The movement towards 4K resolution in video is continuing and today one of the largest providers of that content, Netflix, has officially announced plans to offer streaming video at that higher resolution.
Engadget reports that Netflix CES Reed Hastings made a surprise appearance at today's LG CES 2014 press conference to announce that its original series "House of Cards" will support 4K streaming. The second season of the acclaimed political drama series starring Kevin Spacey will launch on Netflix on February 14th, and like the first season, all 13 episodes will be made available to watch at once.
However, the 4K version of "House of Cards" will only be made available on a select televisions that support the higher resolution and have the Netflix app integrated into the TV. Microsoft and Sony's new Xbox One and PS4 consoles, which are supposed to both support 4K video, won't be able to access the higher resolution stream from Netflix.
Why not? According to Stuff, Netflix Chief Product Officer Neil Hunt stated:
The new game consoles may eventually be 4K-capable, but the ability to take 4K out of the box and drop it into a separate television is lacking some standards and HDMI 2.0, and it's just a little premature.
The 4K video stream from Netflix will also require an Internet connection of at least 15 Mbps, using its H.265 compression standard.
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