BT Sport has announced its first ever live mobile HDR stream will be the Champions League final in Madrid between Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool on Saturday, June 1. BT Sport subscribers will be able to watch the match in HDR via the BT Sport app for iPhone and Apple TV.

Screenshot 1
HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. HDR videos provide a broader range of colors and luminance compared to sub-HDR content, and the format also supports quality video playback on a wide variety of screen sizes.

Logged-in subscribers of the BT Sport app on an ‌iPhone‌ X, XS, XS Max, ‌Apple TV‌ 4K, or iPad Pro (2nd and 3rd generation) will be served with a tile on the homepage so they know the Champions League soccer final is available to them. Users without a HDR-capable device or logged-out users will see the normal tile on the homepage without any reference to HDR.

To AirPlay the match, users will need a capable TV to watch in HDR. The vast majority of 4K TVs sold in the last few years also support HDR. The app will detect HDR compatibility and serve the appropriate stream.

The Champions League final will also be available to non-BT Sport subscribers for free, though not in HDR. It will be shown on the mobile and large-screen apps, on BTSport.com and on YouTube. BT Sport's live coverage begins at 7pm on BT Sport 2 and BT Sport 4K UHD.

Apple debuted HDR support with the "Super Retina" display in the 2017 ‌iPhone‌ X, which became the first HDR OLED display incorporated into one of Apple's smartphones.

Apple also lists the ‌iPhone‌ 8, ‌iPhone‌ 8 Plus, and ‌iPhone‌ XR as supporting HDR, but the displays for these devices are not the same as the Super Retina display on Apple's OLED iPhones, so any HDR content played on the 8 or 8 Plus isn't true HDR.

BT Sport claims its live HDR coverage of the Champions League Final on a mobile device is a "world first," and says that going forward it plans to show up to 70 live sporting events in High Dynamic Range per season.

Top Rated Comments

Vado Avatar
75 months ago
It's embracing for NowTV/Sky that BT are dong this with their iOS/tvOS app and they have the absolute eyesore and utterly shambolic offering that is the NowTV app.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
johnyslats Avatar
75 months ago
Will have to watch minus the HDR as my EE trial literally just expired! COYS!
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jhfenton Avatar
75 months ago
COYS!
Can't smile without you! COYS!
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MrGimper Avatar
75 months ago
Can't smile without you! COYS!
COYS!! Can’t wait!
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
kendo88 Avatar
74 months ago
That could be due to your connection not being quick enough. Does it improve if you pause and allow it to buffer further?
Don’t think it’s connection, as the BT had both a SDR and HDR 50fps stream at 1080p.

If I set Apple TV to 1080p HDR, I was getting the 1080p HDR stream and the motion was perfect.

If I set Apple TV to 4K HDR, I was still getting the 1080p HDR stream but motion was poor.

I tried it on my Xbox One X and it was perfect
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Xenc Avatar
74 months ago
How frustrating! The connection is usually the culprit as 4K demands four times the bandwidth than 1080p, though it's strange that the Xbox could handle it with no issue. Was it the same 4K stream on Xbox too?

I wonder if this could help you: About frame rate and dynamic range matching on Apple TV ('https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT208288')

Good luck!
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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