Good news for those of you begging for 4K content: Google has announced the availability of 4K content up for purchase over on the Play Store. This means that movies and TV shows in quad-HD will be available to stream starting today at a slightly higher-than-normal price.
Unfortunately, for now, only movies are available in 4K from Google Play. Luckily, there’s over 125 titles already available, ranging from Ghostbusters to Sausage Party to Sully. For spec geeks, it’s worth noting that Google uses the VP9 codec for all movies and TV shows to optimize the best picture and audio output, so by pairing that with the 4K QHD resolution, you’ve got yourself some pretty high-quality content.
As of now, users of the Chromecast Ultra, Sony Bravia Android TVs, and Xiaomi’s Mi Box 3 are the only ones capable of streaming 4K content from Google Play, but more devices and methods should be added in the future.
Regarding pricing, $29.99 seems to be the maximum price of 4K movies from the Play Store, so it’s relatively inexpensive altogether. In addition, the content is available in 117 countries at launch, with more to be added in the future as time goes on.
It’s worth noting that if you purchase a Google Chromecast Ultra, you can snag a free 4K movie from the Play Store for a limited time. This is a pretty good deal if you wanna save $30, so if you’ve had your eye on Google’s latest streaming media player, now’s probably the best time to buy.
- SOURCE: Google Play
- VIA: The Verge, 9to5Google
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