The 4K resolution It is one of the most demanded things on streaming platforms. Since there are few sources of content in that resolution, one hopes that, by paying streaming platforms, you can have access to the best movies and series in that resolution. But nevertheless, hbo max still don’t have 4K in Spain, as happened to HBO before, and we already know the reason.
When you think of HBO, you think of the US parent company, owned by warnermedia. However, the Spanish version of the platform has much more to do with HBO Nordic, which is the main header of the company in Europe. She is the one in charge of managing the Spanish version, and she is the one from whom they obtain almost all the content they offer in Spain.
HBO Nordic has no masters in 4K
Thus, the masters obtained from HBO Nordic come, in many cases, from HDTV broadcasts to which the audio in Spanish is added. Therefore, the content does not come from the United States, but comes from HBO Nordic. The same goes for subtitles, where if something isn’t subtitled in Spanish on HBO Nordic, it will not be in Spain either. This last point is something they are working on to solve as soon as possible, although they have a long way to go.
HBO Max is currently managed by the “European parent company”, HBO Nordic. The copies are the ones they (the Nordics) have, many times coming from an HDTV broadcast, with the audio in Spanish added.
Come on, the masters from the US are not coming
– Antonio Casado (@timelapses) January 13, 2022
Another peculiarity of the service is that all the content will be 25fps, which is the European standard, instead of whatever it’s originally mastered to. This is because in Europe everything has to go at 25fps, as the service is still seen as an internet variant of linear TV.
Everything adapted to 16:9 of the TVs if possible
In the case of some HBO Max movies, even if their original format is cinemascope, there are many that are seen in Open Matte, that is, it adjusts its image so that it can be seen in 16:9 without black bars. HBO claims to do this because they say a lot of people call them complaining that they see black bars on their content, and that it doesn’t take up their entire screen. Therefore, if there is one, they give preference to the Open Matte version. And this is not something that they are going to change, despite the fact that they could offer both versions so that each user can choose the one they want to see.
To add extra information, an OPEN MATTE version would be something like what I show in the following video (look at the micros). I doubt that HBO has material like this (that’s why I think it’s Pan&Scan)…https://t.co/WAUouwUTpk
– Antonio Casado (@timelapses) January 16, 2022
For this reason, we see that HBO Max, despite the name change and having added more content, continues to suffer from many of the problems that HBO Spain had. Other platforms, such as Netflix, get the content from the original array, and from there they replicate it to the rest of the world.
Since HBO Max seeks compete with netflix, it is clear that they have to make changes for the future to solve all these drawbacks. It cannot be that in the middle of 2022 they do not have 4K content in Spain, since all their competitors, such as Netflix, Disney + and Amazon Prime Video, offer 4K in all their new original content.