“While it seems pretty clear that the upcoming Apple TV will support 4K resolution – aka Ultra HD aka UHD aka UHDTV – we may have just received a further hint that this won’t be the only improvement offered to the image quality,” Ben Lovejoy reports for 9to5Mac.
“A tweet from Rene Ritchie yesterday indicated that he’d been given a demo of High Dynamic Range (HDR) video, and the timing suggests that this is likely to have been driven by a tip from Apple about the new Apple TV,” Lovejoy reports. “It’s not the first time this has been suggested: the good old HomePod code suggested that it would support HDR, as did an iTunes receipt. If true, the impact of image quality could be dramatic – provided you have a television capable of displaying the full output.”
https://twitter.com/reneritchie/status/902567423517143046
“If you don’t yet have a HDR-capable TV and are looking to buy one, HDR10 and Dolby Vision are the buzzwords to look for,” Lovejoy reports. “These are two competing standards, so ideally you want both, but HDR10 currently has the lead.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Could this (finally) be the Apple TV we’ve always wanted? After buying double-digits worth of Apple TV units over the years, hope springs eternal!
No mention of audio output in any of the reports about a new Apple TV. That’s as important as video output to home-theater enthusiasts. The lack of a good audio-out option to my home theater receiver kept me from upgrading to the current Apple TV.
HDMI provides good audio output. Up-to-date “home-theater enthusiasts” will have AV receivers with HDMI inputs and outputs.
Wow.
HDMI is the carrier for the audio and video signal. It is up to the streaming device as to what audio (and video) format is decoded to the display or receiver.
In other words, if VUDU, Netflix, Amazon or whoever offer Dolby Atmos audio, and AppleTV doesn’t decode it, then guess what? I’m just using that as an example, as there are many different audio and vid formats right now.
Well as we know Apple isn’t averse to falling a little behind so that its future leap forward looks all the more impressive than gradual updates, though in this case falling behind to the stone age might have been a little short sighted.
Um, yeah. But staying at 1080p isn’t any ‘Stone Age’. 4K remains a silly resolution for the vast majority of home TV viewers. Meanwhile, it’s evident that we’re in for HDR format warz. ‘Gotta Catch ‘Em All!’ is going to have to be a rallying cry if 4K devices are going to be able to play nicely with the ensuing chaos of competing HDR formats. (I’d call them ‘standards’, but they’re actually the opposite).
I wonder if the AppleTV would connect to a couple of HomePods?
And how many HomePods would you need to recreate decent surround sound? With all the talk of beam-forming sound, perhaps just 2 or 3?
Seven speakers plus a woofer sounds like 7.1 surround to me. If beam forming can make it seem like each speaker is coming from a different direction as it bounces sound waves off the walls, then one HomePod is all you would need… hypothetically speaking.
All the same, I’d get at lest two per room.
I was just chattering with Qman about HDR warz. Compatibility with the various HDR formats (for want of a better word) is going to be an annoying issue, if past history is prelude.
Samsung’s answer to Dolby Vision:
http://www.avsforum.com/samsung-panasonic-20th-century-fox-team-license-hdr10/
Samsung didn’t want to pay Dolby Vision licensing fees, so of course they had to come up with their own, free, competing format.
This incompatibility of HDR formats is gonna suck.
Clearly, for maximum HDR compatibility in TVs and players, it pays to wait (I hate to say it) another YEAR. Bleeding edge techno-chaos. 😛
But, will Apple’s next Apple TV be limited to just HDR-10 or will it support both that and DV-12? Apple should support both. Both are currently shipping formats. There is no reason other than Apple’s historical stupidity in this area for Apple to not support both.
The real issue is that the HEVC (H.265) group should have gone to HDR-12 in the first place. Then we’d have one standard and not competing HDR-10 and DV-12.
WTH is DV-12? And while you’re at it, WTH is HDR-12?
I’m sure you mean “12” as referring to 12 bit panels? Keep in mind there are no 12 bit display TV’s available to consumers as of yet. Dolby Vision is mastered in 12 bit, but is playable on the current 10 bit panels.
According to past practice it will be 4K this year and HDR for the next upgrade cycle to maximize profit. Probably the same with content so we can pay for the same movies 3 or 4 times.
I also hope Apple shows some degree of compassion to customers who have bought ton of HD movies over the years. I’d like to think I won’t have to re-purchase all of these movies and shows just to watch/stream the 4K versions. Maybe it’s too much to ask but a little reciprocal commitment would be appreciated toward those who have waited (and supported) this ‘hobby’ for so long, in the hope that its potential would some day be realized. If nothing else, it would be nice to be able to just pay the difference between the cost of an HD version and the 4K versions – something that wasn’t even offered when the HD versions were made available.
Fat Chance.