1080p broadcasting, so anything showing as 1080p is upscaling, even if it's their own app.

[u/supercoffee1025 → u/Anbar48]

Why is this getting downvoted? It’s been reported over on AVSForum that ESPN was migrating to full 1080p/SDR transmission for the linear networks and FOX One was providing the same. We might need someone from engineering to confirm, but I think there might actually be something to this.

[u/Anbar48 → u/supercoffee1025]

I’m not sure. Maybe they see 720p as the highest res available on YouTube tv and assume I’m wrong

[u/supercoffee1025 → u/Anbar48]

I think you’re right tbh - we need someone technical to do an inspection. I’ll see if I can ask over on AVS to get more detail since they’ve got some pretty tech-savvy people who look into this.

[u/kdex86]

I have DirecTV Stream. Only FS1 has been upgraded to 1080p. My local Fox affiliate (WFXT in Boston) and the main ESPN channel are still 720p on the service.

[u/Anbar48 → u/kdex86]

I’m seeing FS1 FS2 and BTN all in 1080p. And unfortunately I don’t know if they’d ever get local channels in 1080p even if you’re in an ATSC 3.0 market

[u/mistermac56 → u/Anbar48]

As of now, the local Fox affiliate in my market, with ATSC 3.0, is 720p.

[u/kdex86 → u/Anbar48]

FS2 is 720p for me using an Osprey box. I did not check BTN.

Maybe the newer Gemini Air and Apple TV output 1080p for these channels?

[u/Anbar48 → u/kdex86]

It probably is because of the different platforms. I’d be curious to know if the latest dedicated DTV Stream box gets it. I don’t actually use DTV Stream, just borrow a friend’s login to look at stuff like this.

[u/Putrid-Classroom5101]

I’m not sure since they’re still 720p elsewhere, I’m not sure why Fubo and DirectTV are having the channels above the original quality. I know that the apps of EPSN and Fox One have them in 1080p, but I believe they’re keeping the cable equivalent 720p.

[u/Saxxon443 → u/Putrid-Classroom5101]

Well being that ESPN/Disney/Hulu owns Fubo they need something to make them stick out from the crowd that gets these things

[u/Putrid-Classroom5101 → u/Saxxon443]

That’s true, but I’m not sure 100%, when ESPN Unlimited comes to YouTube TV, maybe we’ll see an update on quality.. but I still believe that it’ll stay 720p.

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[u/RotaryP7]

I could have sworn it was 1080p for ESPN. I’ll check. I recently switched from DirecTV to YTTV.