Updated 26 Nov 2013: A workaround has been found, which can force the Xbox One to output 50Hz instead of 60Hz, therefore removing any noticeable judder in TV programmes for UK and European users. We’ve published the precise instructions here.
Microsoft’s Xbox One next-generation console launched to great fanfare yesterday, with more than 1 million units sold within 24 hours. One of the most heavily advertised features of the Xbox One is its ability to integrate live TV feed from your set-top box, be it terrestrial (Freeview HD), satellite (Freesat or Sky) or cable (Virgin Media) broadcast. However, since receiving their consoles yesterday, a number of British owners have complained about the TV integration feature being broken, due to the introduction of judder with 50Hz content.
Before delving into why this is happening, first let us explain how the TV integration feature on the Xbox One works. Essentially the home entertainment console acts as a HDMI passthrough device: its HDMI input port will accept the output from a set-top box (for example, a Sky+HD box), and then display the content on your TV either in full-screen mode, within the dashboard, or together with other apps using the Xbox One’s multitasking capability (dubbed “Snap” by Microsoft).
The problem is that the native frame rate of the Xbox One is 60Hz, but the United Kingdom and Europe use a 50hz broadcasting system, which is the result of the historical use of PAL and SECAM analogue broadcasting systems. To display a 50Hz video signal on a 60Hz system, a process called frame rate conversion (FRC) needs to take place, which at the best of times will incur some judder. Depending on the implementation and also the original resolution (720p or 1080i), viewers may notice dropped/skipped frames or stutter especially during panning shots in fast-action sports material such as live football broadcast.
Roger Tinsley, a web developer in Northern Ireland, told HDTVTest about his experience when watching Sky Sports through his shiny new Xbox One:
The score ticker was juddery during Soccer Saturday, and Spanish football was dropping frames when the camera was panning.
While users in the USA won’t be affected by this issue since their NTSC broadcast system is 60Hz-based, UK and European owners of the Xbox One will be hoping that Microsoft will soon release a software update to at least enable judder-free display of 50Hz broadcast material in full-screen mode, even though this may entail some sort of re-handshake with the TV. It’s very unlikely that the “Snapped” mode can be totally smooth when 50Hz content is used as one of the sources, because ultimately the screen can only display at one refresh rate which is more likely than not to be 60Hz.
This is a strange report, I was watching Sky TV all evening (Saturday , specifically Dr Who on BBC 1 HD) and saw none of this juddering at all. I will say that I did notice a slight delay when TV app opened, where a static frame of Sky was shown for maybe 2-3 seconds but no other issues at all.
This was the first thing I noticed when I plugged my Sky HD in, especially when watching the F1, it was almost as if it was running in slow motion. Hopefully this is just a software fix to correct it when full screen, it’s not a problem when snapped. Really disappointing!
The judder is there, its a technical problem that will affect all uk users. Its seems the bluray player in xb1 will switch to 24hz (when selected) when in full screen but switch back to 60hz when snapped. We need the xb1 to default to 50hz when watching tv in full screen mode, the xb1 will then default back to 60hz when snapping apps over tv. 60hz in snap mode seems like an issue we will have to live with but we defo need 50hz in full screen mode.
Really disappointed with this, the integration with Sky was an important feature for me and is unusable. I’ve been getting headaches very quickly whilst watching football. Along with the requirement for being on Xbox Live Gold for “free” things like Skype and Internet Explorer, lack of 3D Bluray support and at times dubious Kinect voice controls I’m gonna send it back unless this problem is fixed soon.
This is total bullshit. …..mine works fine….the reason why people are experiencing difficulties is because they have not configured their sky boxes to match output settings on xbox one…. it really is not rocket science
Do HDTV Test follow console news? MS have been reporting for months that this will not be a fully working feature in Europe until early to mid 2014. Click-bait.
@mo
There is no 60hz output on the Sky box, and even if there was, it would introduce the same problem. You’re thinking of the option to change spatial resolution, not temporal.
Suffering from this myself although setting the sky box to 720p helps a little i hope a fix is out soon.
Furry, i think your mistaken, the only feature that is missing and supposed to be implemented early 2014 is the OneGuide, pass through was supposed to be fully functional.
@ FurryLippedSquid, your talking about the TV guide feature not the TV Integration.
There is a forum thread for further discussion on this and many other subjects here:
http://forums.hdtvtest.co.uk/
hope it gets solved soon. It’s not like they didn’t know it was going to be different in europe..surely they knew that before release.
I bet it doesn’t get solved till we get the guide feature 6 months down the line if we lucky
Hi
To be very honest Microsoft did say they did not support UK or certain other country boxes. There’s one problem with the 50hz/60Hz issue but its also because of Sky, Virgin and others having incompatible cable/satellite protocols. For example it does not always pass the EPG via HDMI 1.4a on CEC. Secondly Microsoft said they will not be able to support these variations till later next year. I guess they need to develop more versatile frame rate conversion.
Buyer beware, you bought blind and did not read the correct technical reviews and bulletins by Microsoft. In this case Microsoft is not at fault. Bear in mind no one has yet tried to unify all TV signals through a console system yet, so it’s not surprising.
I have a solution.
My Xbox One is currently outputting 1080 50p
So 50Hz is possible.
It was 60p but I changed the settings to auto detect HDMi and then set the resolution to 1080p and then selected no when the option appeared for does this display correctly. It then defaulted to 50p.
I get no noticeable judder with a Humax Freesat HD box plugged in the back of my Xbox One. Why does it not affect me?
I haven’t got my xbone yet, what functionality do we have in this country at the mo with sky for example? I know we dont have a guide yet but can you change channel? Can you pause live tv?
@ Joe
None, there is no control or functionality with Sky at the moment.
It just passes the HDMI signal through.
The Xbox One can be set up to control your TV and Sound System to turn them off/on or control volume by voice commands or smartglass but that is it at the moment. Sky integration is supposed to be coming at some point in the future.
@kevgallacher Ok, thanks very much. In all the videos I’ve seen posted online you can see pause, rewind options at the bottom… does it not even allow pausing of content passed through hdmi? What happens if you select pause?
This option is not available in the UK yet, you have to have a compatible TV service.
Well that’s stupid! you’d think it would just store the last half hour on the hard drive and pause on the xbox.
No judder issues here. I have a Sky HD box set to output 1080i/50, connected to my Xbox One, which is outputting it’s default 1080p/60 signal. I see no judder on live TV at all. I’ve looked and looked, and tried to see the issue, but there just is no issue for me?
I’m happy that there isn’t an issue for me, but wonder why other people are having problems?
Could my TV be correcting the problem? I have 2010 Panasonic HDTV that does frame interpolation to double the frame rate and give a smoother picture. Could it be correcting the judder I wonder?