When you purchase something instead of renting, you typically get to completely own the product and use it whichever way or however long you want. But things aren’t as straightforward when it comes to owning digital media as that buy button is, in a way, meaningless, since you never get to own that piece of content. Even if you spend a lot of money buying movies and TV shows from services likeGoogle TV, the ownership is subject to Google’s terms and, in many cases, whim.
So, if one day Google recklessly decides to drop your purchased movie from its catalog, shut down its service (never discount that possibility with Google), or even worsen your experience, it can very well do that. In fact, that last bit is exactly what is happening with your content right now, with no plausible reason for Google’s apathy towards its existing products and services.
Let me tell you a joke
But it’s in 480p
During the pandemic four years ago (remember this timeline; it will come up again), YouTube, just like every other streaming service,defaulted the video quality to 480pto keep the server load in check. The decision made sense since nearly the entire world’s population suddenly had all the time to themselves, and watching videos all day was the best they could do while quarantined. YouTube, however, did let you switch to a higher resolution manually.
While YouTube offered the option to switch to higher quality for regular videos, purchased and rented content was limited to 480p with no better streaming quality options on the website. It was excusable and a fair thing to do in an unprecedented situation. I’ll let Google have this one.
Your movie purchases from Google can only be played in 480p on the web, even if you bought the HD version
We’re not sure when exactly this provisional limit will go away
But, we recently noticed that Google has “forgotten” to reset that limit. Our purchased library of movies and TV shows is still capped at 480p in the desktop browser. That’s all of 854x480 pixels, in 2024. Let that sink in (though not the way Elon Musk did). In all these four years, not even a single person at Google realized they could now go back to normal when the world already did a couple of years ago. The low resolution is likely used as a type of DRM to avoid pirates ripping the content, but it’s still a limited experience for people who paid full price for their movies and TV shows when it very much shouldn’t be.
Note that this senseless video quality limit doesn’t apply to mobile apps or TVs. It applies only to the YouTube website in your desktop browser, so if you’re lazing on the couch or in bed with your laptop, you will have to put up with junk video quality. 480p videos look terrible even on a small phone screen — you can imagine how much worse it must look on a 16-inch laptop. No wait, you don’t need to imagine that; you can actualy experience it with your purchased media on YouTube right now.
This is all made worse asGoogle is pushing users to watch purchased media on YouTubeafter shuttering the Google Play Movies & TV website/appin January 2024. While YouTube is a better place to watch videos with its excellent player controls and features, a nonsensical 480p limit in desktop browsers hobbles the movie experiences we all paid top dollars to purchase.
Google’s product (ill-)experience
Google making its services better over time — now that’s a joke!
For the longest time, Nvidia Shield devices have been thebest Android TV boxesthat offer a top-tier experience sans any clutter. That’s the reason the product managed to create a strong user community. However, thatverycommunity is up in armsagainst Google forwrecking their experience.
After a visual upgrade to Android TV, the home screen on theShield TVis now riddled with ads in the name of recommendations. It even plays them automatically in full screen and with audio if you don’t move the cursor for a bit. Speaking of deprecating a good product, this has to be among Google’s top fiascos, but it still isn’t surprising since we don’t expect any better from the company.
And I’m not even starting with the mess the simultaneously existing Google TV and Android TV launchers have been. Google TV is a face-lifted launcher that runs on top of Android TV and is also an app for buying and renting content. Android TV separately has a new launcher that resembles Google TV but isn’t exactly, while the older Android TV UI also exists on older TV sets. Yeah, try wrapping your head around this because I can’t, nor can Google, apparently.
What’s the difference between Google TV and Android TV?
The lowdown on Google’s two TV platforms
With Google Play Movies & TV now gone, there is no dedicated app on your TV to find your owned content, which now lives under the Shop tab on Android TV, with things a little easier on the Google TV side with a dedicated library tab and shortcut rows. For Android TV users this means your library is hidden behind fifteen clicks, fifteen clicks through the Shop tab advertising all manner of movies and TV shows.
There’s also the YouTube app, which isn’t much better when it comes to navigating to your library, taking a bunch of clicks to get to your content, coincidentally in a UI filled with ad-like content vying for your attention. Suffice it to say the experience stinks for those who have invested in the Play Movies & TV app that are now forced into much worse UIs.
How can we trust Google again?
You got me
Ultimately, Google is digging its own grave, presenting itself as a fickle and unreliable brand that pushes customers away. People can’t even trust Google for simple stuff anymore, like purchasing media. Given the company’s track record, there is a solid chance that one day, it will decide to shut its Google TV service, and the content you bought will be gone forever.
Google needs to get with the program and start putting its customers first instead of ruining more and more of our services with low-effort ad-filled trash, which is exactly what Android TV and Google TV have turned into as they are increasingly filled with ads and horrible UI designs that push us towards those ads.
