Netflix has Some Pretty Steep System Requirements for 4K on PC

[btarunr]

So everyone wants to crash at your place to watch the latest shows on your 4K Ultra HD TV, you can even "chill" with that special someone, if you can take your eyes off 4K content; and it turns out you even spent $500 on buying a new 4K monitor for your PC, because you demand no less than 3840 x 2160 pixels in front of your face; and among the first things you do (besides heading over to Interfacelift for some great wallpapers), is Netflix. Only Netflix has other ideas.

Apparently, you need a 7th generation Core "Kaby Lake" processor (or possibly AMD's upcoming "ZEN" processor), Windows 10 operating system, and Microsoft Edge web-browser to get 4K to work right on your PC, according to a Tom's Hardware report. Two factors could be pushing these steep-requirements - HEVC CODEC hardware acceleration, and hardware-level DRM features being introduced with "Kaby Lake." HEVC could prove crucial for Netflix as streaming 4K in existing H.264 format could quadruple bandwidth consumption over Full HD. HEVC encoding lets Netflix minimize the bitrate greatly. For Netflix's DRM component to access the CPU's hardware DRM features, it needs Windows 10, older versions of Windows won't work. If these requirements aren't met, Netflix will simply play your content in Full HD. No soup for you.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[P4-630]

Watching netflix movies on my 1080p smart TV, still happy with that for some years to come.

 

[Steevo]

Considering ARM cores in a smartphone with ATI's old team can make 4K work and in smart TV's and much else for that matter, and this will eliminate a lot of the "stick" market, I see them changing their ideas about Windows 10 and Kaby only soon, or they will be losing subscribers. Its the fact they are flexible with phones, tablets, game systems, smart TV's and much else that makes netflix the popular easy choice for many.

 

[bug]

As long as people take this sort of crap just to watch a movie, distributors will keep doing it. Just be happy it doesn't require continuous retina scan of all viewers in order to charge you accordingly. Yet.

For this very reason, there's no device that will play BluRay in my house. If the content is that precious, they can keep it.

 

[newtekie1]

Considering ARM cores in a smartphone with ATI's old team can make 4K work and in smart TV's and much else for that matter, and this will eliminate a lot of the "stick" market, I see them changing their ideas about Windows 10 and Kaby only soon, or they will be losing subscribers. Its the fact they are flexible with phones, tablets, game systems, smart TV's and much else that makes netflix the popular easy choice for many.

Being able to get 4k working, and getting 4k HEVC working are two very different beasts. Netflix is facing a bandwidth problem, and no matter how much anyone want to deny it, the ISPs throttle Netflix. So the only way they will be able to stream 4k is using HEVC. And without a HEVC hardware decoder, 4k HEVC takes a very beefy processor to decode. Heck, a lot of those "stick" computers struggle to decode 1080p HEVC. So, if you are one of the rare people that own a stick PC, and use it to stream netflix, you're going to be stuck with 1080p.

 

[RejZoR]

That's just retarded. Why can't they create their own app to view Netflix that has a proper hardware acceleration on any capable GPU? It's absurd to expect people have top end Core i7 just because video needs to be decoded on frigging CPU instead of more efficient GPU.

 

[bug]

Being able to get 4k working, and getting 4k HEVC working are two very different beasts. Netflix is facing a bandwidth problem, and no matter how much anyone want to deny it, the ISPs throttle Netflix. So the only way they will be able to stream 4k is using HEVC. And without a HEVC hardware decoder, 4k HEVC takes a very beefy processor to decode. Heck, a lot of those "stick" computers struggle to decode 1080p HEVC. So, if you are one of the rare people that own a stick PC, and use it to stream netflix, you're going to be stuck with 1080p.

That's just retarded. Why can't they create their own app to view Netflix that has a proper hardware acceleration on any capable GPU? It's absurd to expect people have top end Core i7 just because video needs to be decoded on frigging CPU instead of more efficient GPU.

This is not about HEVC or the need to leverage a certain GPU. It's simply about the DRM hardware that's only built into Kaby Lake and used in Windows 10. Something to do with PlayReady, Idk, I pay no attention to this crap.

 

[TheGuruStud]

As if people need more reasons to pirate, but here we are.

 

[btarunr]

That's just retarded. Why can't they create their own app to view Netflix that has a proper hardware acceleration on any capable GPU? It's absurd to expect people have top end Core i7 just because video needs to be decoded on frigging CPU instead of more efficient GPU.

Not Core i7, but "Kaby Lake". It can even be a lowly Celeron dual-core based on "Kaby Lake". They just need those new hardware DRM features.

 

[RejZoR]

Guess who's behind Netflix. Sony. They'll whine about piracy non stop, but then they come up with bullshit like this. They want to have 1 cake and eat 3 of them. Greedy and lazy bastards.

 

[newtekie1]

That's just retarded. Why can't they create their own app to view Netflix that has a proper hardware acceleration on any capable GPU? It's absurd to expect people have top end Core i7 just because video needs to be decoded on frigging CPU instead of more efficient GPU.

If it was that easy, it would have already been done. This is exactly why GPUs are including dedicated HEVC hardware and not just using the driver to push the load onto the GPU.

This is not about HEVC or the need to leverage a certain GPU. It's simply about the DRM hardware that's only built into Kaby Lake and used in Windows 10. Something to do with PlayReady, Idk, I pay no attention to this crap.

DRM is a part of it, and why Windows 10 and Kaby Lake and Edge are requirements. It should also be pointed out that this announcement came from Microsoft not Netflix, and it seems to only apply to the upcoming 4 episodes of Gilmore Girls...so yeah...

The whole thing reads more like a Microsoft advertisement any anything else.

Guess who's behind Netflix. Sony.

Where do you get that Sony has anything to do with Netflix?

 

[Grings]

In another article i saw on this it mentioned that geforce 10 series have this 10 bit hevc mumbo jumbo, but they are not going to support that, only an unreleased cpu...

 

[Steevo]

Being able to get 4k working, and getting 4k HEVC working are two very different beasts. Netflix is facing a bandwidth problem, and no matter how much anyone want to deny it, the ISPs throttle Netflix. So the only way they will be able to stream 4k is using HEVC. And without a HEVC hardware decoder, 4k HEVC takes a very beefy processor to decode. Heck, a lot of those "stick" computers struggle to decode 1080p HEVC. So, if you are one of the rare people that own a stick PC, and use it to stream netflix, you're going to be stuck with 1080p.

I have none of the TV sticks, but there are three computers, one laptop, and a few TV's here.
Netflix bandwidth is only an issue for ISP's who make it an issue, netflix has offered and does allow ISP's to cache content, plus if I am paying for 60Mbps or 200Mb I expect it to meet that or the ISP to correct the issue.
http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/news/4ktv Check the HEVC inbuilt and there are already a lot of sets with it, so are they going to shit on the customers that already bought a $2K set?

 

[TheLostSwede]

I'm curious, does this apply to the Netflix app for Windows as well? As that's not very clear.

 

[remixedcat]

Well the netflix CEO is a globalist nutjobber. Glad I haven't renewed for some months.

 

[X828]

So... What about those of us that have UHD 4K Smart TV's with an Android OS ? Are we no longer able to stream 4K with our Netflix app?

 

[bug]

DRM is a part of it, and why Windows 10 and Kaby Lake and Edge are requirements.

Exactly because of PlayReady. The latest version needs some hardware voodoo that only Kaby Lake has and only Windows 10 uses. Edge is there probably to get some market share/awareness.

 

[TheDeeGee]

That's why you use UseNet to get your shit.

 

[TheGuruStud]

That's why you use UseNet to get your shit.

Before auto dmca take-downs.
Now, it's all about private trackers.

 

[RejZoR]

Where do you get that Sony has anything to do with Netflix?

It came from Sony people themselves during their latest LCD models presentation early this year for my company. I mean, they don't own the company in terms of owning the Netflix company shares, it's the content on Netflix that is basically entirely controlled by Sony and its movie media related subsidiaries.

 

[newtekie1]

I have none of the TV sticks, but there are three computers, one laptop, and a few TV's here.
Netflix bandwidth is only an issue for ISP's who make it an issue, netflix has offered and does allow ISP's to cache content, plus if I am paying for 60Mbps or 200Mb I expect it to meet that or the ISP to correct the issue.
http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/news/4ktv Check the HEVC inbuilt and there are already a lot of sets with it, so are they going to shit on the customers that already bought a $2K set?

If you have a Netflix capable smart TV, then these 4K requirements do not affect you one bit. These requirements are only for viewing 4K on PCs. This is stated right there in the article.

So... What about those of us that have UHD 4K Smart TV's with an Android OS ? Are we no longer able to stream 4K with our Netflix app?

See above. This only applies to 4k on PCs.

It came from Sony people themselves during their latest LCD models presentation early this year for my company. I mean, they don't own the company in terms of owning the Netflix company shares, it's the content on Netflix that is basically entirely controlled by Sony and its movie media related subsidiaries.

Ok, so pulling it out of thin air then. Got it. Sorry but "Sony owns a lot of the content on Netflix, so they are pulling all the strings at Netflix" just doesn't fly.

 

[Prima.Vera]

Two factors could be pushing these steep-requirements - HEVC CODEC hardware acceleration, and hardware-level DRM features being introduced with "Kaby Lake."

This.

 

[RejZoR]

If you have a Netflix capable smart TV, then these 4K requirements do not affect you one bit. These requirements are only for viewing 4K on PCs. This is stated right there in the article.



See above. This only applies to 4k on PCs.



Ok, so pulling it out of thin air then. Got it. Sorry but "Sony owns a lot of the content on Netflix, so they are pulling all the strings at Netflix" just doesn't fly.

Ever wondered why none of the content shit gets anywhere or takes frigging gazillion years to happen? It's because of the owners of the content and all the crap THEY demand. So, yeah, that part...

 

[Aretak]

No doubt they've received some sort of incentive from Intel (and possibly Microsoft for using their horrific DRM in the first place) for this state of affairs. We already know that Nvidia's 1000 series cards support all the hardware-level DRM in play here, as Microsoft themselves have confirmed that in the past. In fact, Netflix was specifically used as the example.

Yet mysteriously they're not supported here and you absolutely must buy a shiny new Kaby Lake CPU to take advantage of this amazing offer. Smells like a shakedown to me.

 

[TheGuruStud]

No doubt they've received some sort of incentive from Intel (and possibly Microsoft for using their horrific DRM in the first place) for this state of affairs. We already know that Nvidia's 1000 series cards support all the hardware-level DRM in play here, as Microsoft themselves have confirmed that in the past. In fact, Netflix was specifically used as the example.

Yet mysteriously they're not supported here and you absolutely must buy a shiny new Kaby Lake CPU to take advantage of this amazing offer. Smells like a shakedown to me.

Their entire fortune is built upon this framework, so business as usual, eh?