Amazon Prime members now have access to 4K streaming

Amazon Prime Instant, the packaged streaming video service that’s included with Amazon Prime memberships, now officially supports 4K video streaming. Of course, you’ll need to have a 4K TV or a 4K display in order to take advantage of that content, though more and more products are shipping with displays equipped with that sharp resolution.

According to a press release issued this morning, Amazon has begun offering some limited amount of its streaming content in 4K resolution—specifically, the 4K UltraHD standard resolution of 3840×2160. The majority of the 4K content for now appears to be Amazon original series like Alpha House and Transparent, supplemented with a limited number of studio TV series (Orphan Black is mentioned specifically). Additionally, Amazon will be offering a selection of 4K movies from Sony Pictures Entertainment for free streaming to Prime members. Four movies are listed as streamable in 4K: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Funny Girl; Hitch; and Philadelphia. Amazon will be using HEVC (High Efficiency Video Encoding) for video compression.