OTT Service in India

[raSpberRy]

We all know OTT service can not surpass blu-ray media. But there's no option to see Indian movie anymore
What is the quality of the OTT services in India in general?
Moreover, only Amazon Prime Video is doing 4K service. (Netflix?)
What about hotstar, ZEE... etc...

[ravenus]

Netflix has a premium UHD plan for ~800/ monthly. I personally find Netflix to have the best A/V streaming quality (for standard HD at least) but Amz Prime has also picked up a great deal from its beginnings, and since some time now their app supports surround sound on Chromecast also (previously if you didn't have a Fire stick you only had stereo).

Don't know about the others, it's hard enough to keep up with new content on these.

[Jafar]

Originally Posted by raSpberRy

We all know OTT service can not surpass blu-ray media. But there's no option to see Indian movie anymore
What is the quality of the OTT services in India in general?
Moreover, only Amazon Prime Video is doing 4K service. (Netflix?)
What about hotstar, ZEE... etc...

Netflix offers a decent amount of titles in 4K with Dolby Vision and Atmos. Some of it looks and sounds pretty impressive, though watching 4K on disc is always an unmatched experience. Then again it also depends on your screen size and sound setup. The bigger the screen, the more dramatic changes you'll notice. I could easily spot the difference between 4K and HD content on my 65" OLED screen.

[kiri222]

I've found Hotstar and Zee5 to be extremely poor when it comes to quality. Bit-rates are lower than that of Youtube. Hotstar used to be way worse, with 25 fps content being the default (which was sped up and almost always sounded funny). Some of their newer releases seem to be having their accurate runtimes, but I'm not sure if this change is permanent. Both these platforms limit their audio streams to stereo, and the bit-rate is definitely lesser than 100 Kbps, which is a far cry from even standard DTS tracks on DVDs (which run at ~768 Kbps).

I've found Amazon Prime and Netflix to be far better, with better bit-rates being allocated to both the video and audio streams, supporting upto Atmos when it comes to audio. If not for both these services, the rest are plainly bad (and inferior options even when compared to DVD).

[pavan_a]

Pretty much what kiri222 has said in the Indian scenario.

What I gather on forums where they discuss English/foreign movies is that Amazon and Netflix are now getting close to blu-ray quality.

[raSpberRy]

This is the tragedy of Indian blu-ray user. Even Netflix and Prime provide 4K / UHD contents, but how many Indian contents do?
& also the companies that have OTT company (e.g. ZEE studio) bring their films to their poor OTT service and stop making material media.
What a getting worse situation...

[Jafar]

With majority of people happy with their free 700 MB files, the sad state of physical media in India comes to me as no surprise. Unfortunately, I never really found many people willing to own a movie legally by paying for it - even when things were not as bad. On the contrary, I keep seeing people bragging publicly about their talent to "download movies from internet" without realising that it is unethical or amounts to theft. When companies incur losses, they shut shops. Simple. Also, there could be other factors in play too. Just look at the pricing module of some of the surviving Indian companies. It remains downright ridiculous even today with little or no emphasis on quality or content.

[kiri222]

Originally Posted by Jafar

With majority of people happy with their free 700 MB files, the sad state of physical media in India comes to me as no surprise. Unfortunately, I never really found many people willing to own a movie legally by paying for it - even when things were not as bad. On the contrary, I keep seeing people bragging publicly about their talent to "download movies from internet" without realising that it is unethical or amounts to theft. When companies incur losses, they shut shops. Simple. Also, there could be other factors in play too. Just look at the pricing module of some of the surviving Indian companies. It remains downright ridiculous even today with little or no emphasis on quality or content.

Couldn't agree more with this. Just because something is available for cheap or even free, it doesn't mean that one should settle for something inferior. I don't know when the majority of the consumers would understand this point. People who have gotten into this hobby are the ones who are suffering now.

No online retailer does sales and promotions anymore (or do very few of these), physical media stores are practically gone, home media companies have shut down and prices are skyrocketing.. all of these right when I am about to start working.. it stings all the more. Collecting movies has been my #1 hobby and today, it has become impossible to continue it at the same rate as earlier.

[raSpberRy]

What about this

[Disney Plus Hotstar]
https://www.livemint.com/companies/n...937240456.html

Isn't it possible to be developed Hotstar's quality?

[kiri222]

Originally Posted by raSpberRy

What about this

[Disney Plus Hotstar]
https://www.livemint.com/companies/n...937240456.html

Isn't it possible to be developed Hotstar's quality?

I wouldn't count on it, though. Given that they're probably gonna add all of the new content under the same site, the encodes are likely to be in similar quality, as opposed to being better. If they actually carry higher bit-rates and support surround audio tracks, all good. If not, it's business as usual. We'll hopefully get to know more about it in a week, or so.