Although some customers still have problems getting their movies to stream in HD, Netflix is already working on the next step - testing out Ultra-HD video streaming, also known as 4K video.
The tests come in the form of a few 4K videos, each featuring about eight minutes of travel footage from Mexico, according to Mashable. The videos are under the title El Fuente, and feature 4K footage test streaming in different frame rates to see how the different videos look on 4K video screens. For example, one video is called El Fuente: 24 MP and features 4K video at 24 frames per second.
Ultra-HD is also known as 4K because it provides roughly four times the definition of 1080p HD video. The video streaming company is trying to start providing Ultra-HD resolution videos starting in 2014, if the rollout is successful. According to GigaOm, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said he wanted Netflix to be one of the "big suppliers of 4K next year," during the company's most recent earnings call.
Some are expecting the up-and-coming online video streaming service to offer its own original programming in 4K at first, but it may also license movies and TV shows in Ultra-HD as well.
4K Capable Internet? Not So Much, Unless You're Rich
Still, to stream 4K videos successfully, consumers have to have blazingly fast broadband. According to IHS broadband analyst Richard Broughton, who spoke to the BBC on the issue, average broadband speeds in the U.K. are 7.6 megabits per second, and "you would need to have at least double that speed to watch 4K reliably on a streamed basis," said Broughton.
In the U.S., a new report has shown that affordable broadband at those speeds - minimum 100Mbps - are nearly impossible to find, due to too few internet companies controlling markets, which drives up the price for fast connections of any kind.
‟Our data... shows that the most affordable and fast connections are available in markets where consumers can choose between at least three competitive service providers," said the New America Foundation's report, The Cost of Connectivity 2013. ‟Only nine percent of Americans have access to three or more providers; the majority are limited to one or two incumbent telephone or cable companies."
Only Kansas City (MO and KS), Chattanooga, TN, and Lafayette, LA were U.S. cities ranked in the top 10 wired speed leaders in the world, and of those, only Kansas City (which has Google Fiber) is remotely affordable for average consumers.
The other thing that has to be in place for 4K video streaming, of course, is 4K-capable HDTVs. Depending on the size, 4K video sets currently range anywhere from $3,000 to the tens of thousands per set. A lot of laptops, like the Macbook Pro with Retina display, are capable of such resolutions, but who wants to watch TV on their small screen anyway?
Of course, even if it doesn't get used for years, Netflix will have an advantage of at least offering 4K videos - experimenting on a small segment of the population, working bugs out, and having another aspect of its streaming service to leverage in negotiations over content and delivery.
If only every Netflix user could reliably get HD video now.