Quick Answer: To force Netflix 4K streams on PC or Mac, navigate to Netflix.com and click on your profile icon in the upper right corner. Select “Account” from the dropdown menu. Go to “Playback Settings.” Then, change the “Data Usage per Screen” to “High.”
Check your account settings
Step 1: Check your Netflix plan and settings. There are some new tiers, though. The Netflix Standard with ads, Standard, and Premium plans all support Full HD (1080p) streaming, but the Basic plan only allows for streaming in normal HD (720p).
By default, Netflix won't always stream in 4K. The default streaming quality setting is set to Auto, meaning the best possible mix of quality and data usage. However, to make sure you're streaming in 4K, you should change the setting to the highest possible option.
Visit the website to check the list of all content available in 4K in your country. Then, select the country from the list at the bottom. Here, select Netflix and apply a filter for 4K. The website will show you all the available titles in Ultra HD quality in your country.
Netflix 4K plan and cost
You're going to need is a premium level Netflix 4K subscription. To get access to all that juicy Ultra HD content you need to pay more, specifically $17.99 per month for the 'Premium' plan. In terms of video quality, Netflix streams 4K at 2160p, which is good news.
Traditional HDR monitors and screens provide at least 10-bit color depth and automatic contrast and brightness adjustments. More advanced screens with 4K HDR meet these standards and have a typical resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels, around four times the traditional HD amount.
Netflix 4K Premium will be worth it for those in a household where many people want to use Netflix, who have multiple devices that they want to download and watch movies or TV shows on, and/or value the high-quality of 4K, perhaps on a big-screen TV.
TVs with Ultra HD resolution display 4 times more pixels than Full HD images. 4K has a resolution of 4,096 × 2,160 (8.8 megapixels), a little higher than UHD. A better resolution TV (eg UHD vs FHD) displays a greater number of pixels and allows more details to be displayed on an image of the same size.
4K refers to a specific screen resolution, and HDR has nothing to do with resolution. While HDR has competing standards, some of which specify a minimum 4K resolution, the term generally describes any video or display with a higher contrast or dynamic range than SDR content.
Netflix's Basic plans stream in 720p video resolution; Standard in 1080p HD. The Premium plan allows 4K Ultra HD streaming, which applies to Netflix originals and some acquired titles. More advanced HDR (high dynamic range) streaming is available on a limited basis.
Once you're signed in to your profile, hover over the profile icon in the top-right, then click the Account option. Under Profiles & Parental Controls, select the profile you want to set the video quality settings for. Next to the Playback Settings option, press Change.
Netflix itself does not clearly label whether content is 4K or not. Some movies and shows are available in 4K, others are limited to 1080p, or worse in a few cases. You can search for "4K" in the app itself to see some suggestions.
Not everything on Netflix is available in 4K. The exact amount will vary per region, but it's roughly 1,500 titles. That's plenty to keep you busy, but does mean the majority of movies and shows aren't 4K.
Ideally, you want to be in the sweet spot for internet speed requirements to watch Dolby Vision on Netflix. Both Dolby and Netflix recommend an internet connection speed of at least 15 megabits per second to stream titles available in Dolby Vision at Ultra HD 4K resolution.
By default, Netflix sets this to Auto on every profile, meaning that the video will automatically switch based on the quality of your internet device. If you cannot support a fast-enough connection, you can't play HD video, and Netflix will auto-downgrade your resolution.
Streaming Netflix in HDR requires Netflix app version 5.0 for Android. To stream in HDR, you will need: A smart TV that supports either Dolby Vision or HDR10 and Netflix, connected to your device via an HDMI port that supports HDCP 2.2 or later (usually the HDMI 1 port).
The 4k image is smoother and has more detail than the 1080p image. Look closely and you'll see that the edges around objects in the 1080p picture are a bit more blurry, and text looks clearer on the 4k TV.
It actually depends on the size of the screen and where you are sitting. From a distance, it is virtually impossible for someone to tell the difference in quality between a 1080p and 4K screen. However, if you have a big enough screen, in a small enough room the difference is immediately apparent.
4K (Ultra HD) is a high-density pixel resolution that provides greater detail in video images. HDR10 and Dolby Vision are color and dynamic range enhancements that provide a more realistic representation of content. Many devices that support HDR10 or Dolby Vision also support 4K.
The term "2160p" could be applied to any format with a height of 2160 pixels, but it is most commonly used in reference to the 4K UHDTV resolution of 3840 × 2160 due to its association with the well-known 720p and 1080p HDTV formats.
QHD has a resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels. Quadruple means four. So the resolution of QHD is four times higher than its predecessor 1080p. 4k on the other hand has a whopping 3840 x 2160 pixels with 4 times more detail than full HD!