Over the past year we’ve seen the march of 4K televisions continue at an unprecedented pace. We’ve seen prices drop dramatically, content creators like Sony investing heavily, and consoles from Sony and Microsoft attempting to support the format. Now Netflix has tossed their hat in the 4K ring with the announcement of 4K streaming starting next month.
The jump from streaming 1920×1080 to 3840×2160 is not something that can be done by just flipping a switch. First of all, viewers need a 4K TV, which practically no one has yet. PCMag’s Chloe Albanesius has informed us that Netflix’s*4K content will require “somewhere between 12 and 15 Mbps” to stream properly. That’s a pretty serious connection which, again, not many Americans yet have at home.
Then, even if they have the bandwidth needed to handle such a stream, the device receiving it needs to be able to receive the content and push it to the TV with the a reasonable level of performance.*Because of these expectations, you won’t see an Xbox One, PS4, Roku, or Chromecast with this ability anytime soon. Instead, Netflix is going straight to the screen itself by targeting 4K-capable smart TVs.*[More:*How to start watching 4K right now.
By using H.265 HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding) moving forward instead of the currently popular AVC H.264, Netflix thinks they will be able to stream the same quality they currently transmit at half the bitrate. Not only does this mean there’s room for higher quality 4K streams, but the current HD content will be transmitted more efficiently.
It’s unclear when we’ll see 4K streaming available in standalone set-top boxes any time soon, or whether or not it will require new hardware in order to handle the increased resolution in the future, but for now it looks like the TV itself is the home for 4K streaming.
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