A meta thread for video streaming services - Netflix, Hulu, Disney, HBO, Warner, Prime, AppleTV, etc

See every pit and pore in the face of every newscaster and actor on your screen!

All networks broadcast at 720p or 1080i, yes. Some sports is upscaled to 4k. Of course that could well change.

Hell, Google could upscale the content itself. You can buy a $200 ShieldTV that upscales to 4k in realtime and does an excellent job, I think Google has the computing power.

Not directly relevant for YTTV, but eg the BBC these days films a reasonable amount of content in 4K despite only broadcasting in 1080i, because they have an online distribution platform as well. Presumably also true at least in principle for the US networks these days.

Sure, they release all that stuff on streaming services and bluray at 4k after all. I imagine quite a lot of it is available in 4k. Just not direct broadcasts, which is what YTTV streams.

Yeah, that’s another part of this. The networks may only broadcast at 720p, but the content might be available via VOD at 4K, which would be cool.

And the VOD, notably, doesn’t let you skip the commercials.

It’s all starting to come together…

Yeah, a double-win for YTTV. Not only do they get to charge more for people to gain access to 4K content, but they probably get more money from ads from VOD content where you can’t skip commercials.

Do I watch the 720p version and skip ads, or the 4K version with ads? WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE!

Not sure how this is going to work with all the caps being thrown around. Spectrum isn’t allowed to do caps, but they’re fighting it.

Groundhog Day is becoming an entire metagenre. I guess that says something about our collective psyche or whatever.

You have to admit it’s a pretty good framework for certain stories. Anything with a redemption arc, for example, can be well served.

And while I’ll probably watch Boss Level, I’m not sure I’m buying Frank Grillo as a lead.

Speaking of Groundhog Day, The Map of Tiny Perfect Things is a lite GD romance on Netflix.

As is Palm Springs on HULU!

Isn’t it Frank? Pretty sure it’s Frank. And they lost me at Mel Gibson. Nope. Nuh uh. No way.

Yeah, Frank. Oops!

I just watched an Amazon Original miniseries (5 episodes) on Prime Video based on the early career of the Spanish national hero Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, called El Cid. Looks to have been filmed in Spain, and speaking of looks, it’s gorgeous. Do yourself a favor and watch it with Spanish audio with subtitles, because I saw a bit of the dub job and it sucked. It’s pretty darn good-- although it does end on a cliffhanger, so they clearly meant for there to be more, but it may be YA casualty of COVID.

This covers a different part of his story than that covered by the old Charleton Heston/Sophia Loren movie of yore, namely the period where he served as squire to Prince Alfonso in the court of King Ferdinand the Great (Fernando el Magno) of León in the mid-11th Century.

Links, both IMDB and historical:

A Frank Grillo action movie with a Groundhog Day premise directed by the guy who did the Grey, I’m all in. Not sure I’ve seen a action movie within a repeating day (does Last Action Hero count?) but it seems like a perfect fit.

If you haven’t seen Edge of Tomorrow you should watch it.

Bah! You are absolutely right, I forgot about Edge of Tomorrow and I shouldn’t have considering how much I liked it.

That’s definitely going to be the better movie between.