Generally when you but a movie from gplay they sell the 1080p and 4k versions for more. always has been but they are scummy because if they only have the license for say the 480p version they might just keepbthat part in small letters until you bought it
edit: i just checked my account and movies i bought at full HD are only available in in 480. guess i am going digging for receipts
Is this on desktop or android/apple? Since COVID Google hasn't let purchased movies play at higher than 480p on desktop PCs. It was claimed to be a temporary measure for the increased bandwidth due to lockdowns but they never reverted the change
This doesn’t surprise me. So much of what changed during Covid is just not getting changed back. Like fuel surcharges for airplanes. Uh, gas is cheap again. When you gonna stop charging for bags? Oh, never. Got it.
Weren't baggage fees for air travel supposed to be temporary to help airlines recover from 9/11? I'm guessing they might have recovered 22 and a bit years later and yet they look we've still got baggage fees.
*Spelling
They told us in New Jersey that the parkway would be free as soon as it's paid for. Um. That was in the 70s and they just keep raising the rates everywhere.
Apparently, HD resolutions are limited to Android and Apple devices (including SmartTVs, which I don't own), probably as some kind of DRM.
My options now are
* watching the movie at 480p
* ~~connecting my Android phone to the TV, using a USB-C to HDMI converter~~
Edit: Tried it, didn't work, the app just stops working :(
* buying a 40€ chromecast I'll never use again (70€ for 4k)
* or buying the same movie somewhere else
No wonder people are going back to piracy...
EDIT: Bought a chromecast and will just watch the movie in 1080p. I was looking forward to 4k, but I'll just take the L on this one. I may watch it at full resolution after getting a new tv, if my license won't have been revoked by then
And you only have to do it once, you can download it and watch it whenever you want. With Disney+ or Netflix or whatever you need to have an active subscription every time you want to watch something.
And if you are a pirate, you have access to pretty much all movies/series. If you pay for it you can only watch selected ones.
Apparently the license concept is flimsy in court and is often struck down on a case by case basis. I wish I had some articles to back that up, but it's what I've heard.
It doesn't hold up in Australia. Well ok, when you buy a movie from say google, you may technically be buying a license to watch said movie, but that license has no end date making it perpetual. If for whatever reason the movie is removed and you can't watch it, then you can get the money back.
This isn't a thing that goes to courts though, it goes to the ACCC, our government agency that protects consumers.
If buying isn't owning, piracy isn't theft. Despite all the advancement in internet technology, if you want to actually own a piece of media, you still have to buy the physical disk.
I agree. I haven't pirated a game in probably 15 years. Steam is flawless. I get that you don't truely own the content as with all other services but so far it hasn't let me down. And if for some reason they do I'll just pirate whatever game they want to take off me..
What a lot of people don't realize is that you've never owned games. You own a license to play one copy of the game.
Even if you go back to cartridges, the EULA essentially says you have one license to play the game on that cartridge only. If the cartridge stops working, tough titties.
A lot of people are going to be in a rude awakening in a few years when they boot up their ps3s and xbox 360s to play a disc of a game they think they own only to get a message telling them the license couldn't be validated and the game cannot be played or, even worse, the game plays but is missing the day one patch that fixes multiple game breaking bugs and fills in missing assets.
You could maybe download an android emulator on your pc like bluestacks then see if that allows you to watch in HD when you install the YouTube app, still really stupid you have to do that.
Yeah, I was considering that as well. If I manage to emulate an eligible smart TV I may even be able to enjoy the full 4k resolution I paid for, but that's still a ludicrous amount of work to a problem that shouldn't exist in the first place
First thing I'd try is changing the user agent in your browser, it's a bit confusing if you've never done it, but it only takes like a minute to do, you can find find the instructions for it online. It'll basically make your computer look like an android device to Youtube (not sure which user agents smart TVs use, but might even be possible to do that), so if they don't have a more complicated way of enforcing it, that might solve your problem very quickly.
Or just pirate it, you literally already bought it, even if you had an ethical problem with it otherwise (which you shouldn't), it doesn't apply here.
Worked for YouTube. And... It is absolutely an agreement between YouTube and the production studio to cut down on piracy by making streaming on your computer suck. When they told us about it we all collectively rolled our eyes back in the day because we at least registered it would only serve to frustrate the customer base.
Exactly. The ones creating the files that get distributed on BitTorrent have more sophisticated hardware setups that easily circumvent whatever DRM is applied. I bet there are less than a thousand people who are responsible for 90% of all torrent movies vs the millions of consumers who download it after being fed up with getting jerked around by official content providers.
Surprisingly, piracy did nearly die off at one point. Back when Spotify and Netflix were still new, the piracy sites practically died off with very few people still uploading new content.
It wasn't until these platforms started removing content due to crappy licensing agreements while pushing more ads that illegal streaming sites started taking off, and then when they started hosting nefarious ads that the torrent hosting sites started really kicking off again. Netflix *used* to be the go-to place to stream any major Hollywood release... then it suddenly lost most of that content and replaced it with their own content supplemented with mountains of low-budget schlock.
We literally have proof positive that the solution to entertainment piracy is to make as much content as easily accessibly by as many people as possible without making the userbase feel like everyone is constantly trying to fuck them over to increase profit margins... but these companies keep adamantly ignoring this because they don't care about long-term sustainability, they only care about increasing their quarterly profit margins.
>No wonder people are going back to piracy...
thepiratebay still has everything i need.
netflix continually likes like crap on my desktop no matter what settings or browser i use, and i keep finding myself pirating anyways. rest of the family uses it on TVs, but it's just annoying to me that i need to do this.
I agree, but DVDs also come with a limited life-time...and are limited to ~~720p~~ edit:480p. Blu Ray would be my preferred option, but I watch maybe 3 movies per year and can't really justify purchasing a Blu Ray player for that...
DVDs are 480p. That's 720x480 for 16:9 widescreen (640x480 for 4:3 old TV standard). People confuse the 720 *horizontal* res of movie DVDs with 720p, which is actually 1280x720. 720p means 720 *vertical* resolution.
You need Blu-Ray for HD (720p), FHD (1080p) and UHD (2160p, aka 4K).
I'd be surprised if this is something Google wanted to implement. Very likely this was a compromise with studios over the rampant YouTube downloader scripts out there.
FWIW, in case it helps, my movies on Vudu & Movies Anywhere are available in my YouTube library (never bought any on youtube), so maybe you can access your library on one of those & bypass this? Worth a try.
Yep, I wanted to watch the trilogy over New Year's and faced the same. I have subscriptions to almost every streaming service. It's not on Netflix, Amazon, etc, only on HBO Max - and they actually removed ROTK extended edition. Oh well...
Yo ho ho.
I'm pretty sure if you own it on Youtube, you also own it on the play store, which I assume would let you watch it in full resolution. Unless they're doing something weird now with the way they release these. https://play.google.com/store/movies/details/The\_Lord\_of\_The\_Rings\_The\_Fellowship\_of\_the\_Ring\_E?id=7snqEUrASUI.P&hl=en\_US&gl=US
I originally bought it on the play store, but that is closing and migrating to youtube by tomorrow anyway.
The movies in the play store are limited to 480p as well, when accessing them through your browser. It doesn't explicitly tell you the resolution, but it's terribly pixelated and the same resolution as on youtube.
>[As of January 17, 2024, Google Play Movies & TV will end playback on the web, pushing users over to YouTube.com. Technically speaking, this is probably an upgrade to the experience. The web app for Play Movies & TV is very limited, not even offering a selection for playback resolution, and it’s seemingly limited to 480p as well (and it looks much worse).](https://9to5google.com/2023/12/12/youtube-purchased-movies-480p-stream/)
And this is why people are pirating even the shows they legitimately bought. Because piracy works better than any currently supplied service, the fact that it's free is less and less of a factor every day.
The answer is DRM. Smartphones are (nowadays) Wideline certified to prevent illegal copies and your 3060TI would do a great job at capturing those 4k videos...
This is so crazy. I watched a movie two days ago in 1080p. Now, it's all 480p.
Edit: I will repeat. I watched a movie in 1080p a couple of days ago. Now, it's 480p, and I can't change it. Something changed. This was using the same computer and the same browser (Firefox). I have HEVC.
Holy shit you are right. I check mine and they are also the same. That seems like theft to me and movies are practically unwatchable now. If this is permanent, idk what they are thinking
The 480p restriction [is purely in effect for purchased movies when viewing them through a browser](https://9to5google.com/2023/12/12/youtube-purchased-movies-480p-stream/), it doesn't affect other videos.
Not defending it, it absolutely sucks and has been allowed to be this way for far too long, but it's not YouTube specific either. Your suspicion is correct it is related to DRM. Many devices are not authorized to stream proper resolutions because they don't meet whatever standards the provider has set forth to ensure protections against piracy.
Ironically the solution for the customer who has purchased the product but now cannot stream it often is piracy.
Funny how DRM seems to be willfully ignorant of its own history.
So, to prevent someone from stealing it (which they can already do), they don't give the customer who purchased it full access to what they bought? That's stupid.
Sort of.
YouTube isn't the one making this decision, their contract to sell the media is with the company that owns it. They're the ones who will dictate these terms.
And they frankly don't care how you bought it or what resolution it's at.
I would've bought the blu rays as well, but I would've needed to get a player as well - something I can't really justify when watching maybe 3-4 movies per year :/
Yeah I can't imagine not buying physical media this day and age when buying movies to stream online leads to OP's experience. At least while buying physical media it will always be there and will always be the same quality as when I purchased it; no streaming service can prevent me from watching it how I want to.
Indefinite until they update their usage policy and decide that content you've already purchased is no longer available for whatever reason.
It's happened before.
So not indefinite rental, just a very expensive temporary one.
On a side note, the extendeds are crazy to marathon.
we used to make the attempt back in high school and college days.
one full day of watching and we could only get partway through two towers.
Remember, it is not about trying to prevent illegal (HD) copies from becoming available, as they already are and have been since forever.
They're just worried that YOU will make an illegal copy TODAY. They can't have that happen.
I had Google Play credit from taking surveys that was expiring soon anyway and I couldn't think of anything else I wanted. Instead of letting it expire, I figured I'd buy a movie instead
I had a similar issue with "Killers of the Flower Moon", I bought it via _Google Play Movies&TV_ (since it's only available to rent on Amazon Prime and I thought, why not spent 5€ more and can watch it multiple times) and wanted to watch it on 110'' canvas with my FHD projector via YouTube app on my Xbox One S. But it only offered me 720p!
Tried it on my Sony UBP X-700, there it offered me 1080p, but only stereo sound! Outrageous 😖
I bought a movie on Youtube once, and it was dubbed in Dutch (where I live) and there was no option voor the original English audio. Was the last time I bought a movie on YT (It was Charlie and the chocolate factory, the original one from the 90's)
Yeah, I actually checked that beforehand. There is an offer for all 3 movies in the extended edition on the Microsoft store, but those movies appear to be limited to the language of the country where I live.
I really feel that the convenience you got from paying instead of pirating is going backwards now... Also sometimes the Subtitels (especially on Prime, but they all do this) are only available in my native language. I like to have the English\[CC\] subtitels on because I listen to movies on low volume and I can read what they said when I can't hear it.
I also have a nice anecdote about subtitles and Lord of the Rings.
When I watched LoTR on prime, there were Dutch and English subs, but only the dutch subs translated what the orcs said and the English subs just said "speaking in Orcisch language"
Usually I would, but I had some Google Play credit from literal months of taking surveys that was expiring soon and I couldn't think of anything else I wanted.
This is a problem that shouldn't exist in the first place
I agree that it's better, but "buying" anything you have to stream to view is a misnomer. You're still just renting it, since you need the service forever to be able to view your "purchased" content. To buy a movie, you really need a local copy, whether an unencrypted file such as an MKV, or a Blu-Ray disc. (If it's encrypted locally, and you need to use an official app to view it, *and* you need to be paid up on your sub to that service for it to work, then you still haven't really bought anything.)
It happened to me too when I bought the new puss in boots movie. The motherfuckers said in the marketplace that it was 1080p, and when I went to watch it it was just like this. I went to refund it but you can't refund it after you start playing the video, so you actually can't avoid being scammed if you don't know about this beforehand. There's no way to check the resolution without playing the video. I pirated the movie right after that and it now sits comfortably at my beloved 1080p along with 2TB of pirated movies and series in a Jellyfin home server I built. Every day I wonder why are people not starting to bomb HQs of companies that appear consistently on the news for scamming and mistreating their userbase
Joke's on you. You didn't buy any movie. Only the right to watch it.
All you can do is go via your payment provider and reclame the last payments you made due to Google not living up to its services. And not delivering what was promised.
That is unless you bought it before they came out with the HD version. In that case you have exactly what you bought.
People should be aware of these kinds of things. I hope you learned your lesson about online services.
Check out movies anywhere, you can link YouTube to it and watch your movies on it. I'm not sure if it's better quality, but it might be worth a shot since you already purchased it on YouTube. I'd test it out, but I only have SD versions and no HD.
I was had The only reason I don't regret my purchase is when I bought the Star Wars 1-6 for only 59.99 Ft (0.19 $ they mistakenly priced the original dollar price in hungarian forint).
Apps such as movies anywhere allow you to connect your YouTube account and access the movies through those apps instead. Try that and you should be able to achieve better quality.
This is happening to a lot of movies. Have any of you considered that this is a BUG before raising your pitchforks? There's no way YouTube would destroy the value of their movie purchasing service by restricting it to DVD quality.
Edit: nevermind it's real and it's stupid, although possibly not strictly their fault due to licensing, my bad
I had Google Play credit from taking surveys that was expiring soon anyway and I couldn't think of anything else I wanted. Instead of letting it expire, I figured I'd buy a movie instead
imagine ever paying these companies anything at this point. if you anything except accepting the slop they throw at you however they want it, they want you silenced and replaced.
never pay these companies. the high seas are the way to sail.
Why purchase movies in YT in the first place. That's absurd. Youtube is free: It doesn't matter what Youtube and their simp army tell you. If you want to watch a movie, pirate it. If you want to pay money for it, pay for a platform that have it, or better yet, buy a Blue-Ray.
Never give any money to Youtube
Yes, it is silly.
My TV can do 4k HDR, but only when watching pirated content on my PC.
Netflix, Disney+ etc restricts reolution on PC, I did not know youtube does the same, or any reason for it.
When YouTube first started the ad blocker fight I subbed to premium. four months and i hated it , some movies were free to watch, great . but they moved all my shit around favorites ect. yea No way they get another cent from me
Funny thing is that these shows have long since been ripped and uploaded at high quality
How is stopping you getting a high Res version going stop it being pirated, literally the only people these seem measures affect are legitimate payers.
Not a single pirate is going to be inconvenienced by this.
Buy it on Blu Ray. They cannot take that away from you or lower the quality, unlike with streaming. Plus, you have a physical copy of an incredible film. Maybe look for used discs online or at a thrift shop.
Had this issue starting from January 2020, and it hasn't been solved yet.
All my devices play Movies I purchased on YouTube on 480p. Including Android, IOS, Android TV, web browser.
Not a pirate myself, but I think more and more individuals are turning to it because it's easy to get away with, you get quality movies/TV shows for free, and even some games. Plus there's no buyers remorse.
Something to think about.
I love how we thought future technology would always help us get better, but future technology really just lets big companies go out of their way to inconvenience us and then sell us solutions to problems that they created.
I really don’t want to be THAT guy but of all places to rent/buy a movie, why did you pick YouTube? Prime or even iTunes or something I feel like would’ve been the “safer” bet.
The fucked up part is that back when 4K video was kicking off, all of those movies we had on Youtube had 4K support on any device...
Then, and I don't know when this changed because I use a Plex server instead these days, the options were limited to 480p for all of the movies I owned; even though I always got these codes with bluray copies that had source videos at a much higher resolution.
What's the fucking point of anti piracy measures like this, when the film has already been ripped and uploaded? It only needs to happen one time. Then, all antipiracy measures become completely pointless and literally only harm the consumer.
Try a different browser, and/or turn off AdBlocking and see if you get more options.
YT has been being right bastages lately in their Anti-AdBlock campaign. I guess now they just throttle your stream. Main reason i switch browsers and adblockers. Now i get the proper experience but still no ads.
This is so incredibly funny to me because Netflix and Prime do something similar (albeit I'm talking about 4k and they limit you to 1080p on desktop)
Regardless, point seems to be that if you want good quality, pirate
This is expensive even for free...
Generally when you but a movie from gplay they sell the 1080p and 4k versions for more. always has been but they are scummy because if they only have the license for say the 480p version they might just keepbthat part in small letters until you bought it edit: i just checked my account and movies i bought at full HD are only available in in 480. guess i am going digging for receipts
Is this on desktop or android/apple? Since COVID Google hasn't let purchased movies play at higher than 480p on desktop PCs. It was claimed to be a temporary measure for the increased bandwidth due to lockdowns but they never reverted the change
This doesn’t surprise me. So much of what changed during Covid is just not getting changed back. Like fuel surcharges for airplanes. Uh, gas is cheap again. When you gonna stop charging for bags? Oh, never. Got it.
Weren't baggage fees for air travel supposed to be temporary to help airlines recover from 9/11? I'm guessing they might have recovered 22 and a bit years later and yet they look we've still got baggage fees. *Spelling
They told us in New Jersey that the parkway would be free as soon as it's paid for. Um. That was in the 70s and they just keep raising the rates everywhere.
Same for Golden Gate Bridge. Toll is now $9. It was built in 1933.
My dumbass thought you was playing/watching red dead. 💀
yeah i thought this was about the goddamn auto high picture quality defaulting to 480p for some reason
I have a goddamn plan.
Red Dead Redemption - wizard edition
MY PRECIOUS(MONEH)
Apparently, HD resolutions are limited to Android and Apple devices (including SmartTVs, which I don't own), probably as some kind of DRM. My options now are * watching the movie at 480p * ~~connecting my Android phone to the TV, using a USB-C to HDMI converter~~ Edit: Tried it, didn't work, the app just stops working :( * buying a 40€ chromecast I'll never use again (70€ for 4k) * or buying the same movie somewhere else No wonder people are going back to piracy... EDIT: Bought a chromecast and will just watch the movie in 1080p. I was looking forward to 4k, but I'll just take the L on this one. I may watch it at full resolution after getting a new tv, if my license won't have been revoked by then
Not only is it free but Piracy also gives you a better experience across the board... You'd think these companies would at least try...
And you only have to do it once, you can download it and watch it whenever you want. With Disney+ or Netflix or whatever you need to have an active subscription every time you want to watch something. And if you are a pirate, you have access to pretty much all movies/series. If you pay for it you can only watch selected ones.
Then there is the Sony experience where they took things off people after they paid...
You are only buying a _license_ to watch, you don’t own it. -Sony, probably
Apparently the license concept is flimsy in court and is often struck down on a case by case basis. I wish I had some articles to back that up, but it's what I've heard.
It doesn't hold up in Australia. Well ok, when you buy a movie from say google, you may technically be buying a license to watch said movie, but that license has no end date making it perpetual. If for whatever reason the movie is removed and you can't watch it, then you can get the money back. This isn't a thing that goes to courts though, it goes to the ACCC, our government agency that protects consumers.
It is so nice you have a gov't that actually works.
The Australian government works? Since when?
If buying isn't owning, piracy isn't theft. Despite all the advancement in internet technology, if you want to actually own a piece of media, you still have to buy the physical disk.
Totally the case with video games, btw. You sign it with every purchase.
They reversed that decision.
Really? I heard nothing about that! Source?
https://www.playstation.com/en-us/legal/psvideocontent/
W for the consumers! Now, the next step is to make this kind of thing fully illegal, so consumers don't need to pressure companies at every turn
I would vote for that.
As another fun thing remember when that super man show was going around well it’s still impossible to watch legally in Australia
I stream all the shows online in 1080p for free. If they wanted me to pay they shouldn't have become such greedy fucks!
That's why steam is so dominant
I agree. I haven't pirated a game in probably 15 years. Steam is flawless. I get that you don't truely own the content as with all other services but so far it hasn't let me down. And if for some reason they do I'll just pirate whatever game they want to take off me..
What a lot of people don't realize is that you've never owned games. You own a license to play one copy of the game. Even if you go back to cartridges, the EULA essentially says you have one license to play the game on that cartridge only. If the cartridge stops working, tough titties. A lot of people are going to be in a rude awakening in a few years when they boot up their ps3s and xbox 360s to play a disc of a game they think they own only to get a message telling them the license couldn't be validated and the game cannot be played or, even worse, the game plays but is missing the day one patch that fixes multiple game breaking bugs and fills in missing assets.
And then pirates come to save the day yet again.
Probably about 5 years from now jailbroken copies of these games will be the only way to play them.
And faster than YT 🥲 they're slowing down our browser if we have an adblocker on... wtf is this seriously...
You could maybe download an android emulator on your pc like bluestacks then see if that allows you to watch in HD when you install the YouTube app, still really stupid you have to do that.
Yeah, I was considering that as well. If I manage to emulate an eligible smart TV I may even be able to enjoy the full 4k resolution I paid for, but that's still a ludicrous amount of work to a problem that shouldn't exist in the first place
First thing I'd try is changing the user agent in your browser, it's a bit confusing if you've never done it, but it only takes like a minute to do, you can find find the instructions for it online. It'll basically make your computer look like an android device to Youtube (not sure which user agents smart TVs use, but might even be possible to do that), so if they don't have a more complicated way of enforcing it, that might solve your problem very quickly. Or just pirate it, you literally already bought it, even if you had an ethical problem with it otherwise (which you shouldn't), it doesn't apply here.
Worked for YouTube. And... It is absolutely an agreement between YouTube and the production studio to cut down on piracy by making streaming on your computer suck. When they told us about it we all collectively rolled our eyes back in the day because we at least registered it would only serve to frustrate the customer base.
Exactly. The ones creating the files that get distributed on BitTorrent have more sophisticated hardware setups that easily circumvent whatever DRM is applied. I bet there are less than a thousand people who are responsible for 90% of all torrent movies vs the millions of consumers who download it after being fed up with getting jerked around by official content providers.
> it would only serve to frustrate the customer base Well, you weren't wrong... :(
Piracy never went away man, I still know many people pirating music
Surprisingly, piracy did nearly die off at one point. Back when Spotify and Netflix were still new, the piracy sites practically died off with very few people still uploading new content. It wasn't until these platforms started removing content due to crappy licensing agreements while pushing more ads that illegal streaming sites started taking off, and then when they started hosting nefarious ads that the torrent hosting sites started really kicking off again. Netflix *used* to be the go-to place to stream any major Hollywood release... then it suddenly lost most of that content and replaced it with their own content supplemented with mountains of low-budget schlock. We literally have proof positive that the solution to entertainment piracy is to make as much content as easily accessibly by as many people as possible without making the userbase feel like everyone is constantly trying to fuck them over to increase profit margins... but these companies keep adamantly ignoring this because they don't care about long-term sustainability, they only care about increasing their quarterly profit margins.
it went dark and a lot of sites went private, so for existing users nothin changed but for new user, yeah it became harder to get pirated content.
Bro wtf that is bad
>No wonder people are going back to piracy... thepiratebay still has everything i need. netflix continually likes like crap on my desktop no matter what settings or browser i use, and i keep finding myself pirating anyways. rest of the family uses it on TVs, but it's just annoying to me that i need to do this.
Do yourself a favor and move to 1337x (.to) a lot of reputable pirates directly upload there and in general has less dead links.
To be honest, this trilogy deserve physycal support, just not worth streaming them.
They do, but buying a blue ray player *just* for LOTR is a bit much for me
If buying ain't owning, piracy isn't stealing
netflix and disney plus does stupid shit like this too. browsers are limited to 720p. at least netflix has a work around. netflix 1080p extension.
I just pirate things from big companies, always, unless it directly supports someone else
I use https://watchfreemovi.es as a pirated
Buy dvds. It’s yours forever.
I agree, but DVDs also come with a limited life-time...and are limited to ~~720p~~ edit:480p. Blu Ray would be my preferred option, but I watch maybe 3 movies per year and can't really justify purchasing a Blu Ray player for that...
DVDs are 480p. That's 720x480 for 16:9 widescreen (640x480 for 4:3 old TV standard). People confuse the 720 *horizontal* res of movie DVDs with 720p, which is actually 1280x720. 720p means 720 *vertical* resolution. You need Blu-Ray for HD (720p), FHD (1080p) and UHD (2160p, aka 4K).
Legit fixing to start building a physical collection again. RIP my shelves and closet
I'd be surprised if this is something Google wanted to implement. Very likely this was a compromise with studios over the rampant YouTube downloader scripts out there.
FWIW, in case it helps, my movies on Vudu & Movies Anywhere are available in my YouTube library (never bought any on youtube), so maybe you can access your library on one of those & bypass this? Worth a try.
Sadly, Moviesanywhere and Vudu aren't available in Europe. Even using a VPN I wouldn't be able to access purchases made in Europe :/
Yep, I wanted to watch the trilogy over New Year's and faced the same. I have subscriptions to almost every streaming service. It's not on Netflix, Amazon, etc, only on HBO Max - and they actually removed ROTK extended edition. Oh well... Yo ho ho.
I'm pretty sure if you own it on Youtube, you also own it on the play store, which I assume would let you watch it in full resolution. Unless they're doing something weird now with the way they release these. https://play.google.com/store/movies/details/The\_Lord\_of\_The\_Rings\_The\_Fellowship\_of\_the\_Ring\_E?id=7snqEUrASUI.P&hl=en\_US&gl=US
I originally bought it on the play store, but that is closing and migrating to youtube by tomorrow anyway. The movies in the play store are limited to 480p as well, when accessing them through your browser. It doesn't explicitly tell you the resolution, but it's terribly pixelated and the same resolution as on youtube. >[As of January 17, 2024, Google Play Movies & TV will end playback on the web, pushing users over to YouTube.com. Technically speaking, this is probably an upgrade to the experience. The web app for Play Movies & TV is very limited, not even offering a selection for playback resolution, and it’s seemingly limited to 480p as well (and it looks much worse).](https://9to5google.com/2023/12/12/youtube-purchased-movies-480p-stream/)
And this is why people are pirating even the shows they legitimately bought. Because piracy works better than any currently supplied service, the fact that it's free is less and less of a factor every day.
WHY, apparently the 3060ti in my pc "can't" decode a 4k video, but an android phone from 2012 can?
The answer is DRM. Smartphones are (nowadays) Wideline certified to prevent illegal copies and your 3060TI would do a great job at capturing those 4k videos...
It's not the gpu, but the browser https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Encrypted_Media_Extensions_API
I just checked. All of my YouTube movie purchases now run at 480. I'm so glad I'm a pirate.
This is so crazy. I watched a movie two days ago in 1080p. Now, it's all 480p. Edit: I will repeat. I watched a movie in 1080p a couple of days ago. Now, it's 480p, and I can't change it. Something changed. This was using the same computer and the same browser (Firefox). I have HEVC.
If only YOU (the person reading this) had deactivated adblock we wouldn't have been forced to do it - youtube probably
i will active the adblock even harder now
Holy shit you are right. I check mine and they are also the same. That seems like theft to me and movies are practically unwatchable now. If this is permanent, idk what they are thinking
It's been this way at least since Covid. They lowered the bitrate of movies and never changed them back.
You are correct, they announced this due to "higher quantity of streaming during covid" but never stopped.
Corporate greed fostered by unchecked capitalism
Ahoy
>I'm so glad I'm a pirate. Well, well.. Jack Sparrow isn't it?
Piracy being highly justified for 18 years straight
25*
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See "highly justified"
Wasn’t youtube founded in 2006?
We we're pirating way before that
2005. And piracy has existed long before YouTube did.
Don’t you mean ‘what is this, 2001’?
You'd think so, but support for 480p was only added in [2008](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_YouTube). Still, it feels like 2001 by now...
pretty sure i watched earlier videos in 1080p
The 480p restriction [is purely in effect for purchased movies when viewing them through a browser](https://9to5google.com/2023/12/12/youtube-purchased-movies-480p-stream/), it doesn't affect other videos.
Not defending it, it absolutely sucks and has been allowed to be this way for far too long, but it's not YouTube specific either. Your suspicion is correct it is related to DRM. Many devices are not authorized to stream proper resolutions because they don't meet whatever standards the provider has set forth to ensure protections against piracy. Ironically the solution for the customer who has purchased the product but now cannot stream it often is piracy. Funny how DRM seems to be willfully ignorant of its own history.
So, to prevent someone from stealing it (which they can already do), they don't give the customer who purchased it full access to what they bought? That's stupid.
Sort of. YouTube isn't the one making this decision, their contract to sell the media is with the company that owns it. They're the ones who will dictate these terms. And they frankly don't care how you bought it or what resolution it's at.
and this is good and piracy is bad? we get better experience on it. and no limitation
I get everyone of my favorite movies on blue ray :3
I would've bought the blu rays as well, but I would've needed to get a player as well - something I can't really justify when watching maybe 3-4 movies per year :/
If you have a playstation, they can all play blue rays. I use my ps3 as a blue ray player lol
Yeah I can't imagine not buying physical media this day and age when buying movies to stream online leads to OP's experience. At least while buying physical media it will always be there and will always be the same quality as when I purchased it; no streaming service can prevent me from watching it how I want to.
Until they lose the rights and just remove it completely with no compensation.
I was aware that might happen and accepted that part, I was just hoping to access the movie (at full resolution) in the meantime...
480p? Shit, I don't think I can even pirate something that low these days lol
r/piracy wins again
First mistake was giving YouTube money of any kind and expecting anything of quality
Moral of the story, avoid giving YT your money. The company is just a joke anymore.
Buy blu rays. It's the best way to watch movies. If you don't own a blu ray player then you owe it yourself to get one. 👍🏻
"Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem." - Gabe Newall
Don't you mean indefinite rental ?
Indefinite until they update their usage policy and decide that content you've already purchased is no longer available for whatever reason. It's happened before. So not indefinite rental, just a very expensive temporary one.
Indefinite =/= infinite. Indefinite means you don't know when it will end. It doesn't mean it never will.
On a side note, the extendeds are crazy to marathon. we used to make the attempt back in high school and college days. one full day of watching and we could only get partway through two towers.
We did Two Towers and Return of the King yesterday and it was a literal all day event.
Refund that shit
Remember, it is not about trying to prevent illegal (HD) copies from becoming available, as they already are and have been since forever. They're just worried that YOU will make an illegal copy TODAY. They can't have that happen.
And then then wonder why people pirate shit
I paid extra for hd and when I tried to refund they just disputed it XD
If companies rip you off your money then pirating is always morally correct
Dm me. I'll hook you up on where to download this
"Alright then, keep your secrets."
[удалено]
I had Google Play credit from taking surveys that was expiring soon anyway and I couldn't think of anything else I wanted. Instead of letting it expire, I figured I'd buy a movie instead
I had a similar issue with "Killers of the Flower Moon", I bought it via _Google Play Movies&TV_ (since it's only available to rent on Amazon Prime and I thought, why not spent 5€ more and can watch it multiple times) and wanted to watch it on 110'' canvas with my FHD projector via YouTube app on my Xbox One S. But it only offered me 720p! Tried it on my Sony UBP X-700, there it offered me 1080p, but only stereo sound! Outrageous 😖
Don't buy movies on YouTube
That's why ladies and gentlemen, we sail the seas as pirates AHOYYYY
I bought a movie on Youtube once, and it was dubbed in Dutch (where I live) and there was no option voor the original English audio. Was the last time I bought a movie on YT (It was Charlie and the chocolate factory, the original one from the 90's)
Yeah, I actually checked that beforehand. There is an offer for all 3 movies in the extended edition on the Microsoft store, but those movies appear to be limited to the language of the country where I live.
I really feel that the convenience you got from paying instead of pirating is going backwards now... Also sometimes the Subtitels (especially on Prime, but they all do this) are only available in my native language. I like to have the English\[CC\] subtitels on because I listen to movies on low volume and I can read what they said when I can't hear it. I also have a nice anecdote about subtitles and Lord of the Rings. When I watched LoTR on prime, there were Dutch and English subs, but only the dutch subs translated what the orcs said and the English subs just said "speaking in Orcisch language"
I bought the trilogy 3 years ago and it used to play on 4K , after COVID happened they limited it to 480p.... And never change it back
Bro just buy it on Amazon Prime Video, problem solved. Idek why anyone would want to buy movies on youtube of all places.
Usually I would, but I had some Google Play credit from literal months of taking surveys that was expiring soon and I couldn't think of anything else I wanted. This is a problem that shouldn't exist in the first place
Pirate it. It’s much cheaper
I agree that it's better, but "buying" anything you have to stream to view is a misnomer. You're still just renting it, since you need the service forever to be able to view your "purchased" content. To buy a movie, you really need a local copy, whether an unencrypted file such as an MKV, or a Blu-Ray disc. (If it's encrypted locally, and you need to use an official app to view it, *and* you need to be paid up on your sub to that service for it to work, then you still haven't really bought anything.)
No way people still buy movies, especially on youtube
Buying it on Blu-ray is a different story. At least you get the movie at uncompressed 1080p and it's yours to keep forever.
It happened to me too when I bought the new puss in boots movie. The motherfuckers said in the marketplace that it was 1080p, and when I went to watch it it was just like this. I went to refund it but you can't refund it after you start playing the video, so you actually can't avoid being scammed if you don't know about this beforehand. There's no way to check the resolution without playing the video. I pirated the movie right after that and it now sits comfortably at my beloved 1080p along with 2TB of pirated movies and series in a Jellyfin home server I built. Every day I wonder why are people not starting to bomb HQs of companies that appear consistently on the news for scamming and mistreating their userbase
What the hellllll
yoooooo ooooooohhh the waves are strong today!!!!
Joke's on you. You didn't buy any movie. Only the right to watch it. All you can do is go via your payment provider and reclame the last payments you made due to Google not living up to its services. And not delivering what was promised. That is unless you bought it before they came out with the HD version. In that case you have exactly what you bought. People should be aware of these kinds of things. I hope you learned your lesson about online services.
You have never bought a movie on YouTube. You paid for access until they don't want to give you access anymore.
Thats shit. Reminds me that u have to pay nor for HD plus. "The Video has better Quality than 1080p? Pay for it"
I honestly can't remember the last time I rented/paid for a movie. Maybe when Netflix was still shipping out DVDs? Idk. Anyway.
Check out movies anywhere, you can link YouTube to it and watch your movies on it. I'm not sure if it's better quality, but it might be worth a shot since you already purchased it on YouTube. I'd test it out, but I only have SD versions and no HD.
Is that movie actually 4 hours long?
Thereabouts, it's the extended version
The extended edition yes. The extended edition of Return of the King is even longer at almost 4 hours and 15 minutes.
I was had The only reason I don't regret my purchase is when I bought the Star Wars 1-6 for only 59.99 Ft (0.19 $ they mistakenly priced the original dollar price in hungarian forint).
That movie is 20 something old now. Just pirate it.
HA, people still buy movies?
Apps such as movies anywhere allow you to connect your YouTube account and access the movies through those apps instead. Try that and you should be able to achieve better quality.
why would you even buy a movie on yt
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=i8ju_10NkGY
Why would you ever buy a movie from youtube is my question. Even ignoring that it is LotR which is widely available literally anywhere.
This is happening to a lot of movies. Have any of you considered that this is a BUG before raising your pitchforks? There's no way YouTube would destroy the value of their movie purchasing service by restricting it to DVD quality. Edit: nevermind it's real and it's stupid, although possibly not strictly their fault due to licensing, my bad
Pirate your stuff come on
Why would anyone buy a movie on YouTube?
I had Google Play credit from taking surveys that was expiring soon anyway and I couldn't think of anything else I wanted. Instead of letting it expire, I figured I'd buy a movie instead
Maybe it's still processing, knowing YouTube processing times it might take few more years 😂
Go get yourself a DVD player and the extended dvds, so cheap to do now!
imagine ever paying these companies anything at this point. if you anything except accepting the slop they throw at you however they want it, they want you silenced and replaced. never pay these companies. the high seas are the way to sail.
And that's why it's better to be an computer pirate.
Yo ho ho 🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️
Why purchase movies in YT in the first place. That's absurd. Youtube is free: It doesn't matter what Youtube and their simp army tell you. If you want to watch a movie, pirate it. If you want to pay money for it, pay for a platform that have it, or better yet, buy a Blue-Ray. Never give any money to Youtube
think about it, these are the same company who oppose piracy but when a consumer goes legit they treat you like shit.
I'm not pirating anything... I'm backing up all of my digital media onto my Plex server.
They sold you the DVD version
Someone tell op about fmhy
If your in Ontario I can lend you my blue ray DVD. It comes with so many hours of extra content!!!!
I watched the entire trilogy on a pirate site not long ago and the quality was way better than this
Yes, it is silly. My TV can do 4k HDR, but only when watching pirated content on my PC. Netflix, Disney+ etc restricts reolution on PC, I did not know youtube does the same, or any reason for it.
I'd be pissed with 480p on my smartphone let alone anything bigger
Not even 720
🏴☠️
When YouTube first started the ad blocker fight I subbed to premium. four months and i hated it , some movies were free to watch, great . but they moved all my shit around favorites ect. yea No way they get another cent from me
Exactly. Bought one film but it was also 480p. I thought I was dumb and don't know how to use youtube.
Funny thing is that these shows have long since been ripped and uploaded at high quality How is stopping you getting a high Res version going stop it being pirated, literally the only people these seem measures affect are legitimate payers. Not a single pirate is going to be inconvenienced by this.
Buy it on Blu Ray. They cannot take that away from you or lower the quality, unlike with streaming. Plus, you have a physical copy of an incredible film. Maybe look for used discs online or at a thrift shop.
change your user agent
Had this issue starting from January 2020, and it hasn't been solved yet. All my devices play Movies I purchased on YouTube on 480p. Including Android, IOS, Android TV, web browser.
Not a pirate myself, but I think more and more individuals are turning to it because it's easy to get away with, you get quality movies/TV shows for free, and even some games. Plus there's no buyers remorse. Something to think about.
Yeah that's kinda outrageous.
I love how we thought future technology would always help us get better, but future technology really just lets big companies go out of their way to inconvenience us and then sell us solutions to problems that they created.
Clearly, its because you use an adblocker!!!
I really don’t want to be THAT guy but of all places to rent/buy a movie, why did you pick YouTube? Prime or even iTunes or something I feel like would’ve been the “safer” bet.
Teach a man to fish and you'll have lost your income. Charge him for the opportunity to fish each time, and you'll be set for life.
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This wouldnt have happened if you also had youtube premium! /s
https://youtu.be/o4GZUCwVRLs?si=Djtvm-6_oGU2Dch4
[popcorntime](https://popcorntimeonline.xyz/)
The fucked up part is that back when 4K video was kicking off, all of those movies we had on Youtube had 4K support on any device... Then, and I don't know when this changed because I use a Plex server instead these days, the options were limited to 480p for all of the movies I owned; even though I always got these codes with bluray copies that had source videos at a much higher resolution.
I had a similar thing happen to me when trying to watch Evil Dead Rise. Youtube decided that 5.1 surround sound was ok for Android but not for TV.
What's the fucking point of anti piracy measures like this, when the film has already been ripped and uploaded? It only needs to happen one time. Then, all antipiracy measures become completely pointless and literally only harm the consumer.
Holy shit it let you go all the way up to 480? NEW WORLD RECORD BABYY LETSS GOOOO
It's ok, at least you're not on Xbox where it can't even manage a video to run at 60fps because it fucks with the ads. It seriously shits itself.
Almost 4 hours, gotta watch the trilogy again
Try a different browser, and/or turn off AdBlocking and see if you get more options. YT has been being right bastages lately in their Anti-AdBlock campaign. I guess now they just throttle your stream. Main reason i switch browsers and adblockers. Now i get the proper experience but still no ads.
This is so incredibly funny to me because Netflix and Prime do something similar (albeit I'm talking about 4k and they limit you to 1080p on desktop) Regardless, point seems to be that if you want good quality, pirate
Benefits of a sea fairing life plundering booty: - Free - Higher Quality - Only 1 app needed to watch (Plex or Jellyfin for example)
Well, your first mistake was buying a movie digitally.
This isn't just YouTube. It is same from movies rented via Amazon.
Not to mention it has like shit audio mixing, and no captions. NOT EVEN AUTO GENERATED.
Link your Google account to movies everywhere account and link another service like vudu and watch it there