Excellent Quality and Great Content - But !?
I know the owner is planning to do this, but for me, documentary type films - especially static or semi-static scenes, should be filmed in 60 fps.
At present, barely any available. When this changes, it will be awesome and you won't get rid of me !
However, given that the 4K films are at a really high (50MBps) bitrate at just 30 fps, the file sizes are, and will be, very large.
Streaming will be an issue for anyone with less than a 100Mbps broadband connection, so downloading is the way to go.
I use a PC (Laptop) connected to my TV to watch, so with a large Hard Drive, downloading is a no-brainer, but it is more expensive as you cannot download under the "On-Demand" subscription package to a PC.
One solution, may be an always-on connection required (some type of DRM), or to allow just the 1080p60 versions to be downloaded - they are still so good, that I would be happy with those. Then we could pay for the 4K60 fps versions if you have good enough hardware.
Even 1080p60 files would be 20 to 25 MBps, so the file sizes would be large - around 6 to 8 GB for an hour. Streaming cannot be viable for the owners as the bandwidth would be off the charts.
Some way of allowing PC owners to download would be a very good idea, as everyone saves time and bandwidth. I know people do not like DRM, but hey, if it lets us download and keep a library on your media PC, it would be worth it.
For me though, the biggest issue is framerate. At 60 fps, I'd be happy with 1080p, as yo need really top quality hardware to run the 4K versions anyway. But, I'd probably buy a film every month if they were.
One way of preventing piracy, may be to hide an encrypted fingerprint in the code, so if any full quality films appeared on the black market, they could be traced back to the original purchaser.
I can understand the owner's reticence to trust people, but you can't blame him. These movies must take a long time to create.
I also think, a 1 minute demo at full resolution should be available - at the moment we can only find it on Youtube and their resolution and compression, makes then look a lot worse than they are.
Bottom line - superb quality; choice of resolution to match your hardware; bitrate quality twice that of 4K Netflix at 50 megabytes (yes, Bytes) per second. Cons however, PC owners cannot download, and 60 fps "Smooth Effect" lovers, are - for now at least - left floundering.
I wish the owner well, and will be lurking in the background... and will start buying, once they are in 60 fps - I watch this type of stuff ALL day long !