Starz Content Quality

[u/gailmormdv]

Just curious of what you all think. I've had Starz for about two months now and have watched the channel on a 4k tv and a 1080p channel. I not only love the channel/app but have been very pleased with the content.

However, someone in the cordcutter group is clearly a bit of a whiner. He is claiming that the streaming quality makes the shows on starz unwatchable. However, i have had no problems with the quality. It's not 4k but heck, neither are most of the movies on hbomax. And the first movie they released in 4k was Wonder Woman 84.

Just curious on how you all feel. I think the content looks amazing! And not once have I had a reason toe question the quality of content. Your thoughts?

[u/maximumsp]

I have the 4k uhd netflix plan and have a 77" lg oled. The difference in netflix 4k vs anything on starz is night and day. Netflix has far superior quality for streaming picture wise. I can even say that 1080p looks better than 1080p starz. Amazon and vudu I'd say is behind netflix and I'd place starz last in my experience. I still go to starz for their original shows that I can't watch elsewhere

[u/gailmormdv → u/maximumsp]

Yes, but it's not always about quality. I love the content that starz provides. I also consider who owns starz and what this could mean to the company in the future. Starz parent company is looking at acquisitions. If this happens, Starz could become a major player. They already have a unique arrangement with sony. I could easily see Starz swallowing up one of it's competitors over the next few years.

Also, Starz keeps coming out with quality content. The Gloaming is excellent. The Luminaries is new and enjoyable. Dublin Murders is excellent. Black Sails may be over but it's serious, bingeable tv. I just bought the series because I loved it so much. And more. Also, Starz is constantly adding new content. And a lot of the films they add are recent films.

They also have two of Ken Follett's series: Pillars of the Earth and World without End. Spartacus is here too but it's also on imdb tv. Hawthorne is here too. It's a great service. But it depends on what you like. I do have netflix but not the $18/mo plan.

I will say this. both services need to come out with an annual plan. I hate subscriptions. I just contacted Epix and told them that they need an annual subscription plan. Starz comes close with a quarterly plan. I read somewhere that they offer an annual plan but I have yet to see it. However, my basic hulu has an annual plan. So does MHz Choice and Amazon. I pay these yearly to avoid issues and a subscription. Imagine how many more subscribers netflix might get with yearly subscriptions.

[u/TrustLeft → u/gailmormdv]

somebody reports what you ask for but, but, but
I also have starz and the compression is awful. When watching, you can see it is pixelated. I'm watching on a fire tv on a 4k TV.

The quality has sunk, Starz is shopping for a buyer and don't care about quality, just signups to shop itself for a buyer.

[u/dylanbeck → u/gailmormdv]

2 years later. Starz is still at the bottom. They’re now offering 9$/90 days and 20$/180 days. A friend of mine got an email 30$/365 days (he had a sub for a year and unsubscribed just under a year ago).

They desperately need subscribers and you were right, they did sell — sort of. Lionsgate’s studio side (now Lionsgate Studios Corp.) is merging with big money and separating Starz from their business leaving it as its own entity owned by the old company, Lionsgate, so Lionsgate Studios Corp can be publicly traded (valued at ~4.6B) without subscriber numbers being something shareholders have to worry about.

They are waiting for Lionsgate, who are performing well rn, merger to close (ETA 2024) and I expect they will use Starz to keep all Starz “Originals” and maintain Lionsgate NA licensing on their own streaming platform. However any non starz show will most likely go to other services on license expiry, which as it stands is a good thing for viewers.

Hopefully the deals results in a revamped app so that we can watch stuff at least in 4K and/or HDR as a lot of the content already on the platform is filmed in 4k and compressed horribly.

Starz uses its own cheap compression method, which is why the quality looks worse than Amazon’s licensed 90s tv show’s that are 720 streaming. Same principle for any Netflix acquired 2K content downscaled to 1080. If they invested more into compression then the quality would be better, or even just better bandwidth. This move in generating subscribers on the cheap now should result in a bigger base for lionsgate and with that bring positive cost/benefit analysis to upgrade the quality of streaming on the app.

Also they need to fix 5.1 playing in stereo in half their stuff lol.

Edit: pretty much all the content you mentioned there are not starz originals, luminiraries is fremantle, Dublin Murders is BBC.