4K Netflix Content Is Now Available Exclusively For Windows 10 PCs

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Your binge-watching favorites on Netflix are now available in 4K exclusively on compatible PCs and 2-in-1 devices, on Windows 10. Check out the new streaming experience with Microsoft Edge, the only browser that supports Netflix 4K content. If you’re looking for a new Windows 10 device that supports 4K, head over to Microsoft Stores. When streaming Netflix on Microsoft Edge you can get through at least one more full episode of Gilmore Girls than when streaming on Chrome on battery – and you know one episode can be the difference between Chris and Lorelai casually dating and being a married couple.
 
Pretty sure you've been able to access 4K content via apps for a while.
 
"**To run Netflix in 4K on a PC device, it must have a 4K-capable screen and use a 7th Gen Intel® Core™ Processor."

screen is obvious but why only i7?!
 
I can't even rant because I don't think my ISP will ever allow me to stream 4K.

I think this is only for people looking to stream 4K via a web browser. The Netflix apps (including the Windows 8/10 one with no Intel 7-series) can stream 4K right now.

https://help.netflix.com/en/node/13444

Now I can rant... about my ISP!! Not really though, if it wasn't for my 5 mb wireless connection, I'd be on 56k.
 
"**To run Netflix in 4K on a PC device, it must have a 4K-capable screen and use a 7th Gen Intel® Core™ Processor."

screen is obvious but why only i7?!

7th gen doesn't mean i7, it means 7th generation which would be kaby lake and it's specific to laptops since the HD615 and 620 are the only intel IGP's that support 4k i believe.
 
I wasn't aware that the Windows 8/10 apps could stream at 4k, can anyone confirm or deny this? Last I checked 1080p was the max.
 
Huh? Maybe, I'm special but I've had access to Netflix Ultra on my Win 8 (now 10) HTPC for a while. I stopped using it because it was chewing through bandwidth caps like no tomorrow.
 
I just upgraded to see what it looks like,
I see no 4k option on the PC in Edge or Firefox, so I don't know if it is playing a 4K stream.

My 4K TV shows a white screen with black lines when playing 4K content, not sure what is up with that.

IMG_0811.JPG
 
I have no idea how you can tell if you're getting 4k via the Netflix App. The browser option is nice, but not sure why it matters when there's already a Netflix app. I haven't used it in a browser since late 2014 or the first half of 2015.
 
Pretty sure my Samsung TV does Netflix 4K.. I am confused..

Consider the source of the article: windows.com

This is marketing propaganda, nothing more. Multitude options for Netflix 4K.
 
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I bet MS is paying Netflix to be exclusive to try and get people to use the shit pile that is edge.
 
I cancelled my Netflix account about two years ago so still have no reason to use Win10. And if you have a data cap from your ISP, as most of us do, 4K content will eat through your cap in no time so do not even want.
 
This isn't surprising, as netflix has long since had a preference for edge. Prior to this, the netflix app and edge browser were your only option for 1080p playback. All other browsers were limited to 720p.

I just upgraded to see what it looks like,
I see no 4k option on the PC in Edge or Firefox, so I don't know if it is playing a 4K stream.

My 4K TV shows a white screen with black lines when playing 4K content, not sure what is up with that.

View attachment 10927
Looks like the requirement of a 7th generation intel cpu may not be an exaggeration. I know Kaby Lake will be the first series of CPU to support hardware decoding of 4K/10-bit HEVC as is found on 4k uhd blu rays. It wouldn't surprise me if Netflix is using something similar. Pascal GPU's are supposed to support this and beyond, so hopefully someone can test this on a newer gpu.
 
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Huh? Maybe, I'm special but I've had access to Netflix Ultra on my Win 8 (now 10) HTPC for a while. I stopped using it because it was chewing through bandwidth caps like no tomorrow.
I cancelled my Netflix account about two years ago so still have no reason to use Win10. And if you have a data cap from your ISP, as most of us do, 4K content will eat through your cap in no time so do not even want.
You can throttle it down on your Netflix account.

qgDeNfd.jpg
 
I just quit my satellite subscription and will move to netflix and other online sources. Got a second capless 300mbit LTE connection and a load balancer for that.
 
The reason it's exclusive to win10 is that edge is the only browser that supports 4k (on Windows). I just got a 4k TV and I was reading up on the requirements, and apparently, chrome and FF only support 720p playback (or at least they did as of February of this year). So, no, paying users aren't getting screwed as opposed to pirates, there's no conspiracy to force you on to win10 or anything like that, it's just that MS is actually ahead of the curve on browsers for once. I know, I was shocked too.
 
7th gen doesn't mean i7, it means 7th generation which would be kaby lake and it's specific to laptops since the HD615 and 620 are the only intel IGP's that support 4k i believe.

I would also guess they might be using HEVC codec, which the i7 gen has a hardware decoder for. If you have a desktop you'd need an Nvidia GTX 960 or newer for that functionality. If you did have a new video card that would probably omit the need for a i7 gen CPU. Without the hardware decoder I'm not sure if smooth 4k playback would be possible right now. I've never seen a test of this to determine the resources so it would be interesting to see how much CPU would be required for a full software decode.
 
Hi All,

Just want to clarify a few things:

Edge is the only browser which currently supports Microsoft PlayReady 3.0.
Decode is being done with AVC, not HEVC.
This is the first time Netflix 4K has been available on PC.
It should work on some 6th Gen configs and... I don't want to say all while being incorrect... but I think all 7th gen configs with Intel HD Graphics on internal laptop displays which support 4K.
It should also work with 4K @ 30hz on an external display if your display supports HDCP 2.2.

Press control + alt + shift + D to bring up your Netflix stats. You can verify Chrome actually decodes Netflix at 720p while Edge will support 2160p (4k).

Not all of Netflix's catalog is 4K. You can search for "4K" for a list of 4K compatible content available for streaming.

If you have specific questions I can probably answer them.
 
Since this is Windows 10 exclusive does this mean HDR is also finally supported from streaming services?
 
Hi All,

Just want to clarify a few things:

Edge is the only browser which currently supports Microsoft PlayReady 3.0.
Decode is being done with AVC, not HEVC.
This is the first time Netflix 4K has been available on PC.
It should work on some 6th Gen configs and... I don't want to say all while being incorrect... but I think all 7th gen configs with Intel HD Graphics on internal laptop displays which support 4K.
It should also work with 4K @ 30hz on an external display if your display supports HDCP 2.2.

Press control + alt + shift + D to bring up your Netflix stats. You can verify Chrome actually decodes Netflix at 720p while Edge will support 2160p (4k).

Not all of Netflix's catalog is 4K. You can search for "4K" for a list of 4K compatible content available for streaming.

If you have specific questions I can probably answer them.

Thanks! So correct me if I'm wrong, but the Windows 10 UWA doesn't support Netflix 4k currently correct?
 
You can throttle it down on your Netflix account.

qgDeNfd.jpg
7GB per hour for 4K?!?

I knew it was high, but ho-lee-fuk.

Also, I didn't realize that 1080 was 3GB per hour.


chrome and FF only support 720p playback (or at least they did as of February of this year)
I don't think that is true now. Like you said, it may have been in February, but not now. YouTube shows its playing 1080 for me in Chrome. I know that could be a lie, but unlikely.
 
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So wait a second; does this mean no other device can stream 4K content anymore like PS4 Pro or Nvidia Shield? The title is misleading. "Exclusive" I gather usually means available nowhere else.
 
Your binge-watching favorites on Netflix are now available in 4K exclusively on compatible PCs and 2-in-1 devices, on Windows 10. Check out the new streaming experience with Microsoft Edge, the only browser that supports Netflix 4K content. If you’re looking for a new Windows 10 device that supports 4K, head over to Microsoft Stores. When streaming Netflix on Microsoft Edge you can get through at least one more full episode of Gilmore Girls than when streaming on Chrome on battery – and you know one episode can be the difference between Chris and Lorelai casually dating and being a married couple.
It's Luke and Lorelai, Steve.
Christopher is the father or Rori and while there was some on and off stuff with them throughout the show, the Luke and Lorelai relationship growth was one of the main themes of the show.
 
Can anyone explain why it needs a 7th gen Intel CPU? If this is the case, why the fuck is there such a big deal over HDCP 2.2? It's not like it's a computer power problem considering I can render games at 4k with my old haswell i7.
 
Can anyone explain why it needs a 7th gen Intel CPU? If this is the case, why the fuck is there such a big deal over HDCP 2.2? It's not like it's a computer power problem considering I can render games at 4k with my old haswell i7.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/10610...six-notebook-skus-desktop-coming-in-january/3
On the subject of premium content, in their presentation Intel rather explicitly mentioned that the improved decode capabilities were, in part, for “premium content playback.” When we pushed Intel a bit on the matter – and specifically on 4K Netflix support – they didn’t have much to say beyond the fact that to play 4K Netflix, you need certification. Based on what was said and what was not said (and what we know about the certification process) our educated guess is that the updates in Kaby Lake-U/Y include some new DRM requirements for 4K content, and 4K Netflix should hopefully be good to go with the new platform. However on that note, because of those DRM requirements and that this is being pitched as a new feature for Kaby Lake, we suspect that when 4K Netflix streaming does come to the PC platform, Skylake owners are going to be out of luck.

Despite CrashLandyn saying H.264 is used, all other articles claim HEVC will be used and the reason only the 7th gen Kaby Lake processors are supported is because they support hardware acceleration of 10-bit HEVC, which is ridiculous considering the CPUs are more than capable of decoding them without hardware acceleration. But hey, DRM.
 
So, as of today desktop users simply cannot do this if the Kaby Lake thing is true. There are no Kaby Lake desktop processors available at the moment, so this is essentially for people watching 4K video on a laptop right now :rolleyes:.
 
Maybe they should take some of their advanced data streaming technology experience and fix Windows Update?

These endless PR campaigns and news blurbs just show how out of touch they are with what users actually want.
 
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I've read a few posts today that are now saying Kaby Lake OR an Nvidia 10-series card. I've got that setup at home, so I'll give this a go and report back.
 
Isn't streaming quality really more about bitrate than resolution anyway?
Yes it is. That 7GB/ hour should be what we get for hd streams if we want decent quality. 4K should be at least 20GB/hour. Unless we want the equivalent of youtube 4k which looks awful if the scene is even slightly complex.
 
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