Updating the current catalog will take time. Perfectly understandable. Just like the DV conversions did.
Sure, but you know they stopped, right? They have roughly a third of available DV titles from major studios, including many titles still stuck at SDR. K never made a commitment to provide all future movies in DV nor did they commit to adding DV to all available titles on the store. In fact, they used language nearly identical to their comments on 4KC.
However, it doesn’t take much time to say all future 4K releases will also have 4KC. It just takes commitment. A commitment to offering their customers the best available video experience. That makes current customers happy and attracts new ones.
Sure, and that commitment comes at the cost of titles. It simply does. For many years we've been told we can't get titles because of limited resources and bandwidth. Want a 4K catalog upgrade for a title in HD? It's already in HD and isn't popular enough, so for K it's the same resources to upgrade that title (with only upgrade pricing) or bringing in a brand new 4K title that might sell better. Due to 4KC the encoding effort is now double and we'll see a negative impact even without a blanket 4KC commitment.
When I’m about to purchase a new title, I still go through a comparison of K-scape versus disc — video quality, audio quality, special features, price. K-scape is my preference, but it’s not an automatic decision. If K-scape isn’t offering the best quality available, that’s usually an easy decision to purchase the disc. If we’re talking SD & HD, then iTunes enters the calculus too. So, it’s against K’s interests on multiple fronts not to fully embrace being the best.
Again, I completely agree with this. And, I kind of hate typing these responses. But, it's best to rip the band-aid and accept. I also want to clarify how I can reconcile my seemingly conflicting statements about quality:
I don't agree with K's title prioritization. Direct-to-video (or short-lived theatrical) releases are prioritized over 4K catalog releases. These can be found throughout the lowest 20% popularity on the K Store, but K persists with this strategy. (To be fair, there may be contractual obligations at play that I'm not privy to.). As long as this exists, I want K to have the freedom to not apply 4KC.
And, to be clear, the 4K versions of these titles on K are the BEST quality available anywhere, as these titles don't receive discs to compare to. Examples taken directly from the Recently Added Page: Horsegirls, The Isolate Thief, Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass, Our hero balthazar, Night Nurse, Lucky Strike, Leviticus, The Breadwinner, Stop! That! Train!, Balls Up, and Girls Like Girls. These titles target digital sales/rentals/streaming, and K's offerings are already the highest quality. Further, as a result of these titles being on the store, we are not getting titles like The 7th Voyage of Sinbad 4K, Popeye 4K, Talladega Nights 4K (Theatrical Cut), The Patriot 4K (Upgrade), South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut, and many many many more.
K can't do it all. K has yet to fulfill promises made at the release of the Strato V. Committing to 4KC on every title ties their hands moving forward.
Now, should K always apply 4KC to theatrically-released studio titles available on disc? Yeah, that I can get behind and I think that's a fair proposal to push.