Upload (TV series - Amazon)

[Neil]

Watched a few episodes and so far it's been fairly clever/funny... Concerned how long it can keep the idea working for though...

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[MinionZombie]

First time hearing of this show - looks kinda cool.

Let us know how the rest of the season goes.

[Neil]

First time hearing of this show - looks kinda cool.

Let us know how the rest of the season goes.

It has got some great dark observational bits of humour in it... But as I said, not sure how long it can string its great idea out for.

[bassman]

Just before I came here, I saw an article wherein they announced the second season has already been given the green light: https://www.joblo.com/movie-news/upload-earns-quick-season-2-renewal-at-amazon

Like MZ, today is the first time I’ve heard of this show. It’s crazy how we’ve now gotten to the point that there are too many original streaming shows to even keep up with.

[Neil]

At the very least the first 2-3 episodes are worth a watch just for how astute some of the dark humour is...

[MinionZombie]

Just finished watching season one last night.

The first couple of episodes are a bit rough, but it begins to find its footing more as the season goes on, establishing a more confident sense of tone and little side gags while also benefitting from an interesting relationship story at the heart of it and a drizzling of mystery.

Occasionally a few things look a bit too cheap (there's some particularly ropey green screen effects dotted throughout the show), but on the other hand the more we explore the digital afterlife world, the more intriguing it becomes.

Weirdly, despite having set up a new television to just how I want it (i.e. none of that 'smooth motion' bullshit they insist on defaulting to), the show looked absolutely terrible to begin with and I couldn't figure out why (everything else I had watched on Amazon Prime looked just fine) ... but then I found that, for some odd reason, "Upload" specifically needed to be tweaked. One, smooth motion needed turning off, but also the contrast/brightness needed sorting out (some scenes appeared so dark you could barely see a thing) - but when I twigged it might be the TV and I applied some tweaks to that specific 'device' (even though everything else I've watched on Prime looked great according to the existing settings). However, it does seem as if the show itself has some problems - there's a weird kind of 'ghosting' in some scenes, where 'outlines' appear to shimmer and fade out as people move in certain scenes, and the general contrast and colour palette seems a bit off. Even after fixing the insane level of darkness, some colours just look wrong (but, again, everything else on Prime/Netflix/Sky/etc looks absolutely fine).

Annnnnyway ... it's not "hilarious", but it does have a lot going for it and I have quite enjoyed it. It's not at the top of my watch list, but I'd definitely say it's worth a go and see how/if you dig it.

[Neil]

Just finished watching season one last night.

The first couple of episodes are a bit rough, but it begins to find its footing more as the season goes on, establishing a more confident sense of tone and little side gags while also benefitting from an interesting relationship story at the heart of it and a drizzling of mystery.

Occasionally a few things look a bit too cheap (there's some particularly ropey green screen effects dotted throughout the show), but on the other hand the more we explore the digital afterlife world, the more intriguing it becomes.

Weirdly, despite having set up a new television to just how I want it (i.e. none of that 'smooth motion' bullshit they insist on defaulting to), the show looked absolutely terrible to begin with and I couldn't figure out why (everything else I had watched on Amazon Prime looked just fine) ... but then I found that, for some odd reason, "Upload" specifically needed to be tweaked. One, smooth motion needed turning off, but also the contrast/brightness needed sorting out (some scenes appeared so dark you could barely see a thing) - but when I twigged it might be the TV and I applied some tweaks to that specific 'device' (even though everything else I've watched on Prime looked great according to the existing settings). However, it does seem as if the show itself has some problems - there's a weird kind of 'ghosting' in some scenes, where 'outlines' appear to shimmer and fade out as people move in certain scenes, and the general contrast and colour palette seems a bit off. Even after fixing the insane level of darkness, some colours just look wrong (but, again, everything else on Prime/Netflix/Sky/etc looks absolutely fine).

Annnnnyway ... it's not "hilarious", but it does have a lot going for it and I have quite enjoyed it. It's not at the top of my watch list, but I'd definitely say it's worth a go and see how/if you dig it.

Amazon I find "twitches" (stutters) frame wise for some programs and not others, while Netflix and other sources are smooth.

I thought the series had some great plays on modern culture and tech. I love the low bandwidth section of the hotel etc.

ps: I like a tad of the frame smoothing tech myself :)

[MinionZombie]

Amazon I find "twitches" (stutters) frame wise for some programs and not others, while Netflix and other sources are smooth.

I thought the series had some great plays on modern culture and tech. I love the low bandwidth section of the hotel etc.

ps: I like a tad of the frame smoothing tech myself :)

1) The stutters - do you mean like a very slight 'stop', of sorts, that is noticeable during smooth panning shots? I've seen that a lot on Netflix. I believe it comes down to frame rate conversions or something (NTSC vs PAL) IIRC.

2) Yeah, there were various bits that were quite interesting - like when they hopped into 'the dark web' and found that sort of digital bazar full of hacks and what not.

3) Frame smoothing is the Devil's work. It looks fucking horrendous. Much like that brief flirtation with 60fps cinematic exhibition. I don't want to watch TV or films that look like they were shot on someone's phone. That weird digital smoothing thing just looks downright weird. I cannot understand people who either like it, or don't notice the difference from how TV/film is supposed to look.

[Neil]

1) The stutters - do you mean like a very slight 'stop', of sorts, that is noticeable during smooth panning shots? I've seen that a lot on Netflix. I believe it comes down to frame rate conversions or something (NTSC vs PAL) IIRC.

2) Yeah, there were various bits that were quite interesting - like when they hopped into 'the dark web' and found that sort of digital bazar full of hacks and what not.

3) Frame smoothing is the Devil's work. It looks fucking horrendous. Much like that brief flirtation with 60fps cinematic exhibition. I don't want to watch TV or films that look like they were shot on someone's phone. That weird digital smoothing thing just looks downright weird. I cannot understand people who either like it, or don't notice the difference from how TV/film is supposed to look.

Yeh, panning shots show it worse. Little flutters/stutters/glitches regularly.

As for smoothing, maybe it depends on the technique, amount and viewer? I've spent sometime flicking between variations of it with films and TV etc, and find a small amount of it seems to work for me at least...

[MinionZombie]

Yeh, panning shots show it worse. Little flutters/stutters/glitches regularly.

As for smoothing, maybe it depends on the technique, amount and viewer? I've spent sometime flicking between variations of it with films and TV etc, and find a small amount of it seems to work for me at least...

Nah. Smoothing is still crap. Makes everything looked weirdly 'sped up', or expensive cameras look cheap AF.

[shootemindehead]

Amazon I find "twitches" (stutters) frame wise for some programs and not others, while Netflix and other sources are smooth.

I thought the series had some great plays on modern culture and tech. I love the low bandwidth section of the hotel etc.

ps: I like a tad of the frame smoothing tech myself :)


1) The stutters - do you mean like a very slight 'stop', of sorts, that is noticeable during smooth panning shots? I've seen that a lot on Netflix. I believe it comes down to frame rate conversions or something (NTSC vs PAL) IIRC.

PAL and NTSC don't really exist as an issue any more. It's all digital now.

The problem (usually) is with 24fps and some equipment struggles to play it back. The vast majority of media is in 23.976FPS*, which should play fine. Some is in 25fps, which should also play fine. There's also 29.976 too. But I've noticed that 24fps can cause a slight judder at regular intervals for some reason. It's the signal getting converted from it's 24fps to whatever the TV output is, which can be anything up to 60fps.

Check the settings on your TV. There should be a match frame rate option or something like that or a 1080p/24 option. It might eliminate the judder.




*Everything used to be 30fps on American TV transmissions when it was only a B+W signal sent to cathode ray sets. When colour came in, part of that signal had to be paired back to 29.976fps to allow the colour information to be transmitted first and then quickly followed by the regular B+W transmission. This is why that awkward .976fps exists today on various media. 23.976 is a derivative of that.

For a bizarre reason, though, some digital media today, including blu rays, get encoded at a straight 24fps as opposed to the 23.976fps that most equipment finds comfortable in reproducing and that can cause judder on some TV and playback devices. Strangely enough, I've noticed that it tends to be blu's produced in the UK and Europe that tend to go down the 24fps route. The vast majority of US blu rays are in 23.976.

The WD LIVE media player used to have this issue and it drove me nuts when I played back my ripped MKV's and MP4s. Even changing the TV signal wouldn't work. So, I had to remux the files to a 25fps rate to get rid of the problem. The media will play back at a slightly faster rate, but it's not noticeable.








This concludes Shoot's tech talk for this afternoon. :D

[Neil]

PAL and NTSC don't really exist as an issue any more. It's all digital now.

The problem (usually) is with 24fps and some equipment struggles to play it back. The vast majority of media is in 23.976FPS*, which should play fine. Some is in 25fps, which should also play fine. There's also 29.976 too. But I've noticed that 24fps can cause a slight judder at regular intervals for some reason. It's the signal getting converted from it's 24fps to whatever the TV output is, which can be anything up to 60fps.

Check the settings on your TV. There should be a match frame rate option or something like that or a 1080p/24 option. It might eliminate the judder.


I'm pretty sure my LG OLED has all these non-24fps rates (eg: 23.976). And I'm pretty sure (just) certain series on Amazon demonstrate the stutter for me, while Netflix as a rule is nice and smooth.

[MinionZombie]

Now, oddly enough, Netflix is where I tend to noticed the slight stutter in smooth panning shots. I've never had that issue with Blu-Rays at all. Although, some material on Netflix exhibits no stutter whatsoever on smooth panning shots. Very odd - must be down to how individual shows/movies are encoded.

"Smooth Motion" settings on TVs still looks like shite, though. Ruins the look of everything.

[shootemindehead]

I'm pretty sure my LG OLED has all these non-24fps rates (eg: 23.976). And I'm pretty sure (just) certain series on Amazon demonstrate the stutter for me, while Netflix as a rule is nice and smooth.

Your TV probably does have the ability to decode any of the usual signals, maybe even up to 120hz. Mine does too, but I still got judder with the WD Live TV box, because that was the issue and not the TV.

But, if it's only happening with "certain" TV shows/films, then it's almost certainly the 24fps problem somewhere along the line. Check the show's framerate. There are sites online that give out that info, I'm sure. If there's a setting on your TV that is 1080/24, then switch it to that when you're watching the judder show. Technically, that "should" eliminate the issue.

24fps has been a problem for years on home video equipment. It's fine when projected, because all the equipment is synced for that which is why you'd never see a movie juddering in a cinema.

- - - Updated - - -


Now, oddly enough, Netflix is where I tend to noticed the slight stutter in smooth panning shots. I've never had that issue with Blu-Rays at all. Although, some material on Netflix exhibits no stutter whatsoever on smooth panning shots. Very odd - must be down to how individual shows/movies are encoded.

"Smooth Motion" settings on TVs still looks like shite, though. Ruins the look of everything.

That slight stutter only on pans might just be the limitations of 24fps.

But there's also a judder issue that's a different problem. That will occur on shots that aren't simply panning and at regular intervals.

The interpolation settings you're talking about are probably best left off on teles. Why they introduced them in the first place is beyond me. Well, I know why, it's a marketing gimmick like most settings on a modern TV these days. To be honest, it's best to switch off most of the gimmicky crap that comes with a TV. The majority of them are not needed.

[MinionZombie]

The interpolation settings you're talking about are probably best left off on teles. Why they introduced them in the first place is beyond me. Well, I know why, it's a marketing gimmick like most settings on a modern TV these days. To be honest, it's best to switch off most of the gimmicky crap that comes with a TV. The majority of them are not needed.

Yeah, I turn that shit off - looks horrid. Same with those insanely high contrast presets (used in showrooms). It's so insanely over the top for your living room. I get that turned back to something natural.

I saw folks watching "Alita Battle Angel" with that smooth motion/interpolation stuff on and it was just so damn weird to look at. Couldn't understand why they didn't notice. It was so obviously looking not right.

[shootemindehead]

Yeah, I turn that shit off - looks horrid. Same with those insanely high contrast presets (used in showrooms). It's so insanely over the top for your living room. I get that turned back to something natural.

I saw folks watching "Alita Battle Angel" with that smooth motion/interpolation stuff on and it was just so damn weird to look at. Couldn't understand why they didn't notice. It was so obviously looking not right.

My mate had her tele like that for ages, til I snapped and turned everything off when she was out of the room one day. I don't think she ever actually noticed the changes. :lol:

But she watches TV shows more than films, so I suppose that "soap opera effect" just went over her head. Or it literally was just goggle box viewing that she did.