Why you can't get 4K Netflix and Amazon

#1

Post by hugoc » Fri, Dec 12, 2014, 8:35 PM UTC

Why you can't get 4K Netflix and Amazon
macworld.com

Re: Why you can't get 4K Netflix and Amazon

#2

Post by douglas_k » Fri, Dec 12, 2014, 8:58 PM UTC

DRM was sold to the politicians and public alike as a means of getting great content to customers and preventing piracy.

I suspect it won't be long before the DRM being used for the Amazon and Netflix 4K TV streams are well and truly broken like they were for HDMI and other "secure" measures before it.

Re: Why you can't get 4K Netflix and Amazon

#3

Post by ep103 » Fri, Dec 12, 2014, 9:01 PM UTC

Amazon's video streaming quality can be horrendous. Checking that I'm using an HDMI cable before streaming me HD content? Really?

Re: Why you can't get 4K Netflix and Amazon

#4

Post by timboslice » Fri, Dec 12, 2014, 9:02 PM UTC

TL;DR - speculation it's due to DRM/pirating concerns. Most TV's have no output and are therefore a safe mechanism to allow playback, whereas a PC could rip the stream

Re: Why you can't get 4K Netflix and Amazon

#5

Post by themartorana » Fri, Dec 12, 2014, 9:02 PM UTC

But if I grab a torrent to the 4K version of the movie, I can play it on my computer.

Do people still legitimately wonder why so many people flock to torrents? Hollywood (and by extension, other large content producers) have the most sincere form of Ostrich Syndrome[0] that I know of.

[0] http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=The%20Ostrich...

Re: Why you can't get 4K Netflix and Amazon

#6

Post by cwyers » Fri, Dec 12, 2014, 9:08 PM UTC

I have a hard time getting too worked up over this in the case of Amazon, because I have a heck of a time getting them to stream even SD content without horrible buffering issues.

Re: Why you can't get 4K Netflix and Amazon

#7

Post by balls187 » Fri, Dec 12, 2014, 9:09 PM UTC

Which devices support Netflix and Amazon 4k streams?

ETA:

From Netflix' FAQ it looks like it's via the TV apps on select "Smart" TV's.

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

Re: Why you can't get 4K Netflix and Amazon

#8

Post by johnduhart » Fri, Dec 12, 2014, 9:11 PM UTC

> Anyone who knows technology knows the computational and image-processing capabilities of even an average PC or Mac far outstrip those of a streaming box, set-top box, or smart TV by several orders of magnitude.

It's quite possible these TVs or STBs are shipping with a special hardware decoder that supports this format that they're using.

Re: Why you can't get 4K Netflix and Amazon

#9

Post by k-mcgrady » Fri, Dec 12, 2014, 9:12 PM UTC

I wonder if part of the reason is lack of demand too. What percentage of Netflix subscribers actually have 4K monitors + the bandwidth needed to stream something of that quality?

Re: Why you can't get 4K Netflix and Amazon

#10

Post by random28345 » Fri, Dec 12, 2014, 9:13 PM UTC

cwyers wrote: post #6

I have a hard time getting too worked up over this in the case of Amazon, because I have a heck of a time getting them to stream even SD content without horrible buffering issues.

That's why I pay for Prime (and Netflix, et. al.), and torrent the content.

Admittedly, I feel a little bad about paying providers of DRMed content, it sends the wrong market signal. But if I didn't pay these content providers, I wouldn't have a mechanism of signalling that I enjoy watching certain TV shows and movies.