Legacy Ad-Free HBO Max Subscribers to Lose Access to 4K HDR, Max Parent Company WB makes content on competing streaming services worse

[madsci1016]

 

Summary

Streaming is continuing to get worse, as HBO Max now retracts promises (well sticks to them hard really i guess) to legacy users and makes them pay $200 a year to keep 4k HDR content. Worse, they seem to be quietly making content their parent company Warner Brothers produces or distributes worse on competing streaming platforms to push people to pay the higher prices for Max just to get 4K HDR content.  

 

Quotes

Quote

When Warner Bros. Discovery rolled out its Max rebrand in May, the company told HBO Max’s existing ad-free subscribers that they would be able to keep perks such as 4K HD resolution on select titles with Dolby Atmos sound quality for at least six months without having to dole out more cash. Now, the company has started to inform those same subscribers that their time is up.

While legacy ad-free plan subscribers will continue to pay $15.99 per month, they will start losing access to 4K HDR streaming on select titles effective Dec. 5.

 

My thoughts

So my thoughts are the discovery that they are making media on competing platforms worse. I mean yeah, all streaming is getting bad, we know that. But to use your corporate power to make media worse on other platforms is new news to me. Started when we wanted to watch Shazam! Furry of the Gods. Netflix advertised it on a banner it so we started watching. Being disgusted at what we saw (in quality) I realized after checking it was showing in 1080P HD SDR, which was painfully obvious on my 77" QDOLED TV. I tried switching to my Max legacy account, and it shows mastered in 4K HDR, only if i paid the $200 a year though. So i tried to rent it from Google Play store which promised 4K, but didn't mention HDR. And yep, we at least got 4K back, but SDR only. 

 

The movie is distributed by Warner Brothers Pictures. Max is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. So the movie is mastered in 4K HDR, Max holds that for themselves, gives netflix a 1080p SDR copy, and Google a 4k SDR copy to sell/rent. This inevitably has to be an attempt to push people to Max by making their content worse on competing streaming platforms. 

 

Sources

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/legacy-ad-free-hbo-max-170003968.html#:~:text=If legacy subscribers want to,month Ultimate Ad Free plan.

[Lunar River]

Is things like this that justify my aversion to anything subscription based.

[da na]

Streaming services are doing a great job at selling Blu-Rays

[Kisai]

3 hours ago, da na said:

Streaming services are doing a great job at selling Blu-Rays

Like I said elsewhere,

 

Doing things like this, just makes people not trust the streaming network, and sends people back to piracy.

 

Just ask the anime fans/fansubber/pirates. After basically having unfettered access to stolen anime content for like a decade, it's hard to get people to switch to crunchyroll, and CR never offered everything (other stuff was on funimation, VRV, etc, before they all got bought/folded into Sony), nor offered it at the quality the Japanese people would see it at. So many people just went on and kept pirating the 1080p videos, and refusing to pay CR just to watch 480p videos.

 

That is the future of where everything not on Netflix is headed. People will just justify pirating it because the content holder has decided they'd rather fight pennies domestically rather than accept dollars internationally.

 

Either put content everywhere at the same quality, or offer all tiers of quality on your own service at the same price. It's a lose-lose situation where piracy becomes where people go to first because they don't know who has the version they want, so it's just faster/easier/more-convenient to just pirate it.

 

Remember half the reason why people were really into SOFTWARE piracy in the first place it simply wasn't available. At all. Pulling stuff off your own VOD system to write off for tax purposes and not releasing it, just says "pirate me". licencing stuff to others at a lower quality, is just going to encourage pirates to pirate your content and release "better" versions than whom you licensed it out to. A lot good that does.

 

 

 

 

[StDragon]

Maybe some enterprising individual can sell a breakout box that does something like RTX Video Super Resolution inline. Source 1080 video goes into the box via HDMI with the final upscaled 4K to the TV. Although, I am sure TVs will have this built-in at some point if not already.

[madsci1016]

2 hours ago, StDragon said:

Maybe some enterprising individual can sell a breakout box that does something like RTX Video Super Resolution inline. Source 1080 video goes into the box via HDMI with the final upscaled 4K to the TV. Although, I am sure TVs will have this built-in at some point if not already.

I mean i have an Nvidia shield and it was trying it hardest to up convert, and it was still painfully obvious. 

[Fasterthannothing]

2 hours ago, StDragon said:

Maybe some enterprising individual can sell a breakout box that does something like RTX Video Super Resolution inline. Source 1080 video goes into the box via HDMI with the final upscaled 4K to the TV. Although, I am sure TVs will have this built-in at some point if not already.

You mean like the Nvidia shield TV https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/shield/support/shield-tv/ai-upscaling/

 

It's actually stunningly good I can't stand to watch older low res content on other devices anymore 

[Fasterthannothing]

30 minutes ago, madsci1016 said:

I mean i have an Nvidia shield and it was trying it hardest to up convert, and it was still painfully obvious. 

I have a shield pro too and I mean other than losing HDR the upscaling in AI mode is pretty good IMHO 

[madsci1016]

28 minutes ago, Fasterthannothing said:

I have a shield pro too and I mean other than losing HDR the upscaling in AI mode is pretty good IMHO 

It's 100% good, but it's not "I can't notice this isn't native 4k HDR good" yet

[Quackers101]

as seen with netflix, streaming quality will just get worse and pay more.

[RejZoR]

And then they're all like surprised Pikachu when people resort back to piracy. Literally only reason to use streaming services is convenience/cost ratio. If you keep jacking up the price, the convenience doesn't outweigh the cost anymore. Because piracy isn't convenient as you need to download, copy and play content manually, but costs nothing... sooooo, there's that.

 

Or you come to a different outcome. I find streaming services expensive and limited as everyone wants their own exclusivity (and stupid BS like SkyShowTime refusing to work on Linux entirely or Netflix streaming garbage 720p in Firefox instead of 1080p even if you pay for 1080p plan), I can't be bothered with piracy anymore, so I just stopped watching movies entirely. I don't even remember when I watched a movie with dedication. I think it was the latest Predator on Disney+ when I was still subscribed to it, that was back in summer iirc. Haven't watched anything else since. It really does come to that. Or I just lost interest in movies as I prefer games way more...

[Donut417]

I think these companies made prices good at the start to kill cable providers. Now that every media company has its own service and exclusives they think they can charge what cable companies were charging. Media companies never learn do they? On top of raising prices they have added ads in to the mix. They also dictate what quality on what devices. God forbid you use a PC/Web browser, your going to get lower quality as a result on most services. At this point I have no sympathy for when people pirate. This is now a game of fuck around and find out, media companies are going to find out really quick I have a feeling.

[darknessblade]

On 12/9/2023 at 12:59 AM, Kisai said:

Just ask the anime fans/fansubber/pirates. After basically having unfettered access to stolen anime content for like a decade, it's hard to get people to switch to crunchyroll, and CR never offered everything (other stuff was on funimation, VRV, etc, before they all got bought/folded into Sony), nor offered it at the quality the Japanese people would see it at. So many people just went on and kept pirating the 1080p videos, and refusing to pay CR just to watch 480p videos.

 

Ironically Chrunchyroll originally started as a pirating site for anime.

Soo them complaining about Piracy is peak Hypocrisy. 

[Sauron]

On 12/9/2023 at 12:59 AM, Kisai said:

That is the future of where everything not on Netflix is headed. People will just justify pirating it because the content holder has decided they'd rather fight pennies domestically rather than accept dollars internationally.

It's not like netflix is doing a good job either

[madsci1016]

20 minutes ago, htimsenyawed said:

 

 

I hadn't really looked at the shield before, but why is the remote a triangluar cylinder? Isn't that uncomfortable?

No it works for me surprisingly. The shape fits my hands well and the geometry seems to keep it from sliding away/down getting lost in the couch as often as small remotes like the fire stick remotes we use to have. 

[Fasterthannothing]

31 minutes ago, madsci1016 said:

No it works for me surprisingly. The shape fits my hands well and the geometry seems to keep it from sliding away/down getting lost in the couch as often as small remotes like the fire stick remotes we use to have. 

Yeah it's oddly comfortable to hold definitely not a shape id ever seen in a remote before but it works 

[Kisai]

6 hours ago, Sauron said:

It's not like netflix is doing a good job either

They aren't, but Netflix has the "first mover" advantage here. Like copy-cats of it in Canada have largely failed (I'm looking at you Crave), Shomi already failed, and why would you bother with stuff like CBC Gem, Tubi , when it's just one content type.

 

The only reason Crave is treadding water is because a certain segment of the population has an aversion to American-owned properties. That's it. Crave just repackages things that would normally go to HBO Max and Paramount+ or whatever else Bell Canada has a monopoly on. 

[Donut417]

6 hours ago, Sauron said:

It's not like netflix is doing a good job either

Except I think they are still profitable. Where a lot of the other streaming services are not. Hell I heard Comcast lost a few BILLION dollars due to Peacock (makes me smile on the inside). I know Disney has been loosing money as well. HBO probably wasnt profitable as AT&T spun then off and had a merger and become Warner Bros. Discovery. Analysts have been telling Paramount to kill its streaming service, because its not a money maker. Netflix seems to be making a profit in a sector that no one else is. So Id say they are doing a bang up job.

[madsci1016]

Is it just my experience that the Netlflix app on most platforms is just more stable than any other service? Disney+ crashes, Paramount crashes even more often. Hbo just is mediocre. Netflix just always worked, and was the most responsive. 

 

Like I'm legit mad we had the best streaming software, and it was the one stop shop. And Then Disney decided they could make more money and cancelled all their Netflix marvel exclusives and jumped ship, and then everyone saw that they could do the same. Disney ruined everything. 

 

[Donut417]

7 hours ago, madsci1016 said:

Disney ruined everything. 

What did you think was going to happen? They were watching Netflix make bank. All the content providers saw that. Up till that point Cable TV was their way to make massive amounts of money. But with Cable TV going by the way side they needed something new. Streaming was it, well at least they hoped. Not many are succeeding in that venture.

[RejZoR]

On 12/9/2023 at 6:08 PM, Donut417 said:

I think these companies made prices good at the start to kill cable providers. Now that every media company has its own service and exclusives they think they can charge what cable companies were charging. Media companies never learn do they? On top of raising prices they have added ads in to the mix. They also dictate what quality on what devices. God forbid you use a PC/Web browser, your going to get lower quality as a result on most services. At this point I have no sympathy for when people pirate. This is now a game of fuck around and find out, media companies are going to find out really quick I have a feeling.

This was my biggest annoyance with Netflix. You have to use their stupid Windows app or Microsoft Edge to get 1080p video.  Use Firefox and for whatever idiotic reason, even if you have a plan that includes 1080p streaming, all you get is garbage 720p. It was so bad at one point I just downgraded to lowest tier and just watched the damn thing at 540p or whatever is the lowest tier. It was hardly any worse than 720p that I was paying at 1080p prices. I don't know why the F they use Widewine DRM crap in Firefox if they are so afraid I'm gonna steal their s**t.

[Quackers101]

yeah the worse thing about the "streaming war", is how DRM would be pushed and so many types of "DRM" to make things burn with it and lost forever until piracy and cracks. As we know how valuable archiving can be, even if its piracy, to the many companies that have likely benefited from it.

[jagdtigger]

5 hours ago, RejZoR said:

I don't know why the F they use Widewine DRM crap in Firefox if they are so afraid I'm gonna steal their s**t.

Because they are afraid that anyone who aint a braindead sheep and dont use their app/edge is a hacker so they serve them a botched version......

(Funnily enough this BS thinking is causing more harm than good because many ppl gets royally pissed and turn to piracy in an act of revenge. They shouldve put up a fight against those so called  "rightsholders" and their grossly outdated unviable thinking.)

[Quackers101]

10 minutes ago, jagdtigger said:

(Funnily enough this BS thinking is causing more harm than good because many ppl gets royally pissed and turn to piracy in an act of revenge. They shouldve put up a fight against those so called  "rightsholders" and their grossly outdated unviable thinking.)

that is where I'm at with netflix, app getting destroyed for consumption and they give horrible streaming quality when paid for in some locations. making the stuff you watch like an 2006 video.

[Orangeator]

Continue down this path and the pirate community will just continue to get larger.