Although I’ve been impressed with Bell’s revamped Crave streaming video platform and its new ‘Crave + Movies + HBO’ tier, it seems the service suffers from resolution-related issues.
Bell has confirmed to MobileSyrup that with the 4th-generation Apple TV, including the 4K version of the set-top box, Crave content streams in full 1080p HD (1920 x 1080 pixel resolution).
That said, this isn’t the case with every platform the service is available on, according to Bell. The company states that 720p (1280 x 720 pixel resolution) is the best quality video resolution when it comes to “most devices.” This means that Crave is locked to 720p with iOS, Android and the Xbox One. Further, the platform lists this limitation in its ‘Frequently Asked Questions section.’
Bell says that Full HD playback is part of the platform’s future plans, but that there isn’t a specific timeline for when the resolution will be broadly available across every platform.
Additionally, the company says that 4K playback is also a part of its roadmap, a fact MobileSyrup reported a few weeks ago.
Locking content to 720p on most platforms is strange decision on Bell’s part given 1080p is now widely regarded as the standard resolution for modern video content. It’s even more strange given that competing services like Netflix offer some content in 4K for an additional fee.
