Apple Begins Offering 4K TV Shows — With Free Upgrades
Adam Kenton
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Although Apple has offered 4K content on the iTunes Store for nearly a decade, until now it’s been confined only to select titles on the film side of the store. However, it seems Apple has quietly snuck in a pretty big change this week.
In a move accompanied by surprisingly little fanfare, Apple’s catalog now includes nearly 50 TV shows available in 4K, including well-known shows such as Mad Men and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
The new catalog was first uncovered by “Apple TV aficionado” Sigmund Judge, who posted a list on X and Threads.
While the list includes 49 shows, not all of them may be available in every region, and even if they are, they may not have yet gotten the 4K treatment. In some cases, it seems only one or two seasons are available in 4K, and there’s no word on whether Apple plans to expand that.
For example, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 1 is on Judge’s list, but it’s still showing up in HD on the Canadian storefront. On the other hand, all seven seasons of Mad Men are covered — and they’re available here in 4K.
However, the best part of all this is that Apple’s 4K movie upgrades in 2017 allowed anyone who purchased the HD version to receive an automatic quality upgrade — and Apple is continuing the tradition with TV shows, regardless of how long ago you purchased them.
For example, I’ve had Mad Men in my library for the better part of a decade, and it’s now seamlessly available in 4K. As with Apple’s movie catalog, there are a few of the same platform restrictions to keep in mind with this rollout:
- No Downloads: You won’t be able to download the raw 4K files locally to your Mac; they remain streaming-only. The same applies to downloads for offline viewing on an iPhone or iPad.
- Stricter Hardware Requirements: 4K streaming is only available on select set-top boxes or relatively modern Mac and PC configurations. This includes all Apple silicon Macs and Intel Macs with Apple’s T2 security chip — typically 2018 and later models. While the new Apple TV app for Windows technically supports 4K playback, there are a few more moving parts involved to get things working. For external displays, the monitor and cable both need to be HDCP 2.2 compliant.
- The Missing Library Badge: It appears the macOS TV app isn’t always showing a “4K” badge for purchased TV shows accessed through the Library sidebar. These will likely still play in 4K, but you’ll need to search for the show’s main homepage for visual confirmation.
It’s also worth noting that 4K TV shows appear to be limited to SDR for now. It’s unclear if Apple will eventually offer HDR or Dolby Vision versions, but for now you’re mostly just getting a bump in raw resolution rather than an expanded color palette.
With movies, 4K upgrades were only available for those who had previously purchased the HD versions. This will likely also be the case with TV shows, but we’ll have to wait until some more titles are available to know for sure, as most of the ones Judge lists are fairly recent titles that have never been available in SD.
Apple began offering 4K movies in 2017 alongside the launch of the original Apple TV 4K, although new titles were added gradually over time and it took a few more years before Dolby Atmos and HDR10+ formats were added to the mix. Along the same lines, we’ll likely see more 4K TV shows appear over time, but it all comes down to Apple’s ability to sign licensing agreements with the studios — and Apple seems to make these free 4K upgrades one of the potential sticking points, which can also slow down negotiations.
