But the promise of “extra quality” was where most of us allowed ourselves to be sentimental. We imagined frames untouched by compression artifacts; skin that glowed with the subtle gradients of real light; sound that did not collapse into unpleasant lumps when music swelled. There was—for a while—a quiet moral economy around this. Those who could find cleaner streams were seen as generous; they shared proxies and advice like shepherds pointing out the best grasses. Stories proliferated: of midnight viewings under blanket forts, of friends who would pause a film mid-sentence to argue, because the image was so crisp the actors’ micro-expressions invited forensic attention.