You can finally watch 4K YouTube videos on Apple TV, but not at the quality users would like
4K is advancing relentlessly, except on Apple TVs running tvOS 14. Despite being among the big anticipations that were announced for the September operating system update, the feature dedicated to supporting YouTube videos in 4K was then left out of the picture, leaving a lot of users high and dry.
After the appearance of the option among the settings of YouTube on Apple TV, some Reddit users have revealed that it is still impossible to fully enjoy the high-resolution features of the platform's videos. In fact, the choice of fps would make the stream definitely less performing. Through the choice of streaming in 4K, or at 2160 pixels, the amount of frames per second drops to 30, or half of the 60 provided for 2K viewing at 1440p. The same limit in terms of quality also affects YouTube content at 2160p: no HDR for them either.
Apple and 4K: from Apple TV to iPhone, the standard struggles to make its way
It seems, however, that Apple TV is not the only product from Cupertino to show signs of difficulty when faced with the introduction of ultra-high resolution video viewing. The same problem has occurred on the next-generation iPhone and iPad, with screens compatible with the standard, although support may be coming soon with the new operating system in addition to the reinstatement of the picture-in-picture feature removed in previous releases.
Apple TV: 4K YouTube and Netflix the new Cupertino worry
While the wait time for Apple's smaller-screen devices seems short, as for Apple TV, where the lower richness of colors and contrast is more noticeable, the problems could drag on for weeks more for YouTube unless a sudden release is made.
And to say that 4K had already created major problems for Apple just a few days ago, when many Mac users discovered that their laptops and desktops would have to give up Netflix at very high resolution, due to the lack of the T2 security chip, available only on a small number of the latest generation products. Especially in the latter case, it would have been impossible to exploit the potential of the platform despite the use of an external screen, given the need for the presence of the component in order to reproduce properly and smoothly the images of movies and TV series in higher quality.