It gets a bit more complicated than that, e.g. Apple TV+ doesn't have tiers and the $9.99 Netflix plan won't get you 4k. That said, it's also more complicated than assuming the cost difference is all due to password sharing. Who has the better media agreements? Is a particular player trying to buy market share or focusing on maximizing margin of the share they have? How does having an integrated hardware ecosystem vs partners play into the cost structure? These, and more, can all factor into the subscription price, beyond password sharing.
Maybe a bit off topic, but I'm wondering if anyone else actively avoids 4k? I hate watching content in ultra high resolution. It looks strange and unreal to me (Yes: I've turned off "soap opera mode")
I'm really glad netflix makes it easy to avoid higher resolution versions of their shows =/
Do you have weird post-processing/sharpening on your TV (other than "soap opera mode")? There's really no reason to watch 1080p instead of 4K. Your eyes aren't somehow low resolution with 1080p closer to that realism.
>There's really no reason to watch 1080p instead of 4K
Yes there is. For one, 90% of non-native 4K is absolute crap. Upscales tend to bludgeon detail even compared to 480p/i sources, and DNR is rather crap, especially on the intense settings companies typically use.
Native 4k can be better, but there’s still so many mastering options that it still causes problems. See Star Wars, LotR, Terminator 2 as all rather controversial 4K releases.
I wonder if this is it. I definitely notice artifacts more in higher resolution.
Low resolution video doesn't bother me at all. I can happily watch 480p. But the weird compression artifacts following moving objects absolutely frustrate and distract me.
Maybe streaming services aren't encoding their higher resolution streams with a sufficient bitrate? Or maybe the higher resolution makes the artifacts more noticeable? Either way, the low resolution experience seems consistently superior.
Nope, and I notice it on my computer monitor as well so I'm sure this isn't the case.
> "There's really no reason to watch 1080p instead of 4K. Your eyes aren't somehow low resolution with 1080p closer to that realism."
This is definitely not the case and one of the big reasons is lossy compression. Precision without accuracy can be very noticeable, in terms of artifacting.
