4K HDR Content Apple TV Only?

[Ethosik]

Hey guys,

I just have a question, is the 4K HDR content exclusive to the Apple TV, or will iTunes offer these videos with High Sierra too?

 

[randian]

Hey guys,

I just have a question, is the 4K HDR content exclusive to the Apple TV, or will iTunes offer these videos with High Sierra too?

I assume iTunes will have it too. What would be the point of not allowing an iMac 4k/5k to play 4k video?

 

[Marky811]

Well iTunes on my Mac is now offering 4K content....except you can only play them in 1080HD as they aren’t allowing streaming on Macs it would seem....pushing us to the Apple TV. Way to piss people off Apple.

 

[norbinhouston]

Do you think it has something to do with the studios? Also can't save 4K movies locally, but you can save 1080 content locally.

 

[cynics]

Well iTunes on my Mac is now offering 4K content....except you can only play them in 1080HD as they aren’t allowing streaming on Macs it would seem....pushing us to the Apple TV. Way to piss people off Apple.

Are you running High Sierra? Does your Mac have a Skylake or Kaby Lake CPU?

Both will be requirements for decoding HEVC (much like other streaming services) even still it will likely be a slow rollout.

 

[cmsj]

Are you running High Sierra? Does your Mac have a Skylake or Kaby Lake CPU?

Both will be requirements for decoding HEVC (much like other streaming services) even still it will likely be a slow rollout.

Specifically, Kaby Lake would be required because it has appropriate DRM features built into the CPU to allow the kind of DRM that the content companies are insisting on, to play.

 

[cynics]

Hey guys,

I just have a question, is the 4K HDR content exclusive to the Apple TV, or will iTunes offer these videos with High Sierra too?

Possibly.

It will have the obvious requirements, High Sierra and a CPU with HEVC decoder Skylake or Kaby Lake (@cmsj corrected me, slipped my mind about Intels DRM). This is similar to other 4k streaming services for the most part. I believe 4k Netflix requires Windows 10 and Kaby Lake on a PC for example.

HDR can be tricky on a computer, since you pretty much need all the software and hardware working together to make it happen. Plus studios would prefer its not on a computer to begin with so there are some hoops to jump through. I believe the 4K/5K iMacs can do it, just keep in mind HDR is the umbrella term used to cover everything required, not just color gamut.

While the image would certainly be MUCH better that what we have now a 5k iMac isn't the best option for HDR movie watching. Its not a 1:1 pixel ratio and the contrast ratio is lacking vs dedicated HDR televisions.

Being on an AppleTV only currently makes the most amount of sense considering how new it is. It WILL eventually come to Macs, how long is the question.