Both three years ago and today, many users criticize online streaming and video download services for poor material quality. Indeed, the bitrate values of the video stream and audio tracks on the top services differ significantly. As a result, a series in 1080p on one online movie theater looks much worse than the same content on competing streaming services. And head-to-head comparisons to Blu-ray and 4K UHD Blu-ray source are able to withstand a single release at all.
These days, 4 Mbps for 1080p video and Dolby Digital 5.1 audio (AC3 384k) can be considered the minimum acceptable values. Video at 3 Mbps and stereo sound on 2000+ year movies simply do not deserve to get into a paid service.
Let’s look at the stats by streaming and rental/download services, and draw your own conclusions.
Amazon Prime HD – 4 to 10 Mbps for MPEG-4 AVC, DD+ sound 384 Kbps
Amazon Prime 4K – 10 to 20 Mbps in HEVC, DD+ (Atmos) audio up to 768 Kbps
Apple TV+ – 1080p (5-12 Mbps) and 4K HDR10/Dolby Vision (13-33 Mbps) support, DD5.1 384 Kbps up to Atmos audio
Disney+ – from 1080p (5-12 Mbps) to 4K video (12-29 Mbps), HDR10 and Dolby Vision support. Audio up to DD+ (Atmos) 768 kbps
Google Play Movies – 4K video 12-15 Mbps, audio to AAC or DD 5.1 384 Kbps
HBO Max 1080p/4K – video bitrate from 7 to 14 Mbps for MPEG-4 AVC, DD5.1 audio. service does not support 4K and HDR yet
Hulu – 1080p video bitrate 5-6 Mbps for MPEG-4 AVC, 4K video around 15 Mbps and HEVC encoded, audio from AAC 2.0 to DD+ 5.1
iTunes HD – 4.5-8.9 Mbps AVC video, DD+ 384 kbps audio
iTunes 4K – 19-22.3 Mbps in HEVC + HDR10 and Dolby Vision, DD+ (Atmos) audio up to 768 Kbps
Netflix HD – video bitrate from 3 to 10 Mbps for MPEG-4 AVC, sound DD+ 384 Kbps
Netflix 4K – 13-20Mbps in HEVC, HDR10 and Dolby Vision support, DD+ (Atmos) audio up to 768 Kbps
Peacock 1080p/4K – 1080p (4-11 Mbps), 4K HDR not supported, DD 5.1 sound