With some streaming services, like Apple TV Plus, you’ll get 4k content with your subscription. With others, like YouTube TV, HBO Max, and Netflix, you’ll have to pay an add-on fee. Even though advising anyone to increase their spending in the current economic climate is not something I typically do, investing in a streaming service's 4K upgrade fee is a justifiable expense for a few reasons. Those reasons may not always be obvious, so I’m going to walk you through them below and help you determine whether your own use case is reason enough to shell out a few dollars more a month for that premium video and audio experience.
4k UHD Blu-ray is still better in many cases than a 4k stream from your favorite content provider, like YouTube TV, but if getting your favorite films and TV shows into your home via Wi-Fi is your “go-to” path for entertainment, and you’ve been sitting on the fence, after reading this, my hope is that you’ll be empowered to make a decision and jump down. Let’s get into it!
You already have the setup for it
Without this in place, 4k won’t matter much
Your seating distance, the size of your TV, and the quality of your home theater sound system all matter when deciding if paying the upgrade fee for 4k streaming is actually worth it. For 55-inch or smaller TVs, the benefit from that upgrade won’t “pop” as it does on a larger TV. Add a…