Apple Seeds Fifth Beta of tvOS 11.2.5 to Developers

Apple TV does not support the VP9 codec, which is Google's proprietary video compression format (royalty free, but with certain caveats- like ceasing patent litigation). YouTube uses VP9 in its 4K HDR content, so because Apple does not support it, Google doesn't update the Apple TV YouTube app.

Format wars suck.

Apple doesn't have to support it in the OS- or hardware-level in order for YouTube 4k to work. Google can write-in their VP9 decoder into the app itself. The ATV4k hardware has plenty of horsepower to decode VP9 4k in software, as Infuse has shown.

Apple isn't exactly laying out the red carpet for Google, but make no mistake - the ball is 100% in Google's court and Google can implement YouTube 4k on the AppleTV today if they wanted to.

I really want to buy the new Apple TV, but no YouTube 4k is a deal breaker for me.

The YouTube app still needs to be updated by the developer to support 4K video

Apple TV does not support the VP9 codec, which is Google's proprietary video compression format (royalty free, but with certain caveats- like ceasing patent litigation). YouTube uses VP9 in its 4K HDR content, so because Apple does not support it, Google doesn't update the Apple TV YouTube app.

Format wars suck.

Agreed. Basicly there are two ways this can happen. Either google updates their app to include their code for their VP9 codec or Apple adds that codec to their tvOS, then google updates their app. The last way does increase the memory size of tvOS for everyone.

Hopefully AV1 makes everyone happy and no one has any worries.

I certainly hope so. It seems that AV1 will be adopted by Youtube later this year and since Apple is now a founding member of Allience for Open Media, the future is looking somewhat brighter.

Hopefully AV1 makes everyone happy and no one has any worries.