Hotstar has started to roll out support for video streaming
in full-HD (1080p), the company confirmed, as it looks to better compete with
Amazon Prime Video and Netflix, both of which already offer video streaming in
full-HD and also have larger catalogues.
Through a software update, Hotstar this week added support
for full-HD (1080p) video streams on its iOS app (for iPhone and iPad). Android
users and Web users will have to wait for now as neither of the platforms has
1080p at the time of publishing.
We scanned through the catalogue on Hotstar's iOS client and
found that all premium titles such as Game of Thrones, How I Met Your Mother,
and so on - are now available in full-HD (1080p). However, many movies and
shows, as well as the sports content, still max out at HD (720p). Gadgets 360
had reported about Hotstar's imminent plans to add full-HD support two weeks
ago.
The unavailability of 1080p streaming option has frustrated
several Hotstar customers for many months. In comparison, Netflix and Amazon
Prime Video offer UHD (4K) streaming options for select titles on their
respective platforms. This feature has been added soon after Hotstar launched
internationally - and the updated app doesn't just add 1080p streams, but also
support for Hotstar's two new regions, the USA and Canada.
This is the first time it is expanding the service outside
India. In the United States, people will be required to pay $9.99 (roughly Rs.
640) per month, and in Canada, the monthly subscription cost is CAD 12.99
(roughly Rs. 670). The catalogue in those countries is different because of
airing rights, and Hotstar's offerings there seem to be much more about
Indian-language content, and sports. New users can of course avail of a month's
free trial to get started.
After discovering that Hotstar’s iOS client now offers video
streaming in full-HD, some users debated about the weird data usage metrics the
company is offering. Unlike Amazon Prime Video and Netflix, which tell users how
much data would be consumed in one hour of streaming in various resolution,
Hotstar shows how long a user could watch a video in particular resolution in
HD, and full-HD. Hotstar shows that it can stream for 0.7 hours on 1080p, 1.6
hours on 720p, and 4.1 hours on 360p, using 1GB of data.
"Those metrics probably should be flipped. Or even
directly calculated based on video length,” Mumbai-based iOS developer Harshil
Shah noted. Another user, Arpit Verma, said it would take him some time just to
figure out how long “0.7 of an hour”, for instance, mean.
