Legal movie and television streaming on PC is cooked.

[Charsace]

I took the day off today. I decided to pull up a comfy chair, put on my headphones, and open prime video to watch Dune part 2. And what am I greeted with on my OLED monitor? Not HDR and a HD feed. I'm getting 480p SDR video and stereo sound. I download the windows store app and try to play the movie there and same thing. I switch to HDMI output on my PC and still the same thing.

Why am I being punished for paying to watch the movie on my PC? I'm sure if I spend a few minutes looking I can find a 4k HDR stream or download for free so it makes no sense to cripple your paying customers ability to stream on PC. Why are media companies spitting in the face of paying customers? Just why?

 

[Smash-It Stan]

Funny you mention Amazon with this issue. My brother had to stop using the service because it would sometimes say his connection was too weak and it'd do YouTube 480p. He had gigabit Internet and it was completely unpredictable what Amazon would do

 

[jph139]

My instinct is that they're trying to undermine people using adblockers as ad-supported plans become more and more common, but yeah, it just cheapens the experience for people who are probably tech-savvy enough to just go around it entirely.

I've found that Firefox is marginally better than Chrome or Edge but I haven't gotten a consistent HD stream from any of the big players in a long time.

 

[Lkr]

DRM bullshit
save yourself time/hassle and just buy a streaming stick for one of the monitor inputs

 

[theDidact]

It's because the source is easy to pirate from pc

 

[thediamondage]

ironically you may have an easier time streaming from your phone and casting it to your monitor (if it supports chrome casting) as the various apps - amazon prime, netflix, youtube TV, etc - work better with HDCP and streaming lockdown on mobile than PC

 

[CupOfDoom]

It's because the source is easy to pirate from pc

Click to shrink...

So, is a blu-ray/dvd.

Movies and TV shows are the easiest thing in the world to pirate, and it sucks that legit users are being punished with lower quality for no reason.

 

[jon bones]

it's crazy that the solution is to buy like a refurb apple tv 4k and hook it up to your monitor

 

[Charsace]

It's because the source is easy to pirate from pc

Click to shrink...

The source is easy to pirate from streaming sticks too.

DRM bullshit
save yourself time/hassle and just buy a streaming stick for one of the monitor inputs

Click to shrink...

For me this adds more hassle because I have a nice headphone/dac sound chain and a soundbar for when I don't want to use headphones all connected to my pc. None of my sound solutions have ARC to make it easy to do. So my setup becomes more convoluted and my desk more cluttered.

 

[CloudWolf]

I remember something about Netflix on PC only doing HDR/4k and higher bitrate on specific browsers or some shit.

It's insane.

 

[Charsace]

I remember something about Netflix on PC only doing HDR/4k and higher bitrate on specific browsers or some shit.

It's insane.

Click to shrink...

Used to work for me in edge. Doesn't anymore though. I checked just to be sure.

 

[TeenageFBI]

I remember something about Netflix on PC only doing HDR/4k and higher bitrate on specific browsers or some shit.

It's insane.

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It's not just Netflix. Several of the big services are very specific about which browser you use, or you have to use a service-specific app. And god help you if you want HDR or Dolby Vision. It sucks.

I just use an Apple TV.

 

[Smash-It Stan]

I remember something about Netflix on PC only doing HDR/4k and higher bitrate on specific browsers or some shit.

It's insane.

Click to shrink...

Yup. Like a decade ago I found out I wasn't even getting 1080p unless I was on Edge with Netflix or used the shitty Windows store app. Punished for Firefox through the browser :/

 

[Stop It]

I remember something about Netflix on PC only doing HDR/4k and higher bitrate on specific browsers or some shit.

It's insane.

Click to shrink...

Not just specific browsers, specific hardware.

The whole chain has to be HDCP compliant to the latest spec to work for a 4K stream.

Of course, TV apps on 4K TVs, and BR players already are end to end compliant so you don't see this issue.

 

[Duxxy3]

It's Amazon, so they want you to watch it on their fire stick.

 

[Mivey]

It's not the fault of companies. Us PC users are just dirty, subaltern beings who aren't worth being shown quality video content. 😢 Luckily I can compensate my feelings of inferiority by spending obscenes amounts of money on PC hardware. Consumerism saving the day once again

 

[machine]

I wonder if this is why I've seen YT videos about how to use a Fire Stick with a PC.

 

[Charsace]

Just tried Alita on Youtube which was beautiful 4k the last time I watched it. On PC now it can only stream at a max res of 480p and no HDR. I bought this during the pandemic on Youtube, on my PC. I still have strong memories of this because of the time period I bought it and watched it. At this point I was printing out masks for a friend to bring to the hospital she works at.

 

[samred]

Mildly related, YouTube STILL doesn't seem to output surround sound on any desktop web browser I've tested, so if anyone here has input on what to do on Windows, I'm all ears.

 

[Ashes of Dreams]

Just tried Alita on Youtube which was beautiful 4k the last time I watched it. On PC now it can only stream at a max res of 480p and no HDR. I bought this during the pandemic on Youtube, on my PC. I still have strong memories of this because of the time period I bought it and watched it. At this point I was printing out masks for a friend to bring to the hospital she works at.

Click to shrink...

I feel like if youtube is limiting you to 480p there's a problem. I've never experienced this. Granted I don't watch many movies on YouTube but still that seems strange to me.

 

[Zulith]

these media companies think they are curbing piracy, when high quality rips of every single show and movie can easily be torrented within hours of them releasing. 99.9% of end-users aren't trying to make high quality rips of what they are trying to stream anyway. All they are doing is making the user experience worse, which of course just drives people to piracy anyway... funny how that works.

 

[Charsace]

I feel like if youtube is limiting you to 480p there's a problem. I've never experienced this. Granted I don't watch many movies on YouTube but still that seems strange to me.

Click to shrink...

When I watch a Digital Foundry video for example I get the option for HD video. Its only media that I have to pay for like Alita, that I bought in 4k, that I am limited to 480p in.

Nothing wrong with my setup. My main computer is:
13700k
4070TI
aw3423dwf

If these aren't compliant with HDCP then what the fuck is?

 

[Nacho]

Yeah pretty much it's shit. They don't care because customers largely don't care. They'll give the least good service possible that people will put up with and remove content to save more costs until it actually starts to affect their sub numbers. When that happens then stockholders care and then they care. The actual part where they make a good service that actually serves all of their customer base and makes them satisfied with their subs is the lowest item on the list of priorities.

Its why stuff like plex even exists when you'd think in this day its be too niche to be a successful commercial project, there's a completelt unserved market for people who want good quality digital streaming and you basically have to build it yourself.

 

[pswii60]

Everything on streaming services is pirated within minutes of release regardless - at 4k HDR/DV no less. So the only people they're hurting here is their paying customers, which is a common theme when it comes to DRM.

 

[Kyrios]

I took the day off today. I decided to pull up a comfy chair, put on my headphones, and open prime video to watch Dune part 2.

Click to shrink...

Amazon: "Time to fuck this guy's nice day off"

 

[nsilvias]

meanwhile piracy groups know how to download straight thru the servers thru a loophole no one will reveal lmao

 

[smocaine]

Seems like a lot of faff to prevent web-rips when web-dls and the like are just as accessible to the average pirate. But I guess they have to make it seem like they're making an effort to... someone who doesn't understand.

 

[Patriiick]

 

[AaronMT]

I don't rent or buy because the prices are insane, but I take it you opted into the UHD?

 

[Charsace]

Seems like a lot of faff to prevent web-rips when web-dls and the like are just as accessible to the average pirate. But I guess they have to make it seem like they're making an effort to... someone who doesn't understand.

Click to shrink...

Feels like a slap in the face, especially when I've bee

I don't rent or buy because the prices are insane, but I take it you opted into the UHD?

Click to shrink...

Yes I did. Its just the stupid ass artificial limiting of res, bitrate, and audio that they are doing to stop pirating. Which has zero effect on pirating.

 

[chrominance]

Yeah, in my experience every service is like this. For most streaming services I just resign myself to watching in potato 1080p or 720p (hi Crave) because I still prefer being able to load up a show or movie on my computer immediately, but it is hilarious to me just how much streaming services hate PCs.

 

[Nida]

These companies seem to be herding people to piracy. That is a terrible way to handle thins.

 

[Valcrist]

I recommend the newest Apple TV. They're not too expensive and they're great for streaming pretty much anything. I've used mine ever since launch and it is fantastic.

 

[dejay]

Yeah, took me a while to figure out back in the day that they really don't want you streaming in higher resolutions from PC.

I grudgingly stream from my TV's apps at the moment.

 

[Dracil]

They're telling you you pirates get better quality than paying customers. Up to you how you wish to respond to that.

 

[Charsace]

Just watched the Bee Keeper on Amazon and that played in 1080p. So the different companies are telling them what resolutions there content can play in on PC?