Some 4K Dolby Vision/HDR movies not streaming at 4K Dolby Vision/HDR

Well, that explains what I am seeing. And that matches up with this support article: Connect your Apple ID to your Movies Anywhere account - Apple Support

Specifically, this block:

About 4K, HDR, or Dolby Vision versions

• If you buy a movie in 4K, HDR, or Dolby Vision, you can watch the higher quality versions through iTunes and some reciprocal services¹.
• If you buy a movie in HD from another service, you can always watch the HD version in iTunes.
• If a movie in iTunes is upgraded to 4K, HDR, or Dolby Vision, the higher quality versions might not be made available through reciprocal services¹.

Thanks for figuring this out. Hopefully Apple can clean up their interface show whether or not we actually have the 4k version and give us the option to upgrade. Or just give us the 4k version, like it currently implies it is, if we have the HD version since Apple charges the same for both.

I am experiencing a similar issue. I too have tried several HDMI cables and settled on the 48 Gbps Belkin Dolby Vision cable bought via my local Apple Store. When matching frame rate and dynamic mode for La La Land, the screen turns mostly magenta, and the only way to fix this issue is to unplug and plug back in the wire during playback. Alternatively, disabling frame rate matching works (or already being in 24 Hz Apple TV 4K so there is no switch). I believe like you this is a coding/metadata issue on either end (the Apple TV 4K HDR end or the TV end). Like you, I have the TCL 55P605 TV, which is the identical TV except for the remote lacking voice support.

Update: I finally found an interesting fix. Once playing the film and the screen goes bad, I double clicked the "TV" button on the apple remote to bring up the multi-task app switcher, and then when I go back, everything is fine. Weird!

I am experiencing the same issue as well. Some movies I own that the Apple TV description shows 4k versions available play in HD. Today I noticed Christopher Nolan movies Batman Begins, Dark Knight, Dark Knight Rises, and Inception all show 4k available but play in HD. But Interstellar plays in 4k HDR, go figure? I noticed this issue before with some other random titles that now play in 4k HDR. Maybe Apple is in the process of upgrading the digital versions of some movies? I hope Apple straightens this out.

This has been driving me crazy over the last couple of days. It turns out that the problem is with Movies Anywhere. The movies that aren’t playing at HDR were probably purchased through another vendor in HD, and transferred over to your iTunes library via Movies Anywhere. Unfortunately Apple isn’t upgrading these purchases, so if you bought the HD version of a movie through Vudu for example, iTunes will only let you stream the movie in HD. If you scroll down on the remote when playing the movies you say aren’t streaming in HDR, you’ll see that it doesn’t say 4K, it just says HD. Even though your television says it’s 4K, the Apple TV always sends a 4K signal to your TV, even if it’s only playing something that’s 1080p.

When I first got the Apple TV 4K I was thrilled to see that so many of my movies were upgraded. Originally, Apple was streaming your Movies Anywhere synced purchases in 4K HDR, but at some point either Apple or the movie studios decided to limit it to the quality that you purchased originally.

This is a horrible system because it makes users think they own the 4K version when in reality they can only stream the 1080p version. On top of that, there is no way to upgrade to 4K or even just purchase the movie from iTunes directly, because it detects that you’ve already purchased the movie. Ugh what a headache.

What I have noticed with new Star Trek series of movies is that the first one isn't listed in the app as anything, whereas the other two are listed as 4K HDR, but when the first one plays my TV says HDR UHD 4K@24p and HDR kicks in. But when I watch it, the PQ is SD at best. The other two are most definitely 4K.

Thank god I found this thread. I was going to start hunting through my system to see what the problem was. This is really really disappointing from Apple because they very early on clearly stated that the HD versions that were digital were going to be upgraded to 4k for free. Some of the do as we've seen but a lot don't. Has anyone walked through support with this and got anything definitive? This was a major selling point for a piece of hardware and a big reason a lot us purchased it. I may contact support and see what they say.

The "But(s) . . . " in the response are wrong. I have had everything mentioned as not updating to 4K, updated to 4K. Including an HD that was suppose to redeem HD in VUDU but did as SD and in iTunes on the ATV 4K it's 4K. So there's two jumps when it was said that even one would not be done.

I'm experiencing the same issue. At least half of the HD movies that I own and which are available in 4k in iTunes no longer stream in 4k (HD only).

Removed by customer.

It would be nice if Apple offered the ability to purchase the movie in Dolby Vision or if they charged a fee to upgrade movies from other sources to be allowed to view it in the better formats.

Found this:

https://www.reddit.com/r/appletv/comments/77gax4/apple_clarifies_movies_anywhere _free_4k_upgrades/#bottom-comments

If that's what they said from the get go, I get it. Makes sense.