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Comment by _Algernon_ | Hacker News Reader

>Has anyone found an easy hack to ensure playback happens in 4k on desktop as well (e.g. url parameter)?

Yes there is. It's called piracy.

Well, users paying for Netflix, are not supposed to be subject to unasked quality downsampling just because you watch from a non-TV device. This sort of optimization might be fine with small laptop screens, but not 5k Computer screens, and I don't know if Netflix does it on purpose or just put `if not TV => send lowerRes` in their code (simplified of course).

The answer is piracy. There are no content providers that are confident enough in their DRM to send 4k streams to devices that are in control of their owners instead of cooperations. PCs are the scariest thing ever and they will do everything in their power to kill them.

Pirate content and be free

Or buy an apple tv and hook it up to your monitor.

Pirate sites obtain the high quality material as soon as it's launched anyway, so this kind of "protection" just adds friction for the paying user.

These restrictions are never there to prevent piracy. It’s there for corporates to be able to say that “we did everything”. They are there for legal reasons. That’s true for every single security features. It’s a side effect if some security feature is really effective. Most of them are just annoyance, they don’t prevent anything.

There are enough games out there to simply show this isn't true.

What do you mean?

Which is just crazy, considering lots of the $15 HDMI switchers on Amazon actually strip HDCP, and you can then use a capture card to record whatever you want from a 4k supporting device. I guess they're just preventing the easiest methods.

The best kind of restriction: annoys everyone (because they need to claim they tried to prevent piracy) except those who are serious about circumventing the restriction

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