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Apple, historically, has absolutely hated leaks. Much of this was driven by Steve Jobs, who famously fired four people he caught leaking a memo to the press not long after rejoining the company. With his passing, Apple information pops up a bit more often than it did before. This latest leak isn’t provided by a company scofflaw, however — it’s an inadvertent unveil by Apple itself.
We covered rumors that a new Apple TV was in the works several weeks ago, but this new information sheds more light on what the platform will be able to do. This time, the freshly leaked code comes courtesy of Apple’s HomePod speaker. On Saturday, iOS developer Guilherme Rambo tweeted out some lines of code that confirm Apple isn’t just working on a new Apple TV, it’s building a fairly high-end model with 4K and HDR support.
The image at the top of the tweet states that the device will support 4K and HDR. The later image shows that Apple will support no fewer than three HDR standards — Dolby Vision, HDR10, and HLG. HDR10 is an open-source standard that almost all HDR-capable televisions use. If a set claims to have HDR support and says nothing specific about Dolby, chances are it’s an HDR10 set.
Image by TJ Donegan, Reviewed.com
You can see the relative color gamuts between the old Rec. 709 standard, DCI-P3 (HDR10), and Rec. 2020, with Dolby Vision support. Which standard is better isn’t really a relevant question, since no TV currently on the market actually meets the maximum quality specs Dolby Vision defines. As for HLG, it stands for Hybrid-Log Gamma and was jointly defined by the BBC and NHK.
Apple has nailed down the major HDR standards. There’s only one exception, and it’s arguably not “major” at all. Samsung just launched its own HDR10+ standard, but it’s only compatible with other Samsung TVs at the moment and content support is limited-to-nonexistent.
Apple’s trailing position means there’s nowhere to go but up.
Apple has a genuine opportunity to seize a chunk of the set-top box market if it plays its cards correctly, but pricing is going to be a major factor. At $149, the Apple TV is significantly more expensive than its counterparts, and Apple’s market share in this space has been clocked at roughly 5 percent. That’s not awful, as such, but it could be higher. It should also be noted that the Apple TV includes either 32GB or 64GB of storage, something the Roku models lack by default (the highest-end Roku models can be expanded with a microSD card).
There’s also the persistent rumor that Apple wants to launch some kind of paid streaming service or offering, with possible partnerships with HBO, Showtime, and Starz. Then again, these kinds of rumors have been circling for years in some cases, never quite coming to fruition either due to last-minute licensing disagreements or technology not being quite up to what Apple’s goals were.
While most ET readers will already know this next point, it bears repeating. Buying an Apple TV that’s capable of displaying 4K or HDR content is just one part of the process. You’ll also need a TV capable of displaying content with these features to view them.
