Is that possible that Stadia on PC runs worse than on CCU and Stadia uses different streams?
I've been playing Cyberpunk and Watch Dog legion on both TV and my PC. In my TV (LG 65" HDR 4k). On my TV they run just perfect. Crispy image, smooth motion, it seems to be running a 4k native resolution. Absolutely astonishing and perfect, I'm very satisfied with how they run. Good job Stadia team!
When, however, I run stadia on my pc (on a 2k monitor) the image quality is much worse. It is definitely less crisp and it seems to be running in a lower resolution. Even using some technique to force the 4k stream (like the stadia enhancer plugin for Chrome), has no benefit.
I've also tried some other suggested solutions (like disabling the hardware acceleration, running Edge, running incognito mode, and so on...), but no difference at all.
So the question... is that possible that the Stadia service applies different compression quality for video stream sent to the CCU and the one sent to the Chrome browser? If so, at least I would have some peace of mind and stop trying to find a solution that cannot be applied!
Thanks!
Ok, I found something that might be useful for others.
Stadia is actually a video stream. What helped me to make the image more clear and crisp, was to properly set the Gamma, saturation, contrast, and brightness through the special Video color settings of the Nvidia panel.
Another important setting is to set the Dynamic range to maximum. Here some screens of the menus and where to find them:
Contrast, saturation and brightness
Dynamic range
What's the GPU in your PC? On CCU, you're getting a VP9 stream but the default on PC is H264 unless your GPU supports VP9 hardware acceleration which is limited to some of the newer GPU/iGPU models over the last few years. You can try forcing VP9 with the extensions you mentioned, does that help?
It's also possible that your PC just has a slower connection to your network than the CCU and Stadia is adjusting the quality downwards to match the available bandwidth.
It Is an Rtx 2060. Yes I've checked via the chrome settings/stats, and it is capable of decoding vp9. I've also forced the 4k via the enhancer plugin, but it doesn't help.
My network relies on a optic fiber (same for pc and tv), that's not the problem.
As reported in my first message, it seems that the stream sent to the Chrome stadia app, is compressed in a different way.
When using chrome (or any other browser) the resolution is ok, but I see some artifacts...compression artifacts and a blurry color.
When using the CCU, the image is just perfect. Cristal clear, no artifacts or compression issues.
Ok, I found something that might be useful for others.
Stadia is actually a video stream. What helped me to make the image more clear and crisp, was to properly set the Gamma, saturation, contrast, and brightness through the special Video color settings of the Nvidia panel.
Another important setting is to set the Dynamic range to maximum. Here some screens of the menus and where to find them:
Contrast, saturation and brightness
Dynamic range
Another important option was to improve image borders: