Netflix restricts picture and sound quality: under no circumstances should you make this mistake

If you want to watch a movie or series on Netflix, you naturally want to stream it with the best possible picture quality and enjoy the best sound quality. After all, Netflix announces that it offers its premium customers select content in high definition 4K HDR.

But the big one: Even if you have a premium subscription, you won’t automatically watch all 4K movies and series. On the one hand, not all content is available in HD, and on the other hand, Netflix reduces the quality in the main browsers Chrome and Firefox to 720p.

If you frequently watch Netflix on your computer, you should check how good the picture actually is. Here are two tricks to help you find out, and tools you can use to improve the quality of Netflix on PC.

Show Netflix playback quality: Here’s how

If you want to see how well Netflix is ​​playing, you can start the browser app and enter “test patterns” in the search field. As a result, you will be presented with a series, the episodes of which will show various test images. If you start any episode, you can see the current playback quality on the top right of the screen.

If you want to see how well certain movies or series will play, start it and hold down the buttons [Strg] + [Umschalt] + [Alt] + [D] Compressed – Netflix will then show you the current video resolution along with a lot of other information.

How to improve playback quality on Netflix

If you’re watching Netflix in Chrome or Firefox, movies and series will be shown in 720p at most, the lowest in HD. You also have to do without HDR and ambient sound.

The picture only gets better with free browser extensions Netflix 1080p for Google Chrome And fire fox, which Netflix at least shows in Full HD, which is also the perfect choice for most screens. Cool: Because the add-on works across platforms, it’s not limited to Windows. So you can also enjoy Netflix in 1080p on Linux.

How it works? The add-on modifies your browser’s browser ID in such a way that Netflix assumes your browser can play 1080p videos. Once installed, simply clear your browser cache, reopen Netflix and start an episode or movie series at once. The video will now play in 1080p in your browser window, which you can check using the keyboard shortcut shown above.

4K Ultimate Resolution: How to Make the Most of It

If you’re already using a 4K screen, you can even watch Netflix on your PC in maximum quality, including HDR and surround sound. enjoy. This works if you’re using one that came with Windows Microsoft Edge Launch it or use the Netflix Windows 10/11 app. Of course, the prerequisite is a Netflix premium account and additional installation of HEVC video extensions, for which Microsoft charges 0.99 euros.

In the Mac works fine if you use Safari browser on your Apple device Use an M1 chip or a desktop with a T2 security chip.