Hulu last week quietly brought back 4K streaming video—albeit in a limited capacity—after taking down options for Ultra HD viewing last year.
The company confirmed the update on Twitter.
We have good news! 4K streaming was just re-released today on select devices: https://t.co/5BjUFgexXk. You'll be able to watch any of our Hulu Originals in 4K. We hope this helps! 👍
— Hulu Support (@hulu_support) July 9, 2019
For now, 4K streaming is only available on Apple TV (5th generation or later) and Chromecast Ultra devices, and content is limited to Hulu originals.
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In its help section, Hulu included fair warning for users that 4K UHD content will demand more from their internet connections. 4K content on Hulu streams at around 16 Mbps, much higher than the 6 Mbps need for 1080p.
Hulu Support fielded lots more questions on Twitter from users about potential updates to the feature. The company said it didn’t have any news to share about HDR at this time and said that users can keep tabs on the Hulu video quality page for updates about when more content will be available to streaming in 4K.
The move from Hulu is a small step to getting the service closer to rivals Amazon Prime Video and Netflix in terms of 4K content availability. Netflix offers a large library of 4K content and allows for streaming on a bigger variety of devices including Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Comcast X1, Dish Hopper, Nvidea Shield, PlayStation 4 Pro, Roku, TiVo Bolt and Xbox One S. Netflix requires subscribers to opt for the most expensive plan ($16/month) to get access to 4K streaming video.
Amazon includes 4K streaming video with its Prime or Prime Video memberships and supports the content on Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Comcast X1, Google Chromecast, Nvideo Shield and Roku devices.