No 4K or HDR on Youtube with New Apple TV?

[AppleMooseMan]

The new Apple TV supports h.265 but will it support the vp9 codec Youtube uses to stream 4k video?

Youtube previously allowed users to upload 4k in h.264 but back in January limited it to the vp9 codec only. Since then Safari has been unable to play 4k content from Youtube meaning users have had to use Chrome to access it.

Will Youtube be able to update their app to take advantage of 4k?

If they don't will this affect anyone who was considering buying the new Apple tv? Youtube has one of the largest libraries of 4k content in the world and not being able to access on the new box would be a pretty major drawback.

 

[profets]

Good question. Should be interesting to see what YouTube does.

How does YouTube on the web work on a Mac when viewing in 4K? Just software based VP9?

 

[AppleMooseMan]

Was looking at some 4k. Some older 4k videos actually work on Safari so I assume they still use h.264.

But to see 4k 60fps or most of 4k you've got to use Chrome which supports the VP9 codec, so I assume this is software based.

If so, wouldn't Youtube just be able to update their Apple TV app to support it?

Although, Youtube on the Apple tv hasn't been updated since early 2016 so we could be deprived of 4k support for a while unless it's a priority for Youtube.

 

[kristoffer4]

But isn't VP9 a hardware issue?

 

[cynics]

Was looking at some 4k. Some older 4k videos actually work on Safari so I assume they still use h.264.

But to see 4k 60fps or most of 4k you've got to use Chrome which supports the VP9 codec, so I assume this is software based.

If so, wouldn't Youtube just be able to update their Apple TV app to support it?

Although, Youtube on the Apple tv hasn't been updated since early 2016 so we could be deprived of 4k support for a while unless it's a priority for Youtube.

Unlikely.

Software decoding is just a process that tells the CPU how to do the work. Hardware decoding is actual hardware to do the work.

Software video decoding is very CPU intensive. While Apple does make powerful CPU's they are still ARM based mobile CPU's. Apples CPUs excel at video encoding and decoding however only within there hardware limits. If you go outside of that they don't do so well (feed the ATV4 high profile h264 to see what I mean).

Not only do I not think the A10X would fair very well. I don't think Google would update the app for 4k anyway.

 

[stickyd8]

Y

Good question. Should be interesting to see what YouTube does.

How does YouTube on the web work on a Mac when viewing in 4K? Just software based VP9?

YouTube and other apps should work on AppleTV 4K just like they work on the Xbox S and Roku 4K. I would assume they all release 4K versions of their apps/services.

 

[WilliamG]

It's pretty sad I have to use Chrome to view 4K YouTube videos on my 2014 5K iMac, so nothing would surprise me with the new Apple TV. I'll have it on 22nd and can report back when I've tested it, but unless the YouTube app is updated to be 4K capable, I suspect we'll just be playing 1080p max anyway.

 

[Mamaw]

Y


YouTube and other apps should work on AppleTV 4K just like they work on the Xbox S and Roku 4K. I would assume they all release 4K versions of their apps/services.

The YouTube app on Xbox one S is not capable of 4K video. The 4K badge is showing in the selection but when you launch the video this is 1080P streaming max.
The YouTube app was never updated since the launch of the Xbox one S.

Unfortunately I have little hope for the new Apple TV. I don't see any mention of VP9 / VP9 profil 2 decoding support.
And without that I doubt that we see 4k YouTube videos on the new Apple TV anytime soon.