Is iTunes true 1080P

Thanks for the impressive reply!

I tend to agree with you, iTunes doesn't offer the quality of a true 1080P Blu-ray Player video image, being internet compression leads to banding in dark/bright color in od dark space scenes etc, (Darn, I absolutely hate that) to a far greater extend than on Blu-ray Players, in fact, that doesn't occur at all on a Bly-ray Player.

My TWC cable is set to Component being the HDMI is 1080i, and very pixelated. I rather sacrifice the 1080i to a full scan in 720P, which turns out to be deeper in color, not as many blurred pixelated motion scenes.

My internet connection is 100 Megabytes down, and 25 Megabytes up, plenty of bandwidth for one person, alone in a household. My Wi-Fi streams sometimes on an iPhone in a test at 120 Megs down... So all the 3 media streaming devices are receiving their fair share of broadband, most than many households.

Do you ever think, from an Apple standpoint, this will ever be resolved using a supposed internet compressional 1080P video stream to be comparable to a real Blu-ray experience? I also have the new Sony BDP S6700 with Triluminos (2015-16 Model). There are those out there who disagree with Sony's claims, but I do notice the life like colors, of course on a Sony TV, maybe its in my head!

But even in a streaming app, such as Netflix (I cannot access iTunes on that device, but if I did, I think it would do better than the ATV4), the color space is quite stunning, more vivid, deep, with true flesh tones.

My opinion, there are just too many options out there now, experimenting, whereas iTunes has been around for much longer. So I do tend to buy Movies in iTunes, more than the other services, although iTunes doesn't offer the ability to sync with Ultra Violet, which is obvious. I don't know where it will all lead to, but I am betting on the internet as being the sole source of TV entertainment within the next 10 years... Cable is still dishing out 1080i, such a joke!

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I do have a myriad of settings on my HDMIs, terms I'm not too sure about, and maybe you can help me with this...

I have 5 HDMI inputs, 3 components, 3 composites (I don't use those anymore) and 3 Videos (really have no idea why they are there) and 3 PC types, DVI, VGA, and mini display ports (You can configure a USB Type C -1)

Here are some of the options on the separate HDMI settings:

Color Matrix - selection of "Auto" or all the resolutions, including 1080P with ITU709, or ITU601.

I don't know the difference between ITU601 or ITU709

RGB Dynamic Range - selection of "Auto" or "Full" or "Limited" - I left them all on Auto

Photo Color Space - selection of "Adobe RGB", or "sRGB" or "sYCC" - they are all on "sYCC"

Video Color Space - selection of "x.v.Color" or "Normal" or "Auto" - these are all set on "x.v.Color"

CineMotion - selection of "Auto" or "Off"

Then there are Text, Gaming, and Photo selections which doesn't apply, way too many options.

Sony doesn't have, anywhere in the manuals, what these will do, but I am assuming on the Video Color Space, the settings for x.v.Color is basically for another Sony device, such as a Sony Blu-ray Player, syncing true color with the HDMI inputs. Sony has the 1080p/24 which is basically the way the picture was made in Cinema Film.

Here is my take on as many services I use:

iTunes - steady, never any buffering, no color banding in dark to light, overall near 1080P but not quite.
(for me, no buffering ever occurs on any devices, yet, with that kind of bandwidth)

Vudu - HDX, steady, never any buffering, some color banding, however more brighter and wider color range using Roku 4.

Amazon - Okay, close to 1080P but more muffled, blending of colors, high compressional methods for 4K, noticeable but nice job.

Netflix - the best service I have seen, both using the ATV4, Roku 4, and Sony BDP S6700, a bit true like Blu-ray on the Sony.

Hulu - quality is near Netflix, but still notice, not much, color banding on all devices.

HBO Go - I bring this up because it has a quality server, picture is overall near 1080P on all devices, but they left out the "AUTO-PLAY feature on the ATV 4, and Roku 4 which was and has been very disappointing, I have tried over and over again to contact the developers of that app for especially the ATV 4, but to no avail, they figure you can air-play it from your iPhone, but they do not realize, if you air play it to the ATV 4, you still cannot autoplay, you still have to hit a few buttons on the iPhone for the episodes to continue, being the iPhone, even wen mirroring it to the ATV 4, goes into lock screen mode, and looses that ability to autoplay... How sad :-(

Thanks so much, I hope this offers where I am standing as far as video streaming over the internet. Best

I meant to format this reply, I do apologize, it wasn't meant to be one huge paragraph... .

Winston, I meant as "True 1080P is Bluray".

I agree, iTunes now, seems most best at offering the closest one can receive to full HD - 1080P , via Apple's ATV4 media device.

Comparable is VUDU, Netflix, HBO GO, some others out there, using a Roku 4 in UHD.

Unfortunately, iTunes nor the ATV4 can produce an upscale stream near 4K.

I would assume Apple will release a new ATV (Perhaps 5 Version) once 4K becomes widely received.

Alley_Cat, I did as you suggested, played around as much as possible with so many options on the Sony Bravia 4K, and it boils down, to me anyway, to leave the HDMI input I have designated for the ATV4 on "Auto". I did see some differences, but nothing as much as I was expecting. So far the best true skin tones and deep colors can be found on the new Sony BDP 6700 or Sony BDP 6500, using Triluminus technology on a quad processor with Bravia sync. However, as far as the internet media service, horrible interface. If you can get past this, channels such as Netflix, PlayStation Movies (Entertainment), and Crackle, YouTube, some others I won't detail, do offer the up scaling to near 4K, and even if I keep the setting both on the Player and TV to just 1080P, wow, this is amazing, both the disc and the few internet services I mentioned, are really a "True" Full 1080P video. It is actually hard to tell the difference between Netflix and a Blu-ray disc. The PlayStation Entertainment channel offers the same content, as far as movies, than does iTunes.

I wish (I'm hoping as I have a lot invested in iTunes) iTunes will become like this someday in the future.

Winston says - The Apple TV outputs 1080p it's your TV that would do the upscaling, if it doesn't do it well it's the TV's fault

I think its pretty fair to say sir, as having owned Sony TVs since 18 years old, my current Sony is the finest on the market. It definitely is NOT the TV's fault, and Sony doesn't use false advertising schemes. All video, images, data is compressed, we couldn't live without compression, jpegs, mpegs being a great examples. I highly doubt, at the data rate I receive using the ATV4, on a home network with just 100 Megabytes down, iTunes can produce a full 1080P video. But it certainly does a great job. I think I have agreed with someone in here, iTunes does the best with scaling issues we usually see on internet media servers.

It would seem fair to say, even iTunes, falsely advertises they are delivering a 1080P movie... So every method to today's madness of high quality video, so they say, has its own merits of misguided claims...

I remember about 20 years ago, Bill Gates was the key speaker when Microsoft unleashed new OS like Windows 98, XP, etc... He did a digital download of a 120 minute movie in its original format, in less than 5 seconds. TWC cannot even produce a 1080p video, not sure if 1080P is offered by other providers yet in selected cities, so we are far behind the curve so to speak.

OTA here in the States is still at 1080i or 720P.