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Does anyone watch 4k movies or shows on their Retina iMacs?

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fathergll

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Sep 3, 2014
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One thing that recently dawned on me was that I've never have watched a 4k movie or show on my Retina iMac despite having it for years now.


Unless I am missing something there is no watch 4k movies or shows on an iMac since 4k content since none of the providers will stream 4k to it and you can't officially download 4k movies as well. Am I missing anything...is anyone actually watching legit 4k content on their iMac(not counting youtube....or other things like a 4k video from a camera). I'm talking about movies and shows.
 
I too have yet to watch a TV show or movie in 4K on my 5K iMac. The fact that Apple won't allow iTunes 4K streaming on $2,000+ 5K iMacs is absurd, and makes me rethink purchasing anything from iTunes.

But then again, it may not be Apple who is limiting it. The media companies want to make it as hard as possible for you to download 4K content, anti-piracy measures that fail time and time again and only force more legitimate consumers to resort to piracy out of frustration. That is the state of things now...
 
I don't think macOS 10.13 High Sierra (or any version before it) actually has the 4K DRM support. I'm predicting/hoping for its adoption next year in macOS 10.14.

But even then, it would likely require a 2017 or later Mac, as the pre-2017 models do not have the hardware support that is likely required for 4K streaming DRM. eg. I believe that redheeler's 2015 iMac will not be supported, even if 4K streaming comes to the Mac.
 
redheeler said:
I too have yet to watch a TV show or movie in 4K on my 5K iMac. The fact that Apple won't allow iTunes 4K streaming on $2,000+ 5K iMacs is absurd, and makes me rethink purchasing anything from iTunes.

But then again, it may not be Apple who is limiting it. The media companies want to make it as hard as possible for you to download 4K content, anti-piracy measures that fail time and time again and only force more legitimate consumers to resort to piracy out of frustration. That is the state of things now...
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It is absurd. I've already read some UHD blurays have been cracked and released on the internet. Literally my only option is that which is ridiculous
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EugW said:
I don't think macOS 10.13 High Sierra (or any version before it) actually has the 4K DRM support. I'm predicting/hoping for its adoption next year in macOS 10.14.

But even then, it would likely require a 2017 or later Mac, as the pre-2017 models do not have the hardware support that is likely required for 4K streaming DRM. eg. I believe that redheeler's 2015 iMac will not be supported, even if 4K streaming comes to the Mac.
Click to expand...


So basically I'll never be able to watch a legal 4k copy on my Retina iMac.
 
On the one hand it is frustrating that (as of now) we can't watch 4K iTunes offerings. On the other hand, if such were readily available, the offerings would be highly compressed, and a mere whisper of the true video and sound gambit.

I have been watching "Hacksaw Ridge" in 4K on my iMac and the picture is fabulous. I am using an HEVC version which is about 75GB. We won't see that kind of quality on iTunes.
 
BasicGreatGuy said:
On the one hand it is frustrating that (as of now) we can't watch 4K iTunes offerings. On the other hand, if such were readily available, the offerings would be highly compressed, and a mere whisper of the true video and sound gambit.

I have been watching "Hacksaw Ridge" in 4K on my iMac and the picture is fabulous. I am using an HEVC version which is about 75GB. We won't see that kind of quality on iTunes.
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Was that a UHD rip? I think 75GB is on the high side for most UHD movie sizes(just talking about the movie itself and not the extras). From what I read most fall between 45GB and 60GB(still huge)

Good point, files sizes are very large if you wanted to get the true picture but at the same time internet speeds are starting to creep up high enough to make these downloads possible. Data caps on some IPs might think otherwise.


At the same though even basic 4k streaming options that you get from Youtube or Amazon is purposely blocked when it comes to movies. The probably is the 1080 content looks worse on a retina iMac compared to even my cheap HP LCD monitor because of the resolution differences. The movies look too soft on the iMac. 4k Youtube looks great though.
 
As far as I can tell you can watch 4K iTunes movies on your mac you can only stream them though not download.

You tube is limited by only supporting windows their choice not apples I presume.
 
Samuelsan2001 said:
As far as I can tell you can watch 4K iTunes movies on your mac you can only stream them though not download.

You tube is limited by only supporting windows their choice not apples I presume.
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1. No 4K iTunes support on Macs. No downloads and no streaming.

2. 4K is not supported by Safari because Apple refuses to support VP9. 4K works fine in Chrome with VP9. It’s h.264 only for Safari, but h.264 on YouTube is limited to 1440p. (h.264 is not a great codec for 4K.)
 
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EugW wrote:
"4K is not supported by Safari because Apple refuses to support VP9."

It's almost as if Apple is being as stubborn and closed-minded regarding 4k video on the Mac, as it was regarding BluRay.

Apple may eventually accommodate 4k a little better, but only if you're streaming the content from iTunes or elsewhere from Apple...
 
Fishrrman said:
It's almost as if Apple is being as stubborn and closed-minded regarding 4k video on the Mac, as it was regarding BluRay.
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VP9 is a codec developed by Google (hence why it's being used on YouTube). It does appear to be royalty-free though, so you may be right regarding why Apple hasn't added support for it in Safari (edit: Apple is trying to push HEVC for 4K video instead). Safari is one of the last remaining major browsers without support for VP9.
 
EugW said:
I don't think macOS 10.13 High Sierra (or any version before it) actually has the 4K DRM support. I'm predicting/hoping for its adoption next year in macOS 10.14.

But even then, it would likely require a 2017 or later Mac, as the pre-2017 models do not have the hardware support that is likely required for 4K streaming DRM. eg. I believe that redheeler's 2015 iMac will not be supported, even if 4K streaming comes to the Mac.
Click to expand...


So we are almost 1 year past this original thread. Has anyone heard anything about 4K DRM support?
 
That’s the one thing I don’t understand, Apple give this brilliant 5K display but you can’t watch things like 4K Netflix, 4K HDR iTunes content or even 4K YouTube videos (that I know of). Granted the screen still looks amazing :)
 
Dave245 said:
That’s the one thing I don’t understand, Apple give this brilliant 5K display but you can’t watch things like 4K Netflix, 4K HDR iTunes content or even 4K YouTube videos (that I know of). Granted the screen still looks amazing :)
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You can watch 4K YouTube videos on a 5K screen as I have recently found. You cannot do this with a Safari browser, but you can do so with a Chrome browser and the Firefox browser. Using a Firefox browser requires a property change. I've documented this in my post here:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/imac-5k-screen-why-can’t-i-see-more.2138007/#post-26512197

I hope that helps!
 
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carbontune said:
You can watch 4K YouTube videos on a 5K screen as I have recently found. You cannot do this with a Safari browser, but you can do so with a Chrome browser and the Firefox browser. Using a Firefox browser requires a property change. I've documented this in my post here:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/imac-5k-screen-why-can’t-i-see-more.2138007/#post-26512197

I hope that helps!
Click to expand...



The caveat is you can't watch movies you purchased from Youtube in 4K. So you can watch some vlogger in 4k for free but a 100 million dollar movie you can't even purchase it for $30 and watch if you wanted.
 
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