Season 4 is available for streaming or as downloads through the following services     (revised 03/02/2024):

 
 
 

USA

 
 

• Amazon Prime Video
  (SD from early distribution prints)
   
  
  • Availability:
    Since 03/01/2022, seasons 1 through 4 have been available for purchase through this streaming service, which is exclusively available for people with a U.S. IP address and a residential address in the U.S. Due to geo-blocking, streaming is not available for customers outside the U.S.
    Free watching on Amazon Freevee (offered between 03/01/2022 and 03/01/2024) is no longer availble.
    
   
  
  • Picture and Sound Quality:
    The quality is much better than in TV airings, but varies from episode to episode. No picture remastering was applied, so the picture quality is not as good as the season 3 DVD release.
    All season 4 episodes are unedited.
    
   
  
  • Additional Footage:
    Some episodes contain the original CBS bumpers between acts 2 and 3, including announcer ROY ROWAN's voice saying "Falcon Crest will continue" over the closing of act 2.
    A unique version of the main theme's key part plays in the background of these bumpers. Contrary to this season's main title, the "Falcon Crest" title appears beneath the coat of arms in those segments.
    
   
   
   
  
• iTunes
   
  
  • Availability:
    The U.S. store of iTunes offers downloads of season 4 for purchase.
    
   
  
  • Picture and Sound Quality:
    The quality is much better than in TV airings, but varies from episode to episode. No picture remastering was applied, so the picture quality is not as good as the season 3 DVD release.
    Only 13 episodes contain the teasers before the main title (see below). The episodes themselves are unedited though.
    
   
  
  • Edited Parts:
    sneak previews missing in the following 17 out of 30 episodes:
    
    • # 071 <4.03>
    • # 072 <4.04>
    • # 074 <4.06>
    • # 076 <4.08>
    • # 080 <4.12>
    • # 082 <4.14>
    • # 083 <4.15>
    • # 085 <4.17>
    • # 086 <4.18>
    • # 087 <4.19>
    • # 088 <4.20>
    • # 089 <4.21>
    • # 092 <4.24>
    • # 094 <4.26>
    • # 095 <4.27>
    • # 096 <4.28>
    • # 097 <4.29>
     
    
  • Additional Footage:
    Some episodes contain the original CBS bumpers between acts 2 and 3, including announcer ROY ROWAN's voice saying "Falcon Crest will continue" over the closing of act 2.
    A unique version of the main theme's key part plays in the background of these bumpers. Contrary to this season's main title, the "Falcon Crest" title appears beneath the coat of arms in those segments.
    

Germany, Austria and Switzerland

RTL+
(SD from the oldest distribution prints manipulated for the German TV broadcast)

• Availability:
  From 10/01/2023 on, the episodes of seasons 1 through 4 (German audio only) can be watched through a subscription with this streaming service, which is exclusively available for people with a German, Austrian or Swiss IP address and a residential address in Germany, Austria or Switzerland. Due to geo-blocking, streaming will not be available for customers outside the distribution zone of RTL+.
  There is no information available at this time when RTL+ will be streaming the seasons 5 through 9.
  
 

• Picture and Sound Quality:
  
  • The quality is not on a par with the DVDs from seasons 1 through 3 — neither with the picture from the first two seasons, which came from early distribution prints; let alone with season 3, which was remastered for the DVD release. The picture for this streaming service is from the old distribution prints that were used for the original broadcast on German TV. Back then, these initial distribution copies had been manipulated by Bavaria Synchron, the studio commissioned by the ARD network to dub the show into German; they changed the main title, opening credits, closing credits and end credits of each episode. The credits, at the time, had been superimposed onto the film reels, using a transparent layer. Since the German editors wanted to avoid English text, all the staff credits were removed from the main title, and a German episode title was added at the end; the original English epsiode title and all cast, staff and crew credits at the beginning of act 1 were removed, as were the credits at the end of act 4 and the closing credit; the end credits were completely replaced with German text. To do all these manipulations, the respective parts of the film reels underwent a chemical process, dissolving the layer with the superimposed credits from the actual film, which led to strong discoloration in the manipulated segments. Fading and heavy discoloration progressed over time, and — with an abundance of dust and dirt particles as well as artifacts — this picture deteriorated so much that it is far from today's quality standards, even for SD.
    
  • The film reel of # 096 <4.28> has been defective for years due to aging; in earlier TV airings already (since the 2009 rebroadcast on RTL Passion), the segment featuring Apollo at the end of the main title had to be replaced with the same frames copied from a different episode, and the German episode title had to be reconstructed. Not only is the discoloration even worse and the font awkwardly compressed in comparison to the usual text elements, but the new German title was also mistyped, renaming the episode from "Traurige Wahrheiten" ("Sad Truths") into "Traurige Nachrichten" ("Sad News").
    
  • Sound quality is mono. The German version, like all PAL versions, is 4 % accelerated by the conversion from the picture negative to video for the PAL TV format (particularly in Europe, Australia and many countries in South America). This leads to a slightly higher pitch in the music, which will be noticed by particularly sensitive viewers. For further information about the details of PAL speedup, please consult the last paragraph in the Show – Episodes – Analysis & Interpretation – Behind the Scenes – Season 1 – General Information section.
    
   
  
• Edited Parts:
  
  • The episodes per se are unedited and are the same as in their original U.S. broadcast on CBS.
    
  • The teaser trailers, which featured a short recap and / or sneak preview of the respective episode, are missing, even in # 069 although — contrary to all other season 1 through 4 episodes — German audio would have been available since the ARD network had shown the recap in the original TV broadcast of this episode.
    This is particularly disappointing in all the cases where specific footage from the trailers was not used in the respective episode itself.