Will my Android TV box stream Netflix HD or 4. K Hands down, the most popular question I get asked is what Android TV boxes will play Netflix HD streams It turns out that its not that simple an answer, unfortunately. But it should be. How to Stream the Internet to TV Streaming Movies, Video and Skype Stay on top of the latest smart TV wave with Technology Guru. See episodes of your favorite MTV Shows. Watch the latest Music Videos from your favorite music artists. Get uptodate Celebrity and Music News. ALTERNATES/s615b/tv-licence-1.jpg' alt='How To Get A Tv License In Uk How To Stream' title='How To Get A Tv License In Uk How To Stream' />I dont know about you, but when I open up Netflix, or any app, I expect it to know what my HDTVs resolution is. I also expect it to automatically size and play the video accordingly. If Ive got a 4. K video and a 4. K TV, it should play in 4. K, right Sounds simple enough to me. But thats not what happens most of the time, and heres why. Why cant everything stream Netflix HDNetflix has a list of approved devices that it works with. They split it into seven groups, but were only interested in those that run Android, so well trim that list down a little more. If you think about it in very broad terms, Android devices fall into three categories Streaming Media Players, Smartphones and Tablets, and Android TV. When I say Android TV, I mean devices running the actual Android TV operating system, like NVIDIAs Shield, and TVs from Sony, Sharp or Phillips. Thats the way that big companies like Netflix and Google will think about everything thats out there. TV boxes should be a streaming media player, right Theyre not. They actually fall outside of any of those three groups. Netflix considers these Streaming Media Players to be only ones certified to play Netflix HD video Apple TVGoogle Chromecast. Roku. Amazon Fire TVGoogle Nexus Player. NVIDIA Shield. Theres also initial reports from CNX Software that the new We. Tek Core will be able to play Netflix HD video, but not 4. K as of yet. If youre looking for your favorite Android TV box on the Netflix HD Android TV list, dont bother. Android TV boxes like the MINIX NEO U1 or Zidoo X1 dont run the official Android TV OS, so Netflix doesnt consider them in that category either. They actually get lumped in to the tablet category, more often than not. Problem 1 Unless a device is running the official Android TV OS, like the NVIDIA Shield or Nexus Player, its going to be lumped into the smartphone or tablet category by default. Curso De Teclado Gratis Pdf Maken. Why is that bad Well, for starters, the best tablet screen at the time of this article, is the Sony Xperia Z4 with a resolution of 2,5. Its not true 4. K, but it is more than enough for 1. So whats the problemThe problem is that these devices all have to be certified to run at that resolution. Problem 2 Google Certification. Lets get the easier one out of the way first. Back in 2. 01. 0, Google bought a small company called Widevine in order to beef up its on demand video services and prevent video piracy. Widevine had existing agreements with several companies, including Netflix and VUDU, which are still in place today. In order to support 1. HD resolution for video streaming apps like You. Tube and Netflix, a manufacturer has got to be Google certified in one of the Widevine DRM Digital Rights Management levels. I say this is the easier of the two certifications because much but not all of this is done at the chipset level, so the work is already taken care of by Amlogic or Rockchip. Manufacturers only have to enable it, in order to pass this criteria. Problem 3 Netflix Certification. Heres the hard one. Much of Netflixs certification process is hidden from view, but heres what we know. Devices have to pass certain hardware requirements, like resolution obviously, color depth, and H. H. 2. 65 support. Even if a certain device meets all of these requirements, Netflix still has to get around to actually testing the device. And that may take a while, if it ever happens at all. Whether this is a issue of time or money, I dont know. I suspect its a bit of both. Netflix has a right to make sure that their 1. HD and 4. K video streams look good. After all, who would you blame if the picture looks like crap There are tens of thousands of devices out there, and it takes a lot of time to test each one. Manufacturers need to sell a minimum amount of devices in a particular region i. United States in order to get certified by Netflix. Without that certification, Netflix has no reason to treat them as anything other than a tablet. Its a classic Chicken and the egg story. Without selling these units, they wont be able to get Netflix HD, but without Netflix HD, it will be very difficult to sell that many units. I have another theory. Nobody will speak about it on record, so its just speculation right now. But it makes sense from a business perspective. By limiting all of the other devices out there, Netflix has the ability to steer you into specific devices. The devices that are paying Netflix the most in licensing advertising fees. Lets be blunt even the bigger Android TV box manufacturers like MINIX or RKM arent big enough, or pay enough in licensing fees more likely, to warrant the attention of the big guys especially in markets that matter, like the US or Europe. As you can see from the picture below, Netflix is just not interested in working with some of these manufacturers. Whysource Official MINIX forumSo what does this mean for Android TV box owners Netflix can make this certification process as easy or as hard as they like. I cant really blame them for that. They want to make sure that every video looks amazing. What I do blame them for is deliberately choosing not to work with certain manufacturers and not explaining why. As Digital Trends recently said, Netflix has little to say on the matter. If theres a good reason, then let us know. We buy the streaming devices. We buy your service. We deserve an answer. So what devices can stream Netflix HD or UHD Stick around to the end of this article and Ill give you a list of what devices can stream Netflix 4. K UHD video. How to make Netflix 1. HD or UHDNot every title is available in HD, but here are a few steps to make sure youre getting the most out of Netflix, no matter what device youre on. Check your browser. First of all, even on your PC, where many of us watch Netflix the most, you may not be getting the resolution you think you are. Netflixs support page lists the various major browsers and the maximum resolution theyll support. Ill list them below, because its definitely going to come as a shock to many people. Resolution Stream in HD if your Internet connection supports 5 megabits per second or more. Google Chrome up to 7. Internet Explorer up to 1. Microsoft Edge up to 1. Mozilla Firefox up to 7. Opera up to 7. 20p. Safari up to 1. 08. Mac OS X 1. 0. 1. Unless youre using Internet Explorer, Edge or Safari, youre not getting HD resolution when you watch Netflix on your PC How fast is your Internet connection The next biggest thing to worry about is your Internet connection to your device itself. Netflix recommends you have at least a 5. Mbps Megabit per second stream to support HD video. Megabits per second Required broadband connection speed. Megabits per second Recommended broadband connection speed. Megabits per second Recommended for SD quality 4. Megabits per second Recommended for HD quality 7. Megabits per second Recommended for Ultra HD quality 4. K UHDThis doesnt mean your overall Internet speed from your internet service provider ISP. More devices  more bandwidth. My internet connection, for example, is Brighthouses Lightning at 3. Mbps or 3. 5 Megabits per second.