Lord of the Rings extended editions NOT in 4K HDR

Here’s what I have received from iTunes about AUE, after I told them it’s the only title that hasn’t upgraded automatically:

“the content provider actually decided to upgrade the movie, "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (Extended Edition)” which is now available in the TV App. However, this version currently available in the TV App is not actually the same copy you previously purchased. The Film Studio has removed the copy you previously purchased for many reasons, which we do not have further information at hand.

If you wish to get the 4K version of this movie, you will have to purchase the new version that is currently available at the TV App.

Furthermore, if your purchases were pulled out from the store, you will no longer be able to download these on your purchase page regardless if a new version of the item is currently available in the store. This is why we always encourage customers to regularly back up their iTunes store purchases as soon as possible, and thereafter on a regular basis. If you lose your purchases, you can restore the items from your backups.”

This is, frankly, a bewildering response to me.

I have purchased 2 years ago all extended versions of the Hobbit and LOTR. Now with the free upgrade to 4K HDR Dolby Vision, on my DV LG TV and on my iPad i can play all in DV apart the Two Towers and an Unexpected Journey still in HD version. Reported to Apple in live chat, utterly disappointed because Apple Support is useless. I work in IT industry and their upgrade to 4K HDR DV doesn’t work properly for existing owners of the HD extended version. I have left 2 out of 6 in HD version still. Apple used to boast that they have the best customer experience but long are the days since that was the case. Pity that Apple going down since Steve Jobs left our world. Also when Apple upgrades movies usually i loose choice of language, in my case French. When will we have a worldwide solution where in Apple can have any movie for any language you want, Netflix does, Apple trailing here innovation, so frustrating in the 21st century...

What I do find it a bit surprising is that on the Apple TV app, when I looked onto the Middle-Earth bubble that says "now available in 4K HDR" around the "Browse by Collection" section, I noticed that they removed Return of the King and the LOTR Trilogy Extended Edition bundle from the list (you can still buy them by simply searching them, but something worth noting).

So here’s where mine is at. It’s strange.

I have the Extended editions. They show up as 4K in most places between Ape TV Movies and TV app.

The weird part is when I actually play the movie and hit Menu the movie details show HD not 4K.

check out my screenshots for Two Towers.

I tried signing out, restarting. Nothing so far. guess it’s a waiting game?

for all I know the video is playing at 4K and the label is wrong. I can’t tell.

I watched Fellowship and it did look less green. :)

anyone else?

The extended versions of the first two Lord of the Rings movies, Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, are in 4k now. But, The Return of the King is still not in 4k. With these highly anticipated movies coming out in 4k today on 12/1, why are these glitches happening? I started a ticket this morning with Apple because I wanted to buy the extended edition bundle but only two out of the three movies in the bundle were showing 4k. At the time I called and started a ticket, the bundle was priced at $39.99, and now it's $49.99. Because I've been waiting on Return of the King to switch over, I lost $10. I hope this gets resolved today. It's crazy that I can get all three in 4k on Vudu and Movies Anywhere but not on iTunes. Coming to America came out in 4k today and iTunes didn't switch it over until around 2:00 PM!

Same here. I actually didn't know Apple would upgrade to 4K for free so I bought the blu-ray. I synced Movies Anywhere with Apple and everything shows up as 4K in my library except RotK extended. Really weird.

I bought the extended trilogy on Vudu a year or so ago because that’s where I first saw the deal. On Vudu I can watch in 4K uhd atmos, but when I go to watch on Apple TV app along with my other media, it’s not showing up as either extended or improved quality. I thought movies anywhere syncs this all up across platforms... hope it’s resolved soon.

I have the Hobbit movies and LOTR movies all in extended editions, and its weird, because in my Hobbit Extended Trilogy, that Hobbit 2-3 have been 4K for a couple of months now (even though it was supposedly only just released) but the first Hobbit movie is only HD.

In the extended LOTR movies, 1-2 are 4K HDR, but the 3rd is only in HD. So right now, I have the 1 movie in each trilogy that is only HD. Really weird.

All have now been upgraded in the UK. It can take a few days for this to roll out to all movies in all regions.

It’s good to see all the appendices are still there. The upgrade is a great deal from apple. I don’t see anyone offering to upgrade my Blu-rays for free.

I am in the same position. But try this. On your Apple TV go to the TV app, goto Movies and scroll down to find the Middle Earth collection. I opened that and my extended versions for LOTR and Hobbit are all in 4K. Weird.

My guess is there is a glitch in rolling out the updates.

All five of my extended editions except An Unexpected Journey have upgraded, even though I bought that on original release at full price like the others.

Apple Support has been spectacularly unhelpful here — spent an hour on chat with them last week only to have them entirely misunderstand the issue and suggest that WB had chosen not to make the AUJ upgrade available for free even though all the others were.

I’m still waiting for the movies to be upgraded here in The Netherlands, in the Apple TV store section the Theatrical Cuts already show as 4K but I own the Extended cuts but those are nowhere to be found, I hope Apple/Warner fixes this fast

I exchanged about 6 emails with Apple regarding Return of the King not being in 4K. I was passed to a manager. I sent screen shots showing it said it was in 4K, and then when it went in my library it suddenly said HD. They have sent my case to an Apple Engineer to look into. I will let you all know what happens but they said it may take a few days.

Domdove, what Apple told you doesn’t even fit with my issue. The fellowship and RotK show as HD in my library and 4K in the store but also shows that I own them in the store next to the 4K versions. So I wouldn’t be able to purchase it again to upgrade.

I had the same thing with RotK initially — when I searched the store, it took me to the purchase page but said I owned the title. At that point, it was saying I had access to the HD version.

If I signed out, the page would say 4K was available. When I signed back in, it switched to HD! So I couldn't have purchased it again even if I'd wanted to.

After a few days, it changed to 4K and I had access to that in my library, so that was fine. Difference with An Unexpected Journey is that the 4K title is listed separately to my HD version, and I am able to purchase it again if I want to (which I don't, as I don't see why I'd need to upgrade that one when all the others upgraded automatically).

I can't see this as being a WB plan to get at least *some* fresh money out of existing owners of the HD titles, as surely you'd do the same with a (presumably more popular) LotR title too?