4K Streaming Quality

dougan

Prominent Member
Joined
Jan 12, 2005
Messages
906
Reaction score
80
Points
366
Location
Devon
Having just bought a Samsung Q70R TV, we watched our first 4K movie last night, Toy Story 4 on the Disney + channel.
Picture quality wise, was not expecting much, because it was streamed and not a 4K Blu-ray.
Wow! How wrong I was, the picture quality was stunning!

My question is, how much better would the 4K Blu-ray disc be, if at all?
 
With 4k uhd Blu-ray discs you will get a better audio quality,and the video will be higher quality,but like you have said 4k streaming has come a long way over the last couple of years...all the 4k streaming services look impressive...it also helps if you have a decent internet connection as it won't struggle with the streams.

For convenience streaming has gathered pace.but if you have a really high quality a.v and a massive screen,or projector then disc will give the best audio/visual presentation.
 
Streaming vs Disc.

It's generally accepted that Streaming 4K is about the same picture quality as a Bluray disc, plus, depending upon the stream, you'll have the benefit of HDR.
Well done animation always looks really good with eye-popping colours so it's a nice start to your 4K streaming journey.

The main benefit for me is the audio. Streaming, at best, will have DD+ with maybe an Atmos track. A disc will have DTS-HD MA, TrueHD (maybe with Atmos), DTS-X etc which are much higher resolution tracks.
Only useful really if you have a decent sound system, if you use the TV audio or a smaller soundbar then you'd never notice.
 
Streaming services run at around 15 to 18mbps for HDR 4K streams. A typical 1080p blu ray will be around 20mbps. A 4K disc can go up to 100mbps. Playing a 1080p blu ray on my 65'' OLED immediately after watching a Netflix 4K HDR presentation the blu ray looks just as good. The obvious advantage is lossless HD audio which is significantly better.
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom