What The Flix? Netflix 4K Streaming Requires Kaby Lake, Windows 10, Edge Browser

[lahma]

If the only requirements for watching a TV show are a new computer, with a new processor, the latest OS, a web browser no one uses, and a premium subscription that forces these stipulations upon you, why would anyone choose to pirate TV episodes? They make it SOO easy... you would have to be crazy to go to ALL THAT trouble to pirate the show (even if you already have a Netflix subscription which entitles you to view it). But I digress... all pirates are criminals who are just trying to get something for nothing.... right?

 

[turkey3_scratch]

If the only requirements for watching a TV show are a new computer, with a new processor, the latest OS, a web browser no one uses, and a premium subscription that forces these stipulations upon you, why would anyone choose to pirate TV episodes? They make it SOO easy... you would have to be crazy to go to ALL THAT trouble to pirate the show (even if you already have a Netflix subscription which entitles you to view it). But I digress... all pirates are criminals who are just trying to get something for nothing.... right?

Sounds like you're just trying to justify all the pirating you do and trying to get people to thumb you up. Nope, still criminal. The law says so.

 

[Olle P]

@Brock_ Samson
This "issue" applies to *computers* only, since it is DRM-related.
Other types of devices (such as smart TV) are not affected.

 

[alidan]

"Because Sky-lake doesn't have enough Oomph"
or
"Because Kaby-lake represents a quantum leap in computing performance"

Intel apparently made a great improvement in their decoder

If the only requirements for watching a TV show are a new computer, with a new processor, the latest OS, a web browser no one uses, and a premium subscription that forces these stipulations upon you, why would anyone choose to pirate TV episodes? They make it SOO easy... you would have to be crazy to go to ALL THAT trouble to pirate the show (even if you already have a Netflix subscription which entitles you to view it). But I digress... all pirates are criminals who are just trying to get something for nothing.... right?

Sounds like you're just trying to justify all the pirating you do and trying to get people to thumb you up. Nope, still criminal. The law says so.

You know, when someone tells you bluntly why they pirate something, and your only response is 'its illegal' you are making a horrible case.

Personally, I love pirates, its the entire reason we have things like gog and steam sales. If you cant price match piracy, you can surpass them in convenience, there is only a small minority of people who pirate things, hell, even the most popular movies barely make it over 1 million pirated copies world wide. But so long as those people exist, companies will still be forced to try and compete with it, give me the content for cheaper, make the game better, so on so forth.

you see piracy as a negative only, I see it as a clear signal 'this is not working, how do we fix it' and the answer is simple, either make better drm or remove the restrictions.

Hell, If I was netflix, I would weigh my options. I can appease these companies who are screwing my customers, or I can be very real and tell it like it is. "Hello netflix user, currently all *Studio here* content is no longer available because they wanted to impose stronger drm and restrict how you viewed the said content out of fear of piracy" I would then go to pirate sites, just confirm with the entire catalogue they are taking away, that they are all bluray and dvd rips, not netflix streams, and even if there were netflix streams I would list the day they allowed netflix to have it, and the day they released the bluray/dvd just completely stripping them of their argument for more drm at the expense of my customers.

 

[jn77]

Is this some sort of joke? I am using a desktop replacement laptop that weighs 2- pounds with a battery life of 10 minutes fully charged. This must be meant for people that are using 1mm thick laptops with a 500mah battery and think they are the coolest people in the world.

 

[friedpenguin]

Um yeah. Missed boat there. My Nvidia Shield has been able to stream 4K since release. Oh, and only $200 USD. And it comes with a controller so you can stream your games from your PC - without Win10. Did I mention Plex and Kodi too? Welcome to the future... last year.

 

[Cypherdude]

No, it requires Kaby Laky or or any other Intel or AMD CPU if you have let's say 1070/1080 video card. This article is completely wrong not due Tom's Hardware fault but miscommunication by Microsoft.

No, Netflix 4K requires Windows 10, Edge, plus Kaby Lake CPU's because only these 7th generation CPU's support 10-bit HEVC, a popular 4K video codec. The production companies have this requirement because they don't want illegal copying.

Wikipedia Kaby Lake page.

BTW, HALF of all people on the 'Net use Windows 7. The HIGHEST Netflix HTML5 and SilverLight 5 resolution you can get on Windows 7 SP1 is 720p. This means you must have Windows 10 to get even 1080p. You must give into the Dark Side, let Microsoft take over your PC whenever they wish and allow Microsoft to spy on you whenever they wish, if you want to have Netflix playback of over 720p.

 

[Cypherdude]

I use to consider Microsoft as just being annoying (in regards to their OS). Since the transition into Windows 8 and above they've definitely taken a step towards the dark side. Tracking, removal of control on updates, advertising, etc. I now dual boot (main desktop and laptop) Windows and Mint Linux. Windows is now only used for gaming, Linux for everything else.

4K for Gilmore Girls?? Why??

You cannot control updates in Widows 10? That's terrible. I thought you could turn off advertisements in Windows 10. There are YouTube videos which are supposed to show you how.

The reason why Gilmore Girls gets 4K first is because of all the elderly ladies who are hackers. They have been waiting patiently for their show. You don't want to mess with the Elderly Ladies Hackers Union (ELHU).

 

[shrapnel_indie]

You cannot control updates in Widows 10? That's terrible. I thought you could turn off advertisements in Windows 10. There are YouTube videos which are supposed to show you how.

The reason why Gilmore Girls gets 4K first is because of all the elderly ladies who are hackers. They have been waiting patiently for their show. You don't want to mess with the Elderly Ladies Hackers (ELH) union.

Yup, Windows 10 Home and Professional will not even let you delay an update. You need Enterprise level before you can even think of it.

Windows Update for Business requires a PC or device that supports Group Policy, which means you need Windows 10 Pro, Enterprise, or Education. The device also needs to be configured for the Current Branch for Business. Neither option is available for PCs running Windows 10 Home, where all updates are automatic.

- Ed Bott, zdnet, November 19, 2015 - http://www.zdnet.com/article/how-to-take-control-of-windows-10-updates-and-upgrades-even-if-you-dont-own-a-business/

The consumer versions of Windows 10 don’t allow you to disable or manually install Windows Updates. If Microsoft pushes out a Windows 10 update, you will receive it eventually. Some versions of Windows 10, including Windows 10 Pro, allow you to defer feature updates—though not security updates

- Brad Chacos - PCWorld - May 27, 2016 - http://www.pcworld.com/article/3075729/windows/fearing-forced-windows-10-upgrades-users-are-disabling-critical-updates-at-their-own-risk.html

 

[frank_107]

I have a Yoga 910 with Kaby Lake, 4K screen running Windows 10 and Edge browser. I subscribe to Netflix 4 screen 4K service. I have gig Internet. Guess what 4K will not work for me. Guess I'll call netflix customer service but I'm not sure it's worth the effort.

Update 12/5:

It does actually work!

Along with all the other requirements I needed to update the intel video driver to the latest version. I can watch in 4k in both the Edge browser and the Netflix windows app. When I start a show that is available in 4k i.e. Daredevil, it starts in low definition but within a few minuets it plays in 4k. This can be verified by pressing ctrl-alt-shift-D - that shows all the stats of the video playing in both the browser and app.

 

[Cypherdude]

I have a Yoga 910 with Kaby Lake, 4K screen running Windows 10 and Edge browser. I subscribe to Netflix 4 screen 4K service. I have gig Internet. Guess what 4K will not work for me. Guess I'll call netflix customer service but I'm not sure it's worth the effort.

You wish to see 10 year old Gilmore Girls reruns? Why?

The last time I streamed Netflix was right when the last season of Dexter came out. The resolution was terrible, extremely low and very pixelated. It ruined the whole experience for me. I have a 55 Mbit/sec connection. I think it was because back then the ISP's were trying to get money from Netflix because Netflix used most of their bandwidth. I'm not 100% sure why the picture was so bad. I have streamed Amazon Prime HD videos with no problem.

I probably should have just rented the discs. The last time I rented DVD's from Netflix was in March 2014. I'm trying to cut down on seeing fictional videos. There's lots of other more productive things you can do now besides sitting and seeing fictional videos. ONE would be these which I just bought 5 days ago on sale:
The Python Mega Course: Build 10 Python Applications
and this:
Complete Python Bootcamp

You can get Anaconda Python for free here.
Anaconda instructions for installing the R programming language.

 

[Smlarkin]

Gilmore girls? Who cares? That is four episodes that are not getting viewed much.
What about Androids? Apple computers? Is Netflix crazy?

 

[alidan]

You cannot control updates in Widows 10? That's terrible. I thought you could turn off advertisements in Windows 10. There are YouTube videos which are supposed to show you how.

The reason why Gilmore Girls gets 4K first is because of all the elderly ladies who are hackers. They have been waiting patiently for their show. You don't want to mess with the Elderly Ladies Hackers (ELH) union.

Yup, Windows 10 Home and Professional will not even let you delay an update. You need Enterprise level before you can even think of it.

Windows Update for Business requires a PC or device that supports Group Policy, which means you need Windows 10 Pro, Enterprise, or Education. The device also needs to be configured for the Current Branch for Business. Neither option is available for PCs running Windows 10 Home, where all updates are automatic.

- Ed Bott, zdnet, November 19, 2015 - http://www.zdnet.com/article/how-to-take-control-of-windows-10-updates-and-upgrades-even-if-you-dont-own-a-business/

The consumer versions of Windows 10 don’t allow you to disable or manually install Windows Updates. If Microsoft pushes out a Windows 10 update, you will receive it eventually. Some versions of Windows 10, including Windows 10 Pro, allow you to defer feature updates—though not security updates

- Brad Chacos - PCWorld - May 27, 2016 - http://www.pcworld.com/article/3075729/windows/fearing-forced-windows-10-upgrades-users-are-disabling-critical-updates-at-their-own-risk.html

This is the entire reason im trying to hardware firewall every access point for microsoft to get in.

 

[ern88]

My new Sony Android 4K TV plays Netflix in 4k. NOTE: You have to update your Netflix account for 4K video. And use UHD in your search for all 4K movies.

 

[12TrumpIsComingForYou]

Lol.

So if you've got the top of line $1700 FLAGSHIP Intel i7-6950x (10core / 20 thread) CPU you can't watch Netflix in 4K unless you DOWNGRADE to a 2 or 4 core processor.

Sounds legit.

 

[skit75]

Lol.

So if you've got the top of line $1700 FLAGSHIP Intel i7-6950x (10core / 20 thread) CPU you can't watch Netflix in 4K unless you DOWNGRADE to a 2 or 4 core processor.

Sounds legit.

Well it is not something that is intended for raw horsepower to overcome such as inefficient coding in a game, where you can brute force your way to butter smooth FPS because you added more transistors. This has more to do with DRM and HDCP.