4K Streaming Quality (What's Reality)

[waff]

Does anyone know, or have a likely guess, on what the reality of quality for a 4K movie that is available through some of the streaming services like VUDU, M-Go, or UltraFlix? There's a number of titles available, but I'm pessimistic on what the video quality really is. My guess would be 1080p up-scaled.

Has anyone tried any of these services for a 4K movie, and if so, is the picture quality noticeable? Is it worth the possible $30 price tag to buy any of these movies?

[bruceames]

Not worth it to me. From my experience PQ is on par or perhaps slightly better than Blu-ray. Why don't you just buy a UHD BD disc player and some movies instead? I know players are hard to find right now, but they should be widely available very soon. You'll get a lot more bang for your buck. Some cases the movie may only be available on streaming so you'll have to decide for yourself if it's worth it, but IMO $30 is way too much to pay for a movie that can only be streamed.

[waff]

Definitely considering buying a player, and likely will soon. But there's only a dozen titles or so, and most of those are double-dips for me.

The streaming services have quite a bit more titles, but I question the source of the material. If the studios don't provide a 4K standard to create a 4K stream, then these streaming companies have to just be up-converting, right? Just seams like a fine-line of false advertising.

[bruceames]

Originally Posted by waff

Definitely considering buying a player, and likely will soon. But there's only a dozen titles or so, and most of those are double-dips for me.

The streaming services have quite a bit more titles, but I question the source of the material. If the studios don't provide a 4K standard to create a 4K stream, then these streaming companies have to just be up-converting, right? Just seams like a fine-line of false advertising.

I could see paying $20 perhaps, but $30 is just too much. M-Go has Vidity titles which allow you to download as well. In that case the quality would be much better (on par with UHD disc, assuming it's the same bit rate). That's the way I would go if I were to buy digital 4k movies. I wouldn't want to stream them, it compromises the bit rate too much.

If you're really curious though you could buy one to check out, paying the extra coin as a "tax" for the sake of experimentation. I know it can be tough to resist content.

[bootman]

Even if it is true 4k content, resolution alone does not determine picture quality.
Bit rate has the biggest impact on PQ and that will be the factor that determines how good a 4K stream looks.

[dvdmike]

Depends on your connection, the Netflix produced stuff and 35mm derived content looks excellent
Breaking bad for example looks great

[johnnrand3333]

I have a few titles from M-Go that I downloaded via the Vividity external drive USB 3.0 that came with my Samsung 4k tv. The only movie I have watched so far is X-Men days of future past and the quality looked much better than 1080. But I have not received my Samsung blu ray UHD player yet.

[jibucha]

i agree :: streaming is poor quality compared to 4K HDR UltraHD Blu-ray; it's streaming after all

regardless, you might be misinformed; it is not upscaled 1080p, it is true 4K, although at a significantly reduced bit-rate (15mbps) which is highly compressed contributing to the inferior picture quality, which unfortunately many seem to like

knowing that the performance of 4K HDR UltraHD Blu-ray is the performance standard, with Dolby Vision (content - player - display) being the premium level of performance, i am 'only' going to purchase Dolby Vision versions, which must be so designated for the collective singular experience, which is breathtaking to say the least; you just have to wait until later in 2016 as i am

i should point out that it is required to have these three parts of the chain in place, and most importantly, that any issues relating to whether 'true 4K' should not be an issue, specifically relating to 4k HDR UltraHD titles released

regardless, i do have reservations regarding the accuracy of the many titles already released that are represented as being up conversions of 2K being used for 4K releases

20th Century Fox has clearly indicated that their release of Martian as being 'true 4K', having already posted information clarify the process of mixing 2K special effects that are unconverted (which seems reasonable to me) to mix with the normal film elements which originally exceed 4K; all as i understand are then combined at 4K

i am being quite careful in my purchases, but from what i have been reading on various forums, so much mis-information abounds regarding both HDR & whether titles are actually 4K - i am still researching myself to 'find the truth' of it and recommend the same for anyone interested in knowing exactly what is actually the 'facts of it all'

back to your point :: certainly, streaming is inferior, although many are satisfied with it's quality (i am not), and 4K HDR UltraHD Blu-ray (Dolby Vision) - (my choice) is certainly the 'ultimate in performance' - and, i will be purchasing/replacing titles (of interest to myself - selectively) as they become available, which is to be several hundred within the forthcoming year (35-titles already announced)

Originally Posted by waff

Does anyone know, or have a likely guess, on what the reality of quality for a 4K movie that is available through some of the streaming services like VUDU, M-Go, or UltraFlix? There's a number of titles available, but I'm pessimistic on what the video quality really is. My guess would be 1080p up-scaled.

Has anyone tried any of these services for a 4K movie, and if so, is the picture quality noticeable? Is it worth the possible $30 price tag to buy any of these movies?

[ray0414]

Originally Posted by johnnrand3333

I have a few titles from M-Go that I downloaded via the Vividity external drive USB 3.0 that came with my Samsung 4k tv. The only movie I have watched so far is X-Men days of future past and the quality looked much better than 1080. But I have not received my Samsung blu ray UHD player yet.

The color is better with mgo hdr, but there is a loss of some texture details.

Disc is a nice improvement over mgo quality.

[spectre08]

Comparing streaming anything to physical disk is pointless.

4K streaming is better than 1080p streaming. that is the only thing that actually matters.

Does a blu-ray of the same thing look as good or better? Maybe, but that doesn't matter at all. Completely different use cases.

[waff]

I think we all agree the physical media it superior, hence the beauty of this website. But as physical rentals options are limited and titles are not yet available, 4K streaming *might* be a good alternative for a while, especially when considering a rental.

My biggest question, where is this source material coming from? I've have good success with Vudu and it's quality for HDX, but occasionally, you'll get a movie that claims to be HDX and it really just a rip from a DVD. So my concern is, are most of the these 4K titles on these streaming sites stemming from some 4K source, or is it just a rip from a blu-ray? I fear the latter.

[jibucha]

'source material' :: it has to be 4K directly from the studios :: otherwise there would be several consequences ultimately legal; definitely not sourced from Blu-ray discs

Originally Posted by waff

I think we all agree the physical media it superior, hence the beauty of this website. But as physical rentals options are limited and titles are not yet available, 4K streaming *might* be a good alternative for a while, especially when considering a rental.

My biggest question, where is this source material coming from? I've have good success with Vudu and it's quality for HDX, but occasionally, you'll get a movie that claims to be HDX and it really just a rip from a DVD. So my concern is, are most of the these 4K titles on these streaming sites stemming from some 4K source, or is it just a rip from a blu-ray? I fear the latter.

[waff]

So here's an example.

UltraFlix is a relatively new streaming service available on Roku 4. They offer dozens of "4K' titles. Some of them, there is no way that the studios provided a legitimate 4K transfer of the movie, like:

Eye See You (Stallone)
Longest Yard (Sandler)
Crocodile Dundee II

I can't believe that these titles would even be available as scanned 4k from film, by the studios.

That being said, you get a 1 minute preview from UltraFlix in 4K of any film, and I just watched Crocodile Dundee II and looked better that I could have imaged.

[dvdmike]

Originally Posted by waff

So here's an example.

UltraFlix is a relatively new streaming service available on Roku 4. They offer dozens of "4K' titles. Some of them, there is no way that the studios provided a legitimate 4K transfer of the movie, like:

Eye See You (Stallone)
Longest Yard (Sandler)
Crocodile Dundee II

I can't believe that these titles would even be available as scanned 4k from film, by the studios.

That being said, you get a 1 minute preview from UltraFlix in 4K of any film, and I just watched Crocodile Dundee II and looked better that I could have imaged.

They used to rate them by transfer quality platinum being actual 4k and gold being film derived 4k
Now the only way to tell is price 9.99 is 4k ie rocky RoboCop Fargo

[waff]

I did a little bit of comparison using UltraFlix's one minute preview with some blu-ray's I own.

Top Gun
Waste of time, nothing to see in the first minute.

Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
Hard to tell in the first minute, but UltraFlix seemed quite crisper in the first minute with some of the animation and credits. Wasn't quite enough to convince me, yet.

Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation
Again, hard to tell in the first minute because most of it are the production studio animations. Though there is one landscape scene that was pretty detailed looking.

Kingpin
I thought this would be a good one to compare because I was quite underwhelmed by the blu-ray release. This seemed to be an amazing improvement. I could easily tell in the first minute that the image quality was improved, well above what was released via blu-ray.

I later found a statement that UltraFlix made an agreement with Paramount to transfer 950+ titles. Certainly peeks my interest with this streaming solution. This sort of answers my original question, at least for UltraFlix. They're 4K titles seem to be of great quality and legit 4K. Now if they could only do better than stereo sound.

[bootman]

Originally Posted by waff

I did a little bit of comparison using UltraFlix's one minute preview with some blu-ray's I own.

Top Gun
Waste of time, nothing to see in the first minute.

Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
Hard to tell in the first minute, but UltraFlix seemed quite crisper in the first minute with some of the animation and credits. Wasn't quite enough to convince me, yet.

Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation
Again, hard to tell in the first minute because most of it are the production studio animations. Though there is one landscape scene that was pretty detailed looking.

Kingpin
I thought this would be a good one to compare because I was quite underwhelmed by the blu-ray release. This seemed to be an amazing improvement. I could easily tell in the first minute that the image quality was improved, well above what was released via blu-ray.

I later found a statement that UltraFlix made an agreement with Paramount to transfer 950+ titles. Certainly peeks my interest with this streaming solution. This sort of answers my original question, at least for UltraFlix. They're 4K titles seem to be of great quality and legit 4K. Now if they could only do better than stereo sound.

At best streaming will get DD but not HD Audio.
Too much bandwidth required and honestly the internet isn't really built for that end to end on a mass scale.

[waff]

Originally Posted by bootman

At best streaming will get DD but not HD Audio

As expected. Roku 4 only support DD+. But PCM stereo is all UltraFlix currently offers. Hoping for more soon (Yes, I want my cake and to eat it too).

[bootman]

Originally Posted by waff

As expected. Roku 4 only support DD+. But PCM stereo is all UltraFlix currently offers. Hoping for more soon (Yes, I want my cake and to eat it too).

For audiophiles as well as videophiles, disks are still the way to go.
Anything else is still a compromise.

[dvdmike]

Originally Posted by waff

As expected. Roku 4 only support DD+. But PCM stereo is all UltraFlix currently offers. Hoping for more soon (Yes, I want my cake and to eat it too).

DD+ at least offers Atmos

I have like 8 rentals left on UltraFlix will rent one of the 4k titles when I get a day off

[waff]

Originally Posted by bootman

For audiophiles as well as videophiles, disks are still the way to go.
Anything else is still a compromise.

No argument from me.

I don't need to see, or rather hear, every movie in HD Audio or Atmos. I'm sure Happy Gilmore plays out just fine in DD or even stereo, but I do want the best video where available for every movie.

But I'm not likely going to watch Saving Private Ryan with stereo audio, even in 4K. I guess there's a balance.