simonali said:
Rakuten TV is pretty cheap, eh? You can buy 4K movies on there for 5 or 6 quid and that includes BR2049!
Not that I’d leave high quality films like Blade Runner 2049 to streaming services (not how they currently are anyway). It’s the darker scenes that need higher bandwidth, which is where annoying fuzzy stuff starts happening if the bandwidth isn’t high enough, causing noticeable compression. I could tell that this film’s picture and sound quality were pretty special even at the cinema - it stood out among the other films I’d also seen around the time.
Some streaming services are worse than others - Now TV’s films look way too soft, and you’re not even guaranteed anything better than stereo.
Just as 1080p movies look soft compared to Bluray, 4K also look soft compared to 4K Bluray. For streaming, I really don’t see the point in 4K until our broadband networks can stream 4K at higher bitrates than they currently do, and our own broadband can handle that higher bandwidth. Runnng before we can walk, as usual, but no doubt 4K streaming services will/are being used to sell 4K TVs. I feel the only real benefit for a good 4K TV is for 4K sport, 4K gaming, or 4K films from 4K Bluray (although upscaled 1080p Bluray can look excellent), so basically speaking, genuine, high quality 4K sources. For general TV watching and streaming services, 4K is a waste of money, in my opinion.
I should qualify that although 4K sports is reliant on streaming services, it’s video rather than film - and sports are usually in bright daylight, so don’t need for the bandwidth that a dark film would need.