Optus Mobile Review ALDI Mobile Review Amaysim Mobile Review Belong Mobile Review Circles.Life Review Vodafone Mobile Review Woolworths Mobile Review Felix Mobile Review Best iPhone Plans Best Family Mobile Plans Best Budget Smartphones Best Prepaid Plans Best SIM-Only Plans Best Plans For Kids And Teens Best Cheap Mobile Plans Telstra vs Optus Mobile Optus NBN Review Belong NBN Review Vodafone NBN Review Superloop NBN Review Aussie BB NBN Review iiNet NBN Review MyRepublic NBN Review TPG NBN Review Best NBN Satellite Plans Best NBN Alternatives Best NBN Providers Best Home Wireless Plans What is a Good NBN Speed? Test NBN Speed How to speed up your internet Optus vs Telstra Broadband ExpressVPN Review CyberGhost VPN Review NordVPN Review PureVPN Review Norton Secure VPN Review IPVanish VPN Review Windscribe VPN Review Hotspot Shield VPN Review Best cheap VPN services Best VPN for streaming Best VPNs for gaming What is a VPN? VPNs for ad-blocking In 2014, each invested $50 million into founding StreamCo, the start-up company that would manage the service. In 2018 Stan’s ownership structure became a whole lot simpler when Nine bought out Fairfax in its entirety. The cheapest allows for standard definition streaming and offline viewing on a single screen and costs $10. For $16 you can stream in high definition on three screens simultaneously, with three devices allowed to download content for offline viewing. Finally, for $21 you can stream on four screens in 4K, with offline downloads available for up to five devices. Thankfully, Stan still offers a free trial – and a generous one at that. New Stan users can simply enter their email address and payment details to get 30 days of full access to Stan’s movie and TV library, at any plan tier you like. Yep, that includes the 4K Premium plan, which usually costs $21 per month. If you decide not to hang around after that month, you can cancel at any time.
Apple TV+ 7-day free trial: Stream Severance, CODA and more award-winning TV shows and moviesHayu 7-day free trial: Reality TV lovers can load up on the drama with hayu’s dedicated streaming serviceBinge 14-day FREE trial: Foxtel’s streaming service offering some of HBO’s most popular seriesPrime Video 30-day trial: Award-winning originals and shopping perksShudder 7-day trial: Dedicated horror service with blood-curdling originals
This, coupled with the fact that Stan’s horizontal genre rows don’t loop back around on themselves carousel-style, instead reaching an endpoint, means it can take an age to return to something you initially skipped over. It also needs to be said that I’ve encountered far more bugs on the Stan app than I have with Netflix, from relatively minor stuff like losing my place in a paused show or across devices, to bigger issues like hard crashes requiring reboots. These don’t occur often enough to caution people away from getting Stan, but be warned you’ll need to deal with the odd irritation. The 2019 adaptation of Joseph Heller’s hilarious novel Catch-22, starring George Clooney, is excellent, and you can’t watch it anywhere else. Critically acclaimed Breaking Bad spin-off Better Call Saul is a Stan exclusive, as is AMC’s take on Garth Ennis’ cult-favourite graphic novel Preacher. City on a Hill starring Kevin Bacon and Aldis Hodge, David Lynch’s 2017 return to Twin Peaks, and Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams all call Stan home, as do Billions, Sherlock, and Ash Vs Evil Dead. It’s a quality line-up of big-budget serials. Stan also performs admirably in the classic TV department. If you want to binge every episode of Seinfeld, you can (what’s the deal with that, Jerry?!). Likewise, the brilliant but underrated Deadwood is all here (minus the recent movie coda). Parks and Recreation, Frasier, Peep Show, Lost, even Stargate SG1 are available for nostalgic folks with ample free time. In the movie aisle, Stan houses a similar selection to what you’ll find elsewhere (with one notable difference, which we’ll cover a little further along). New release flicks are few and far between, but recent hits like Parasite and the Stan-produced Aussie horror Relic sit alongside older favourites like Dredd, The Hobbit, Pulp Fiction, Love Actually, Ace Ventura, Austin Powers, and Forrest Gump. And if you’re feeling sick of Hollywood, there’s an extensive selection of world movies. It’s not a huge library, but it is diverse and packed with favourites. Stan hasn’t produced much original content, but there are a few notable success stories, particularly two seasons of Wolf Creek and a season of Romper Stomper – both TV spins on classic Aussie movies. Oh, and don’t get us started on RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under. Alongside the Bond bounty, there’s an eclectic smattering of recent and older movies like Arrival, Tomb Raider, Creed, Hercules, Grease, and The Silence of the Lambs. The 4K TV selection is also somewhat limited, but unlike the movies, there’s some must-watch content, like Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, and The Handmaid’s Tale. Although the 4K picture quality is sharp and clear, in our tests Stan was far less successful than Netflix at hitting a stable 4K resolution quickly. Running on a very good cable connection that averages 110Mbps down, Hercules didn’t hit 4K at all after letting it run for five minutes. Strangely, this problem was solved by switching “auto” mode off and forcing Stan to only play in 4K (an option, it should be pointed out, that isn’t available on Netflix). The bigger issue is a subtle but consistent frame rate stutter on certain devices. This was noticeable on both the Samsung TV app and the Xbox One app, but not on the PlayStation 4 Pro, so I’d recommend watching on that if you have that option. Stan also falls a little short in the colour department. Unlike Netflix’s 4K content, Stan does not support high dynamic range (HDR), meaning colours are noticeably less vibrant. If you don’t have a 4K HDR TV this means absolutely nothing to you, but if you’re looking for the best possible picture quality, even Stan’s 4K library falls short of the mark. In terms of required speeds, at the lowest end, Stan recommends a 2mbps connection for “good” quality (whatever that means); 3mbps for SD; 4.5mbps for HD; and 15mbps for 4K streaming. The 4K minimum requirement is a full 10mbps slower than Netflix’s, which is great for people that can’t quite reach 25mbps but is likely explained away by the lack of HDR support. If your broadband isn’t fast enough for 4K, check out our top picks for NBN 50 and NBN 100 plans. Stan does fall behind Netflix in a few key areas, though. It crashes and bugs out far more often, and the UI is less intuitive and responsive. 4K picture quality is also noticeably less vibrant than Netflix’s HDR-capable equivalent. And, as impressive as Stan’s library is, it just doesn’t produce the zeitgeist-dominating original content Netflix is known for. There’s no in-house equivalent to Stranger Things, House of Cards, Orange is the New Black, Black Mirror, etc., which are arguably the main reasons to subscribe to Netflix. If you’re starting to feel like you’ve worn through your Netflix library, I’d wholeheartedly recommend switching to Stan and seeing how it suits you (you can currently get a no-commitment trial month for free). Better yet, with only minimal crossover, the catalogues complement each other well. While we give the honours to Netflix overall, for a local upstart battling a global Giant, Stan punches well above its weight. It’s far better than it has any right to be.
