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Could Netflix stream content in 8K?

Per title encoding will be "critical" to achieving manageable bit rates for 8K content, says the 8K Association

In a post on its website, the 8K Association has posited whether Netflix could offer its content to viewers who are able to watch in 8K.

The 8K Association cites a recent test with two sets of 8K footage, one from a film and the other from a football match. All the test encodes used HEVC with a CRF 25 quality level, adjusting the encoding bit rate to achieve the desired quality level.

Netflix currently employs “per title encoding”, which the Association says will be “critical” to achieving manageable bit rates for 8K content. The term refers to encoding parameters on a scene-by-scene basis.

The Ultra HD Forum has dubbed the same encoding technique as “content-aware encoding”, and says that CAE is a requirement for the OTT delivery of very high resolutions. Operators that adopted CAE to cope with the spike in binge-watching during the first lockdown last spring saw reductions from 25 per cent to 40 per cent in streaming bandwidth.

The full blog post is available to read here.