Apple TV 4K Playback

Hey there gbol,

Thanks for reaching out to the Apple Support Communities. Currently HLS and movie.pkg files would not be a supported video format for the Apple TV 4K. For the best details on what video formats are compatible with your Apple TV 4K, check out this link here: Apple TV 4K (1st generation) - Technical Specifications

Video Formats

- H.264/HEVC SDR video up to 2160p, 60 fps, Main/Main 10 profile

- HEVC Dolby Vision (Profile 5)/HDR10 (Main 10 profile) up to 2160p

- H.264 Baseline Profile level 3.0 or lower with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps per channel, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats

- MPEG-4 video up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 fps, Simple profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats

We hope that's able to help.

Take care!

HLS (.movpkg, Apple low latency fragmented MP4 specification) is not a video format; it is a container format, and HLS is supported by Apple TV 4K. It is how you get streams from Apple’s servers. The video format is still H.264 AVC or H.265 HEVC.

HLS is unfortunately not supported for Home Sharing at this time. You can give feedback to Apple that users want this for their iTunes Store downloads. It does not appear to be an Apple TV issue per se: Home Sharing to iPhone or iPad also doesn’t list these HLS downloads: I believe it is already excluded for Home Sharing on the Mac.

Previously (in macOS Catalina 10.15) users could de-select HDR, and select Most Compatible, and simplify the audio options, to force M4V file downloads. That former option (HDR) is no longer available in Big Sur or Monterey. You can give feedback to Apple that users want M4V download options.

Hi gbol,

Feel free to leave feedback on this subject. If you'd like to leave feedback, you can do so with the link below.

Product Feedback - Apple

Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.