HBO Max launched yesterday and for the most part the reaction has been great with many praising its inclusions and content, though also befuddled by the lack of 4K & HDR along with some notably missing titles.
The Verge has gone into these absentees, noting that there isn’t a single solo Superman title on the service – none of the Chris Reeve films, no “Superman Returns” or “Man of Steel,” no animated “Superman” films and no “Smallville,” “Superman: The Animated Series” or “Lois and Clark”.
Other odd absentees include no “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” even though the other two films in that trilogy are there. Meanwhile the Studio Ghibli library is missing “Grave of the Fireflies,” though that was expected.
A spokesperson for HBO Max says plans for “4K HDR, Dolby Vision, HDR10 Plus and Dolby Atmos are on our roadmap” but no date for those inclusions has been revealed.
Another topic hotly discussed is how two of the biggest and mostly widely adopted platforms for streaming content were notably not invited to the party – Roku and Amazon. Agreements weren’t reached between the SVOD service and the two platforms and so they were left out from launch.
Amazon has now taken aim at WarnerMedia parent AT&T for not enabling access for consumers via the tech giant’s Prime Video Channels platform through which nearly five million HBO streamers currently access their subscriptions – around 50% of HBO’s total stand-alone subscriber tally.
Essentially HBO Max wants to funnel people to directly use its app while Amazon wants to keep you within their walled garden even as your sampling HBO’s baked goods. It’s also not an unusual situation as Disney+ only reached a deal with Amazon just few days before it launched last November.
Source: Deadline
