The traces appeared at the end of July, the confirmation came at Apple's special event and now the release: yes, I'm talking about the films in 4K / HDR / Dolby Vision that are already available on the iTunes Store!
It is true that not for everyone, the release is happening gradually, but many users are already viewing 4K, HDR and / or Dolby Vision icons (we explain the benefits of each of these features in this article) in the movies available in the Apple store, being or not running the company's GM / beta operating systems.
A film does not necessarily support these three features. “Wonder Woman”, for example, supports 4K and Dolby Vision; j in “Logan”, we have 4K and HDR; there are cases, however, in which the film will only support 4K, as in “A Mmia”.
To take advantage of the new features, Apple has entered into partnerships with the main stadiums that are already releasing content with this support all at the same price as HD. This means that if you purchased HD movies on the iTunes Store, your collection will be updated to 4K automatically, without additional charges. Interestingly, Disney (Apple's big partner, its CEO, Robert A. Iger, even sits on Ma's board of directors) was left out.
FLAC
On a related note, Apple TVs 4K and fourth generation now support playback of audio files FLAC.
FLAC, for those who don't know, an acronym for Free Lossless Audio Codec, or Lossless Free Audio Codec. In practice, we are talking about an audio compression codec with no loss of information unlike MP3 and AAC formats, which remove some information from the audio stream in order to make the file lighter.
Incidentally, it is not only the Apple TVs that now support the playback of these files: the iPhones 7/7 Plus, 8/8 Plus and X also, and although the iPad Pro specification page makes no mention of FLAC, as well It is possible that they are also part of the package.
But why were the iPhones SE and 6s / 6s Plus left out? Apparently Apple minimally requires the A10 chip to perform this task due to excessive power consumption. It is true that the fourth generation Apple TV is equipped with an A8 processor, but as it is plugged in all the time, power consumption is not a problem (from a technical point of view, not from a financial / environmental point of view). 😝
via 9to5Mac, MacRumors
