SD Digital Copies on Apple TV

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Level 1

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SD Digital Copies on Apple TV

I haven't been able to find any good info online about this topic. I have a number of standard definition digital copies of movies from various blu-ray releases, and the newer versions of iTunes recognize these as iTunes purchases. They play on the mac at standard definition, and i'm pretty sure they play on the iPad at SD even though its harder to tell on the smaller screen. The thing that it really hard for me to tell is what definition it is playing at on the Apple TV when I stream these movies. They seem to stream at HD. Even if there is upscaling going on these movies look like they are playing at roughly the same quality of some other HD iTunes movies I've bought. Anyone know what the deal is or where there might be some documentation of this?

Posted on Aug 24, 2014 6:14 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

brenden dv

Community Specialist

Aug 26, 2014 11:55 AM in response to abarry126

Hi abarry126,

I apologize, I'm a bit unclear on your exact question. If you are looking for more information about the iTunes Digital Copies of your Blu-Rays, SD vs. HD movies in iTunes, and HD movie playback on your Apple TV, you may find the information in the following articles helpful:

Redeeming an iTunes Digital Copy

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1539

iTunes: Purchasing and viewing HD videos

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3209

Apple TV (2nd and 3rd generation): Purchasing and viewing movies

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT200109

Regards,

- Brenden

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Answer 2

abarry126 Author

Level 1

1 points

Aug 28, 2014 10:19 AM in response to brenden dv

Thanks for your reply, but that doesn't address my question. I was asking if my old SD digital copies stream at HD resolution when viewing on Apple TV. I sort of got around the issue anyway - most of my SD digital copies are marvel/Disney movies, and I was able to link my Disney movies anywhere account with my iTunes account, and that process upgraded my old sd digital copies to hd copies. The weird thing is I still didn't receive the iTunes extras for those titles even though iTunes match should now recognize those as the same as purchases. Maybe the iTunes extras will show up later.

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Answer 3

Alley_Cat

Level 7

20,548 points

Aug 28, 2014 3:04 PM in response to abarry126

SD copies will play as SD copies on AppleTV - there is currently no automatic or paid upgrade path for HD for SD purchases or digital copies.

(Apart from your disney workaround which is probably not available to those of us outside the US).

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Answer 4

Semp1

Level 1

10 points

Mar 5, 2015 6:46 PM in response to abarry126

HI. I'm a little late to the post. All older SD digital copies when streamed on apple tv stream in HD. The way you can easily check this is just search a digital copy you own that you think is SD using the Apple TV search feature in the store on your Apple TV. You'll see the HD icon next to it. When you select it you'll see "play" instead of the "purchase" option. Apple updated everyone's digital copies when they released the 3rd generation Apple TV including the SD versions. Now when it comes to dwonloading. What ever the resolution was when you got the digital copy it will download that way. Apple did not upgrade that. So if it's SD it will download in SD but will stream in HD on Apple TV. That's the definitive answer and is 100% correct.

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Answer 5

Semp1

Level 1

10 points

Mar 5, 2015 6:47 PM in response to Alley_Cat

IIncorrect. See my above post.

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Answer 6

vazandrew

Level 8

40,348 points

Mar 5, 2015 7:06 PM in response to Semp1

Note that the above reply was from over 6 months ago.

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Answer 7

Semp1

Level 1

10 points

Mar 5, 2015 8:24 PM in response to vazandrew

yes I'm aware that's why I referenced the late post. But Apple has had this update since 2012 when they released the 3rd generation Apple TV. To put that into perspective that was the same day they released the 3rd generation iPad but it seems like no one is aware that their digital copies stream in HD. Even though Apple announced the upgrade. Try and find a definitive answer by googling and nothing will come up. Now something will come up. A big reason why no one realizes it is HD is when you look in your purchases que on iTunes some show as SD usually older digital copies but that just shows the downloadable copy. The streaming copy is always HD. Always. Unless you actually bought an SD version from iTunes. That isn't going to be upgraded no matter what.

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