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Australians can now buy or rent 4K movies through Google Play

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Buy and stream 4K content on your Chromecast or Android device down under with ease.

As spotted by Ausdroid, Google has rather quietly launched 4K UHD movies to rent or buy in Australia through Google Play, with a wide range of top quality titles, including Spider-Man Homecoming, T2 Trainspotting and Taxi Driver.

Also, The Emoji Movie is available.

While Google's Chromecast Ultra supports 4K content, up until recently your legitimate sources for 4K content you could purchase was pretty limited in Australia. Netflix, Stan and Amazon Prime Video all have 4K content available if your bandwidth is up to it, but then you're only streaming, and risking content dropping off availability anyway.

One advantage of buying a movie this way is that you're less constrained by Australia's generally lousy broadband speeds because you could download the entire flick to your device, as long as your storage is up to the task. In viewing terms, you could push a 4K movie to a mobile phone, although outside the Sony Xperia XZ Premium you'd be wasting that extra resolution.

On the TV side of the equation, it's rapidly become the case that 1080p-only TV displays are relegated to the bargain side of the table, with a wide variety of 4K panels now available in all sizes and at all price points, although we're still waiting to find out just how much one of Samsung's frankly ludicrous "The Wall" TVs will cost.

The issue for 4K TV owners to date has been the relative dearth of available material to take advantage of all that resolution, although you're a little better off if you're a gamer, with both Sony's PS4 Pro and Microsoft's Xbox One providing high resolution visuals to those with the right TVs.

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