Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

The tide has turned: Roku 4 just scored access to Ultraflix’s massive Ultra HD movie catalog

It’s a pretty safe bet that once the dust has settled, the numbers will show 4K Ultra HD televisions were a huge hit this holiday shopping season. Prices came down big-time this year, and holiday sales have made for some irresistible deals. But what do you watch when you want to show off what that slick new next-gen TV can really do? Well, Netflix, Amazon, and Vudu have a few 4K Ultra HD options you can stream or rent, but if you happen to own a new Roku 4, a mother lode of 4K Ultra HD movies just dropped right in your lap. Announced today, UltraFlix has arrived on Roku, bringing with it several hundred 4K Ultra HD titles to enjoy.

A relatively fresh entrant into a bustling streaming video landscape, UltraFlix is different than Netflix in that it’s currently a rental-only service, offering streaming 4K Ultra HD titles that can be enjoyed for up to 48 hours from purchase. Rentals range in price and top out at $10. UltraFlix recommends Internet speeds of between 15 – 20 Mbps to best enjoy its 4K Ultra HD streams.

Recommended Videos

UltraFlix has faced a 2-year uphill battle breaking into mainstream streaming video platforms — until recently you could only access UltraFlix through select Samsung and Vizio Smart TVs. The service, owned by NanoTech Entertainment, has recently spread its wings, however, landing its app on Sony’s 2015 Bravia televisions and, now, on Roku’s platform, including both the new Roku 4 streaming set-top box and, eventually, any 4K Ultra HD TV running Roku OS.

UltraFlix’s catalog has also seen massive expansion in just the last few months. In January 2015, NanoTech landed a licensing  deal with MGM, scoring it restored and remastered titles such as Rocky, Rain Man, Fargo, RoboCop, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. More recently in August, NanoTech scored a similar agreement with Paramount, netting it big-name films including Forrest Gump, Saving Private Ryan, The Godfather, Star Trek (2009), War of the Worlds (2005), Transformers, Minority Report, World War Z, the Hunt for Red October and comedies like The Legend of Ron Burgandy, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Airplane, and Jackass: The Movie. Perhaps one of the best available 4K Ultra HD demonstrations available on UltraFlix, however, might be the 2014 blockbuster, Interstellar. 

Now that UltraFlix is available on Roku and is expected to expand its reach to Amazon’s Fire TV products as well as the Android TV and Apple TV platforms in the near future, it would seem the service has moved past its label as a would-be contender and is now playing with the big boys.

This also represents something of a landslide moment for 4K Ultra HD in general. The previously lamented dearth of available 4K Ultra HD content is clearly coming to an end as services like UltraFlix and new formats like Ultra HD Blu-ray disc burst onto the scene in 2016.

Caleb Denison
Digital Trends Editor at Large Caleb Denison is a sought-after writer, speaker, and television correspondent with unmatched…
YouTube TV in 4K: Everything you need to know
YouTube TV 4K streams settings and user options.

Over a decade after the release of the first 4K TV's, for some reason live TV has remained almost entirely limited to 1080p (or lower) resolution. An interwoven web of outdated capture and distribution infrastructure that is not yet cost effective to update has left live television in the age of simple HD. As usual, where major cable networks have dropped the ball, major streamers are trying to pick up the slack. YouTube TV is leading the charge to offer live television in 4K. Some of it, at least. And if it seems like it's taken forever for that to happen, you're not wrong.

The basic fact is that it takes a lot of bandwidth to stream video — and that's even more difficult when you're talking linear TV, (and more so still if it's a live event like sports). So it's not really that much of a surprise to learn that most live channels stream at 720p resolution — or maybe 1080p if you're lucky. (We'll leave frame rate out of the equation for a minute, but it's a thing, too, especially for sports.)

Read more
Hisense just debuted the world’s largest mini-LED TV at 100 inches
100-inch Hisense U8K 4K mini-LED TV.

Hisense now makes the world's largest mini-LED backlit 4K TV: the 100-inch U8K TV. It announced the new TV at CEDIA Expo, the annual conference for AV professionals and installers, taking place in Denver, CO from September 7-9. The new TV might be the world's biggest, but its price is surprisingly accessible (at least, for a TV of this size) at $10,000. Hisense's TVs are often deeply discounted, sometimes as soon as they go on sale, so we expect this price to drop soon. It will be available from retailers like Best Buy and Amazon later this fall.

"Popularity and consumer interest in big screens continues to grow," said David Gold, President of Hisense USA, in a press release. "While our laser TV lineup can reach up to an impressive 300-inches, we also wanted to offer an option that showcases Hisense’s superior mini-LED experience, and there was no better choice than what’s proving to be our most award-winning TV to date: the U8K Series. We’re the only brand offering mini-LED at the 100-inch size, at this performance level, with this feature set, and a value package."

Read more
Samsung takes on TCL with 98-inch 4K TV that costs just $8,000
Samsung 98-inch Q80C QLED 4K HDR TV.

In May, TCL stunned us with the price of its new Q Class QM8 98-inch TV. At a mere $10,000, it was far less than the cheapest comparable model from Samsung. Today, Samsung is answering that challenge with an impressively low-priced 98-inch model of its own: the
98-inch Q80C
, which will be available starting in July for $8,000.

Samsung is keen to start moving these behemoth screens as soon as possible, so it's got two launch promotions to entice buyers. Starting today through July 2, if you reserve the 98-inch Q80C on Samsung.com or at participating retailers, you'll get a $500 credit that can be used to purchase the TV during the early order period.

Read more