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intz2nu

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 28, 2012
398
40
I have a max spec top end 27" retina iMac and I only just now realized that youtube had 5K clips. However I tried to play this one clip here
and when I switch to the 5K setting the video goes black and I get an error message to try again later. My internet speed is also at 300+mbps could someone tell me why the video is going out and I'm getting the error that I get? 4K is plays fine but not that 5K clip. I tried it in both Safari and FireFox.
 

aevan

macrumors 601
Feb 5, 2015
4,530
7,220
Serbia
I have a max spec top end 27" retina iMac and I only just now realized that youtube had 5K clips. However I tried to play this one clip here
and when I switch to the 5K setting the video goes black and I get an error message to try again later. My internet speed is also at 300+mbps could someone tell me why the video is going out and I'm getting the error that I get? 4K is plays fine but not that 5K clip. I tried it in both Safari and FireFox.

That video simply doesn't work in 5K, and no one actually managed to start it in 5K resolution. No idea why.
 

WilliamG

macrumors G4
Mar 29, 2008
10,006
3,892
Seattle
On the other side, it looks so crappy in 4K (in terms of raw resolution - thanks YouTube!) that who cares about 5K for this sort of thing?
 

intz2nu

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 28, 2012
398
40
Do you know of any 5K clips I can test? Since the time of me getting this iMac I've never once seen a true 5K clip on it.
 

WilliamG

macrumors G4
Mar 29, 2008
10,006
3,892
Seattle
Do you know of any 5K clips I can test? Since the time of me getting this iMac I've never once seen a true 5K clip on it.

No, and quite honestly you're unlikely to find any. 4K isn't even a real thing yet aside from some streaming stuff on Netflix etc. The real reason the iMac has 5K is because it made moving from the previous-gen 27" 1440p display a simple thing in terms of ui since nothing visibly changes - except everything is four times as sharp!

You're not going to get 5K videos.
 

intz2nu

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 28, 2012
398
40
I never tried Netflix out I guess I need to take a peep just to see what a 4K stream is like on it. Also are you saying that the clips that are in 4K on youtube isn't really 4K? or is it a true 4K clip if the settings has the 4K option?
 

WilliamG

macrumors G4
Mar 29, 2008
10,006
3,892
Seattle
I never tried Netflix out I guess I need to take a peep just to see what a 4K stream is like on it. Also are you saying that the clips that are in 4K on youtube isn't really 4K? or is it a true 4K clip if the settings has the 4K option?

I don't think you can view 4K Netflix on an iMac, anyway, since it needs specific TV hardware to do it.

YouTube 4K is really, really low bitrate. Some of it is impressive, but for the most part it's just a way to say "Yeah we support 4K" without actually having the quality to back it up. The simple reason is that the necessary bitrate to have un-compressed-looking 4K is far higher than the average Internet connection, so it's just going to suck for the time being.

Wait for 4K Blu-ray and get a 4K TV if you want to see some good quality media at that resolution. The 5K iMac is really designed for your own recorded 4K video + editing it, or for photography/editing, or if you just love the general sharpness of everything.
 

intz2nu

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 28, 2012
398
40
I don't think you can view 4K Netflix on an iMac, anyway, since it needs specific TV hardware to do it.

YouTube 4K is really, really low bitrate. Some of it is impressive, but for the most part it's just a way to say "Yeah we support 4K" without actually having the quality to back it up. The simple reason is that the necessary bitrate to have un-compressed-looking 4K is far higher than the average Internet connection, so it's just going to suck for the time being.

Wait for 4K Blu-ray and get a 4K TV if you want to see some good quality media at that resolution. The 5K iMac is really designed for your own recorded 4K video + editing it, or for photography/editing, or if you just love the general sharpness of everything.


Ahh thats a real bummer. I guess yeah I was somewhat expecting to watch some true 4K content on it. However the sharpness of the text and everything else is indeed really awesome!
 

Gwendolini

macrumors 6502a
Feb 5, 2015
589
127
random
Using ClipGrab the video only shows a maximum resolution of 4K to be downloadable, but that could be a problem of the application, but it has been updated very recently.
 
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