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Apple TV 3 Teardown?
- Thread starter Cuthbert
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No teardown yet on the wild, as GG said, i am sure iFixit should do one real soon.
Yeah, I was hoping they would have it out soon. I'm thinking about buying one, but I don't know if upgraded processor is enough to make me pull the trigger.
Hardware changes shouldn't be your focus, (IMO), what do you think is the current ATV2 not doing well for you? in my personal case it does everything i need it to do but HD (1080p), so the new one will cover my needs (even if the processors is the only real upgrade).
Point well taken. I'm looking at it more from a future proof standpoint. If there are truly apps coming, I would like to have some room on the machine from a flash storage point of view. Of course, I'm not holding my breath - I would have passed out a long time ago if I were doing this.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Curiously, for a "hobby", these things seem to have surprisingly good resell value. In terms of future proofing, I think the big question continues to be how well this new one can handle 1080p files at high quality settings, high bit rates, etc (more toward BD quality vs. iTunes 1080p quality). If they can do a good job- and some early posts here imply they can- this one may offer a great opportunity to build a library of high quality 1080p video that should be THE standard for many years to come (probably 10+ years).
Future hardware enhancements will probably come along but the software maximums will probably not go up a lot from here (meaning BD picture & sound maximums). People talk about 4K as the next big thing but current HD standards were adopted in 1986 or so and we're still waiting on many channels to go HD in 2012. A 4K standard would still need an official adoption and then all kinds of hurdles will have to be jumped to actually get there in a mainstream availability way.
With that in mind, $99 that can probably be resold in a few years for $50-60 is "renting" some terrific- and versatile- playback hardware for 2 or 3 years for only about $10-15/year.
Even the 2007 Generation 1 version still sells at a very good price in the used market.
If the playback hardware is robust enough to pretty much handle any BD quality 1080p (which is still to be confirmed in absolute terms), then only the BD audio options remains the weak link for being fully toe-to-toe with the best quality mainstream standard currently available. And those audio options might be available via only a software upgrade (and licensing by Apple if they can get interested in adding them). DD5.1 which is certainly good was a DVD audio standard from way back in the early 1990s (around 1992 I believe). There's been a lot of progress made since it was the new King.
Future hardware enhancements will probably come along but the software maximums will probably not go up a lot from here (meaning BD picture & sound maximums). People talk about 4K as the next big thing but current HD standards were adopted in 1986 or so and we're still waiting on many channels to go HD in 2012. A 4K standard would still need an official adoption and then all kinds of hurdles will have to be jumped to actually get there in a mainstream availability way.
With that in mind, $99 that can probably be resold in a few years for $50-60 is "renting" some terrific- and versatile- playback hardware for 2 or 3 years for only about $10-15/year.
Even the 2007 Generation 1 version still sells at a very good price in the used market.
If the playback hardware is robust enough to pretty much handle any BD quality 1080p (which is still to be confirmed in absolute terms), then only the BD audio options remains the weak link for being fully toe-to-toe with the best quality mainstream standard currently available. And those audio options might be available via only a software upgrade (and licensing by Apple if they can get interested in adding them). DD5.1 which is certainly good was a DVD audio standard from way back in the early 1990s (around 1992 I believe). There's been a lot of progress made since it was the new King.
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I think we'll be more than safe, Apple is moving everything to the cloud, physical storage is simple dead for apple (Not that I personally agreed with that, but that seen to be what Steve decided before he left us), so any "future" feature that Apple will bring to the TV will be either iCloud hosted of stream.
I wouldn't hold my breath for 4K as there are only a few cameras in the world with a sensor that can capture at that resolution, and even then the frame rate is extremely slow. 2K I can see in the next 3 years, but $80 for a 1080 Apple TV should be a pretty solid solution for the next 5 years. I'm more concerned with apps as well. If we cant get HBOGO and Hulu on the ATV3 I'm going to drop $500 on either an iPad3 or a refurb'ed Mini to handle my streaming needs, as it's a massive pain to keep my MacBook Pro constantly tied up to external hd enclosures.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
While I think you are probably right (about iCloud), I hope you are wrong. While the idea of iCloud everything seems great in many ways, it really doesn't make good sense as long as our link to iCloud is through broadband gatekeepers named Comcast, AT&T, Verizon, etc... companies who have learned that millions of people will pay upwards of $30 for as little as 2-3GB of data plus $10/GB thereafter and are almost certainly conspiring toward trying to eventually bring ever-tightening tolls to the wired internet side of things.
Also given that since most of them enjoy their cable video subscription revenues "as is", there is no way they'll let Apple take that cash cow from them when Apple's replacement must flow from iCloud to us through their pipes. iCloud just can't be a great answer as long as our link to it is dependent on these other companies... unless we consumers don't mind paying whatever tolls the likes of AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, etc decide to cook up.
Also given that since most of them enjoy their cable video subscription revenues "as is", there is no way they'll let Apple take that cash cow from them when Apple's replacement must flow from iCloud to us through their pipes. iCloud just can't be a great answer as long as our link to it is dependent on these other companies... unless we consumers don't mind paying whatever tolls the likes of AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, etc decide to cook up.
You speak of the ATV 3 like it will play all 1080p content. All we know is that Apple built it to be able to play Apple's 1080p content. We know 1080 from Apple is not much bigger than its 720p. I want to know if it can handle a 30+ gig movie flawlessly like my Boxee Box does.
Why ? Bitrate does not equal quality by any means. You can do 1080p smaller than some 720p easily while maintaining better visual quality. Bitrate != quality.
Small correction - 2K IS available and has been for years. 2K is 1920 x 1080. 4K is around 3840 x 2160, and 8K is about 7680 x 4320.
Sharp plans to ship an 84" 4K HDTV this winter.
Tear down probably very soon
I'm betting iFixit will be on this super soon on the heels of their new iPad tear down since this product was mentioned in the opening of their presentation. I have an Apple TV 2 that I picked up over the holidays. In general, I like it, but there have been some issues with streaming Netflixx and with airplay of video (yes, I've tried altering my airport extreme settings and have the latest updates for the device) I was wondering if they would have an upgrade in CPU/ GPU and RAM that is in line with the new iPad. Not that it would be the same as that device, but that it might have a CPU/ GPU and RAM bump. the device seems to lag behind the iOS devices so maybe 512 and the GPU in the iPad 2?
I'm betting iFixit will be on this super soon on the heels of their new iPad tear down since this product was mentioned in the opening of their presentation. I have an Apple TV 2 that I picked up over the holidays. In general, I like it, but there have been some issues with streaming Netflixx and with airplay of video (yes, I've tried altering my airport extreme settings and have the latest updates for the device) I was wondering if they would have an upgrade in CPU/ GPU and RAM that is in line with the new iPad. Not that it would be the same as that device, but that it might have a CPU/ GPU and RAM bump. the device seems to lag behind the iOS devices so maybe 512 and the GPU in the iPad 2?
pretty easy actually...Jailbroken
The new appletv doesn't have this yet(i think it will be soon because its a similar chip). After that comes out the appletv2's will drop in price a lot i think.
Actually 1920 x 1080 is "full" 1080 HD. This is the 16:9 HD standard. 2K would be 2048 x 1080, & 4K is 4096 x 2160. While there are 8K sensors, currently there aren't any cameras in production that output at that resolution (to my knowledge). The current 8K sensors are down-sampled to 4/5K the same way the 4K sensor in the new Canon C300 has a 4K sensor but only outputs at 1080. Down-sampling produces a much cleaner image.
I posted some pics of my ATV3 over at XBMC if you want to help me speculate whats inside.
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=125840
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=125840
It looks like extra RAM. I could bearly read the numbers off the package, but the characters I thought it said, when typed into google, come up as 512 on every page.
I was a bit excited about what might be a possible improvement to wireless N. Sorry I couldn't get the heatspreader/EMI shield off the wireless/bluetooth module, just didn't want to risk breaking it, soldered down and alot of surface mounts near the solder on it.
I was a bit excited about what might be a possible improvement to wireless N. Sorry I couldn't get the heatspreader/EMI shield off the wireless/bluetooth module, just didn't want to risk breaking it, soldered down and alot of surface mounts near the solder on it.