I just went to some of the old movies on streaming like tubing and to watch Jeremy Brett on you tube. Does the video quality get a lot better if you pay for the streaming services? The films were all grainy and blurry?
The old films are filmed for old TVs. But I never had an issue with grainy movies. But if you’re watching something really old on a new TV you might have to adjust your TV to scale down to the format.
One of our tech gurus will probably be along to give you a better answer, but video quality has steadily improved in the production of movies and tv, as well as in the capabilities of your computer monitor and/or tv.
When we upgraded to a 4k OLED tv a few years ago, the guys at Best Buy were quick and emphatic in raising the yin yangs that can catch you unaware.
A lot of older movies have not been remastered to bring them up to par with modern streaming and display options. If the source material is low quality, there's nothing you can do about it except maybe invest in a new smart tv that offers native upscaling (which can improve the visuals to some degree, but does not work miracles).
You may need to check with your ISP and see if you are buying enough capacity in your cable or wireless connection to handle high resolution content. We still have cable, and we upgraded our subscription to get 4k.
And of course, your tv has to have the capacity also, so all three have to be in sync: the source material, the ISP, and your tv. Many of the streamers offer different capacity levels, with 4k coming at a premium. If you rent or buy something via PVOD, check to see if you are buying SD, HD, or 4k; you often have the option.
Really old content will probably be inherently poor quality by modern standards unless it has been remastered.