The OnePlus 5T can't stream HD video from Netflix, Amazon Prime, others

[midian182]

The OnePlus 5T is a fantastic smartphone. Not only does it have the best fast-charging capabilities of any flagship handset, but it also costs just $499. However, it turns out the device isn’t free of caveats. Despite having full-HD capable screens, both the OnePlus 5T and its OnePlus 5 predecessor can’t stream high-definition content from video services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Google Play movies, and others. Thankfully, the company says a future update will address the issue.

The problem was brought to light on OnePlus’ forums, where one user pointed out that the problem is related to the phones’ lack of support for Google’s Widevine level 1 DRM, which many services require for HD streaming.

OnePlus devices do support Widevine level 3, but that’s only used for standard definition streams. As Android Police explains, level 1 requires that content processing and control operations, which are meant to protect the copyright holder, happen in a “Trusted Execution Environment,” which isn’t implemented on the OnePlus 5 and 5T. Other similarly priced devices, such as the ZTE Axon 7, also lack Widevine support beyond level 3.

"I would like to know why a £500 phone is not capable of fully utilising these very popular services and if there are any plans to rectify this clearly ridiculous issue,” wrote OnePlus forum user whatthefunk.

"I am massively surprised this has not been brought up in reviews/not had a bigger fuss made about as this is completely unacceptable for a brand that is now well established."

A company spokesperson has confirmed it is working on an update to bring Widevine level 1 support to the OP5T and OP5. No word yet on when it’ll arrive, or why it was left out in the first place.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/72252-oneplus-5t-cant-stream-hd-video-netflix-amazon.html

 

[veLa]

What an oversight.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

*sad trombone*

And here I remember when the one plus one came out, a $300/350 phone that was a flagship killer.

Now they cost $500, and dont bother including something as basic as HD streaming DMR on their device. how far oneplus has fallen.

 

[OutlawCecil]

I've said it before and I'll say it again. I bought my wife and I a OnePlus 3T when it came out and they've been the best phones. We've had a Samsung Galaxy and an LG G2 in the past which were great phones but they just don't hold a candle to the overall stability and quality of this phone, not to mention the price as well. We spent $1400 on our LG G2 phones and paid them off over 2 years. With OnePlus, we utilized PayPal credit to pay over 6 months without interest and got one phone at a time. These were $860 total and beyond worth it. I see this article as a technical issue somebody found that obviously 99.9999999% of OnePlus users couldn't even notice a difference in. If you consider OnePlus as a company a failure because of this, I pity you. Go buy a new Galaxy phone and pay over $200 more, or an iphone and pay literally double. I'll stick with OnePlus.