Disney Movies Showing as Available in 4K on iTunes Store in Select Countries

[EugW]

I listened to my uploaded music file on Apple Music through HomePod compared to the original lossless file ripped from my own CD and I can’t tell a difference.

I did some A/B testing with my original CDs vs Apple iTunes. I found I couldn't tell the difference with 256 Kbps MP3 and 192 Kbps AAC. Actually, more like 192 Kbps MP3 and 160 Kbps AAC.

So, I just encoded my CDs to 256 Kbps MP3 initially, and then when AAC became more popular and entrenched, I encoded the remainder of my CDs to 192 Kbps AAC.

I guess the real questions are 1) how many care enough about the quality improvement to get it, and 2) how many can afford the proper equipment?

Most do not care. My sister is perfectly happy with her sound bar, paired with her 65" OLED. My subwoofer alone costs several times the cost of her sound bar. She can afford my setup, but doesn't see the point. Also, she doesn't want a bunch of big speakers cluttering up her living room anyway.

Note, I have a dedicated home theatre room (which used to be our single-car garage). In my living room, I have a 43" Sony mid-range 4K LCD TV. I and my wife did not want a huge TV in that room either. At that size, for most content it is nearly impossible to tell the difference between good quality 1080p and 4K, esp. considering our seating distance of 12 feet. Thus, I haven't felt the need to upgrade my Apple TV 4th generation (non-4K) there.

Good. Now bring 4K for TV-Shows

Amazon Prime and Netflix shows are 4K for example.

 

[BuffaloTF]

I listened to my uploaded music file on Apple Music through HomePod compared to the original lossless file ripped from my own CD and I can’t tell a difference.

That's because 256k AAC is audibly transparent. And to the original point, you can get ALAC music from Apple if you want lossless.

 

[guzhogi]

Most do not care. My sister is perfectly happy with her sound bar, paired with her 65" OLED. My subwoofer alone costs several times the cost of her sound bar. She can afford my setup, but doesn't see the point. Also, she doesn't want a bunch of big speakers cluttering up her living room anyway.

I know I don't really care, and can't afford much of the equipment, services/rebuying movies/music. Even with streaming, many people don't have fast enough internet to stream 4k HDR. If they do, how compressed is it? I really wish more people and companies would invest more in our infrastructure (internet & other kinds) so we could truly enjoy all these marvels.
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You can get ALAC music from Apple if you want lossless.

How? I haven't seen that option. Maybe I just missed it.

 

[CarlJ]

My Star Wars movies (digital copies that came with the UHD) are all upgraded 4k HDR now. Just bought Eps VI and V at $13 each to complete the collection. That's in Canada.

Wait... you owned all the Star Wars movies except the original Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back?!? THOSE ARE THE GOOD ONES!

 

[EugW]

I know I don't really care, and can't afford much of the equipment, services/rebuying movies/music. Even with streaming, many people don't have fast enough internet to stream 4k HDR. If they do, how compressed is it? I really wish more people and companies would invest more in our infrastructure (internet & other kinds) so we could truly enjoy all these marvels.

Where do you live? In North America, internet access to fully support 4K streaming is commonplace, and affordable for most average users.

Peak 4K streaming bitrate for Apple TV is around 40 Mbps (averaging around 30 Mbps for the top titles), and around 16 Mbps (fixed) for Netflix. As long as you have service that can supply 75 Mbps, you're OK if you're a single person. (Netflix recommends a 50 Mbps connection IIRC, as their 4K is lower bitrate.) I personally have Gigabit internet, but I'd be perfectly happy with 300 Mbps. 150 Mbps would probably be OK too. However, for my family of 4, 75 Mbps would not be enough.

Depending upon the title, even 16 Mbps Netflix can look totally amazing. A good example of this on Netflix is Lost in Space. Unfortunately, the show itself isn't amazing. It's decent but not top tier in terms of plot.

Wait... you owned all the Star Wars movies except the original Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back?!? THOSE ARE THE GOOD ONES!

Episode VI is Return of the Jedi.

 

[doboy]

I have over 400 films in my iTunes library and the only time there has ever been some removed, it was the titles I got from questionable means - buying codes online at a low cost, for instance.

They actually removed some of those movies? I have quite a bit of those and I don't think I experienced any removal.

 

[doboy]

Also remember that Apple won't upgrade your HD films if you've purchased HD version through another service like Vudu and linked them through MA service.

 

[CarlJ]

Episode VI is Return of the Jedi.

Yep, and Episode VI has Ewoks, the beginnings of the ”we’ll put cute things in movies just so they can be toys” problem (the original plan was to have the action take place on Chewbacca’s home planet, not the planet of sunglass-eyed stuffies). RotJ is a good movie, but not as good as the original and ESB.

 

[4jasontv]

Wait... you owned all the Star Wars movies except the original Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back?!? THOSE ARE THE GOOD ONES!

THERE ARE THE GOOD ONES?

 

[MacinMan]

HDR and 4K are two different things, and you can have one without the other. HDR is about color/contrast while 4K is about resolution/pixels. 4K HDR movies from Apple play in HDR on the OLED iPhone screens as well as the iPad Pro screens (to a lesser degree) but not in 4K. So you get the benefit of the darker darks and brighter brights from HDR but not the higher pixel count of 4K.

Correct, HDR, and 4k are different and don't need each other to function. In an above post that's why i asked about the latest iMacs because those would be able to do both together. I just don't keep fresh with the latest from apple like I used to because currently I have no reason to, other than having the information.

 

[JonDiesel]

OK so I did some digging and it looks like they're upgrading only movies PURCHASED in Itunes, not movies you have redeemed from Blu-Ray codes, etc. I noticed a few that I had redeemed from 3D Blu Rays a few years ago had not upgraded to 4K.

But its odd now because if i WANT to upgrade to 4K i have no option to do so. Just says PLAY with HD below it, and no option to either purchase or whatnot. Wish iTunes had an option to upgrade copies from either SD to HD or HD to 4K for a price, if so I would do this for the titles (as I own quite a few from redeemed blu-rays in HD)

And before throwing the "yeah obviously iTunes only upgrades PURCHASED movies to 4K" comments, if I remember corerectly I had redeemed the Fast&Furious collection from blu rays a while back and they all got upgraded to 4K

jus FYI

 

[MacinMan]

OK so I did some digging and it looks like they're upgrading only movies PURCHASED in Itunes, not movies you have redeemed from Blu-Ray codes, etc. I noticed a few that I had redeemed from 3D Blu Rays a few years ago had not upgraded to 4K.

But its odd now because if i WANT to upgrade to 4K i have no option to do so. Just says PLAY with HD below it, and no option to either purchase or whatnot. Wish iTunes had an option to upgrade copies from either SD to HD or HD to 4K for a price, if so I would do this for the titles (as I own quite a few from redeemed blu-rays in HD)

And before throwing the "yeah obviously iTunes only upgrades PURCHASED movies to 4K" comments, if I remember corerectly I had redeemed the Fast&Furious collection from blu rays a while back and they all got upgraded to 4K

jus FYI

Most of my digital copies are redeemed from codes, and the titles I mentioned above were upgraded. The Original Aladdin, and a couple Avengers Movies are what I've checked so far.

 

[EugW]

OK so I did some digging and it looks like they're upgrading only movies PURCHASED in Itunes, not movies you have redeemed from Blu-Ray codes, etc. I noticed a few that I had redeemed from 3D Blu Rays a few years ago had not upgraded to 4K.

Almost all my iTunes 4K titles are from codes. Some are not even from 4K Blu-ray discs, just regular 1080p Blu-ray discs.

 

[DblHelix]

I have over 400 films in my iTunes library and the only time there has ever been some removed, it was the titles I got from questionable means - buying codes online at a low cost, for instance. There are plenty of movies you can't even get on the iTunes Store for purchase anymore but are still in my library. I was one of those "I'll only ever buy physical!" people until convenience won out.



I didn't check any more aside from Avengers: Endgame, but that is showing as 4K in my library. I would assume they would auto-upgrade you, because iTunes doesn't have a mechanism for paying to upgrade (like HD to 4K for example).

same. For me it took buying a small house without a ton of storage space. I don’t even buy much now. 90% of what I want to watch is one one of the streaming services I pay for. Usually only new releases if we want to watch before it comes to streaming so I buy or rent.

 

[JonDiesel]

OK so what should we do about some of these titles if they never get upgraded?

Theres a few I'm going through here on my list that i DEFINITELY purchased through iTunes and when i go to store page they still say HD where others say 4K.

And I'm going through the new banner itunes store link that says "DISNEY 4K HDR" so i know they should be:

 

[BF1M]

Mine all showing up as HD but playing in 4K HDR

 

[MacinMan]

For those asking about an upgrade policy for say upgrading older purchases to 4k that weren't done automatically. Since it sounds like the people asking would be willing to pay an upgrade fee: Would it be possible for them to contact apple support, have there current copy dissociated with their account and pay for the upgrade ? I don't know personally, since I've never had a reason to do so. Just asking if it would be an option for those who want it.

 

[munpip214]

If i go through library section movies still show HD but if I go through search or watch now section they show 4K. Seems they are still working on it.

 

[TimFL1]

For those asking about an upgrade policy for say upgrading older purchases to 4k that weren't done automatically. Since it sounds like the people asking would be willing to pay an upgrade fee: Would it be possible for them to contact apple support, have there current copy dissociated with their account and pay for the upgrade ? I don't know personally, since I've never had a reason to do so. Just asking if it would be an option for those who want it.

I thought the general consensus on upgrading iTunes titles is to gift the movie to your mail and then redeem the gift link, overwriting your barebones HD/SD copy?

At least that‘s how I fixed one borked title I had a few years ago.

 

[Sci_Tech]

Sweet all my Marvel, some Pixar, and Star War movies have been upgraded!

 

[doboy]

I thought the general consensus on upgrading iTunes titles is to gift the movie to your mail and then redeem the gift link, overwriting your barebones HD/SD copy?

At least that‘s how I fixed one borked title I had a few years ago.

Yup

 

[macsplusmacs]

Nice. Guess a rewatch is in order soon of my favorites.

 

[kukheart]

OK so I did some digging and it looks like they're upgrading only movies PURCHASED in Itunes, not movies you have redeemed from Blu-Ray codes, etc. I noticed a few that I had redeemed from 3D Blu Rays a few years ago had not upgraded to 4K.

But its odd now because if i WANT to upgrade to 4K i have no option to do so. Just says PLAY with HD below it, and no option to either purchase or whatnot. Wish iTunes had an option to upgrade copies from either SD to HD or HD to 4K for a price, if so I would do this for the titles (as I own quite a few from redeemed blu-rays in HD)

And before throwing the "yeah obviously iTunes only upgrades PURCHASED movies to 4K" comments, if I remember corerectly I had redeemed the Fast&Furious collection from blu rays a while back and they all got upgraded to 4K

jus FYI

I had to do this for a few movies where I wanted 4k, like I got the digital code for IT and it was regular HD. I had to go through itunes and hide the movie and it would somehow show up in the itunes store as not purchased, so I bought IT and Joker in 4k after I already had a digital code for regluar HD, it was a pain but not impossible.

 

[MacinMan]

I thought the general consensus on upgrading iTunes titles is to gift the movie to your mail and then redeem the gift link, overwriting your barebones HD/SD copy?

At least that‘s how I fixed one borked title I had a few years ago.

I never thought of that. If it works then problem solved.

 

[mjharwaz]

I'd wait before doing anything that costs money to try to upgrade... I'm noticing things that weren't showing as 4K HDR in my library now showing categorized correctly. Probably better to give it a day or so and see what's "left" after the dust settles.

EDIT: Definitely looks like a rolling upgrade of some kind... Toy Story 1,2, and 4 have made the change but not 3 yet, as an example.