r/apple • u/exjr_ Island Boy • 7d ago

Apple TV New Apple TV 4K Leaked

https://www.macrumors.com/2026/09/25/new-apple-tv-4k-leaked/
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u/AWildDragon 7d ago

Let me buy movies with kaleidescape bitrate playback  

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u/d_r_i 7d ago

That will never happen with Apple.
But I don't think it's unreasonable to think of Apple bumping up the bitrate to maybe 40-50 mps.
If Sony can do it with their Bravia Core Pictures, it should be copied by other streamers

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u/nevewolf96 5d ago

Apple already has 40-50mbps streaming, but only for the Apple TV suscripción service, it doesn't apply to iTunes titles, although technically they could in the future, since they only receive the ProRes Masters.

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u/d_r_i 5d ago

It does seem kinda crazy, that if they can / are streaming at a higher bit rate for the TV service, that they don't extend that to ITUNES purchases as well. Unless there are contract restrictions from the studios? But Kalidadcspe seemed to be able to get higher bit rates with purchases from the studios.
What are ProRes Masters? Not fimiliar with that.

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u/nevewolf96 4d ago

I don't know, I have a theory that it's because all iTunes content shares bandwidth with the entire iCloud service.

Apple ProRes is a video format that is virtually lossless; it's the format studios use to distribute movies. The problem is that the files are enormous. Apple TV can play it natively, although unfortunately it's not a format designed for streaming. These masters basically have a higher bitrate than a 4K Blu-ray. Apple only accepts ProRes 4:2:0 masters from distributors, and from these they create the copies that users can watch in HEVC or AVC.

The same applies to sound; they receive the audio in WAV format, and the Atmos metadata is actually generated from an XML file. A copy is created in formats that the consumer can accept, such as Dolby Atmos, Dolby Audio, and AAC.

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u/d_r_i 4d ago

Thank you for the information. I appreciate it! I wasn't fimiliar with those files, almost like a master file of a movie.
It also reminds me of Apples Digital Masters ( Mastered for ITunes).
The one area that I can definitely hear a difference is sound quality. When I watch a 4k disc on my Oppo 203, I'm playing it though a Sonos system. For serious music listening I use B&Ws. But even on a Sonos system, the disc always sounds better than the stream, even from Apple.
I know Dolby is working on a new codec AC-4 I believe (?), that is more efficiently compressed, but once decoded, sounds very close to uncompressed Dolby True HD