I am using an Amazon FireTV Box and the Tablo app as my OTT connection. On the FireTV, there is an option to change the output display resolution to “Automatic”, allowing the application to adjust the resolution as necessary to the native source. When Netscape, for example, streams at 720p, while Amazon video streams at 1080p- but switching between the two, the resolution changes accordingly before being output to the Television
This does not appear to be the case with the Tablo app- the incoming resolution appears to always be 1080p. So my question is this- what’s the value in running a 10 Mbps transcode rate, where 720p sports programs will be transcoded at 720p@60, if that feed ends up being scaled to 1080p?
Does the Roku player handle output resolutions differently?
The main benefit is that it is the only way to record 60fps video on the Tablo.
I personally cannot tell any difference between 720p video upscaled to 1080p or 1080i video upscaled to 1080p and then downscaled to 720p on one of my TVs. The automatic scalers on TVs and the streaming boxes do a fine job as is.
As for the Roku, it depends on whether you have a 4k tv set and a 4k supporting Roku. If you don’t, then whatever setting you set the Roku for will be used for all channels. If you have a 4k set and a 4k Roku, then it will display 4k content when available and 1080p for all other programs.