Why isn't the Netflix app doing UHD output on my PC?

Question

We recently upgraded our Netflix plan to allow for UHD video. Unfortunately I've not been able to get this to work on my PC so far

From what I looked up, these seem to be the requirements

• An Intel 7th Gen or newer CPU or an AMD Ryzen CPU.
• A Radeon RX 400 or newer or Nvidia with these specs (if you have a dedicated GPU).
• A 60Hz+ 4K display with HDCP 2.2 support.
• 25 Mbps or higher download speed.

That said:

• I have a Nvidia 3080 - which is a supported GPU. AMD and a 9th generation core i9, so I'm handily exceeding requirements.
• I'm using the 'native' Netflix app.
• I have the HEVC drivers set up, and have confirmed that MPC-BE (which needs these drivers installed to run HEVC) works. I'm running the "HEVC extensions from device manufacturer" which I downloaded before the loophole was closed, and it's identical to the paid one. I've nearly identical software but not hardware on another PC and its able to play Netflix at 4k so I'm fairly certain its not a hardware issue.

As far as I can tell, I'm meeting or exceeding the requirements needed, and I see no UHD content, and the test patterns (Netflix subscription needed) tell me its running at 1080p.

• I tested with a dual monitor set up (with both monitors compatible with HDCP). My third monitor does not at the moment so I took it out of the equation for testing. I unplugged that monitor, rebooted then started Netflix, so its not that the application picked it up at reboot time.

The P270s are 4k 60 monitors, connected over Display port, and work fine at 4k.

I've also tried a single monitor over HDMI:

Interestingly Nvidia says it supported and the CyberLink tool for checking for BD compliance (that's woefully outdated and links to a broken link when you try to download it) says it is not.

We suspect the Chrome EME checker is giving HDCP 1.0 supported as the highest supported version no matter what - so I don't trust it. I ran tests on another system and it does do UHD on a different display and it fails past HDCP 1.0 on that test so its incorrect.

Answer 1

I did a bit of testing - and worked out a few things.

Nearly no publicly available application will tell you if HDCP support is at the right level for this.

My monitor does not support HCDP 2.2 from what I can tell.

From what I can tell - there's a minimum version of DP 1.4a (mine does 1.2 I think) for HDCP 2.2 support and I can't really find any minimum version for HDCP when I google. My monitor does support HDMI 2.0

In my case - since replacing my monitor is a little much for 'testing' - I ended up picking up a "EDID Emulator" based on some online advice, and its a device that 'feeds' the PC either a predefined EDID persona or one you can clone off a working machine. Mine had a bunch of dip switches, and I set mine to emulate the same monitor resolution and frequency I have.

It's this unit, and its fairly generic. It needs a USB port for power and connects to both your monitor and PC.

With it plugged in between my monitor and computer - things get interesting

It passes the CyberLink test (but that doesn't tell me which monitor passed), but the Netflix test pattern fails to run at 4k.

When other monitors are unplugged (One's known non HDCP compliant, the other is identical to the monitor I am testing on) from power, the Netflix pattern does run. I'm guessing the CyberLink BD tester detects one monitor is HDCP compliant and netflix detects the other ones are not.(Netflix's behaviour is correct but annoying),

Basically - I'd guess my monitor just doesn't support it, and if I do want to watch entirely legally obtained movies off a streaming service, this is the requisite amount of faffing around needed.

Answer 2

CyberLink is telling you in the graphic you pasted at the top.

Graphics Card Driver "No"

There are two drivers that NVIDIA ships,

• GRD - Game Ready
• SD - Studio

Entirely consistent with NVIDIA everywhere else, this is insane so brace for it: only the Studio driver supports HDCP 2.2. You'll need to download the Studio driver, or if you got the cash buy an ATI card!

---

Onto some other things though,

• You're using Windows: you never need an EDID emulator and in fact you should never trust one with dip switches. You can edit the EDID with AW EDID (or any hex editor), and do far more (like check what it contains and make the EDID report that DP 1.4a is supported! Which is sometimes required elsewhere. After you have edited the EDID blob, you can store the edited blob on Windows as an overwrite by following these steps from Microsoft.
• Your monitor almost surely supports HDCP 2.2. But to test it cheaply plug the a Netflix device right up into it, like a ChromeCast, or Amazon Fire stick. You said the monitor is a "P270", but I don't see that online. But HDCP 2.2 is like 10 years old.
• If all that fails, you can always buy an HD Fury device and ignore HDCP entirely forever, since it's a failed system and the Dark Side lost their lawsuit against them.

Answer 3

Since I asked this question: CyberLink updated the blue ray advisor on the link I provided in the question, and it is no longer broken. Its renamed the "Ultra HD Blue-Ray Advisor" - oddly its at the same link as I'd used before and there's no indication its a different bit of software

Picking the Ultra HD Blu-Ray option gives me this:

This neatly tells me I don't have HDCP 2.2 support.

This is how it looks like on a working system. This isn't a tool for testing Netflix, but its the clearest indicator of at least 2 of the requirements.

The software needs an email address (not sure if they validate) and a name.