Since it's made by Microsoft, Edge is integrated much more deeply with the Windows Operating System. One of the implications of this is that it's able to support much higher quality video streaming while also enforcing much stricter DRM protection. Sorry folks: if you want this good resolution, you are kneecapped for it: no freebie webripping / screen recording to store the videos offline, and no good old screen-sharing watch parties on Discord.

There's a whole rabbit hole on this topic if you're really interested. But the simple summary is enough: 4k video is heavily restricted on Windows devices, and often this is done behind the scenes, misleading people into thinking they're paying for better quality when they're not. Sorry if this is how you found out!

+ Note that things like watching on a Smart TV or an official Netflix or Disney+ app will give you real, actual quality (USUALLY)

+ Remember that they restrict the best quality to these preferred platforms to punish consumers for trying to actually own the things they watch (AKA: no downloads for you)

+ Remember that as we saw in Part 1, streaming is almost always substantially inferior to owning your own content, both in terms of long-term reliability and overall quality.