New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…

Original story (published on July 28, 2021) follows:

YouTube TV is a pretty great streaming television service that offers live TV, on-demand video, and cloud-based DVR, but it can be better. With the 4K Plus add-on you can add several extra viewing options to your YouTube TV Base Plan.

Along with 4K Ultra High Definition playback for live and on-demand programs, you also get to stream concurrently on multiple devices, along with support for viewing offline recordings on your phone through the YouTube TV mobile app.

While all this does sound pretty great on paper, the reality is far from perfect.

The Olympics has sparked plenty of discussion on social media among YouTube TV subscribers who are now questioning the 4K Plus add-on’s viability.

We previously highlighted how its subscribers are having a really hard time getting Olympics running on the 4K resolution. Channels continue playing it at 1440p or even 1080p despite being subscribed to 4K Plus.

And even if by any luck the Olympic games do manage to stream at 4K, some YouTube TV users observed that they barely notice any difference between it and regular HD playback.

While the reason for this could be that the feed relayed from Japan itself is limited to 1080p/1440p or that NBC is limiting 4K streaming to certain regions only, it does put a dent in the viability of YouTube TV.

But you see, Olympics isn’t the only streaming content where YouTube TV fails to impress. Subscribers have reported that networks on YTTV rarely broadcast a true 4K event and that the VOD content is quite bare.

youtube-tv-4k-plus
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I agree YouTube tv so far has nothing to offer in 4k and allot of networks don’t really stream 4k. It’s honestly a gimmick to get money out of users.
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Until they start pushing out consistent and native (not upscaled) 4K content with Atmos (rather than 5.1 audio) it certainly isn’t worth 20 dollars a month.
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And the arguments against YTTV are quite plausible too. It’s completely true that a larger part of the ‘4K content’ currently available on the service is simply 1080p or so upscaled to 4K.

Further, Dolby Atmos 5.1 surround is a hit and miss with much of the streams not supporting the audio format and going for plain, old stereo instead.

Due to all this, many have compared YTTV to the likes of Netflix and Disney+ saying that while they aren’t exactly comparable, they do offer much more for much less (around $4 per month).

So i’ll make a deal with ya. I’ll spend my $4 a month for hundreds of hours of movies and TV shows in 4k and you can spend your $20 a month to get 2 or 3 sporting events a month and your newscasts in 4k. Fair?
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So what’s your take on all of this? Will you be canceling your YouTube TV 4K Plus subscription after the Olympics or are you satisfied enough to pay for it as long as possible? Let us know your thoughts through the poll.

Feel free to also relay your thoughts through the comments below. And as always, the results will be out next week.

Update 1 (August 01)

The poll results are now out! Turns out that over 90% of the users will be cancelling their YouTube TV 4K Plus subscription after the Olympics while only a tiny 9.1% will be renewing it.

PiunikaWeb started purely as an investigative tech journalism website with a main focus on ‘breaking’ or ‘exclusive’ news. In no time, our stories got picked up by the likes of Forbes, Fox News, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Engadget, The Verge, MacRumors, and many others. Want to know more about us? Head here.

Zohaib Ahmed
824 Posts

Simply love being surrounded by technology as it's a constant reminder of how far humans have advanced as a race. Every new development feels exciting, which I convey to others through writing. And after a day's work, gaming just feels therapeutic.

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