Netflix has pulled its video streaming app from the Quest content store.

As first reported by UploadVR, the long-neglected Netflix app for Quest is now gone from the store. If you already downloaded the app before then, you’ll find it no longer works.

That doesn’t mean you can’t watch Netflix on Quest though. The streaming giant recently bumped streaming quality in the Quest Browser to 1080p, which comes in stark contrast to the app’s 480p capped resolution, which notably didn’t support mixed reality passthrough or downloads.

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Originally released in 2015 for Samsung Gear VR and developed by former Meta CTO John Carmack, the app experienced very few updates over the years, with the latest arriving in 2019 alongside the launch of the original Quest.

Why not simply develop a new official app? Netflix requires devices to be certified in order to push streaming beyond that 480p cap, which requires meeting technical requirements, submitting the device for testing, and even possibly negotiating a licensing agreement, which are all things Meta would have to initiate.

Notably, Quest has native apps for Amazon Prime Video, Pluto TV, MLB, in addition to its own Meta TV app. It lacks Disney+, Hulu, Paramount+, and HBO Max.

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • STL

    So I have to watch it via the Quest Browser, right?

  • gothicvillas

    Not a big loss considering what garbage they pump in there

  • Yeshaya

    Do I need to be subscribed to the Netflix 4k plan to get value out of this? I assume 1080p on a virtual movie theater screen would look meh, right?

    • VR5

      Cinemas have been using 2K/1080p for digital screening since forever. 4K screenings weren't common until Avatar 2.

      It looks great and the Quest 3 screen couldn't fit any higher res anyway. Even SD looked okay unless there was text onscreen, except subtitles because those are rendered by the app at higher res.

      • Christian Schildwaechter

        Cinemas are not that horribly behind in resolution, and 4K screenings were (depending on definition) common long before 2022/Avatar 2. The first DCI spec for digital cinema from 2005 already defined 2K and 4K formats, 4K cinema projectors appeared around 2012, and shortly after that (post-)production started moving towards 4K and higher.

        The share of digital/4K screens varies by region, but by 2017 practically all screens in the US were digital, 40% of which were 4K, compared to only 17% 4K worldwide back then. Newer numbers are hard to find, but the initially much higher costs for 4K are no longer a major issue limiting adaption, so pretty much every new/updated screen today will be 4K or better (IMAX).

        Content also moved much earlier. An important milestone was the "cheap" (USD 17.5K body only) Red One 4K@60 fps cinema camera from 2007, used to shoot 2012 "The Hobbit" and "The Amazing Spider-Man", among others. Red introduced 8K sensors by 2016, and 2017 "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" was the first movie shot completely in 8K on Red cameras. Their 6K cameras already provide enough headroom for most post-production targeting 4K, so Red never bothered to go beyond 8k, and instead increases frame rates and sensor sensitivity/signal quality.

        With cinema 4K using slightly more pixels than UHD and vastly larger bitrates, and ~1/3 of the installed projectors 3D capable, a modern cinema with proper sound system can still outperform any home entertainment system or HMD. And with most movies from the last decade being downsampled from even higher resolutions used during production, we can still up the resolution of HMDs quite a bit before the content image quality becomes the limiting factor. Though with the (ancient) Netflix app limited to 480p until they pulled the plug, the limiting factor was neither the HMD nor the source quality anyway.

        • VR5

          So based on the data you give, in 2017 screenings were near 100% digital, 60% sub 4K in the US and 83% sub 4K world wide. So basically in 2017 the vast majority of cinema goers were watching in the same quality as on Quest 3. I watched movies in cinema in 2017 and I don’t have any real complaints in regard to the quality.

          Anyway, my maybe inacurate claims of cinema resolution were based on James Cameron stating that Avatar 2 was native 4K and that he expects that format to become more common, from which I deducted that 2K was still the norm at the end of 2022. Also on me watching Avatar 2 and Gemini Man in HFR 3D and feeling that they had much higher resolution/better 3D depth than other movies I had seen.

          Higher resolution is nice to have, definitely can wow one if it is there but that doesn’t make 2K terrible all of a sudden. Even SD is okay on a big screen. It gets bad at 320p or lower. Also, bitrate is more important than resolution.

          • Christian Schildwaechter

            I recently watched a movie I ripped from DVD and rendered in 480*232 over a decade ago for a 2008 3rd gen iPod Nano with 2" QVGA display, on a 4K display with a 75 times higher pixel count. It was fine.

            So I fully agree, higher resolution is nice to have, but (much) less is okay too. Still wouldn't necessarily recommend 272p on 4K displays, even though I watched a couple of those simply because I was too lazy to render them again.

          • VR5

            You have higher tolerance than me then. The direct comparison with a better IQ source also sours the experience, which is how Amazon Prime and later Disney+ soured me on Netflix. I still watched the series I was already hooked on, as well as new movies by directors I liked like David Fincher’s The Killer and Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio but it took longer for me to get around to doing so. Anime looks pretty good even at 480p I found, since it is lacking the detailed textures of real life footage that benefit from higher definition.

            So this 1080p solution for Netflix is very welcome to me.

  • sfmike

    Another corporation showing just how much they don't care about customer satisfaction or niche audiences that don't generate billions for them.

  • VR5

    When I tried to watch Netflix in the browser it straight wouldn't work (before this change, obviously). So it's not really a res bump up, they only now started allowing browser playback on Quest. At a higher resolution than the (now discontinued) dedicated app, so compared to that it is a bump up.

  • NicoleJsd

    Google stremio, get addons and debrid sub for 4$

  • FrankB

    Netflix integrated into Bigscreen would be more useful.

  • ViRGiN

    No app for AVP, no app for Quest..
    are they working on their own cinema glasses?