Breaking Bad now streaming in 4K for UK Netflix viewers

Netflix is now streaming Breaking Bad in 4K to its UK customers with Ultra High Definition TVs, making it the second big-name TV series to be made available to the public at greater than Full HD resolutions.

Head of Communications for Europe at Netflix Joris Evers made the announcement on Twitter last night, fulfilling a promise made at this year’s CES show to bring the popular AMC series to Netflix subscribers in 4K. It joins US government drama House of Cards as two of the only commercially available 4K TV shows, and practically makes it a must-watch for owners of UHD TVs looking for something to watch at native resolution. Currently UHD content is extremely limited, with a few demo reels and YouTube videos being the only alternatives to Netflix 4K streaming.

Breaking Bad now streaming in Ultra HD 4K everywhere @netflix is available!

— Joris Evers (@jorisevers) June 16, 2014

To watch Breaking Bad in 4K, you’ll need an internet connection with at least 15Mbps downstream speeds and a 4K TV with Netflix, as well as a compatible HEVC decoder – meaning Panasonic’s AX800 is off the list of supported 4K sets. You’ll have to make sure your account is set to stream in the highest quality available, by opening the Netflix smart TV app and going to Account – Playback settings – High. Unfortunately there’s currently no way to stream 4K  to a PC, even if you have an Ultra HD monitor connected.

Netflix has pledged to film all of its self-produced content in 4K, meaning Orange is the New Black and Lillyhammer could follow Breaking Bad as UHD streams in 2014 and beyond. Breaking Bad spinoff Better Call Saul is also expected to arrive in 4K when it gets released to subscribers in November.

The company has yet to reveal whether 4K streaming will require paying a higher subscription fee, and is unlikely to make anything official while 4K content is still very much in the minority.