Netflix's limited catalog of 4K Ultra HD content now comes at a premium. High-resolution movies and TV shows are now only available to members that subscribe to the company's top-tier family plan which sells for $11.99 per month.
Ultra HD content was previously offered as part of the standard $8.99 HD package which allows for up to two simultaneous connections at once. The family plan doubles the number of concurrent streams to four which, while great for families, is simply overkill for individuals or even small families.
A Netflix spokesperson told Variety that producing and acquiring 4K content costs more than conventional HD programming which prompted the change (effective as of August 12).
The good news is that anyone that has already watched 4K content prior to then will be grandfathered in and won't have to pay the extra $3 per month.
Netflix quietly added 4K test clips roughly a year ago before officially supporting the standard this past April with the second season of House of Cards. Since then, the streaming media king has also rolled out 4K versions of Breaking Bad, The Blacklist, Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters 2, The Smurfs 2 and a four-part nature documentary called Moving Art.
Unfortunately, Netflix's 4K streaming only works on select 4K television sets - you can't stream it to a PC. It's unclear whether or not Netflix plans to allow PC streaming in the future.