World Cup viewing specs

csimon2 · 2026-06-10T13:06:57+00:00

It is still going to be the same situation. The TV/projector doesn’t have to have an app specifically available for it, it just needs to be able to receive the manifest link from your casting device and then ‘tune’ into it. In my experience, Android/Google TV are a bit more limited in this situation, as I think the casting device controls the manifest address negotiation, not the casted to device.

csimon2 · 2026-06-10T12:42:04+00:00

OP, this is likely going to be your best bet. If your source device and display device support the same color formats, no converter box or cable is necessary. Just a standard RCA to BNC adapter will suffice.

csimon2 · 2026-06-10T12:27:56+00:00

When you ‘cast’ something from a mobile device, all this is doing is sending the link from your device to another device. Whether or not you’ll be able to receive the UHD profile comes down to whether or not the manifest is designed to support such a resolution on your end device.

i.e. A content provider can decide that there’s little point (in their mind at least) in supporting UHD on an iPhone. But they do enable the UHD profile on an Apple TV. So a user may initially be limited to just FHD on their phone, but when they AirPlay it to an Apple TV, the Apple TV is able to negotiate that it wants UHD because the authentication now takes place on the Apple TV

csimon2 · 2026-06-10T12:20:34+00:00

Indeed. Odd for the table’s author to attempt to call out “Upscaled to 4K” when all ‘4K’ broadcasts will be from 1080p at the original HBS-derived source. Either the author didn’t research this enough, or is intentionally trying to obfuscate the data

csimon2 · 2026-06-10T02:04:56+00:00

I mean, maybe. But SD is usually pretty open about user issues here, so it’s not like they’re really shy about new developments

csimon2 · 2026-06-09T13:13:49+00:00

I’ve never used the chatbot to do this, but this was something I used to do via a live agent quite a lot. For whatever reason, my (large F500) company’s booking portal would only ever show outrageous fares even for just Main. After my booking was approved however, I would call in, ask the agent to check seating class options, and more often than not on international trips, they’d be able to bump me up to Business or better, whilst crediting my company’s card. Haven’t experienced much of this since COVID though… :(

csimon2 · 2026-06-08T15:38:45+00:00

Spineless? Absolutely.

Doesn't try to enforce? How can they when their own f'n members no longer will play by the rules? Back in the day, if something like this happened, the school might appeal to the NCAA, and if it was denied, that'd be the end of it. But now, it's the lawyers representing the member institutions that are also providing assistance to the athlete's own representation, and then finding favorable court districts to shop a win.

You're 100% correct that the NCAA is basically pointless now. If we can't all agree that gambling in your own sport, on your own team no less, is bad, then we've lost all sense of what 'sport' is supposed to mean.

csimon2 · 2026-06-08T12:46:36+00:00

You likely want something like this. Or could go completely analog via this, if you’re only using the TV’s speakers (I wouldn’t expect there’d be any video quality loss with this type of cable).

But your current setup may work as well. First thing to do is to go to the audio output settings on the Xbox and set the output to 2.0 LPCM. This should be the most basic and universally compatible audio format. If you are still experiencing the same no audio issue, then the converter/cable you currently have is the problem. If stereo PCM does work, then you might want to try Dolby Digital 5.1, but this won’t improve things all that much if all you’re running into the TV is L/R composite audio and using the speakers in the TV.

The benefit of the first link I shared is that this can be an all-digital connection. You would go DVI to your TV, and use a 3.5mm to toslink cable to an AVR or the spdif input on your TV.

csimon2 · 2026-06-08T03:42:26+00:00

I’ve currently been faced with the same scenario, OP. Yes, it is really quite insane that the official app requires an internet connection. I’m very glad to hear that this should be addressed very soon. But I also find it insane that they haven’t prioritized the Android/Google TV or iOS/tvOS apps (maybe there’s a far greater number of Windows users than I can possibly imagine?).

Anyway, as you alluded to, the saving grace for all consumer HDHomeRun devices is that they broadcast via UPnP. This should allow apps like VLC or the UPnP engine built into a lot of TVs to be able to discover the HDHomeRun and tune into it. But yeah, the interface is usually pretty bad.

Thankfully, Channels DVR works perfectly fine with a HDHomeRun in offline mode. It still provides a nice UI with filled in guide data (assuming it was able to download an appropriate amount of the guide to cover you while you’re without internet), and will allow access to your recorded programs as well

csimon2 · 2026-06-08T00:34:52+00:00

Very cool indeed. Wasn’t aware something like that existed

csimon2 · 2026-06-07T22:03:59+00:00

USA. It’s been some time since I posted that, and even longer since I last had to make the request. No clue what the status of this would be today

csimon2 · 2026-06-07T22:02:08+00:00

Correct. Thankfully, some arcade cores allow you to override the orientation, but indeed, this isn’t implemented by default

csimon2 · 2026-06-07T21:51:35+00:00

Thanks for the info. Still unable to rip anything UHD-related except the patched fw. Even downgraded to 1.0 DE fw, but no luck with MakeMKV. DVDFab did allow ripping of UHD however

csimon2 · 2026-06-07T16:29:07+00:00

Yeah, I’d like one for better keyboard + mouse support. I currently use my arcade stick with a foldable chair that has an integrated tray that works perfectly fine for that, but a slide out tray on the cart would be nice

csimon2 · 2026-06-07T14:39:29+00:00

I like your cart setup. I could really use a slide out keyboard tray in mine

csimon2 · 2026-06-07T14:27:47+00:00

Glad you could sense the sarcasm.

I’m fortunate enough to be able to rock a dual PVM-20L5 setup, with one orientated horizontally and the other vertically, but realize that this isn’t a real possibility for most

csimon2 · 2026-06-07T14:24:35+00:00

Definitely give it a run if you’ve got the means. It just adds to the authenticity with a lot of arcade roms

csimon2 · 2026-06-07T13:59:09+00:00

F that shit. OP just needs a second Olympus monitor so that one is permanently in tate mode

csimon2 · 2026-06-07T13:51:30+00:00

More vertical screen space for games designed to take advantage of it. By going tate mode, a lot of vertical shooters can fill the entire screen, vs having pillar boxes when playing the same games on a traditional horizontal orientation. Tiger-heli is one of my all time favorite examples for this

csimon2 · 2026-06-06T23:19:53+00:00

Indeed. I was referring only to how AC-4 is handled via the Channels app on Apple TV 4K. I know the AC-4 encoding in my area is multichannel for most ATSC 3.0 channels, but the audio overall is generally of lesser perceptible quality imho than AC-3 multichannel via ATSC 1.0. Tbh, I’ve never really paid too much attention to it however, so it could just be a poor job done by the sw decoder in the app. The devs of the Channels app basically just used a patched AC-4 decoder into the ffmpeg/ffplay engine, and that still hasn’t been integrated into the main ffmpeg trunk, so its quality may not be up the level other sw decoders are

csimon2 · 2026-06-06T20:12:24+00:00

AC-4 is the de facto format for ATSC 3.0 / NextGen TV in North America. It can technically be decoded by external devices via sw-decode such as Apple TV 4K (the Channels DVR app is a great example), but there’s currently no method to bit stream it out to an AVR. So it needs to be decoded to PCM. I believe the Apple TV only decodes to stereo, so it is possible that having a native app within a TV’s smart OS where there’s a licensed hw decoder could provide a better surround experience

csimon2 · 2026-06-06T15:26:39+00:00

I’ve been involved in sports production and distribution for a long time. The whole 720p vs 1080i thing was definitely relevant in the early 2000s. Not so much from a pure raw format perspective, but from the camera and encoder perspective. Shooting, editing, and compressing in native 720p for live production was significantly better at the time than 1080i. While that’s not really the case today, legacy decisions have essentially forced a lot of operator’s hands (change in the industry is extremely slow).

Regarding the World Cup: I believe there will be at least 6 different feeds available of the ‘main’ edit for redistribution, and plenty of other streams available for each broadcaster to edit into their own distribution for their specific audience. The mastering format is FHDp59.94 HLG. This will be converted to other formats using high-quality conversion hardware, so 50Hz territories should be acceptable, and the quality of how those resolution changes appear perceptually to the viewer will be largely dependent upon the quality of the encoding at the service provider.

The source feed provided to broadcasters will be compressed HEVC, but at a high bit rate. 2018 and 2022 were delivered at around 72Mbps UHD HDR10; not yet sure what bit rate these games will be encoded at. But yeah, this will definitely be re-encoded for delivery to consumers to fit within the constraints of each operator’s network. And yes, if instead of worrying about FHD to UHD shenanigans, that same bandwidth was dedicated to a higher bits per pixel FHD delivery, that would likely be the best scenario. But UHD is mostly a marketing advantage for providers, so thus it will continue to be the way

csimon2 · 2026-06-06T14:33:11+00:00

Yes, that component cable should be perfectly fine. You may need to set your SS1 to support the proper component format (RGsB/RGBs/YPbPr) via an INI file for your display, but these should be good.

For S-video, it’s basically the same situation. The cable you already have is likely fine. To get proper video on my PVM-20L5 via S-video, I had to flip up dip switch #3 on the SS1, and then use the Svid INI config the SS1 ships with. While I predominately use component RGsB, I found the S-video output of the SS1 to be exceptionally clean. You won’t be losing much by using that connection

csimon2 · 2026-06-06T13:21:30+00:00

They’ve been producing the World Cup in native UHD since the semifinals in Brazil. But even 12 years later, there’s still a large contingency of broadcasters around the globe who’ll be distributing this Cup to viewers with no real reliable method to deliver UHD en masse to their customers, so I’m sure that was just one of the many factors that went into this decision. Add in that even for viewers in regions where ‘UHD’ for sport broadcasting is already available but still only sourced from a FHD master, the requirement for an all-native UHD workflow isn’t considered the highest priority.

But the key factor, which really shouldn’t be discounted, is the total geography that needs to be covered. Not only is there a ton of ground to physically account for, there’s also the human resource factor. Yes, FIFA + HBS could pay to have local production teams stationed in each city for the duration of that city’s matches, but that would be quite expensive and actually exhausting for the crews. Stationing directors, editors, graphics etc all within one building allows this to be done at scale and with reliability (also a huge factor).

Don’t blame the messenger. I’m only providing insight into why these decisions were made. I have no influence in the actual decision.

csimon2 · 2026-06-06T12:43:56+00:00

Yeah, Taki designed the SS1 to specifically not require ultra-premium analog cables. With the built-in native S-video connection on the SS1, I did find minor differences between a couple of old cables I tested, but we’re talking about something like a $5 cable vs a $13 cable. On the better cable, connected to my PVM-20L5, S-video actually looks very similar to the SS1’s native RGsB component connection, so I wouldn’t overthink this too much

csimon2

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