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There aren’t many practical differences between Mac and PC in formal hardware support these days, so I was surprised to read that Netflix apparently doesn’t stream in 4K to an Apple computer. PC owners had this problem a few years ago when 4K streaming required a compatible display, Windows 10, a browser (Edge only) and an approved video card. While you obviously still need a panel that can handle the resolution, discrete integrated modern GPUs support 4K streaming. This kind of concern has faded a bit for PC users. On the Mac’s side? It is still a problem.
Netflix and Apple are delivering the solution to that problem with Apple’s Big Sur OS update, but only for models with a T2 security chip installed. This will substantially limit the number of systems that can play 4K material. According to Apple’s support document, many Mac systems lack a T2 processor:
The strange thing about the T2 requirement is that there is no equivalent command on the Windows side of the equation. When Netflix first released 4K streaming support for PCs, it required a 7th Gen Intel CPU to enable it. AMD chips also added support later. The 2019 iMac offered features like a 5K display and a 9th Gen Intel CPU. In theory, it’s the kind of machine you want to watch 4K content on and it should be fully capable of handling the task. In fact, Mac users have bypassed this restriction on their own operating system by loading Windows 10 and Microsoft Edge to view 4K content that way, proving that there is nothing intrinsic to Mac hardware that prevents it from complying with the Netflix 4K requirement.
Apple seems to have chosen to implement HDCP 2.2 support through the T2 processor rather than use the support built into Intel chips. If I had to guess, I’d bet the company will push 4K streaming as a feature of its upcoming ARM-based systems. As long as Apple used x86 hardware, it could impose the responsibility of providing 4K support on Microsoft and tell its own customers to use a virtual machine or separate partition for a Windows installation if they really wanted 4K streaming, or to buy an Apple. TELEVISION. Older PCs that can support Netflix streaming in 4K are about four years old. The iMac Pro (Late 2017) is three years old, but most platforms that support 4K on Mac are two years old or younger.
The best argument for why 4K streaming probably isn’t that important to Mac users is this: Since they’ve never had it, they probably won’t lose it. That’s … kind of a shitty argument, to be honest. It also ignores the fact that some Mac users may have bypassed the T2 security processor in 2019 specifically because of the problems it causes (or causes) when USB audio devices were also connected to the system. Even if Apple has fixed that issue since then (it’s unclear if it has), that won’t help anyone who has chosen a Mac without that chip specifically. why they needed to do audio processing and they didn’t want the headache it presents.
The good news, I guess, is that today’s Mac owners with hardware that meets Netflix’s Windows 4K streaming requirements can still use the feature by putting Win 10 in a virtual machine or installing it outright. Once Big Sur and Apple’s own ARM hardware are on the market, the systems will presumably also support 4K out of the box. As for Mac owners who do not have T2 security chips but purchased hardware that should support 4K streaming in all other respects, they have our condolences. Apple has decided that it is not worth supporting you as a customer. While you bought hardware that is perfectly 4K capable, you didn’t buy the law hardware. Your punishment is using Windows or paying a few thousand dollars to get your otherwise perfectly usable computer to play 4K video with Apple-approved silicone.
Now read:
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