Apple TV+ iTunes 4K Upgrades Thread (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

Ah ha! I was doubtful back when you posted this:

because all reports had been that the 25th Anniversary box digital copies were SD. But I took you at your word. I guess you have now discovered that those redemptions did NOT give you 4K. When you redeem the new codes that come with the 4K discs you will get bumped up to 4K.

It's just NOW that I discovered it because when I redeemed the titles, they initially were indicated as 4k in the iTunes title summary (except for the third film). Between then and now, iTunes decided to either downgrade the copies or change the description. I never sat and watched these films so I don't know if the 4k promise was true to its word.

 

[Robert Crawford]

It's just NOW that I discovered it because when I redeemed the titles, they initially were indicated as 4k in the iTunes title summary (except for the third film). Between then and now, iTunes decided to either downgrade the copies or change the description. I never sat and watched these films so I don't know if the 4k promise was true to its word.

Ron,

If you get a chance can you check to see if playing any of those Back to the Future movies, the Dolby Vision light comes on your receiver. Last night after I made my last post, I checked my 4K movies on the Apple TV app and Back to the Future 2 & 3 were listed there. There was no 4K nor a HD designate, but there was a Dolby Vision one. A played Back to the Future 2 and it was definitely in SD with Dolby Vision applied as indicated by Apple TV app along with my LG OLED.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Ron,

If you get a chance can you check to see if playing any of those Back to the Future movies, the Dolby Vision light comes on your receiver. Last night after I made my last post, I checked my 4K movies on the Apple TV app and Back to the Future 2 & 3 were listed there. There was no 4K nor a HD designate, but there was a Dolby Vision one. A played Back to the Future 2 and it was definitely in SD with Dolby Vision applied.

Robert,

Right now I am in NC for the rest of the week. Won't be back home to check this until next Monday.

I don't know if there is a Dolby Vision indicator on my receiver. My Denon receiver is at least 3-4 years old.

I will look when I get home and report back.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I don't know if there is a Dolby Vision indicator on my receiver. My Denon receiver is at least 3-4 years old.

I will look when I get home and report back.

Ron,

My Denon receiver is of the same vintage, and does not have any Dolby Vision indicator. However, the receiver does not support the use of it's on screen display (OSD) when passing through a DV signal. So you can simply try to bring up the OSD while playing back the video. If it comes up normal, then the signal isn't DV. If there is no OSD, then it's DV. You can automatically bring up the OSD by simply changing the volume on the receiver (at least, that's the case with my X3300W).

My Vizio display also automatically shows the signal type briefly when it changes (plus I can bring it up with the press of a remote button).

 

[Tino]

I sure do wish Apple made it easier to rebuy or purchase a 4K upgrade for movies

It is easy. Check out this sticky thread on how to do it.

How to upgrade your SD/HD iTunes purchases to 4K

One frustration with digital collecting is when you own an iTunes movie in SD or HD and it later becomes available in 4K. There seems to be no obvious way to upgrade to a 4K copy because the option to purchase the title isn't available when you own it and, as of now, retailers/studios don't...

www.hometheaterforum.com

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Ron,

My Denon receiver is of the same vintage, and does not have any Dolby Vision indicator. However, the receiver does not support the use of it's on screen display (OSD) when passing through a DV signal. So you can simply try to bring up the OSD while playing back the video. If it comes up normal, then the signal isn't DV. If there is no OSD, then it's DV. You can automatically bring up the OSD by simply changing the volume on the receiver (at least, that's the case with my X3300W).

My Vizio display also automatically shows the signal type briefly when it changes (plus I can bring it up with the press of a remote button).

Scott, once in a while I notice on-screen notifications of my playback mode. However, I think it's coming from the Panasonic 4k player. I don't think I have seen any playback information when using iTunes.

 

[Robert Crawford]

It is easy. Check out this sticky thread on how to do it.

How to upgrade your SD/HD iTunes purchases to 4K

One frustration with digital collecting is when you own an iTunes movie in SD or HD and it later becomes available in 4K. There seems to be no obvious way to upgrade to a 4K copy because the option to purchase the title isn't available when you own it and, as of now, retailers/studios don't...

www.hometheaterforum.com

Tino,
He’s not talking about those of us that frequent this forum.

 

[Chris Will]

Yep, you have to visit forums like this to even know there is an upgrade available because Apple only displays what you own, not what is available. So, Disney’s hold up was they wanted people to rebuy to upgrade but, in iTunes, they don’t even show you there is an upgrade to purchase so, very few probably ever even know.


Anyway...

So, remind me again, if you buy a set of movies in a bundle, will they upgrade to 4K? Trying to get ready for the LOTR/Hobbit movies in 4K. I’m pretty sure they were originally SD for me and already got a free upgrade to HD. That means I will need to rebuy to get 4K and right now a bundle of all 6 extended editions is on sale for $50. I don’t want to buy it though if bundles do not get upgraded. Thinking this through though, I know I bought the original 6 SW movies in a bundle when they first appeared on iTunes and they just upgraded. I thought I remembered some odd quark about bundles and 4K upgrades though.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Scott, once in a while I notice on-screen notifications of my playback mode. However, I think it's coming from the Panasonic 4k player. I don't think I have seen any playback information when using iTunes.

Ron,

Doesn't your volume level display on screen when you adjust the volume? That would be part of your OSD. You should also be able to display the receiver's setup menu on your monitor. If not, then you probably have the OSD disabled on the receiver.

 

[Robert Crawford]

So, remind me again, if you buy a set of movies in a bundle, will they upgrade to 4K? Trying to get ready for the LOTR/Hobbit movies in 4K. I’m pretty sure they were originally SD for me and already got a free upgrade to HD. That means I will need to rebuy to get 4K and right now a bundle of all 6 extended editions is on sale for $50. I don’t want to buy it though if bundles do not get upgraded. Thinking this through though, I know I bought the original 6 SW movies in a bundle when they first appeared on iTunes and they just upgraded. I thought I remembered some odd quark about bundles and 4K upgrades though.

I don't remember any of my SD titles on iTunes getting a free upgrade to HD.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Ron,

Doesn't your volume level display on screen when you adjust the volume? That would be part of your OSD. You should also be able to display the receiver's setup menu on your monitor. If not, then you probably have the OSD disabled on the receiver.

Scott, the volume bar does show up. I don't think any other relevant information does.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Scott, the volume bar does show up. I don't think any other relevant information does.

If your Denon receiver is the same vintage as my X3300W, when you pass a Dolby Vision video signal through the receiver the volume bar will not display. It was a limitation of the early Denon receivers that supported DV pass through.

FYI, the setup menus should also display on your monitor when you press the "setup" or "menu" button on the AVR remote (can't remember how it's labelled, as I use a Harmony remote and have the OEM remote packed away). That will not work when a DV signal is being passed through, as well.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Yep, you have to visit forums like this to even know there is an upgrade available because Apple only displays what you own, not what is available. So, Disney’s hold up was they wanted people to rebuy to upgrade but, in iTunes, they don’t even show you there is an upgrade to purchase so, very few probably ever even know.


Anyway...

So, remind me again, if you buy a set of movies in a bundle, will they upgrade to 4K? Trying to get ready for the LOTR/Hobbit movies in 4K. I’m pretty sure they were originally SD for me and already got a free upgrade to HD. That means I will need to rebuy to get 4K and right now a bundle of all 6 extended editions is on sale for $50. I don’t want to buy it though if bundles do not get upgraded. Thinking this through though, I know I bought the original 6 SW movies in a bundle when they first appeared on iTunes and they just upgraded. I thought I remembered some odd quark about bundles and 4K upgrades though.

The bundle quirk has to do w/ rights migration to MoviesAnywhere, et al. IF you go the bundle route, you'll get the eventual 4K upgrade on ITunes, but that upgrade will not transfer to MA -- and that's true even if the bundle is already in 4K when purchased... unless some other unlikely scenario is at play perhaps, ie. you buy a 4K bundle that actually costs equal or more than the individually priced ones.

IF you don't care about the 4K rights getting transferred to MA, et al, then you're all set.

This issue is what keeps me from buying some (but not all) of the attractively priced bundles (or even yet-to-be-4K-upgraded individual titles in some cases) that are otherwise MA-eligible.

_Man_

 

[Tino]

I don't remember any of my SD titles on iTunes getting a free upgrade to HD.

Me either. They are still SD in my library.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

I don't remember any of my SD titles on iTunes getting a free upgrade to HD.

Me either. They are still SD in my library.

I don't recall offhand which ones, but do think I had a small handful of such, including some Disney ones I think. But certainly don't think it was that many -- probably at least as many that didn't get upgraded from SD some of which don't even consistently show up in my iTunes library (outside the original download for PC).

IF you really want to find out at least for the MA-eligible titles, you can probably try to figure them out by doing some detective work going thru your MA transaction history. Probably not worth your while though, except perhaps for some very specific cases...

FWIW, I've found in at least some of these cases that remained SD, iTunes actually does let me buy the upgrade (whether HD or 4K) to normal way (and not need the gifting trick). In fact, I just did that for Lincoln Lawyer 4K last week -- and iTunes notifies me I already have a version of the title and asks to confirm I want to (re)buy anyway. I did that a while back for Kick-Ass 4K as well -- that was my first (and only) attempt w/ the gifting trick, but that failed miserably for unknown/unclear reasons (on 2 tries, including getting Apple/iTunes support help), and I ended up realizing I could just buy the normal way if I hide the old SD version from my iTunes library.

_Man_

 

[Chris Will]

All my SD titles got upgraded to HD when Movies Anywhere launched. Obviously this was just for MA eligible titles, but every single one got upgraded. It's not like it was 100s of titles, it was probably around 20. It wasn't too many because I had stopped redeeming SD codes because I would never watch them anyway. I think it was some kind of glitch when the service first launched with Vudu assuming everything was HD and they just let people keep them. The only SD titles I have in iTunes now are ones that are not MA eligible (and I have hidden them from my library anyway).

Everyone should have gotten free SD to HD upgrades for their Disney movies when Disney Movies Anywhere launched. It was an advertised feature when you signed up and connected iTunes at the service's launch. Even my old digital copy disc based redemptions upgraded, still HD to this day.

See this post from when DMA launched: https://www.hometheaterforum.com/co...es-digital-movie-service.330024/#post-4056557

According to Reddit, the free SD to HD upgrades lasted until MA launched, and after the initial glitched that upgraded some non Disney films. This is probably why the glitch happened in the first place since the upgrades were part of the DMA platform, they most likely forgot to turn that feature off when it was rebranded/launched as MA.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Yeah, unless you do actually want to (re)watch the SD versions, might as well just go thru and hide all of them from iTunes. Then the option to buy the HD/4K version the normal way should show up for them...

IF there aren't HD/4K versions available for some, you can always go back into your account and unhide the SD versions if you want. Not sure what other ways to do this consistently/systematically/easily though other than go thru the clunky iTunes program (on my PC) under its Account details section...

_Man_

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Anyone noticed that the older iTunes DC codes from BDs are no longer valid thru iTunes, but can be redeemed thru MoviesAnywhere instead?

I first came across that not long ago w/ an old code (or two?) that I don't recall which title. But it happened again w/ the Finding Dory BD combo pack that I received from the recent Disney Movie Insiders Hot Reward offer.

Looks like Disney may have forced Apple/iTunes to stop accepting their HD DC codes probably to prevent free upgrades to 4K...

_Man_

PS: I had also posted this over in the Movie Rewards thread, but figured it's relevant enough to repost here.

 

[Robert Crawford]

My HD digital of Breakdown with Kurt Russell has upgraded to 4K/Dolby Vision.

 

[Neil Middlemiss]

My HD digital of Breakdown with Kurt Russell has upgraded to 4K/Dolby Vision.

And it’s a great, underrated film!