Is the Apple TV dead ????

[Tech198]

How exactly is 1080p "more" than 4K? Do you want to play Rayman Adventures or something?



The current standard of WHAT, exactly? 1999 HDTV? In other words, 4K already is a standard! I just bought a 1080P 3D projector instead of a 4K set (since I have a 93" screen in my home theater and that's upgraded from 720p and current true 4K projectors still cost $8000+ with no real lens shift), but I would never tell someone with a 4K set that they should have to watch a box that can't do 4K just because over 50% of all people on the planet haven't adopted it yet or some other nonsensical idea of what makes a "standard." I personally think 4K resolution is utterly pointless on most consumer sets at typical viewing distances (i.e. you can't tell 4K from 1080p on a 55" set 15 feet away....), BUT the new HDR and Wide Color Gamut modes are absolutely distinguishable at virtually ANY distance and in some ways more impressive than the resolution increase (even with my 93" screen at 10 feet, it would only be around 20-25% sharper with a 4K projector at 20/20 vision at best).

Some studios (e.g. Sony) are also playing dirty tricks by only including Dolby Atmos meta data with 4K Blu-Rays or Ultra HD Streaming from places like Vudu despite the fact regular Blu-Ray can handle Atmos just fine (any streaming service with Dolby Digital Plus support including Apple could include it for that matter, but don't count on it any time soon with Apple because they don't support jack squat on AppleTV. The company with the eye for the future (under Jobs) seems to think the equivalent of 640k ought to be enough for anybody when it comes to Home Theater and High Definition. It's not just sad. It's actually quite PATHETIC, IMO particularly when you consider a FireTV 4K is $89 (compared to Apple's $149 and $199) and has full 4K support plus open side-loading (without having to be a certified developer) and an SD Card port and a fully operational USB port for local hard drives. I threw a 128GB SD Card in mine and dumped my AAC music library on it (network server doesn't even have to be on to listen to my music and with it on, I have lossless available along with my entire video and photo libraries in virtually any format) plus lots of room for Kodi thumbnails and still have many GB let over. Some hardware for Kodi can even handle full 3D hardware decoding (once ripped/stored, you wouldn't ever even have to touch a Blu-Ray for 2D or 3D yet MKV can handle Dolby TrueHD with Atmos and M4V can store DTS (AppleTV won't see it, but Kodi will). Where's Apple? They're too busy worrying about whether you should be able to run an ad blocker on an iPhone to be concerned with State of the Art Home Theater.....

And how many users are gonna be there to worry about such content? I don't mind if other companies get ahead of the game, in order to shout "look what i have done." but u gotta look at how many will adopt it first before u come to terms with that it "will be a success"

ergo,,, its too early for 4k currently Its too easy to just stand back and look how many companies got on-board, and say,,, "look Apple hasn't" without even realizing, Apple doesn't need to at the moment, because only a few users want it. Apple is not a TV company for one.

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

I guess some Apple fans don't actually look at home theater forums since they apparently think no one has a 4K set (practically no such thing as 1080p only anymore at retailers). I was looking at a 55" set at Best Buy the other day. It was $799 with 4K and HDR. About five years ago I spend $499 for a 48" 720p plasma and thought it was a good deal.... The 65" version was $1100. I remember buying a 57" 1080i/720p/480/480i CRT Rear projector in 1998 for $4700 and thinking it was amazing. How times have changed that a 65" set with something we would have thought was out of Star Trek back in the 1990s (4K with HDR/WCG) cost 1/3 what my dad paid for 55" 480i projector in the early 1990s. The point is that it doesn't cost much to get a larger screen these days. 7.1 receivers that once cost thousands now cost $350. Home theater never had it so good. But it has to start somewhere and with someone (company). Apple used to lead the pack. Now they play it safe and wait 5 years behind everyone else and wonder why their market share is 8% (macOS) or 19% (iPhone) instead of 80% (Android) or 90% (Windows).

I doubt many of you have even heard of Dolby Atmos or DTS:X. Maybe it's "too early" for them even though there's 150+ BDs or 4K BDs with Atmos and dozen with X (that just came out) already. iTunes could support Atmos even with the existing hardware since they officially support Dolby Digital Plus now (which "can" do 7.1 and Atmos and Vudu that handles Ultraviolet is already starting to use Atmos with their DD+ stream), but Apple doesn't bother with anything until it's been out for YEARS and YEARS lately. The "new" stuff ended with Steve Jobs. If it weren't for the iPhone, I think Apple would be on their way out of business by now without Steve.

 

[danny842003]

I don't know why people are saying 4K isn't needed yet.
4K is current, TV broadcasters may still be in 730/1080 but that's not to say there isn't content in 4k.
Any major show is now being filmed in 4k and plenty of people have 4k sets in their houses. Plenty of places in the world have the internet to handle it also.

I'm not massively desperate for it but there's no way I will buy a new Apple TV until it's a feature and I imagine plenty of people are in the same boat.

 

[RamGuy]

I'm eagerly awaiting the Apple TV Gen.5 that will most likely hit later this year. Tim Cook specifically said that they would have much more to talk about regarding Apple TV later this year on WWDC'17. And they talked a whole lot about HEVC/H265, DCI-P3/Wide-Colour Gamut aka HDR etc on WWDC'17.

Ever since I got myself the LG OLED 65-inch B6 series I wanted to try out some 4K/HDR content. I did actually grab myself the NVIDI Shield TV, "the mother of all streaming devices, and the best Android TV device currently on the market" which supports 4K and HDR, and features YouTube 4K support, Plex 4K support etc.. I returned it after a week of use. YouTube 4K was okay, but most content is made by "amateurs" which became pretty obvious very fast. Plex in 4K was also really hard as there was barely anything to grab, even on the biggest and best private trackers there is barely any content in 4K and there is a severe lack of containers and support for actually storing and playing back Dolby Vision and HD10 HDR content in MKV's etc..

The only thing I was actually able to enjoy in 4K (no HDR) was a few series on Netflix, and that was pretty much it. The amount of content currently available in 4K, and especially 4K + HDR is almost non-existent. Which became very clear to me. The service that had the most 4K content was YouTube, but it served no purpose other than having various personalities on YouTube looking extra sharp on my TV showing of all their skin problems and what not much more clearly than ever before. I also lost 60 FPS capability on YouTube as all 4K content is 30 FPS and personally I prefer 1080P @ 60 FPS as the added clarity during motion etc is much more beneficial to the overall experience compared to the added resolution/pixels from 4K.

Another reason why we returned the Shield TV was the entire UX-design and user experience felt really inferior compared to the Apple TV Gen.4. My fiancee really hated how the YouTube-app layout was on Android TV compared to tvOS, and when she suddenly starts complaining about technology you know it's bad.


I would grab a Apple TV Gen.5 supporting 4K and HDR in a heartbeat. But after testing and seeing how little is actually available in 4K and HDR using the NVIDIA Shield TV I feel no real rush. Hopefully we get the new Apple TV before Stranger Things Season 2 starts in late-October. That's the first and only thing I can think of that is soon to be released in 4K that I actually care about. Things like Game of Thrones is not in 4K, most movies on these streaming services are not in 4K as the industry keeps being foolish and pushing you towards Blu-Ray 4K and cripples everything that's made available through streaming. I'm currently subscribing to a whole bunch of streaming services, the only one actually providing anything in 4K is Netflix, and they only have it on a small handful of their own Netflix Original shows and basically nothing else. And YouTube of course, but then again I prefer to stick with higher frame rate as it makes a much bigger improvement to the videos compared to added resolution at this point.

 

[danny842003]

The content available in 4k is growing all the time though. Most Netflix series are now 4k upon release.
I watched the Grand Tour in 4k which was amazing and was something that really benefitted from it IMHO.
It's kind of like buying a new game console early on there's always a limited number of games but it grows fast.

 

[T-Bob]

There are quite a few series on Netflix that use HDR10 and Dolby Vision, and some on Amazon too. Shows like Marco Polo, and there are some non UHD shows that have it as well.

Netflix has recently removed the 4k category here so its even harder to find them for some reason, but at least they have (a very few) movies unlike Amazon which is pay only for all of theirs, excluding nature shots.

4k is very much a standard, TV sets have been for sale for 5 years now and its slower uptake is just an indication of how long people are keeping their older TVs, anyone buying a new large TV now will buy a 4K one as the prices have plummeted. And of course it took longer to get its own media format which only came out last year.

I do wonder about the image quality though, their stuff tops out at about 15mbps and even with HEVC thats pretty starved. If you get hold of a good quality title like Planet Earth II then the differences can become apparent.

Also an LG oled dude and I think the smart TV apps are fine, replaced standalone player as it was redundant. I don't use Apple stuff on TVs though so maybe not a good example.

 

[rctlr]

Im happy with my ATV4, I've had it for about 4 months - latecomer I know. I'm in the UK and with the thread starter, that the other UK terrestrial channels need to get apps onto the platform for catchup services. I know that it can be airplayed from an iPad, but native is better in my opinion. Netflix, Plex, Youtube, and BBC iPlayer all work perfectly for me, and I look forward to Amazon Prime Videos when it appears.

As for the 4k debate, I'm not phased. All my DVDs are ripped to their highest quality for Plex, and with the size of screen, I see little difference between 720 and 1080, how 4k would benefit me (yet) I still a way away.

 

[Tech198]

I doubt many of you have even heard of Dolby Atmos or DTS:X. Maybe it's "too early" for them even though there's 150+ BDs or 4K BDs with Atmos and dozen with X (that just came out) already. iTunes could support Atmos even with the existing hardware since they officially support Dolby Digital Plus now (which "can" do 7.1 and Atmos and Vudu that handles Ultraviolet is already starting to use Atmos with their DD+ stream), but Apple doesn't bother with anything until it's been out for YEARS and YEARS lately. The "new" stuff ended with Steve Jobs. If it weren't for the iPhone, I think Apple would be on their way out of business by now without Steve.

There is no reason to implement something in a device just because u wanna follow other companies. It may hurt "those" people, which is currently 100% of users, but Apple will do it when their ready.

When it does come, we'll be glad its finally here from Apple, but obviously Apple sees it differently than what you do... Talking about years and years,,,, If people care that much about hardware upgrades, or Apple taking "years" t do stuff, you wouldn't be an Apple user..

 

[AFEPPL]

It's sleeping for sure... but not as dead as the Mac mini or the Mac Pro... but the latter is going to change.

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

There is no reason to implement something in a device just because u wanna follow other companies. It may hurt "those" people, which is currently 100% of users, but Apple will do it when their ready.

Apple will go out of business if their phone ever fails. It will be slow because they hoard money like a rabid squirrel while not paying their lower level employees enough to survive in markets like California (even though they could afford to and to do all manufacturing in the USA, but they'd rather hoard hundreds of billions in cash so they can buy their own island or something in the future.) Meanwhile, many of their other products are just rotting away, abandoned or unloved and untouched.

If people care that much about hardware upgrades, or Apple taking "years" t do stuff, you wouldn't be an Apple user..

Well, I've already dumped buying AppleTV and iPods. They've stopped making Airport Express so I can't use that in the house for any more streaming music rooms (they just handed that over to Sonos and now newer ones like DTS Play). I've never owned an iPhone.

That leaves a 2008 Macbook Pro (well past its age, but the newer Macbooks have sucked in so many ways and cost 50% more than they did in 2008 with a similar hard drive space configuration in SS (unusable at $2400, IMO) plus that extra $400 that took it from $2000 to $2400 for a touch pad thingy on the keyboard no one asked for while PCs are cheaper than ever and Surface Pros have touch screens and pad capability in the same price range (Tim Cook refuses to admit touchscreens would be a handy thing so we get a "touch strip" instead that's just not even close).

Then there's my 2012 Mac Mini. It's a quad i7 so it's not exactly slow (Intel really hasn't made a ton of progress over the past 5 years for single core speeds), but Apple borked the last Mac Mini update (even slower than what I have now except a slightly faster GPU) and there's no new model in site. So eventually, I will have to consider something to replace it. I've stuck with Mac becuase of the OS (far less malware and Apple's supposedly not key logging everything we do like Microsoft does with Windows 10), but even operating systems eventually have their limits if you can't get the hardware you need and there's always the possibility Apple will bork macOS with a walled garden App Store only at some point which would be worse than Microsoft's spying in many ways. So my hope for Apple isn't so great. It's a shame Steve Job's legendary foresight didn't apply to his replacement...or maybe it did and he wanted Apple to eventually fail so his name would be a legend for all time.

 

[Fabmac]

Apple will go out of business if their phone ever fails. It will be slow because they hoard money like a rabid squirrel while not paying their lower level employees enough to survive in markets like California (even though they could afford to and to do all manufacturing in the USA, but they'd rather hoard hundreds of billions in cash so they can buy their own island or something in the future.) Meanwhile, many of their other products are just rotting away, abandoned or unloved and untouched.



Well, I've already dumped buying AppleTV and iPods. They've stopped making Airport Express so I can't use that in the house for any more streaming music rooms (they just handed that over to Sonos and now newer ones like DTS Play). I've never owned an iPhone.

That leaves a 2008 Macbook Pro (well past its age, but the newer Macbooks have sucked in so many ways and cost 50% more than they did in 2008 with a similar hard drive space configuration in SS (unusable at $2400, IMO) plus that extra $400 that took it from $2000 to $2400 for a touch pad thingy on the keyboard no one asked for while PCs are cheaper than ever and Surface Pros have touch screens and pad capability in the same price range (Tim Cook refuses to admit touchscreens would be a handy thing so we get a "touch strip" instead that's just not even close).

Then there's my 2012 Mac Mini. It's a quad i7 so it's not exactly slow (Intel really hasn't made a ton of progress over the past 5 years for single core speeds), but Apple borked the last Mac Mini update (even slower than what I have now except a slightly faster GPU) and there's no new model in site. So eventually, I will have to consider something to replace it. I've stuck with Mac becuase of the OS (far less malware and Apple's supposedly not key logging everything we do like Microsoft does with Windows 10), but even operating systems eventually have their limits if you can't get the hardware you need and there's always the possibility Apple will bork macOS with a walled garden App Store only at some point which would be worse than Microsoft's spying in many ways. So my hope for Apple isn't so great. It's a shame Steve Job's legendary foresight didn't apply to his replacement...or maybe it did and he wanted Apple to eventually fail so his name would be a legend for all time.

Don't get me wrong, but I think you are wrong in many ways,
Your MacBook Pro is perfectly usable but any new MacBook like the air would be a good upgrade in speed, and any other MacBook (expect this MacBook with no fans) would be a verry good upgrade and you would notice it in any way saying that a 2008 Mac with 4gb ram and no ssd is better than the ******** today is just wrong from A to Z
Only the cheap usb3 external hard drives will make that worth at least it did it to me.
Windows can't compare to OS X they made it look smarter and easy to install new devices, but in the end it's windows it just sucks when it gets old like they all do.(it's there feature since windows 95)
And windows phone is so dead, that using it is like crying out loud I am outdated

I am not an Apple TV user, I use an chromecast right now
But I think that I will get the new Apple TV when it comes out because of: HomeKit, iOS integration.
They can make TVs smart, but how here wants an Samsung smart tv who listen what are your talking about at home ?
I use Apple because I know I can trust in privacy and that it will work shameless.

 

[PlayUltimate]

Currently have an ATV2 and a 720P TV. Looking forward to upgrading both in the near future.

 

[danny842003]

Just a thought that popped in to my head to the people who are happy with no 4K support. It is having a knock on effect to you even if you don't believe so.
Myself and plenty of other people are waiting to move from the apple tv 3 or worse until 4k is supported. This means the install base for the OS is lower than it could be and it turn makes it less likely devs will create apps giving you a worse experience.

 

[d21mike]

Just a thought that popped in to my head to the people who are happy with no 4K support. It is having a knock on effect to you even if you don't believe so.
Myself and plenty of other people are waiting to move from the apple tv 3 or worse until 4k is supported. This means the install base for the OS is lower than it could be and it turn makes it less likely devs will create apps giving you a worse experience.

As someone who has 8 ATV 4's with only 1 TV with 4K (my main TV). Not sure what you mean by "happy with no 4K support". Are you saying for those that are happy with the ATV 4 "even without 4K support". Well I fit into that category. I did test my new 4K TV (around the time I got the ATV 4) with the Netflix App playing a 4K version of a movie and then the Apple TV App with only 1080p and I could not tell the difference. I would blame that on just not enough high quality 4K content. I do expect that to change over time. But not sure we are there yet. iTunes had zero and that where I purchase my movies. And to get Netflix with 4K support would cost and extra $4 per month. My point is it does not matter to me. And as for developers not developing for ATV 4 because it does not have 4K and maybe less users. I don't see that in my experience and I an maybe one of the few that actually uses > 32gb of my 64gb Apple TV. My point is I have a lot of Apps. But to be clear I only use > 32gb on my main ATV.

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

Your MacBook Pro is perfectly usable

Not really. I said my 2012 Mac Mini was still pretty good, but the 2008 Macbook Pro is definitely slow at certain tasks, especially with the newer macOS operating systems on it. I thought about putting an SSD in it (simple to do compared to the newer ones), but at some point you're putting lipstick on a pig, particularly when the SSD in question I would want is almost $400.

The only reason I'm not feeling the full effect of Apple's "screw the pooch" approach to macOS is that I have RAID 0 hard drives which are getting 250Mb/sec. My mother who bought a Macbook Pro the same year (2012) isn't so lucky. She's stuck with a rotational drive that the newer macOS is designed to slow down around (big time). Her computer is like 1/5 the speed it used to be because the OS keeps trying to do everything at once (random access drives like SSD are good at this; rotational drives, not so much). If I run Handbrake on even my RAID drives, it slows down other operations. OS X (as it was called then) used to handle time-sharing for hard drive access FAR better than it does now. They should have had detection for rotational and used whatever they used to have for that and the optimized for SSD stuff only if you have SSD drives, but they seemed to decide to do away with all rotational drives briefly, but then realized sales were dropping due to the increased prices and suddenly started selling iMacs with rotational drives again even though they run like crap in anything newer than Mavericks.

There's still a need for rotational drives (they're dirt cheap at much higher capacities for things like media use), but Macs really should at least have hybrid drives to handle the OS stuff in the background on solid state these days since the OS is practically expecting it now.

but any new MacBook like the air would be a good upgrade in speed

I don't recall saying the 2008 Macbook Pro was fast. I said the 2012 Mac Mini with a quad-core i7 is still pretty decent. I use the 2008 mostly for music recording with an older version of Logic Pro, but I regret updating the OS from Snow Leopard as it definitely suffered about a 15-20% loss in capability with Logic Pro even so due to the new crap overhead of the ever-bulking macOS operating system (until Leopard, OS X only got faster each version and then it stayed stable and increased for new features and then went to hell with Lion. Mountain Lion improved things with some newer hardware (the Mini was great) and Mavericks didn't seem to hurt it, but starting with Yosemite, the hard drives went to hell and everything slowed down. El Capitan fixed the GUI speed (due to acceleration with Metal) on my Mini, but the hard drive use it still not anywhere near as good as it use to be for sharing time with other programs. Whatever starts first seems to hog it all now.

, and any other MacBook (expect this MacBook with no fans) would be a verry good upgrade and you would notice it in any way saying that a 2008 Mac with 4gb ram and no ssd is better than the ******** today is just wrong from A to Z

Given I never said any such thing, I don't know why you're even bringing it up. I said the CPU on the 2014 Mac Mini was a downgrade from the 2012 quad-core i7 (it is) and they also did away with the dual-drive bay and easy user upgrades as well. NOTHING was improved except the GPU to some extent (still crappy compared to most desktop Windows machines that typically at least have a mid-range NVidia or AMD in them. I can vastly improve the hard drive performance by adding an SSD (and I can even put a 4TB internal in the other internal bay to go with it giving me 4-6TB internal), but the GPU is a lost cause. Newer Macs might at least be able to upgrade the GPU with Thunderbolt 3 external enclosures, assuming someone makes one that doesn't cost more than an entire new computer some day....

Only the cheap usb3 external hard drives will make that worth at least it did it to me.

At least my 2008 Macbook Pro could be upgraded to USB3 ($12 card in the expansion port and I had USB3 capability. Apple doesn't like that, though. They want you to buy a new computer instead).

Windows can't compare to OS X they made it look smarter and easy to install new devices, but in the end it's windows it just sucks when it gets old like they all do.(it's there feature since windows 95)

It sounds like you haven't used a Windows computer since Windows 95. Windows 10 mostly kicks OSX's butt at this point (vastly better graphics hardware, OS and driver support; touchscreen and tablet mode support, most of the good stuff from the Mac GUI is now in Windows, etc.) What makes Windows 10 suck is malware still exists there are 1000x the rate of macOS and Microsoft sends data to itself whether you want it to or not and forces upgrades on everyone but Enterprise users. That DOES suck, but that's more "political" than technical. Otherwise, I probably would have switched by now or at least have added a Windows machine for gaming. But I don't like the OS spying on me.

And windows phone is so dead, that using it is like crying out loud I am outdated

I just got another Windows 10 update the other day. So much for "dead".

Seriously, a lack of apps doesn't bother me nor does a small user base (you'd think most Mac users would be used to that given how few have owned Macs at various points in time). I also don't live my life on my phone. Do you know how much an iPhone costs now? I paid $38 for this phone and for $99 more (sdCard) I have 208 GB of memory, an 8MP camera, full 1080p HD recording and service costs me $11.80 a month on Tracphone (minutes, texts and data with rollover). For texting, browsing, email, news reading and playing back movies and music, it works great. I don't need a zillion apps I'll never use and I don't "Facebook" or any other social media crap. If you enjoy paying $600-1000+ for an iPhone every other year to use a "phone" be my guest. This isn't about who has the larger wang-chung. It's about me not spending a fortune on garbage I don't need or want. If Microsoft doesn't offer anything good replace it, I'll be looking at Android most likely because Apple doesn't have even one reasonably priced phone model in their lineup.

I am not an Apple TV user, I use an chromecast right now

Chromecast is just a substitute for Airplay. It's not a media system like FireTV or AppleTV.

But I think that I will get the new Apple TV when it comes out because of: HomeKit, iOS integration.

Homekit? Yeah, let hackers take control of your house. Wait until people start getting driven off cliffs and into other vehicles when hackers or terrorists take control of their self-driving cars in a few years. No thanks. It's already happened with hackers using smart thermostats and security cameras to participate in denial of service attacks. The security on most of this crap is pathetic.

I'll look at the next AppleTV when it comes out and see what it has to offer. If it's not suitable to me, I won't buy it. I'm more likely to buy a Windows based media box at this point becuase there are models out there that can run MVS hardware decoding for 3D with Kodi and THAT is useful to me (I despise using Blu-Ray discs in a player because of the forced menus, previews, etc. not to mention having to hunt for the disc, not get any fingerprints, etc. on them. I tend to rip and encode and access everything from Kodi's menu system and a server and leave the BDs on the shelf (save 3D for now).

They can make TVs smart, but how here wants an Samsung smart tv who listen what are your talking about at home ?

And you don't think Siri won't do that some day? They're just behind the curve. But my FireTV's "Alexa" only listens when I push the Mic button. It's not on all the time like the Echo devices.

I use Apple because I know I can trust in privacy and that it will work shameless.

I don't trust Apple under Tim Cook because he keeps using it to push his personal agendas while ignoring users when it comes to App approvals like ad blockers, etc. I don't want to see macOS end up the same way. If it does, I'm done with it (probably move to desktop Linux whether I like it or not at that point).

 

[Fabmac]

@MagnusVonMagnum
its always the same, i do know about windows 10
I used windows a lot, until i switched to mac. At work i used a winxp win 7 win 8 and later a windows 10 computer for 2 years until it's Motherboard past away i7 8GB very decent machine and after 2 years of use it was going slow so if you are going to tell us that now days registry is not bothering anymore.
I also replaced 2 laptops at work, dropbox problems, reinstalls i live in peace in osx.
ah, dont forget the 5 years or so at android the problem is DO know how other os work, and how they piss a user off.
But this is all off topic

apple take's privacy a lot more serious than other companies take a look at this
https://www.theverge.com/2017/4/23/...-fingerprint-program-tim-cook-travis-kalanick

i am looking forward to see the new apple tv, the are also talking about televisions with apple tv integrated (from apple)
so lets see what the future brings up

 

[Shanghaichica]

I've only ever tried the chromecast. It's ok but it doesn't have apps and more importantly it can't play my extensive iTunes library. I've bought so many movies and TV shows from iTunes that the only option for me is to have an Apple TV.

 

[Narked Diver]

The Apple TV 4 is dead

Long live the Apple TV 5

 

[andrewstirling]

Well for Apple I think it is a totally different ball game. Apple TV is understated but it is still the smart one out there.
I have come across my friends jumping from Apple TV to others like roku or amazon fire TV.

Whereas I've moved from an Apple TV to the nvidia shield purely because of its ability to manage 4k, HDR, Dolby True HD, DTS MA-HD and native 24p playback. I absolutely will buy another Apple TV if it does all of these. But only if it does all of these. Surely this is now the absolute baseline requirement for any kind of home theatre?

 

[madeirabhoy]

like most of us on here I'm an apple dude. i have an iMac and iPad and iPhone and am getting an apple watch for birthday, and my headphones are beatsx and the wife is similarly kitted out.

i watch virtual all of my tv online using apple. i see no reason to get an apple tv.

my smart tv does british apps (i live in portugal) so with a smart dns my live tv and free british stuff is covered there. i had a 2009 mac mini attached which runs a plex server that the smart tv runs, i get my football through iptv on the tv app, theres nothing the apple tv can do for me which interests, and in fact i don't see anything it does that my 50 quid android tv box in the bedroom can't do but there are things every other device can do that it can't..

 

[Duncan-UK]

Certainly if you've got an Apple TV v3 in the U.K then there's little incentive to upgrade to the V4. If you want the iPlayer apps etc and the ability to playback HEVC then pick up an Amazon fire stick for one third of the price...

 

[AL2TEACH]

First let me say that we are currently a 100% Apple house - iPhones, iPads, MacBook and several generations of Apple TV. We live in the UK. We have cut the cord with Sky !!

We use a number of streaming sources for our TV - Netflix, Amazon Prime and all the UK Catch Up Channels. Live TV comes from satellite as the terrestrial TV where we live is rather weak and satellite seems to be of better quality (higher bit rate ?).

So where does this leave the Apple TV ?? BBC iPlayer and Netflix - But where are all the other Apps ??

Almost any Samsung or LG smart TV Has support for the main Apps - even our Samsung DVD Player has better support than the Apple TV.

If Apple doesn't get off its backside and start to get some serious App support from the main media sources it is being quickly overtaken by almost every supplier of smart TV's.

Comments please before we dump the Apple TV in favour of a better supported platform.

It will never be more than just an extension to iTunes. It can be more but Apple will have to cut the "exclusive" tie to iTunes, not get rid of it but make room for others like a Roku. Then again, it is an "Apple TV".

 

[drsox]

[QUOTE

I am in the UK

Just want one box with one remote control to watch TV !!!!

[/QUOTE]


Me too. Currently I have up to 5 devices and 5 remotes :

1. ATV3 - for Netflix, better quality than the FreeSat
2. Freesat - for actual TV and BBC iPlayer
3. Netgear NeoTV550 - for all my recorded video stuff (from NASs)
4. Mac mini - used for Amazon Prime (through a VNC connection from a iPad or MacBook)
5. TV - must turn the damn thing on !

I suppose a newer ATV could do 1 3 and 4 but 2 and 5 ?

 

[vipergts2207]

[QUOTE

I am in the UK

Just want one box with one remote control to watch TV !!!!

Me too. Currently I have up to 5 devices and 5 remotes :

1. ATV3 - for Netflix, better quality than the FreeSat
2. Freesat - for actual TV and BBC iPlayer
3. Netgear NeoTV550 - for all my recorded video stuff (from NASs)
4. Mac mini - used for Amazon Prime (through a VNC connection from a iPad or MacBook)
5. TV - must turn the damn thing on !

I suppose a newer ATV could do 1 3 and 4 but 2 and 5 ?[/QUOTE]

A Logitech Harmony remote is the answer.

 

[drsox]

Me too. Currently I have up to 5 devices and 5 remotes :

1. ATV3 - for Netflix, better quality than the FreeSat
2. Freesat - for actual TV and BBC iPlayer
3. Netgear NeoTV550 - for all my recorded video stuff (from NASs)
4. Mac mini - used for Amazon Prime (through a VNC connection from a iPad or MacBook)
5. TV - must turn the damn thing on !

I suppose a newer ATV could do 1 3 and 4 but 2 and 5 ?

A Logitech Harmony remote is the answer.[/QUOTE]

Good idea, but doesn't control the Mac mini through VNC. Might well be the answer for 2,3,5 though - I'll try. I just love the ATV remote - such an elegant alternative to all the anonymous black sticks. When I had a B&O TV that had an impressive remote also, but complex.