iTunes HDR movies disappearing?

[Bram.96]

Both Alien Covenant and Logan previously showed an HDR tag in my purchase history, but now they’re both just showing 4K indicators. This is happening in the Dutch iTunes Store. Is this happening anywhere else? Tomorrow I will be receiving my Apple TV 4K, to suddenly have hdr movies disappear would be a huge bummer.

 

[DarkIcarus]

I own Logan and yes the HDR tag has disappeared for me too. I am using the the UK iTunes Store.

 

[Bram.96]

The funny thing is that the top banners in the iTunes Store still show both movies with the text ‘watch now in 4K HDR’. Really hope that this is just some mistake, otherwise it would be a huge disappointment and would make me reconsider fully going digital with movies from now in instead of just itunes

 

[DarkIcarus]

I am assuming its just a mistake and will be corrected. Its probably just early issues happening with the iTunes Store, even though I would hope that Apple has had enough time to prepare to launch the 4K iTunes platform.

 

[mrrobotoplus]

i just bought today Alien Covenant as 4K HDR but streams HD only. It's a shame really.

 

[Hermes Monster]

I noticed earlier that the “Films in 4K” section has a lot less films in it than it did at the weekend.

 

[Bram.96]

Alien covenant suddenly had hdr again, now it’s gone. Since these are both movies distributed by 20th century fox, perhaps they are having some issues. That’s another strange thing over here in the Dutch iTunes Store, we only have 4K hdr films from Warner brothers and fox, no Sony or universal which they do have in the states. They even demoed a Sony movie on stage (Spider-Man homecoming)

 

[Packers1958]

I also notice that if you rent a movie, for the 48 hours can watch it, the HDR, DV tag, and even HD tag disappears from the title, even when you go into the 4K section in iTunes on the ATV. After the 48 hours is up, all those tags return.

 

[HiRez]

It looks like Apple is changing the labels based on the device you view the movie info on. For example, I own Alien Covenant, Logan, Spiderman: Homecoming, Wonder Woman, and other movies that originally showed as 4K HDR on my 2017 MacBook Pro, but no longer do. But if I view them on my iPhone X, they show as 4K HDR.

Perhaps they at some point determined the MacBook couldn't provide a proper 4K HDR experience and removed it. Probably the MacBook does not have the necessary contrast, as its max brightness is ~500 nits, compared to the iPhone X's ~625 nits. Also the iPhone X has OLED for zero blacks whereas the MacBook is backlight and cannot achieve the same. Neither has true 4K resolution.

It's confusing though, because the iTunes store has sections for "4K HDR" but then if you go in there and view the movies on a non-HDR device, they don't show 4K HDR. So this makes it difficult to shop for these 4K HDR movies on your main computer or iPad (generally easier than using an iPhone or Apple TV).

 

[priitv8]

It's confusing though, because the iTunes store has sections for "4K HDR" but then if you go in there and view the movies on a non-HDR device, they don't show 4K HDR. So this makes it difficult to shop for these 4K HDR movies on your main computer or iPad (generally easier than using an iPhone or Apple TV).

What do you mean? The necessary information is there. Understandably, previewing in HDR on today's Mac is not possible due to display hardware limitations.

 

[HiRez]

What do you mean? The necessary information is there. Understandably, previewing in HDR on today's Mac is not possible due to display hardware limitations.
View attachment 737331

OK, interesting. On further inspection it looks like it will show 4K HDR, but only for movies you have not purchased. If I look at all my 4K HDR movies, none of them show the 4K or Dolby Vision markers on the MacBook Pro (but do on iPhone X). Which I suppose makes some sense once you figure out the system, but it's still confusing.

 

[priitv8]

Which I suppose makes some sense once you figure out the system, but it's still confusing.

On the contrary. You can only view your purchases in 4K and HDR on aTV 4K (and maybe in HDR on iPhone X as it is supposed to support Dolby Vision, but not in 4K).
There is no way to download (anywhere) or stream in 4K or HDR on the Mac, so it does not make sense to show these attributes for items already in your library.
So far there is no way to get hold of a 4K/HDR copy of a content from iTunes. You will need to source it elsewhere and import it to your iTunes Library manually.
On the store page it is an indication of the max quality you can expect, provided you have a client to watch it on.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207949

PS As far as I know, there is not even a clear way to tag 4K in m4v file metadata, so I do not see 4K tags on my own clips in my library. Once I play them on aTV 4K, I indeed see the 4K and HDR tags in the pull-down window of its movie player.