Preference of .MP4, NOT .MOVPKG formatted movies

I have the same issue. 4K movie purchases through Apple are supposed to include a downloadable HD version of the film. In the past, that HD version of the file was always in the .mp4 format. Recently I purchased the 4K version of the film 'Saboteur' directed by Alfred Hitchcock and the format of the downloaded file was .movpkg instead of .mp4. Like the original post says, the .movpkg version prevents the movie from streaming locally from one of my own HDDs. That defeats the purpose of having the HD version of the file. It's supposed to be something that can be viewed without streaming from Apple's servers.

The .movpkg file format only provides audio when you're offline. The video portion requires an internet connection, so it's not a viable archive for a purchased film like the .mp4 or .m4v format.

IMO, they need to provide the file type information for the HD download within the listing that customers are viewing. If it's important to know whether Dolby Atmos or closed captioning is available with the purchase, then it's also important to know if the HD download is in a format that will provide both audio/video offline (.mp4, .m4v) OR in a format like .movpkg that will only provide audio offline.

Not on my Mac (Studio M1 Max + macOS Monterey). If I turn off WiFi (which for me cuts off the internet connection) then the .movpkg file is only going to provide audio. The formats that provide both audio/video on my Mac Studio while offline are .mp4 and .m4v.

Not quite sure what you're describing. Streaming HLS video work just fine on my Mac to my Apple TVs.

Also not sure what you mean by "using one AppleTV app to watch the ripped ones and another to watch the purchased ones." Do you mean using the computer app versus TV?

This post may help:

I can only download the HLS version of mo… - Apple Community

It may be inelegant, but can still download the movpkg file to your Mac and stream it from there to Apple TV. Yes, it is an extra step but you can at least know that you have the file downloaded for safe keeping should Wi-Fi not work or the item be removed from purchase in the store.

I do not see a workaround for this on Monterey. I have an iMac from Oct 2019 luckily is one the last that supports Mohave. I formatted an external HDD and boot to Mohave and use iTunes from there. I cannot find any other workaround.

You don't need to buy a PC especially if your Mac is compatible with Mohave or older. You can still just run VMware for Mac and do it that way.

No easy solution. Supposedly MOVPKG are lossless compressed, that's why Apple is switching over. PC users don't have this problem since they can only run iTunes.

You can still download w/ iTunes on your iPhone since at least iOS15 still has iTunes app (I am waiting to upgrade to 16 when 16.1 is released). We know that's quite painful if you have a large collection and wireless data cap.

You are better off with a windows computer to get your files. The fine print actually say you don’t own the movie. You’ve just purchased the right to view the content through Apple. If Apple were to lose the right to the property (as has happened before for some properties), you’d lose your right to view it.

Everything is contained in the movpkg file. You can watch offline (I do it all the time) so long as you have downloaded the file.

Yes it's both video and audio. Supposedly it's Lossless compressed instead of Lossy but I have a hard time swallowing that due to it's size. https://fileinfo.com/extension/movpkg