Disney movies are (again) appearing in glorious 4K in iTunes for some users

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Star Wars 4k Hdr Itunes
Star Wars 4k Hdr Itunes (Image credit: iMore)

What you need to know

  • Some Disney movies are starting to appear in 4K HDR in iTunes.
  • We've seen 4K Disney movies in the UK, US, and Canada.
  • Not all Disney movies are in 4K. Yet.

More than a year ago we saw signs that 4K Disney movies were coming to iTunes. Today, they actually are. We've seen 4K movies appear in the TV app and iTunes in the UK, Canada, and the United States.

So far it doesn't appear that everyone is seeing these 4K movies, or indeed that all Disney movies are available in 4K just yet. As an example, "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" is in 4K, but "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" is not.

Those movies that do support 4K appear to offer Dolby Vision as well, giving viewers the best possible image where available.

I'd suspect that Apple is still updating the files on its servers to support the 4K versions of the movies that are still only available in 1080p. As an example, Black Panther isn't available in 4K just yet – I'll be keeping my eyes on that one in particular!

Until now, anyone wanting to watch Disney movies in 4K HDR needed either Vudu or Disney+ to get in on the act. That's now changing.

I first spotted that some people were seeing 4K Disney movies over in the Movies Anywhere subreddit and Twitter seems to be lighting up, too. Whatever's going on – it's no accident!

Let me know in the comments below if you're seeing your favorite Disney movies in 4K!

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.