Apple’s upcoming macOS Big Sur introduces HDR video support. However, Apple Terminal reports that watching Netflix 4K will require a Mac with a T2 security chip (although I’m not sure why).
This means you’ll need: an iMac Pro (late 2017), Mac mini (late 2018), MacBook Air (2018 and up), MacBook Pro (2018 and up), Mac Pro (2019), or iMac (2020). Before macOS Big Sur, Apple customers couldn’t play 4K videos on YouTube in the Safari browser because Apple didn’t license Google’s VP9 codec, which is used to encode 4K HDR videos on YouTube.
One Reddit user tries to figure out the confusing Netflix 4K requirement: “The only Macs, that could really benefit from 4k streaming, without an external monitor, are the 4k and 5k iMacs yet only 2 models (the Pro and the new 2020 27″) will be able to stream it. Windows machines don’t have any kind of T2 alternative and are still able to stream 4k via Edge or via the native app, their only requirement is a 7th gen intel cpu or a dedicated graphics card.”
