4K iTunes Content Limited to Streaming Only, No Downloads

[HumpYourWayUp]

When Apple launched the stupid Watch the company went down the drain in many respects!
Apple you suck
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I'm guessing it's down to storage and user experience management. A 4K movie can easily reach around 35GB+ so will eat up around half the space already of a 64GB Apple TV.

Eye roll
NO those iTunes 4K movies ARE NOT around 35GB! What an uninformed statement - LOL

 

[840quadra]

I don’t think Apple owns the movie industry, I also believe Apple would love the chance to sell us 4K HDR titles if they had the chance.

Stupid Apple. I have a 1GB internet connection and downloading/storing movies is easy. With this I’d rather just purchase a 4K disc and watch the movie in its best resolution. I hate that Apple will determine the resolution on the fly for streaming. I’d rather download if and guarantee 4K.

 

[mjharwaz]

everything thru itunes ?

Yep... I know what they say about eggs and baskets, but I haven’t found a reason to splinter across different technologies/platforms. I haven’t found anything I wanted that was not available in iTunes that was available in another platform.

 

[Mirice99]

Cue the overzealous defense of yet another Apple fail in 3..2..1...

 

[npmacuser5]

Cost of doing business. Want high quality streaming audio, costs more and more data useage. Option, get physical media. Want 4K streaming video, costs more and more data useage. Option, get physical media. Nothing has changed. Cost of doing business.

 

[dampfnudel]

With Apple, there's often a caveat.

 

[simonmet]

This is a major PR fail.

Apple could’ve said 4K was for streaming only during the keynote but they didn’t, so they supported the expectation that 4K content was handled the same way that 1080p has been for years.

 

[jimbobb24]

Probably part of compromise to have price stay same

 

[CBlakeston]

Makes perfect sense. Years ago I had a huge hard dive full of movies I’d ripped from DVD and put into iTunes. Over the years as older movies have been on sale I’ve bought the iTunes version and deleted the rip. My iTunes hard drive is less full now then it’s ever been. Granted, I have 850mbs down so streaming isn’t a problem. But downloading movies and having them sit on a hard drive isn’t something I’d want to do. We live in a streaming world these days. I appreciate it sucks for those with slow internet.

Question. Do Netflix Amazon or Google let you download 4K versions of their content for offline viewing?

 

[dampfnudel]

This is a major PR fail.

Apple could’ve said 4K was for streaming only during the keynote but they didn’t, so they supported the expectation that 4K content was handled the same way that 1080p has been for years.

Yeah, it's funny how Apple "forgets" to mention any limitations at their keynotes. Of course, this could be a temporary limitation so no need to highlight it?

 

[farewelwilliams]

What an ignorant comment. I live in a rural area with poor internet and will never be able to stream 4k, but I have a nice new LG Oled 65" 4k that I enjoy every day via uhd blu-rays. I could easily download a 4k movie overnight to enjoy the following evening if they permitted the download, but will never be able to take advantage of a streaming only situation.

Please think before posting ignorant comments.

it's not ignorant. 4k hdr videos aren't meant to be downloaded. they're simply too big. even more true on an apple tv box since it has only 32GB which can probably only store 1 full 4k hdr movie max.

you're better off getting a blu ray player that supports 4k and renting discs from netflix/redbox. that provides a better experience instead of storing loads of data which takes over a day to download only to watch once then probably deleted.

 

[jonnysods]

Meh, I have unlimited on my internet so no big whoop. And it means I don't need the larger storage on the ATV

 

[farewelwilliams]

My interest speed (completely based on where I live) shouldn't dictate whether or not I can watch films off iTunes in higher quality. I am more than ready for 4k HDR thank you

you're ready for 4k. just not 4k streaming ready. go grab a 4k blu ray player and rent some discs.

 

[simonmet]

Then why did you order one in the first place? Just asking!

Probably because this was unexpected.

 

[devinci99]

I would think it is because of limitation from space issue on iOS device. With size of 4k videos you want store much with 32G storage room even 128G storage.

 

[hetrigger]

And the other shoe drops...

 

[mjharwaz]

I feel like a lot of people posting about storage, mentioning 32GB and 64GB, are missing the point behind those who want to download...

Nobody is asking for the ability to download directly to the Apple TV and store the movie there. If all you’ve ever done through iTunes/Apple TV is stream, you may not be familiar with the fact that you can download your media to your co outer (Mac or PC, whichever you prefer) and go to the Computers app of the Apple TV to stream from your computer to your Apple TV, where the only limitation on speed is your internal network load & bandwidth, not the speed of your ISP.

I also find it totally funny that you have DSL providers advertising their “high speed” services for low prices and barely scratch the speed requirement for this. People shouldn’t expect to get future proof/fully capable service for bargain basement prices.

 

[Aldaris]

Makes perfect sense. Years ago I had a huge hard dive full of movies I’d ripped from DVD and put into iTunes. Over the years as older movies have been on sale I’ve bought the iTunes version and deleted the rip. My iTunes hard drive is less full now then it’s ever been. Granted, I have 850mbs down so streaming isn’t a problem. But downloading movies and having them sit on a hard drive isn’t something I’d want to do. We live in a streaming world these days. I appreciate it sucks for those with slow internet.

Question. Do Netflix Amazon or Google let you download 4K versions of their content for offline viewing?

My issue isn’t largely with Apple regarding this issue, as much it is the ISP’s and the data caps. Google fiber is available (or at least lines being ran) between the two major areas in northern Utah (Salt Lake City and Provo) there has been talk about reaching outside of the cities proper but no details, leaving the next best being Comcast Xfinity with a terabyte cap. With a household of 4 adults and a toddler we easily breach that threshold, and I’m sure I’m not the only one. (Let me go ahead and disclose I pay the extra for unlimited). I’m generally a cord cutter and watch everything through iOS, there’s no way I could do 4K without having unlimited-granted we could make the argument about the amount of actual 4K content available through iTunes now-but in the coming months and years it’ll all be 4K.

Here’s hoping that a future iTunes will support being able to download and stream locally. Especially when ISP’s are starting to toss up limits and caps.

 

[mjharwaz]

My issue isn’t largely with Apple regarding this issue, as much it is the ISP’s and the data caps. Google fiber is available (or at least lines being ran) between the two major areas in northern Utah (Salt Lake City and Provo) there has been talk about reaching outside of the cities proper but no details, leaving the next best being Comcast Xfinity with a terabyte cap. With a household of 4 adults and a toddler we easily breach that threshold, and I’m sure I’m not the only one. (Let me go ahead and disclose I pay the extra for unlimited). I’m generally a cord cutter and watch everything through iOS, there’s no way I could do 4K without having unlimited-granted we could make the argument about the amount of actual 4K content available through iTunes now-but in the coming months and years it’ll all be 4K.

Here’s hoping that a future iTunes will support being able to download and stream locally. Especially when ISP’s are starting to toss up limits and caps.

Does Comcast offer unlimited in your area? Here in AZ, it’s available for a nominal additional charge (nominal compared to the price for overages in chunks of 10GB). I signed up for it recently but wish I’d done it before.

 

[nuckinfutz]

I would think it is because of limitation from space issue on iOS device. With size of 4k videos you want store much with 32G storage room even 128G storage.

More likely part of the licensing deal. You could have a Mac mini hooked up to your HDTV with terabytes of storage. You’re still not going to get 4K on your drive. This is an artificial limitation

 

[Glassed Silver]

Glad I already decided to leave Apple for anything multi-media consumption, except MAYBE music.

I don't trust the cloud one bit as single storage, Plex ahoy baby! My purchase, my rules.

Also, if anyone thinks that storage is the issue:
a Mac can have basically infinite storage, HD movies were always allowed to be downloaded to even 16GB iPhones (or 8 for that matter) and HEVC makes things a lot easier.
This isn't Apple looking after you, please stop kidding yourselves.

This clearly seems like it was done to appease the studios so that 4K content couldn't be downloaded and torrented all over the web.

Exactly, except good ripping groups will still find a way, if not just use superior UHD BluRays.

What a joke, the only one - again - who's missing out is the legit customer.

Glassed Silver:mac

 

[jetjaguar]

Thankfully Verizon Fios gigabit has no caps .. I don’t know how people deal with caps

 

[alfonsog]

If you really care about things like atmos support and 4k and picture quality then get a oppo uhd player and buy physical discs like me because streaming isn't going to cut it until we are all on google fiber or similiar.

 

[Aldaris]

Does Comcast offer unlimited in your area? Here in AZ, it’s available for a nominal additional charge (nominal compared to the price for overages in chunks of 10GB). I signed up for it recently but wish I’d done it before.

Yep for an extra $50 a month. We got tired of the pop ups saying we were 75% 90% through our data halfway through the month, and I’m sure I’m not alone in it. Granted between all the devices, iCloud syncing, Hulu and Netflix it shouldn’t be a surprise I imagine lots of people can easily reach that point (first world problems I know) but to add 4K streaming only? There’s no way we’d stay under that cap, unless we throttled our quality. I know I’m not the only parent on the forum that has a young kid that gets into a specific movie and we watch it all the time, having it locally on a Caldigit T3 drive hooked to a Mac and using homesharing is critical to limiting bandwidth through the ISP. I think you could make the environmental argument that downloading over streaming is better for the environment-and at the very least give people the choice to choose. I could download a movie once or stream a hundred times... seriously beauty and the beast has been played in my home at least 100 times since it was released. I could have streamed it 100 times from Apples servers, or as I have done downloaded it once and streamed it locally from my T3 drive.

 

[mjharwaz]

Yep for an extra $50 a month. We got tired of the pop ups saying we were 75% 90% through our data halfway through the month, and I’m sure I’m not alone in it. Granted between all the devices, iCloud syncing, Hulu and Netflix it shouldn’t be a surprise I imagine lots of people can easily reach that point (first world problems I know) but to add 4K streaming only? There’s no way we’d stay under that cap, unless we throttled our quality. I know I’m not the only parent on the forum that has a young kid that gets into a specific movie and we watch it all the time, having it locally on a Caldigit T3 drive hooked to a Mac and using homesharing is critical to limiting bandwidth through the ISP. I think you could make the environmental argument that downloading over streaming is better for the environment-and at the very least give people the choice to choose. I could download a movie once or stream a hundred times... seriously beauty and the beast has been played in my home at least 100 times since it was released. I could have streamed it 100 times from Apples servers, or as I have done streamed it locally from my T3 drive.

Yep, we were hitting overages more often than not that equaled or exceeded the $50.

If they could make the TV app stream from (and remember it’s streaming from) a local machine, I’d be more bothered by this development maybe... but with my elderly mother-in-law, it’s easier for her to stream and go through Up Next from that app than going through Computers navigation, or even using DVDs/Blu-rays.

And streaming makes it so much easier for people to watch what they want individually, whether it be different items or the same item started asynchronously.

But this weekend, we’ll be rewatching Wonder Woman again, and I’m going to “be forced to” watch Labyrinth and maybe Sucker Punch extended edition to give the 4K HDR a deeper test.