I have a subscription to HBO Max and I am happy with it. In fact, after Netflix made its shared account policy effective (of which, by the way, neither HBO Max nor Disney+ allow them to be shared, although the practice is something else), I would say that it is not only the one with the catalog that I like the most like it, but also stands out in value for money. But HBO Max has its hours numbered: Max is already a reality that landed a couple of days ago in the United States. New plans, more content and a reality: that HBO Max makes total sense.
Warner and Discovery have joined forces and Max has been born from their alliance, a new platform with an updated design and a qualitative leap for lovers of image quality, since it 4K content is the big star. Because if HBO Max only had 48 titles in this resolution (according to JustWatch), of which only five are series (‘The Last of Us’, ‘Game of Thrones’, ‘House of the Dragon’, ‘¡García!’ and ‘100 Years of Warner Bros.’), now the bet has risen to 227 (according to JustWatch data) and the idea is to exceed a thousand titles in 4K. By the way, while ‘Succession’ is available in 4K on Max, in Spain it is reduced to 1080p through HBO Max.
But this new project has fine print: the change of plans. Max’s offer in the United States contemplates three plans, called ‘Ad-Lite’, ‘Ad-Free’, and ‘Ultimate Ad-Free’, just under these lines you can see its main characteristics, which are summarized in that the cheapest It broadcasts in 1080p and with advertising, the intermediate is practically the same but without ads and the third, without advertising and with the offer in 4K. If we take a look at the current HBO Max proposal in Spain, the offer is reduced to a plan without ads and very limited content in 4K that could be assimilated to the ‘Max Ad Free’ in the US. So that we understand each other: Max has diversified its offer so that in practice, if you want to enjoy content in 4K, you have to pay more.
MAX ‘AD-lite’ |
MAX ‘AD-FREE’ |
MAX ‘ULTIMATE AD-FREE’ |
|
---|---|---|---|
DEVICES IN SIMULTANEOUS STREAMING |
2 |
2 |
4 |
ADVERTISING |
Yeah |
No |
No |
Resolution |
1080p |
1080p |
4K |
HDR |
No |
No |
Dolby Vision |
maximum offline downloads |
0 |
30 |
100 |
sound |
5.1 |
5.1 |
Dolby Atmos |
Exclusive content with premieres (Harry potter, game of thrones…) |
No |
No |
Yeah |
price |
Monthly: $9.99 Annual: $99.99 |
Monthly: $15.99 Annual: $149.99 |
Monthly: $19.99 Annual: $199.99 |
Logic invites you to pay more only if you are offered more
What happens is that in this case it is worth it: a decent catalog in 4K but also the visual and sound improvements that Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision compatible content implies. Note that also the number of devices on which it can be played simultaneously goes up to four and the number of downloads. The icing on the cake is access to exclusive content such as movie premieres. This strategy of making 4K content premium has already been taken over by Netflix, is now followed by Max and for now Prime Video and Disney+ are holding up like this.
The application: the third time lucky?. This will be the third major update of the application to have an interface to match, but for the moment it has not started on the right foot: some explain that the app on Apple TV no longer plays through the native tvOS player and is not supports frame synchronization or HDR adjustments, that it coexists with the previous application in the App Store and that there is no automatic update (in which case you have to do it the hard way: uninstalling and reinstalling).
Which leaves users and users in a complicated situation. If you stay in the ‘Max Ad Free’ plan (remember, the one similar to the one that exists in Spain), you will be paying more for similar conditions. Hence, the logical leap, assuming the reality of having to pay more, is to jump to the most ambitious plan, the one that best adjusts to the reality of televisions. And it is that the norm today is that the thickness is 4K and it is not uncommon to find models from the mid-range compatible with Dolby standards. But if you’re going to pay for 4K, make it at least worth it.
Why this comparison with Max from the United States? Because HBO Max is running out of time: sooner or later it will become Max on a global scale. A change that, beyond the nomenclature, will be noticeable in your pocket, especially if you signed up with the claim of a 50% discount forever (because HBO Max as such will no longer exist). The forecast invites us to think that the change will take place in 2024, the year of Max’s arrival in Spain.
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