Hands On: Mission's USB Power Cable Lets You Plug Your Apple TV Directly Into Your TV Set

[atonaldenim]

Follow up to my last post, I was able to try the USB Power Cable with a 2021 Apple TV 4K 32GB. It did work better than the 2017 Apple TV 4K 32GB, in that it was able to boot successfully and open apps, play videos etc.

However, using it for an evening I ran into several situations where the Apple TV rebooted itself, apparently crashing, presumably because it was drawing too much power? A few of the things I tried that sometimes made it crash: opening "Trailers" app, launching App Switcher (double click TV screen button), playing Stranger Things S4E1 on Netflix (4K Dolby Vision TV).

So even though it does work a bit better on the 2021 ATV 4K, I still would not recommend it to most users. If you have a specific niche application like digital signage, and you can test your exact app / workflow with the device to make sure it works before deploying it to the field, then it might be an option for you in its current form. But overall I would wait until the next version, especially if you'd need to depend on it being able to run software updates or anything like that from the USB Power Cable.

But I have had a lot of email interaction with Mission's customer support and even an engineer, and they were apologetic and sound eager to diagnose and address this problem. It sounds like they hadn't tested this against the 2017 ATV 4K before, but they are now aware of the need to, and of the crashing problems with the 2021 ATV 4K as well.

My Kill-a-Watt seems to be on the fritz because it's reporting 41W of draw when nothing is plugged in. So these numbers are probably not quite accurate, but subtracting the baseline of 41 from my readings, it looks like the 2021 ATV 4K draws around 9W peak on a cold boot, idles around 3-5W, peaks around 8W when opening apps, and 4K video playback seems to use around 3-5W. I'm not seeing peaks during usage of >9W so I don't know why it would boot successfully but then crash during usage.

 

[FlyingTexan]

Has anyone tried this? Everyone stating there's no use, there's plenty of uses. In my case our aircraft only has one socket so to use the appleTV i have to unplug the coffee maker. Here I could use the usb port next to the hdmi port to power it, if it will.

 

[marvin_h]

Has anyone tried this? Everyone stating there's no use, there's plenty of uses. In my case our aircraft only has one socket so to use the appleTV i have to unplug the coffee maker. Here I could use the usb port next to the hdmi port to power it, if it will.

Well, the reports are very mixed both here and at Amazon. Seems to work for some people and not for others. Best bet is to make sure you buy it from a place with a good return policy, in case it doesn't work for you.

 

[atonaldenim]

I was able to try a newer revision of the product a couple months ago. It performs better on Apple TV 4K 2021 than the first version did. In “average” app usage it seemed pretty stable. In intense usage it can crash apparently due to insufficient power, for example on election night when I was switching back and forth between many different news apps, I had a couple of crashes that triggered reboots.

I’d say it’s about 90% good if you don’t mind the Apple TV restarting itself on rare occasions.

There weren’t any obvious differences on the packaging between the two units. It’s my understanding from Mission that all units purchased today would be the newer revision. There was one difference I could see on the labeling on the back of the unit itself:

OLD VERSION
Output: 120V, 10mA
(a typo I imagine)

NEW VERSION
Output: 120V, 120mA
[added icon: don't trash]

(I don’t have the 2017 Apple TV 4K anymore so I wasn’t able to test the new USB Power Cable on the original ATV 4K, it did seem a little more power hungry than the newer ATV.)

 

[zorinlynx]

This is such a bizarre and niche product. I'm curious about the power inverter it uses to make 120V at such a lower power rating. 120V at 120mA is about 14VA, or a bit less than 10 watts.

 

[Bakey]

I've only just found out about this product and it no longer appears on the Mission site... I'm assuming it's been discontinued?

If so, anyone know where there could be stock available?

There's definitely a use... I could do with two of them to begin with, it's not about cable clutter, it's about a lack of sockets for me.

TIA

 

[Skoal]

Sorry but this is dumb! It still uses a cable and a monster sized brick which is far larger than the single power cable that comes with the Apple TV which doesn’t require a power adapter BTW. I’m not sure why an adapter was even mentioned in the article.

 

[Bakey]

Sorry but this is dumb! It still uses a cable and a monster sized brick which is far larger than the single power cable that comes with the Apple TV which doesn’t require a power adapter BTW. I’m not sure why an adapter was even mentioned in the article.

Why is it dumb?

It doesn't require the use of a separate socket with the shift being to the use of a USB port on the back of the TV... so, why is it dumb?

Anyway, anyone know if these are still available?

 

[marvin_h]

Alas, based on the user reports, they often didn't work right, or for very long, because most USB ports can't put out enough current to power the ATV. So it appears the company curtailed production shortly after introduction.

I was disappointed because there are a couple of situations where it would have been a useful tool for me. But I was also not surprised since the USB spec (other than USB C) only goes up to 2.1a and many USB ports are less than half that output (and still spec compliant) so this product was really "hoping" that reality was different than it is....even with battery buffering etc.

 

[Bakey]

I contacted Mission and they confirmed that "Unfortunately, that battery base was discontinued." and to make use of the Y splitter instead.

 

[Frankie324]

I keep my ATV on 24/7. What happens with this device when you turn off your TV?

My tv has a setting where power stays on to the usb even if the tv is off.