NVIDIA launched the GeForce GTX 10 series cards back in May 2016. It said back then that the new graphics cards had support for Netflix 4K streaming. However, strict DRM requirements made it next to impossible for PC users to stream content in 4K from Netflix unless they had support for HDCP 2.2 and Microsoft’s PlayReady 3.0 DRM. That’s where the Pascal-based GTX 10 cards came in. Netflix didn’t flip the switch on support quickly and now it has finally started previewing 4K streaming on these graphics cards.
NVIDIA has now confirmed that a 4K Netflix technology preview is live. It made the announcement quietly by adding an article on its customer support portal. Customers who have the right hardware and software configuration can now stream 4K content from Netflix on their PCs via the Netflix for Windows 10 app and the Microsoft Edge browser.
The article doesn’t say what took so long to enable support for the Pascal-based GTX 10 series cards but does mention that users will require a Windows 10 Insider build of the OS for the preview to function. Insider builds are required because the supported NVIDIA driver version 381.74 is only being distributed as part of the beta builds for now.
NVIDIA is calling this a technology preview for now and given that it’s limited to Insider builds only, it hasn’t completely started supporting 4K streaming from Netflix for all users. Hopefully, it will provide more information on when it intends to do that in the near future.
Filed in . Read more about Netflix, NVIDIA and Windows 10.