Skip to Content

Safari in macOS Big Sur Works With 4K HDR and Dolby Vision Content From Netflix on Newer Macs

by

Safari 14, introduced in the iOS 14 and macOS Big Sur betas, introduces HDR video support and allows Netflix users to watch content in 4K HDR and Dolby Vision for the first time.

macosbigsur
As pointed out by 9to5Mac, Netflix has long offered 4K content that can be viewed on other platforms like the 4K Apple TV, but it has not been available to Mac users due to hardware limitations.


Safari in macOS Catalina and earlier has limited Netflix content to 1080p resolution, but with macOS Big Sur, Netflix works in 4K and supports Dolby Vision and HDR10 for more vivid colors.

Watching 4K HDR content on Mac requires a Mac introduced in 2018 or later, so older Macs will continue to be limited to 1080p resolution on Netflix with macOS Big Sur.

As we covered last week, tvOS 14 and iOS 14 are now compatible with YouTube's VP9 codec, allowing 4K YouTube content to be watched on those platforms, but the codec is not yet supported in Safari 14 in macOS Big Sur.

Related Forum: macOS Big Sur

Popular Stories

Apple MacBook Pro M4 hero

Apple Planning 'MacBook Ultra' With Touchscreen and Higher Price

Sunday March 8, 2026 8:05 am PDT by
Apple is planning to launch an all-new "MacBook Ultra" model this year, featuring an OLED display, touchscreen, and a higher price point, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports. Gurman revealed the information in his latest "Power On" newsletter. While Apple has been widely expected to launch new M6-series MacBook Pro models with OLED displays, touchscreen functionality, and a new, thinner design...
Read Full Article • 479 comments
imac video apple feature

Apple Unveils Seven New Products

Friday March 6, 2026 11:48 am PST by
Apple this week unveiled seven products, including an iPhone 17e, an iPad Air with the M4 chip, updated MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models, a new Studio Display, a higher-end Studio Display XDR, and an all-new MacBook Neo that starts at just $599. iPhone 17e features the same overall design as the iPhone 16e, but it gains Apple's A19 chip, MagSafe for magnetic wireless charging and magnetic...
Read Full Article
ios 26 4 yellow

Everything New in iOS 26.4 Beta 4

Monday March 9, 2026 3:50 pm PDT by
Apple is continuing to test the iOS 26.4 beta, and the latest update is now available for developers and public beta testers. As testing goes on, there are fewer new features in each beta, but today’s release adds new emoji characters and a few other changes. New Emoji Apple added new emoji characters, including trombone, treasure chest, distorted face, hairy creature, fight cloud, orca,...
Read Full Article • 65 comments

Top Rated Comments

S
Somian
74 months ago
It's not a hardware limitation. Older MacBook Pros can play H.265 4k content just fine. The only reason it doesn't work is that someone made a decision that it's not supposed to work. DRM isn't a technical necessity.
Score: 27 Votes (Like | Disagree)
I
IamTimCook
74 months ago

It's not a hardware limitation. Older MacBook Pros can play H.265 4k content just fine. The only reason it doesn't work is that someone made a decision that it's not supposed to work. DRM isn't a technical necessity.
Agreed. Having the 2017 iMac Pro relegated to 1080p viewing for Netflix and iTunes is the biggest load of....
Both the 2017 iMac and the 2017 iMac Pro have the necessary CPUs for DRM streamed media.
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
SoN1NjA Avatar
SoN1NjA
74 months ago

That looks like it says “mp4” and “hevc”. Sounds like YouTube is supporting H.265. Rather than Apple supporting VP9. If so, that’s a good thing.
Google will never support HEVC, not even in hell

Why on Earth would Google spend loads of money developing VP9 and now AV1, all to bow down to Apple who has to flick a switch on their side?
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
I
iBluetooth
74 months ago

Google will never support HEVC, not even in hell

Why on Earth would Google spend loads of money developing VP9 and now AV1, all to bow down to Apple who has to flick a switch on their side?
H265 is not an Apple codec.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
J
Jamalien
74 months ago
JUST SO YOU ALL KNOW : You don't need big sur, it also works in safari technical preview for catalina

Edit : Only works sporadically in Catalina, and consistently in Big Sur...idfk whats with it
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
K
konqerror
74 months ago

That looks like it says “mp4” and “hevc”. Sounds like YouTube is supporting H.265. Rather than Apple supporting VP9. If so, that’s a good thing.
The screenshot/article is talking about Netflix, not YouTube. Netflix always supported HEVC.

It was a DRM issue for 4K on the computers, as I recall. They only supported Microsoft PlayReady which requires Edge or Silverlight (when that was still a thing).
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Read All Comments