Last week I reported that myself and many other users of the new Apple TV 4K box across the globe were experiencing a troubling issue whereby films we bought and rented from iTunes in 4K and high dynamic range were suddenly reverting to mere HD, standard dynamic range versions when we tried to play them back.
I raised the issue with Apple, and a spokesperson has got back to me this week to say that they believe the problem has been resolved - that all of the original 4K HDR iTunes titles should now have gone back to playing in the premium quality standard we bought them in.
This certainly seems to be the case regarding the Alien: Covenant title I personally was affected by, as well as a few other impacted titles I was alerted to by other Apple TV 4K users.
We’ll have to keep an eye on the situation for a bit longer yet before we can be absolutely certain the problem is solved; after all, many users reported last week that their iTunes 4K movies would repeatedly flip flop between only being in HD and being in their correct 4K HDR form. At the same time, though, it seems unlikely Apple would go so far as to come back to me to confirm that the issue was resolved if it wasn’t pretty confident about it.
While it’s good to hear the issues weren’t terminal and that Apple has sorted them out, it’s disappointing that Apple hasn’t been prepared to provide an explanation for this strange disturbance to arguably the most important feature of its new Apple TV box. Despite me repeatedly requesting such an explanation.
After all, it didn’t seem to just be a simple labeling problem; when films that should have been in 4K were suggesting in their onscreen information that they’d reverted to HD, it really did seem that the movies were only streaming in HD, not 4K. This led to speculation that perhaps Apple only owned the rights to distribute films in 4K HDR on iTunes for a limited time, after which they would switch down to HD - something Apple could arguably have ‘got away with’ given that it sells its 4K films for the same price as its HD ones.
It’s a relief to find that this likely isn’t the case, and that what you bought in 4K should now stay in 4K (despite the issues of ownership that always surround non-physical products). But is it really too much to ask that a company as big as Apple show its customers the respect of offering some sort of explanation when things go wrong?!
--
If you find the problem happening again, please let me know via my Twitter account below. Also, if you liked this story, you might also like these:
Apple TV 4K And The Mystery Of The Disappearing 4K Movies
Apple TV 4K Review: 13 Reasons You Should Buy One
Apple TV 4K Review: 13 Reasons You Shouldn't Buy One
Amazon Fire TV Review: 11 Reasons You Should Buy One - And 11 More Why You Shouldn't
