Last Tuesday, after making a lot of noise, SkyShowtime was created. It’s the new streaming video platform that came at an ideal time: a storm due to Netflix’s policy with shared accounts and an unprecedented introductory offer: 2.99 dollars.
This price is tricky, but for less than three dollars I subscribed and I have been using the service to the maximum for a few days. I found a platform that works well and has a big catalog. I like it, to tell you the truth, but also He has five things that should be improved as soon as possible.
4K resolution should be mandatory by 2023
Let’s go to the first point because, in addition, it is the one that I consider the most important. Apart from Netflix, all platforms offer 4K content in their subscription. Netflix here is a special case because it’s the only one that has multiple steps in its subscription and it should also start forgetting about 720p resolution, but in the middle of 2023, SkyShowtime should have a 4K resolution.
I’m sure they’ll add it in the future and call me picky, but movies like “Mission Impossible Fallout” in 1080p take me out of the experience. And if we go to the series, I do not understand that one like Halo, which is one of the most recent, is also not broadcast in 4K. And we’re not even talking about HDR.
I know it costs 2.99 dollars (actually 5.99 dollars, but there is the succulent launch offer), but 4K should be the norm. I imagine that in time they will apply this resolutionbut I don’t understand why it didn’t find it when bandwidth, as we will see below, is not an issue.
Oh, compression methods…
And, this point is closely related to the previous one. The compression method is outdated and this causes the image to not have the quality it should (even for FullHD) and some elements of it have artifacts, such as shadows.
SkyShowtime uses the H.264 codec yes, it is widespread, but it has lagged behind the newer, more efficient H.265. The throughput is good and it has 10 Mbps, triple that of HBO before it became HBO Max and streamed in 4K, but it’s totally inefficient.
Still from ‘Halo’
I go back to before: could stream in 4K with a more efficient codec without consuming much more bandwidth they currently occupy, and additionally, compression to 1080p would be better if they used a newer codec, removing image artifacts.
And be careful, I repeat that the quality of this one is not bad, but it could be better both for the resolution and for the compression technique. If you see it on mobile, yes, that’s a point you won’t mind so much because these artifacts are less visible.
Sound on mobile is consistent, but not so much on TV
This point may or may not be important depending on the source. Given the resolution limit, I didn’t expect Dolby Atmos, but I expected Dolby Digitalsomething that is not present at the moment.
I must say that this week I saw SkyShowtime 50% on television and another 50% on my mobile, the latter being the device in which this deficiency is compensated for thanks to the surround sound “simulator” of the device itself -even. On television it is more visible, because we end up with the stereo of a lifetime and there are productions where surround simulation fits like a glove.
Everyone, in fact. Any content is better with good sound.
About the app on Fire TV, please
It’s something that half annoys me. In the living room and in the kitchen I have Chromecast, both the version with Google TV, so I have both the application and the possibility of sending the episode of the series without any problem with the function sharing.
However, in my office I have a “dumb TV” with a Fire TV 4K which has very good picture quality, but I can’t cast SkyShowtime via Miracast and also has no app in the Amazon store.
The same thing happens with HBO Max at the time, so it’s time to download the application via APK -our colleagues from Xataka Home tell you how to do it- and it is not easy for many users. I have a few family members who have asked me for help with this and let’s face it, it’s a bummer.
I don’t know if the ball is in SkyShowtime’s or Amazon’s court (I’m leaning towards the latter given the previous ones), but it’s something that shouldn’t happen because, in addition, andl Fire TV Stick has millions of devices deployed because of its very low price. Right now you have the Fire TV Stick Lite with the new remote for 35 dollars, but in the offers it is on the ground.
Catalog with gaps and without any knocks
The last point is the catalog. There are a lot of productions, but it’s inconsistent. The sagas lack ‘Fast and Furious’ or ‘Jurassic Park’, for example, but neither do we have any new Showtime series, classics from the production companies that set up the platform or the promised’ Frasier’ and ‘Twin Peaks’.
The latter seems great to me in its first season and soporific in the next two, but I wanted to give it another chance. The most important thing is that there is no series that is a hitthis series that makes you want to subscribe to the yes or yes service.
There is no “Stranger Things”, “The Last of Us” or “The Rings of Power”. Yes, ‘Yellowstone’ is awesome and you have both the ‘Star Trek’ series and the ‘Halo’ series, but I feel like I have an app for watching ‘classics’.
One more thing…
And, in the end, the feeling is precisely what is an app that couldn’t be my main feed Right now. HBO and, above all, Netflix, although shared subscriptions hurt me, they have a catalog to spare with periodic news that argues that this is a platform that you can have as your only subscription.
I love Apple TV+ for the level of its productions (‘Severance’ is a real marvel, you should watch it) but like Prime Video or SkyShowtime, I see it as a complement to one of the other two. The same thing happens to me as with WiiU at the time having a PS3 or an Xbox 360.
There is potential, yes, since behind SkyShowtime there are many production companies and renowned studios, so I hope they improve the technique and add new content, but for now it stuck around to revisit the old classics.
And I tell you something for 3 dollars a month I don’t care at allfrom the “bottom of the closet” catalog, the one you’ve seen 27 times, but it’s never bad for a new pass, seems very good to me.
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