When you buy rather than rent, you usually own the product outright and can use it in any way and for as long as you want. However, when it comes to owning digital media, things are not so simple. In a sense, the buy button is meaningless because you can never own that content. Even if you spend a lot of money buying movies and TV shows from a service like Google TV, ownership is subject to Google’s terms and often at its whims.
So Google could one day recklessly remove your purchased movies from its catalog, terminate your service (we don’t discount that possibility), or even make your experience worse. There are enough. In fact, that last part is exactly what’s happening with your content right now, and there’s no plausible reason for Google to be indifferent to your existing products and services.
let me tell you a joke
However, it is 480p.
Four years ago during the pandemic (remember this timeline, we’ll see you again), YouTube, like other streaming services, defaulted to 480p video quality to reduce load on its servers. This decision made sense because almost the entire population of the world suddenly had some time to themselves, and the best thing they could do during quarantine was watch videos all day long. However, YouTube allowed you to manually switch to a higher resolution.
YouTube offered the option to switch regular videos to higher quality, but purchased and rented content was limited to 480p, and the website didn’t have any higher streaming quality options. In an unprecedented situation, it was an acceptable and natural thing to do. I’ll leave this to Google.
Movies purchased from Google can only be played in 480p on the web, even if you purchase the HD version
It is unclear exactly when this interim restriction will be lifted
However, we recently noticed that Google “forgot” to reset that limit. Your library of purchased movies and TV shows is still limited to 480p on desktop browsers. As of 2024, that’s all 854×480 pixels. Please understand (Not in an Elon Musk style, though.). During his four years at Google, not a single person at Google noticed that the world was back to normal a few years ago. Low resolution may be used as a form of DRM to avoid content being ripped by pirated copies, but for people who paid full price for a movie or TV show, it may not be possible to do so even though they shouldn’t. It’s a limited experience.
Please note that this nonsensical video quality limit does not apply to mobile apps or TVs. This only applies when viewing the YouTube website in a desktop browser, so if you’re lounging on your laptop on the couch or in bed, you’ll have to put up with poor quality. 480p video looks terrible even on the small screen of a mobile phone. You can imagine it’s even worse on a 16-inch laptop. No, wait, you don’t have to imagine that. Get hands-on experience right now with purchased media on YouTube.
The situation has worsened as Google encourages users to watch purchased media on YouTube after shutting down the Google Play Movies & TV website/app in January 2024. YouTube is a good place to watch videos with great player controls and features, but this is nonsense. His 480p limit on desktop browsers is holding back the movie experience we all paid dearly for.
(Unpleasant) experience with Google products
Google has improved its service over time, but that’s a joke.
For a long time, Nvidia Shield devices have been the best Android TV boxes that offer a clean, top-notch experience. That’s why this product was able to create a strong user community. But that very community is taking up arms against Google for ruining their experience.
After a visual upgrade to Android TV, your Shield TV home screen now displays ads in the name of recommendations. If you don’t move your cursor a bit, it will automatically play in full screen with audio. Speaking of discontinuing a good product, this has to be one of Google’s top blunders, but that’s not surprising since we don’t expect much better from the company.
And we don’t even get started on the confusing nature of Google TV and Android TV launchers existing at the same time. Google TV is an improved launcher and app for purchasing and renting content on Android TV. Android TV has a separate new launcher that is similar to Google TV but not exactly the same. On the other hand, the old Android TV UI is also present on older TV sets. Well, let’s get our heads around this one. Because I can’t Google and neither can Google.
What is the difference between Google TV and Android TV?
Overview of Google’s two smart TV platforms
Google Play Movies & TV has been discontinued, so your TV doesn’t have a dedicated app to find the content you own.Currently on Android TV[ショップ]It’s under the tabs, but on the Google TV side there’s a dedicated library tab and a shortcuts row. For Android TV users, this means your library is hidden behind his 15 clicks. 15 clicks[ショップ]As you go through the tabs, all kinds of movies and TV shows are advertised.
There’s also a YouTube app, but this one is better when it comes to navigating to your library. It takes many clicks to access the content, and coincidentally the UI also has ad-like content vying for the user’s attention. Suffice it to say, for those who have invested in the Play Movies & TV app, the experience has been unpleasant. That app forces an even worse UI.
How can I trust Google again?
I’m here
At the end of the day, Google has dug itself a hole and shown itself to be a fickle and unreliable brand that is driving customers away. People can no longer trust Google for even simple things like buying media. Given the company’s track record, there’s a good chance that someday the company will decide to shut down the Google TV service and your purchased content will be lost forever.
Google needs to get on board with this program and start putting its customers first, instead of further ruining its service with low-effort, ad-filled trash cans. That’s exactly what’s happening as Android TV and Google TV become filled with ads. And the horrible UI design that leads us to those ads.
