Apple TV users currently feel forgotten: Apple has neither launched new models since 2022, nor did it mention the tvOS 27 operating system at all during its WWDC keynote last week. Interested parties therefore had to piece together the details from various website documents. One of them concerns music playback on the multimedia box: In the future, it will be possible to play back high-resolution, lossless song material. However, this will initially only work with Apple Music; it remained unclear whether other streaming apps will support the format via API.
Lossless has been available since tvOS 26
Apple had already provided Apple TV devices with basic support for lossless audio as part of Apple Music with tvOS 26. Technically, it has supported 24 bits with up to 48 kHz since then. Now Apple's Hi-Res Lossless format is being added. This supports more than 48 kHz, reaching up to 192 kHz at 24 bits. The new format promises an even more natural sound, although you need very good ears for it.
The material must also be available as Hi-Res Lossless Audio in the first place, which is particularly the case with newer music and classical albums that have undergone a corresponding remastering. Apple promises "studio-quality audio playback," although this has a lot to do with the amplifiers and speakers connected behind the Apple TV. Lossless formats compress media without compression losses and then decompress them into the original format. In a support document, Apple explains how to play back lossless song material. Various devices offer different options here.
