If you’ve ever bought a movie on Google Play and decided to save a few bucks by buying it in standard definition, you might’ve just lucked out.
Google just announced that it’s upgrading all previously purchased movies to 4K (if a 4K version is available) free of charge. Even if you bought SD instead of HD when the latter was available, they’re bumping it all the way up to 4K.
(Before you go trying to be sneaky-sneaks: no, you can’t go and buy an SD version of something now and immediately get the 4K version free instead. Google says only movies “bought or redeemed before October 23, 2018 will be upgraded.”)
Meanwhile, they’re also dropping prices on 4K content almost across the board. Most 4K movies on Google Play will now cost less than $20 (down from ~$30, in many cases). We first noticed them starting to test out this change back in September of last year.
Worth noting: Not all movies are available in 4K. Hell, most movies aren’t in 4K. While the list of 4K titles is steadily growing, it’s still an itty-bitty chunk of what’s out there. If any of your previously purchased movies got the upgrade treatment, though, you should see a notification (like the one above) pop up the next time you open the Play app.