GTrusted
One of the great things that Apple has done with the Apple TV 4K is make a lot of popular Hollywood movies available through either 4K HDR10 or 4K Dolby Vision. Here we look at what 4K HDR content is available through the Apple TV 4K to be played on the LG B6 OLED 4K HDR Smart TV - 65" Class.
Through iTunes, you can purchase the cinematically shot Dunkirk through 4K Dolby Vision, something that other streaming services didn't seem to yet offer.
In fact, the majority of HDR enabled titles we found on iTunes appeared to be Dolby Vision based, including recent hits from the past few years like Fantastic Beasts, Oblivion, The Hitman's Bodyguard, Wonder Woman, Spiderman Homecoming, Baby Driver, and Kong Skull Island.
Other movies like the Martian and Kingman- The Golden Circle use HDR10 instead of Dolby Vision.
Just because a movie is on 4K Blu-ray doesn't mean it's available for 4K streaming. Sicario has amazing 4K HDR picture quality on 4K Blu-Ray but is only offered at HD resolutions on iTunes.
If we go to the Amazon Prime Video App directly on the B6 OLED 4K HDR Smart TV - 65" Class without involving the Apple TV 4K, you will find that many of the same movies are not offered at 4K HDR resolutions.
Even Dunkirk on the Google Play App in the B6 OLED 4K HDR Smart TV - 65" Class is only offered at HD resolutions.
We then look at the Vudu App on the B6 OLED 4K HDR Smart TV - 65" Class. Walmart owned Vudu, which has been focused on delivering 4K HDR content, does support some movies like Dunkirk and Despicable Me 3 using 4K Dolby Vision.
Netflix has produced a ton of 4K HDR content, with all of their HDR content appearing to be Dolby Vision based. Here we logged into our Netflix account on the Apple TV 4K.
The shows which have HDR support show up with the Dolby Vision logo.
Those which don't support HDR, only show the Ultra HD 4K logo.
Amazon Prime on the Apple TV 4K also has 4K HDR content but they all appear to be HDR10 based. We first logged into the Amazon account through the Amazon Prime Video App on the Apple TV 4K.
You can also use a browser to easily associate your Amazon Prime account to the Amazon Prime Video App. It's best to use a browser where you have already logged into your Amazon account.
Once you are into the Amazon Prime Video App, you can find HDR content when there is a HDR logo in the show's description area.
Shows like the Grand Tour and Bosch all support HDR. It's interesting that Amazon Prime Video seems to be supporting HDR while Netflix is supporting Dolby Vision.
We also opened up YouTube on the Apple TV 4K. The Apple TV 4K doesn't support the streaming on native 4K videos from YouTube which uses VP9 compression but rather upscales them from 1080p to 4K HDR. YouTube is one of the easiest places to get unpaid 4K HDR content so this will upset a lot of A/V enthusiasts but a lot of mainstream users probably can't tell the difference or care that much when casually watching a free YouTube video.
When set Match Dynamic Range and Frame Rate to be On in the Match Content Settings, we can see that the Apple TV 4K upscales the YouTube video to 4K but doesn't turn on HDR.
YouTube videos don't have the same color vibrancy when HDR is not used.
When set Match Dynamic Range and Frame Rate to be Off in the Match Content Settings, we can see that the Apple TV 4K upscales the YouTube video to 4K and then turns on HDR10 and uses the wide color gamut BT.2020.
Despite Apple TV 4K not preserving the exact original colors of the original content, most users probably mind and still marvel at the crisp 4K HDR videos they can get from upscaled 4K HDR YouTube videos.
However, you may need to be careful with these HDR Matching content settings if you are watching Netflix. For shows on Netflix like The Crown which supports 4K but no HDR, the Apple TV 4K will automatically convert to 4K HDR using HDR10.
However, any Dolby Vision content from shows like Iron Fist will get played as HDR10 instead of the original Dolby Vision HDR source format.
Although most casual users probably can't tell the difference, you can get the original Dolby Vision HDR format by going to the Match Content settings in the Apple TV 4K and matching dynamic range.
Apple tries its best with the Apple TV 4K with help shield its customers from all the confusion associated with HDR and compression format wars, and most users will be wowed by the 4K HDR picture quality available on all content including top Hollywood movies. A/V enthusiasts and purists can still maintain HDR and refresh rate purity through the matching content settings and can even get a lot more detail on what HDR, resolutions, and refresh rates can be supported which a lot of other 4K streaming devices stay mum about.
