Best Way to watch Desi Movies due to Blu-ray Extinction?

[rs3771]

Asking for recommendations for how best to watch desi movies with the highest possible PQ/AQ due to near-extinction of blu-rays.....

[Hindustani]

Originally Posted by rs3771

Asking for recommendations for how best to watch desi movies with the highest possible PQ/AQ due to near-extinction of blu-rays.....

AMAZON PRIME VIDEOS (gives you upto 4K PQ, upto 5.1 AQ upon subscription). their library is growing day by day. Hindi, tamil, telugu etc.

NETFLIX (gives you 1080p PQ, upto 5.1 AQ upon substription). limited library for desi movies.

GOOGLE PLAY (gives you 720p to 1080i PQ, upto 5.1 AQ upon purchase). decent library.

YOUTUBE MOVIES (gives you 720p-1080i PQ, up to STEREO AQ upon purchase). decent library.


Dont know about EROS NOW
Dont know about APPLE store

for desi movies, I use google play, youtube movies and amazon prime.

[rs3771]

Originally Posted by Hindustani

AMAZON PRIME VIDEOS (gives you upto 4K PQ, upto 5.1 AQ upon subscription). their library is growing day by day. Hindi, tamil, telugu etc.

NETFLIX (gives you 1080p PQ, upto 5.1 AQ upon substription). limited library for desi movies.

GOOGLE PLAY (gives you 720p to 1080i PQ, upto 5.1 AQ upon purchase). decent library.

YOUTUBE MOVIES (gives you 720p-1080i PQ, up to STEREO AQ upon purchase). decent library.


Dont know about EROS NOW
Dont know about APPLE store

for desi movies, I use google play, youtube movies and amazon prime.

Thanks a lot - will explore. I already have Amazon Prime subscription - never watched anything, always limiting to strictly only what's available on the shiny discs which are now, like I said, mostly extinct unfortunately -.

[rs3771]

Originally Posted by Hindustani

AMAZON PRIME VIDEOS (gives you upto 4K PQ, upto 5.1 AQ upon subscription). their library is growing day by day. Hindi, tamil, telugu etc.

NETFLIX (gives you 1080p PQ, upto 5.1 AQ upon substription). limited library for desi movies.

GOOGLE PLAY (gives you 720p to 1080i PQ, upto 5.1 AQ upon purchase). decent library.

YOUTUBE MOVIES (gives you 720p-1080i PQ, up to STEREO AQ upon purchase). decent library.


Dont know about EROS NOW
Dont know about APPLE store

for desi movies, I use google play, youtube movies and amazon prime.

I have FiOS internet with a mere 50/50 MBps upload/download speed - is that inadequate to stream good PQ/AQ onto a 13.5-ft wide screen? What is the optimal internet speed to get good output of Amazon Prime Video?

[seer_]

Hotstar is also good. Definitely way better than Netflix in terms of content but PQ is not any better than Netflix. I watch it in 160" projection screen. If you have a smaller tv like 65 or 70", you won't notice the difference. I'm in Canada and subscription starts at $50/ year, you can't beat that.

[Hindustani]

Originally Posted by seer_

Hotstar is also good. Definitely way better than Netflix in terms of content but PQ is not any better than Netflix. I watch it in 160" projection screen. If you have a smaller tv like 65 or 70", you won't notice the difference. I'm in Canada and subscription starts at $50/ year, you can't beat that.

thanks for the info.

[ravenus]

Originally Posted by seer_

Hotstar is also good. Definitely way better than Netflix in terms of content but PQ is not any better than Netflix.

When you say not better than, do you also mean 'as good as"? I am very happy with Netflix HD PQ and I'd be interested in a streaming network that gave me as good PQ/AQ and better content. Also, does it have a mobile app that supports the Chromecast?

[Anurag1700]

When it comes to AV quality, Hotstar cant hold a candle to Netflix or Prime. Even at smallest screens many of its titles look heavily compressed/pixellated. besides not a single title is in 5.1 surround. Post Disney+ it was hoped that they will upgrade the AV part but the only improvement we could notice was in a tiny handful of Disney titles now we have 5.1 surround otherwise nothing.

I think what Seer means is the amount of content which is huge in Hotstar and that seems right. With their access to various language films, Literally entire star network's tv series and various others including live match events, it does have a huge inventory. Sadly its quality is yet to catch up and thats why unless i have no other option for a particular title, i never go into hotstar.

[ravenus]

So apart from Netflix and Prime, what are my options for good quality Indian streaming networks, especially ones with South Indian movie content (Tamil and Malayalam)

[seer_]

True, Hotstar picture quality is not as good as Netflix. Netflix is much better in terms of PQ but it rarely adds any indian movies. Honestly i dont find amazon prime PQ to be best either. For me it ranks like Netflix has the best PQ, then amazon prime and then Hotstar. Yes it does have an app on android, roku etc

Hotstar appears to have alot of South indian content. But i could be wrong. You can download the app and browse for yourself.

[-MK-]

Originally Posted by ravenus

So apart from Netflix and Prime, what are my options for good quality Indian streaming networks, especially ones with South Indian movie content (Tamil and Malayalam)

For South Indian languages, another service is SunNxt - decent quality with the newer movies coming up in 5.1. I couldn't verify much of those new ones due to prices being around $22 in US (which is ridiculous) as compared to 50Rs per month(?) in India or $5 per month in Canada, but from what I've seen during my India trips - they do have new movies with decent quality.

[pavan_a]

Some of the streaming services not mentioned on this thread so far -
1. Zee5
2. SonyLiv

For Telugu content
3. Aha

These have movies along with web-series....since the thread was about movies. Ofcourse, there are other streaming services which mainly are web-series oriented.

[ravenus]

Originally Posted by pavan_a

Some of the streaming services not mentioned on this thread so far -
1. Zee5
2. SonyLiv

For Telugu content
3. Aha

Possibly because the query was for a decent streaming service, not the pile of incompetent crap that is Zee5. Their entire claim of support for casting is a scam, it's completely broken, and even watched directly on a PC, the video quality is like a very average DVD.

[Anurag1700]

Speaking of SonyLiv their user interface on Android TV sucks....as I always have a hard tiem scrolling thropugh or searching what i am looking for. Besides the fact that there is no true 5.1 on any movie on this app, Sony Liv cares to update/upgrade their software only on a need to cash in basis. The only time in past year or so i saw them upgrade their app is 2 weeks ago when KBC registration started and that can be done only through the Liv App so this is their only moment.

[-MK-]

Originally Posted by ravenus

Possibly because the query was for a decent streaming service, not the pile of incompetent crap that is Zee5. Their entire claim of support for casting is a scam, it's completely broken, and even watched directly on a PC, the video quality is like a very average DVD.

Totally this. Zee5 has some good collection of Telugu movies but their quality is garbage. Low bitrate, improper conversion of audio channels, 25fps video and the list goes on.

Edit: Also not directly related to the query but, no service in United States

[ravenus]

Originally Posted by Anurag1700

Speaking of SonyLiv their user interface on Android TV sucks....as I always have a hard tiem scrolling thropugh or searching what i am looking for. Besides the fact that there is no true 5.1 on any movie on this app, Sony Liv cares to update/upgrade their software only on a need to cash in basis.

Durn. Apparently Rajat Kapoor's new film Khadak is showing on SonyLiv right now. Would have loved to see it

[bhaskar1981]

Originally Posted by ravenus

Possibly because the query was for a decent streaming service, not the pile of incompetent crap that is Zee5. Their entire claim of support for casting is a scam, it's completely broken, and even watched directly on a PC, the video quality is like a very average DVD.

It's not just the AV quality that is poor on Zee5, the general quality of the Zee5 originals is shocking compared to the competition. Started watching Mentalhood because of the cast (Karisma Kapoor, Sandhya Mridul, Tillotama Shome, Sanjay Suri) but it was so bad I couldn't get through the entire series. Plus most of their original content is just an excuse to put tacky sex scenes together..........they really need to up their quality all round if they want to stay relevant.

[nrD]

Originally Posted by -MK-

For South Indian languages, another service is SunNxt - decent quality with the newer movies coming up in 5.1. I couldn't verify much of those new ones due to prices being around $22 in US (which is ridiculous) as compared to 50Rs per month(?) in India or $5 per month in Canada, but from what I've seen during my India trips - they do have new movies with decent quality.

This thing is so broken tho - it used to constantly crash for me.

Also, I think Tentkotta and SunNxt both did some weird things to the films gamma or colorspace that made everything look a little bit greyish and desaturated

[Harvey Dent]

Hotstar ,in India atleast, is pathetic. No patch on Netflix. But they seem to be the one growing their library by purchasing films unlike Netflix who is depending more on original content

[-MK-]

Originally Posted by nrD

This thing is so broken tho - it used to constantly crash for me.

Also, I think Tentkotta and SunNxt both did some weird things to the films gamma or colorspace that made everything look a little bit greyish and desaturated

For me atleast I didn't have those issues using nVidia Shield TV 2017. But I agree on quality part. Some movies did have some weird colors which I think is because of the same version is generally shown on TV and they somehow screwed up the gamma, colors