F1 on Channel 4
Discussion
Mr Pointy said:
Utterly amazing. 
Vettle would make a great Otto Flick.
haggishunter said:
HustleRussell said:
Hate to break it to you but I am a Sky subscriber and C4 is better on the whole apart from the fact they don't have the whole race. I find C4's colour commentator Ben Edwards very annoying a lot of the time but he is at least correct much of the time. Sky's, 'Crofty', is not only every bit as annoying to listen to, he is also incompetent.
I couldn’t agree more with this. There comes a point though, at which I have had to reluctantly accept that the most important thing for me is to actually watch the race live. I like the buzz on social media and this forum as it plays out. So, I now pay. But it's not even about the money, I just preferred C4/BBC presentation overall.
Sky has Brundle at least, who is 90% wise and 10% difficult and irksome for his own amusement think. I'm reasonably happy overall, but of course I would vote to go back to all races with the C4 team on FTA in a heartbeat!
Hub said:
Why is the streaming quality of All4 so shocking? I'm watching on the laptop and it is diabolical, almost unwatchable. Can't see any settings anywhere so I don't think I'mm doing anything wrong!
It reduces quality to suit the bandwidth available on your connection. Run https://www.speedtest.net on the same connection and post the results here - generally you want a solid 4mbps connection speed for 720p HD and above. Which I definitely do get from All4. If by 'shocking' you mean it's buffering a lot then I would guess a very slow connection..Hub said:
No problem with my connection - 53mb download speed right now on that speedtest link!
Not buffering, just very low bit rate so it looks awful.
Weird. Unless, your ISP throttles certain types of data - such as streamed video. That's uncommon these days but I guess some still do. However, I can confirm as I just tested and even though I'm in Germany watching via a VPN connection, All4 is reaching HD(ish) no problems for me on my laptop! Certainly clear enough to watch F1 highlights and see exactly what's going on.Not buffering, just very low bit rate so it looks awful.
So perhaps google the issue or contact them.
Chrisgr31 said:
I agree. I generally find avoiding the result fairly easy as fans of F1 tend not to give the result without checking you have seen it. On the very odd occasion I find out the result its normally from someone that has zero interest in F1 and just blurts it out randomly!
I have to be quite careful... turn off the notifications on any news apps on my phone, avoid social media due motor sport channels and F1 teams/people that I'm following as well as a mate who has to parrot everything he sees on his Facebook page... avoid the news on TV & radio and avoid the screen in the cardio room at the gym that has Sky Sports on it!Hub said:
No problem with my connection - 53mb download speed right now on that speedtest link!
Not buffering, just very low bit rate so it looks awful.
I haven't used All4 this year since we've had Virgin TV. But in the past years when I had forgotten to record the F1 the quality on All4 had always been abysmal. That was with a great internet connection (70mb infinity then 200mb virgin) on a fast pc. All other streaming services; Amazon, iPlayer, 5 I tried looked great, but All4 was a pixelated mess, reminiscent of early YouTube. Not buffering, just very low bit rate so it looks awful.
Hub said:
Why is the streaming quality of All4 so shocking? I'm watching on the laptop and it is diabolical, almost unwatchable. Can't see any settings anywhere so I don't think I'mm doing anything wrong!
Amazingly All4 doesn't have an HD stream as far as I can tell! Pretty shocking, so I avoid. 
te, and the problem is not my ISP. Even on our 200meg leased line at work it looks crap. We could barely reading the timing.Hub said:
Yes, I tried a couple of other programmes and they looked ok, not HD but ok. The F1 specifically is really bad!
I just tried again, this time on my phone (Samsung) via the app. The picture looks ok, not full HD, but probably not far off. The times and driver names etc no problem reading.Maybe they reduce the quality when they first make the program available for streaming in order to cope with demand?
How is Button doing? From seeing him on Top Gear and a few grand prix buildup pieces where he drove old F1 cars, I always thought I'd like him on TV talking about cars or racing. He has an engaging and humorous way of describing things but also shows a passion or pleasure for driving. I had hoped he'd join the Top Gear team, but he went to Sky unfortunately, and I don't have Sky.
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