One of the major missing features of HBO Max at launch was the ability to stream in 4K HDR, as well as support for Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos. With the announcement that “Wonder Woman 1984” would premiere simultaneously on the streaming service and in-theaters, HBO Max will be bringing that functionality to the platform for the first time.
The company says that it will be available on Apple TV 4K, Amazon Fire Stick 4K, Amazon Fire TV Cube (and Fire Edition TVs), Chromecast Ultra, and select Android TV devices. They have plans to expand support to additional devices and to more content in their streaming library in 2021.
It was a surprise when HBO Max launched without this functionality, but it was primarily because it was built on their existing HBO Now platform. Other streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, and Apple TV+ all support 4K on select content.
Last month, AT&T revealed that HBO and HBO Max now have 38 million subscribers as of Q3 2020, up 1.7 million from last quarter. In Q2, the company revealed that 4.1 million had activated their HBO Max account, but now 8.6 million have activated the service.
The company just reached a distribution deal with Amazon Fire TV and is now available on Roku via AirPlay (but their is no official app).