Netflix conducts Ultra HD 4K TV trials ahead of 2014 launch
05 Nov 2013
TV and film streaming service Netflix is conducting trials of Ultra HD 4K TV ahead of a planned rollout next year.
4K (also known as Ultra HD) video boasts horizontal resolution of 4,000 pixels, which is well above resolution of HDTV's 2K.
Technology blog GigaOM said in a discreet move the company has added several 4K movies to its streaming service in the past week. The films would apparently serve as test footage for Netflix. The movies include one named El Fuente, which shows off 4K TV at 24 frames per second.
A scan of the Netflix catalogue by The Inquirer, showed that the film apparently was unavailable in the UK as yet. However, it is said that those who could access the movies would not be able to view them in 4K yet.
The move sees Netflix moving closer to a roll out of wider selection of Ultra HD titles. Neil Hunt, the chief product officer of the company had said earlier this year that Netflix wanted to be one of the companies to take 4K video mainstream.
Hunt said during an interview in March with The Verge, that streaming would be the best way to get the 4K picture into people's homes, because of the challenges involved in upgrading broadcast technologies and the fact that it was not anticipated within the Blu-ray disc standard.
Meanwhile, according to social media website Mashable, the Ultra-HD video El Fuente comprises six clips of identical content featuring eight minutes of travel footage from Mexico. However each clip has different frames-per-second rates.
However, the advantage of Netflix's super-high resolution video would be only available to monitors with a 1080p resolution or higher, as also MacBook Pro laptops with Retina display, that can showcase the videos with their intended resolutions, according to Digital Trends.
Hunt had also speculated in the interview that Netflix's original content could be among the first to get the 4K treatment.
He had said Netflix's own House of Cards was shot in 4K and it was being mastered in full HD, though the raw footage, or a good chunk of it, was shot in 4K, and Netflix hoped to have some House of Cards 4K encodes later this year.
The company is expected to offer more Ultra-HD content in 2014. Company CEO Reed Hastings told GigaOM, that it wanted to be one of the big suppliers of 4K content in 2014.