Is Apple anti-Disney or is Disney anti-Apple?

[err404]

iTunes added Atmos relatively recently, but I have seen the support grow quickly and be added to a lot of the back catalog. I’ll trust you as far as bitrate differences. Fortunately there is MA to let users choose the service they prefer.
Which leads me back to the original topic. I don’t find much fault with either Disney or Apple on the current situation. Disney sees 4k and HDR as a value add over HD while Apple has a simple delineation of high vs low quality. Both positions have merit. The solution comes down to price. Either Apple allows Disney to sell movies priced more than 20$ for High quality (HD/4K) or Disney de-values the price of 4K to 20$.
In the meantime MA to the rescue. Buy Disney films as 4K on Vudu.

 

[shinseiromeo]

iTunes added Atmos relatively recently, but I have seen the support grow quickly and be added to a lot of the back catalog. I’ll trust you as far as bitrate differences. Fortunately there is MA to let users choose the service they prefer.
Which leads me back to the original topic. I don’t find much fault with either Disney or Apple on the current situation. Disney sees 4k and HDR as a value add over HD while Apple has a simple delineation of high vs low quality. Both positions have merit. The solution comes down to price. Either Apple allows Disney to sell movies priced more than 20$ for High quality (HD/4K) or Disney de-values the price of 4K to 20$.
In the meantime MA to the rescue. Buy Disney films as 4K on Vudu.

I can value both sides of the argument. My grief is that the people who pay for 4K cannot utilize it on Apple. Disney doesn’t want free upgrades, fine. Well at least give me the quality I paid for. The whole analogy to me is akin to one bad Apple (ba dum tsh) ruining it for the whole bunch.

 

[netnothing]

I can value both sides of the argument. My grief is that the people who pay for 4K cannot utilize it on Apple. Disney doesn’t want free upgrades, fine. Well at least give me the quality I paid for. The whole analogy to me is akin to one bad Apple (ba dum tsh) ruining it for the whole bunch.

Well they can, just not via the iTunes store/TV app directly. If you buy a 4K disc, you can redeem via Vudu or MA and both will steam 4K via the ATV just fine (granted MA limited to HDR only) using their respective apps. And with MA, you'll get 4K rights so that if they ever go 4K in iTunes, they will upgrade. I get your point though.

I'm mixed on who's fault it is. Part I think Apple didn't want a 3rd tier in the store. I applaud them if they really want just low def and high def versions. For high def you get the best available. I think Apple was probably hoping that other stores and studios would agree and just change their pricing. Most have to a point. A lot of the UHD new movies are the same price on Vudu, with the exception of Disney and some Paramount that will price the UHD at $24.99. I really wish the whole industry would just settle on simple pricing. I don't think for a compressed stream, they should be charging anymore for UHD to begin with, but that's just me.

I do agree with what you have seen for the ATV and sound. I have both the ATV4K and a Roku Ultra and by far the Roku has better sound....and I'm only dealing with a 5.1 setup. There's just always been something off with the ATV sound. Always quieter and not a full.

 

[PilotC150]

Well they can, just not via the iTunes store/TV app directly. If you buy a 4K disc, you can redeem via Vudu or MA and both will steam 4K via the ATV just fine (granted MA limited to HDR only) using their respective apps. And with MA, you'll get 4K rights so that if they ever go 4K in iTunes, they will upgrade. I get your point though.

Maybe you can explain this: I have a few movies in Movies Anywhere where I purchased the 4K disc and redeemed the digital copy through moviesanywhere.com. They show up in the MA app, and even show that it's 4K, but then right below it says "The device you are using doesn't support 4K". I'm on a Apple TV 4K, with a 4K projector. Other things work fine with 4K, but the Movies Anywhere app seems to not agree. Has anybody seen that before?

I do agree with what you have seen for the ATV and sound. I have both the ATV4K and a Roku Ultra and by far the Roku has better sound....and I'm only dealing with a 5.1 setup. There's just always been something off with the ATV sound. Always quieter and not a full.

I haven't done a side-by-side with ATV4K and Roku Ultra (because I don't have a Roku ultra) but I don't have any issues with volume out of the ATV. I'm usually able to leave my receiving at the same volume levels regardless of whether I'm watching on my Dish Joey or the Apple TV.

 

[netnothing]

Maybe you can explain this: I have a few movies in Movies Anywhere where I purchased the 4K disc and redeemed the digital copy through moviesanywhere.com. They show up in the MA app, and even show that it's 4K, but then right below it says "The device you are using doesn't support 4K". I'm on a Apple TV 4K, with a 4K projector. Other things work fine with 4K, but the Movies Anywhere app seems to not agree. Has anybody seen that before?

Do you have a Vudu account? If so, link Vudu and MA and see it the Vudu ATV app will play it in 4K. The only thing I can think of is somewhere in your chain the MA app doesn't think you support 4K. Guessing no 4K movies play via the MA for you?

I haven't done a side-by-side with ATV4K and Roku Ultra (because I don't have a Roku ultra) but I don't have any issues with volume out of the ATV. I'm usually able to leave my receiving at the same volume levels regardless of whether I'm watching on my Dish Joey or the Apple TV.

Yeah, it's weird. Has always been the case for me and a few others I have found online. Not that it's drastic - but when I sit down and test, I can always tell. I tried both the ATV directly to via the AVR, as well as the ATV converting to DD5.1. It's the convert to DD5.1 that actually sounds better in most cases.

 

[PilotC150]

Do you have a Vudu account? If so, link Vudu and MA and see it the Vudu ATV app will play it in 4K. The only thing I can think of is somewhere in your chain the MA app doesn't think you support 4K. Guessing no 4K movies play via the MA for you?

I don't buy any movies digitally, so all of the 4K movies I have in MA are from discs that I've purchased, and yes, none of them play in 4K. Or at least Movies Anywhere tells me they won't. I don't think I've tried starting one up and seeing what the projector tells me its playing.

I have a VUDU account linked, because a few months ago they were giving away from movies if you linked various accounts, but I don't have the app installed right now to test. I'll give that a try this weekend.

 

[Audit13]

The Vudu app will play movies in 4K as long as the code was redeemed from a 4k disc. For instance, I redeemed the 4k Batman Nolan Trilogy on UltraViolet and I can stream the 4k version from the LG TV Vudu app and my Apple TV 4k.

 

[netnothing]

I don't buy any movies digitally, so all of the 4K movies I have in MA are from discs that I've purchased, and yes, none of them play in 4K. Or at least Movies Anywhere tells me they won't. I don't think I've tried starting one up and seeing what the projector tells me its playing.

I have a VUDU account linked, because a few months ago they were giving away from movies if you linked various accounts, but I don't have the app installed right now to test. I'll give that a try this weekend.

Yeah worth a shot to see if it's the MA app causing the issue. If your 4K iTunes movies play fine via the movies app - then I can imagine why the MA app would complain. I'd imagine that the app would just be checking the 4K status of the ATV box itself.....if the ATV says 4K is good then I'm guessing it should work.

If you search for that error, there are others on Reddit that have posted similar issues with no real solution. So I'm guessing it's a problem with the MA itself.

I only use the MA as a last resort. If it's MA and Disney, the Vudu app is usually the way to go.

 

[err404]

The Vudu app will play movies in 4K as long as the code was redeemed from a 4k disc. For instance, I redeemed the 4k Batman Nolan Trilogy on UltraViolet and I can stream the 4k version from the LG TV Vudu app and my Apple TV 4k.

This is probably the most tricky part of MA. MA will honor the 4K redeem on other services, so long as the original service redeemed as 4K. Interestingly this often means that regular HD movies redeemed on iTunes will get upgraded to 4K and be playable on any linked service in 4K. However if you redeem a 4K Disney code on iTunes, Apple will only redeem it as HD (since they don’t offer the movie in 4K). So a 4K Disney code spent on a iTunes will sync to VUDU as HD.
I have also heard that what I said above is only sometime true! And even if iTunes has a 4K version, an HD code may stay as HD.

 

[Audit13]

This is probably the most tricky part of MA. MA will honor the 4K redeem on other services, so long as the original service redeemed as 4K. Interestingly this often means that regular HD movies redeemed on iTunes will get upgraded to 4K and be playable on any linked service in 4K. However if you redeem a 4K Disney code on iTunes, Apple will only redeem it as HD (since they don’t offer the movie in 4K). So a 4K Disney code spent on a iTunes will sync to VUDU as HD.
I have also heard that what I said above is only sometime true! And even if iTunes has a 4K version, an HD code may stay as HD.

I have redeemed 4k Disney codes and they have never given me a 4k stream on any service I have tried. I was hoping MA would give me the 4k version since MA is a Disney company.

 

[netnothing]

This is probably the most tricky part of MA. MA will honor the 4K redeem on other services, so long as the original service redeemed as 4K. Interestingly this often means that regular HD movies redeemed on iTunes will get upgraded to 4K and be playable on any linked service in 4K. However if you redeem a 4K Disney code on iTunes, Apple will only redeem it as HD (since they don’t offer the movie in 4K). So a 4K Disney code spent on a iTunes will sync to VUDU as HD.
I have also heard that what I said above is only sometime true! And even if iTunes has a 4K version, an HD code may stay as HD.

Only thing with iTunes redeems and purchases are, if it’s a direct redeem or purchase and the movie isn’t yet 4K, you will only get HD rights in MA. If it later upgrades, that upgrade will be stuck in iTunes only.

This can happen a lot with preorders since those statuses can switch between HD and 4K before release.

The other benefit, which admittedly doesn’t work much anymore is that HD code redeems directly to iTunes will give 4K from an HD code if it’s 4K in the store.
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I have redeemed 4k Disney codes and they have never given me a 4k stream on any service I have tried. I was hoping MA would give me the 4k version since MA is a Disney company.

Did you redeem in iTunes? Or MA? Redeeming in a store gives rights to whatever that store has, not what the code is. So in those cases it’s best to redeem on MA or a store that has 4K.

 

[Audit13]

Did you redeem in iTunes? Or MA? Redeeming in a store gives rights to whatever that store has, not what the code is. So in those cases it’s best to redeem on MA or a store that has 4K.

All of my Disney purchases (Solo, Last Jedi, etc.) were done in iTunes because I am in Canada and Disney only includes Google or iTunes as a provider.

 

[m11rphy]

As people are asking questions if I by a code that’s says iTunes 4K via movies anywhere does that mean I can redeem the code in iTunes and get it in 4K or do I need to redeem in movies anywhere and wait for it to port to iTunes?

 

[netnothing]

All of my Disney purchases (Solo, Last Jedi, etc.) were done in iTunes because I am in Canada and Disney only includes Google or iTunes as a provider.

Ah gotcha. Yeah they really need to expand MA to Canada.

As people are asking questions if I by a code that’s says iTunes 4K via movies anywhere does that mean I can redeem the code in iTunes and get it in 4K or do I need to redeem in movies anywhere and wait for it to port to iTunes?

If it says 4K with an iTunes redeem you should be fine. If you want to check and make sure via MA, just load the MA site in an incognito window so you are NOT logged in. Try to redeem the code and it will list what quality you will get from MA.

Here's the holy bible regarding 4K redeems: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ZsJkCX4DIv2oeCKQ7zp2ArkR1qKEXCUuCMBbUtHtmh4/
Other helpful resources: https://sites.google.com/view/digitalmovieresources/home

 

[shinseiromeo]

Thank you for posting that link netnothing, I was about to do the same!

I have a vast collection of digital copies and have in-depth knowledge of all the providers. If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask!

 

[PilotC150]

Sounds way more complicated than it should be. I buy a Disney movie in 4K, and redeem it in Movies Anyway (a Disney app) then I should be able to stream it in 4K. I haven't checked on my 4K Roku TV to see what it says about that.

It's just weird that the MA app tells me it's the 4K version, just that it can't play it in 4K.

I don't buy any movies through iTunes, so I don't know anything about how that works as far as when things are 4K compatible and when they're not.