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 on Full HD. No soup for you.
Source: Tom’s Hardware
