The final five minutes. Skip it if: You dislike split timelines (but you wouldn’t be here if you did).
Rating: 8.5/10
In Episode 9, the benefits and limits of OpenH264 are on full display. The good news: the encoding handles the show’s rich color palette beautifully. The lush greens of the Carolina backcountry and the warm, flickering candlelight of Fraser’s Ridge render with impressive clarity and no noticeable macroblocking. Skin tones look natural, and the dark, rain-soaked nighttime scenes avoid the dreaded "crushed black" effect.