We’ve gotten so lazy. We used drive to the local video store, spend 20 minutes or so browsing the “just in” or “new releases” racks and older classic films to pick out a movie, drive home and fire it up on the home theater system.
Nowadays, people seem content to stream movies on their tinny little phone.
Recently I took odd job money and invested in an upgrade to our 5.1 home theater set up from a decade ago. I wanted 4K support, Dolby Atmos decoding, Dirac room calibration, and the ability to watch 4K UHD dvd movies.
I bought a few 4K UHD disc, some Blu-rays and even rented some Blu-rays from the local library. The surround sound quality is amazing on these Blu-rays. But I don’t have access to every movie or show on Blu-ray so there is a need to stream.
But the streaming sounds awful! Heck, the commercials on Hulu sound better than the actual shows and movies.
Why is that? It is because the streaming services are trying to stretch out every last penny. The less data they send you, the more profit they make. Some even try to upsell you to purchase higher quality streaming.
Granted, some customers might have the Internet speeds needed to stream high-bitrate video and sound but for those of us with decent Internet and high-quality sound equipment, we want better sound gosh darn it!
Here is the difference in quality from the different sources
- Streamíng services use Dolby Digital Plus. 5.1-ch audio in Dolby Digital Plus is typically encoded at bitrates between 192-256 kbps.
- Blu-ray disk would have Dolby TrueHD audio at 6,000 kbps to 18,000 kbps .
That is a huge quality difference!
Let’s compare Ultra HD Blu-ray vs. Streaming vs. Cinema vs. YouTube
| Average Bitrate | 82 Mbps | 5-25 Mbps | 125 Mbps | 8-15 Mbps |
As you can see, streaming services and YouTube will top off around 25 Mbps at maximum. Often you are only getting less than 10 Mbps.
UHD Blu-ray gives you at least three times the amount of data. And of course a high end system at your local cinema will be even better at 125 Mbps but not even double the UHD Blu-ray.
So in conclusion, streaming movies suck for audio. Your ears are missing out on a lot of great surround sound in exchange for ease and convenience.
- Dolby Digital Plus Stereo audio is typically encoded at 96–128 kbps, while Dolby Atmos audio is typically encoded at 384–768 kbps. Dolby Digital Plus supports up to 1.7 Mbps.
- Dolby Digital 5.1 audio has a minimum bitrate of 384 kbps, while stereo audio has a minimum bitrate of 128 kbps. The maximum data rate for DVD is 448 kbps, and 640 kbps for Blu-ray.
- Dolby True HD This lossless format can have data rates of up to 18 Mbps.
- Dolby Atmos HDRThis codec compresses Dolby Atmos content to a sampling rate of 48 kHz, resulting in a lower bitrate.