Netflix has rolled out its first 4K videos, ushering a new era of Ultra-HD content.
The on-demand media giant released a series of six test videos this week to test the quality of Ultra-HD video streaming under various settings. Entitled El Fuente, each video is identical in content — featuring eight minutes of travel footage from Mexico — but have different frames-per-second rates.
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4K video, also known as Ultra HD, has a horizontal resolution of 4,000 pixels, which is well above HDTV's 2K resolution.
However, not all users are able to take advantage of Netflix's super-high resolution video. Only monitors with a 1080p resolution or higher, as well as MacBook Pro laptops with Retina display, can showcase the videos with their intended resolutions, according to Digital Trends.
Netflix's launch of its first 4K videos delivers on a promise that the company made earlier this year. In March, chief product officer Neil Hunt told The Verge, "We expect to be delivering 4K within a year or two."
In the same interview, Hunt speculated that Netflix's original content could be among the first to get the 4K treatment.
"Our own original House of Cards was shot in 4K. It's being mastered in full HD, but the raw footage, or a good chunk of it, was shot in 4K, and we hope to have some House of Cards 4K encodes later this year," he said.
Netflix is expected to release more Ultra-HD content in 2014.
“We want to be one of the big suppliers of 4K next year,” company CEO Reed Hastings told GigaOM.
Netflix did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Image: Netflix