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Apple Announces New Apple TV With Siri, App Store, New User Interface and Remote

sandmanfvr said:
Ok I have seen this one. The audio come out hdmi and optical same time? Any issues with the box needing powers off?
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As far as I know the audio goes out both at the same time. I have the optical plugged into a receiver and HDMI into a monitor (without speakers).

I haven't noticed any issues with power cycling or needing to reset it, but in full disclosure, mine gets turned off every now and then (every few days or so) when I turn off my surge protector/UPS when I'm not using the equipment. So maybe that is enough to avoid the issues others say they have had? For my uses though this switch has worked well.
 
jettredmont said:
The issue is that Apple doesn't put out products for techies. When Apple puts something out, a key part of the Apple Brand is "this is going to work for me". Apple doesn't tend to put out something that is technically capable of doing something if most people aren't going to be able to use it on Day 1. Apple will put out a 4k AppleTV when (if?) 4K content is available enough at a non-embarrassing quality, can be streamed to most people's houses at non-embarrassing quality, and can be displayed on a good portion of peoples' hardware. That is when Apple will get a splash (among the non-techie crowd that is the majority of their customer base) from supporting 4k, not before.
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Please explain this thinking vs. new iPhones (presumably to be bought by "most people") shooting 4K but having no "just works" way of pushing that video to their 4K TVs.

Or how about adopting USB3C, lightning or thunderbolt before "most people" could do anything with it on Day 1?

Or how about 720p :apple:TV1 before "most people" had 720p HDTVs (did "most people" ever even buy 720p HDTVs)?

Again, I appreciate how we can always rationalize anything Apple endorses but here- in this one presentation- Apple both endorsed 4K video (in new iPhones) and left it out of :apple:TV4, leaving no elegant, easy, "non-techy" way for those who shoot 4K video on those phones to play it at 4K on their 4K TVs. Reminds me of the presentation where Apple rolled out a new iPad with retina and the iPad mini without: many of "us" were quick to rationalize why retina was "must have" on one but "not needed" on the other... until the next year, when the next mini launched with retina and then it was "must have".
 
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wlossw said:
Plex app and integrate local media in search please.
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Alex would be amazing!! I would also like for Amazon Prime to have an app. It would be great when you search for a show they would include other apps for the search.
 
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Jules R said:
Am I the only one who is really bummed they took out the optical audio out? This really affects hooking up to a real home theater system
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You're not the only one. All of us with "zone 2" receivers that need analog audio in will now potentially have to look at yet another adapter to try to split audio out of the HDMI jack. Unless there's an HDMI splitter with an analog out, that means HDMI splitter to toslink converter to analog in (2 adapters plus lots of hope that both will work together on a consistent basis).

:apple:TV is a FANTASTIC music collection jukebox (FAR superior to those old CD hardware jukeboxes (remember those?)). But it definitely needs easy way to pump that music out to receivers beyond a single HDMI cable. First generation actually had dedicated analog audio out way back in 2007. Then, Apple decided to improve upon that.
 
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Again with Apple's eye-bleeding white backgrounds. There's a reason why pretty much no TV interfaces (consoles, cable/sat boxes, Netflix, etc) have white backgrounds: it's brutal on your eyes, especially at night when many people are watching.

Apple has an obsession with white backgrounds and not only does it look unfinished but it'll really cause long term eye problems.

Otherwise, looks decent.
 
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rhett7660 said:
Really? HDMI won't work for you?
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Any setup where the audio is split would need an optical out or a audio passthrough on the TV, but if you have a decent tv like a plasma then it's quite likely that dropping optical out would be a problem. It also means that the new Apple TV can not be a drop-in replacement for the existing in setups where the optical audio was used for AirPlay to a stereo.

Personally I'm still on a circa 2006 plasma since it's a great picture and my tuner/amp works great. I really don't want to chase some of the advanced features because they just turn over so fast these days which is a shame.
 
HobeSoundDarryl said:
I guess we're splitting hairs. By "main menu", I mean it's always locked up at the top with "Movies", "TV Shows", "Music" etc, not mixed into the long list of apps that now exist below the "main menu". The picture of the orange icon that is probably "computers" in the new UI appears to be mixed in and dropped off of the "main menu".

Here's a photo of the original UI that I think came with your :apple:TV 2...

main-menu.jpg


Now yes, the green icon for "computers" in the photo can be viewed as a "separate app" much like the trailers or WSJ apps below it. But try to move it off the main menu row.

On :apple:TV3 (and probably your own :apple:TV3 updated to the latest UI), "Computers" is still on the main row and is an orange icon. It also can't be moved off the main row.

Looking at the one picture shown of the new :apple:TV4 UI, it appears that if that icon is the "Computers" app icon, our own media is no longer important enough to be locked at the top (or perhaps NO icon is important enough to be locked at the top)? We'll see in upcoming reviews.
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Literally with every new :apple:TV OS release, our personal content has been marginalized and minimized even further. In the first :apple:TV, "My Movies" was the first item in the first list:

215576-apple-tv-3-0-home-screen.jpg

Looks likje they are burying it even deeper in the newest OS. Kinds of silly when you consider it is the only feature that :apple:TV has that none of the other set top boxes even come close to offering the simplicity of.
 
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Traverse said:
If Apple introduces a good game controller, the Apple TV could become an acceptable gaming machine with apps such as Final Fantasy and other higher-end games.
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Oh man, I just realized.... If Square Enix releases all their FF ports for Apple TV. Ughhhh yeeesssss.
I wonder if there's a universal app option that includes Apple TV for iPhone and iPad apps? Especially with iOS 9s selective download feature. That would be awesome....... I've been AirPlaying FF7 and it makes me wish they officially supported that feature and turned the iPhone screen into a controller-only display if you don't have an MFi controller.
 
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I barely use my less than 1 year old Apple TV to begin with as there is only one hi def TV in the house and the kids are usually on it. I do think this upgrade is a step in the right direction though.
 
Can't beat a Mac mini hooked up to a 65" Sony 4k.. That's the direction I felt Apple TV was going to go.

TV in.
Optical / hdmi.
Usb expansion.
System wide Siri.
Apps in the dock inc App Store / NF / Hulu / Plex / games etc. exposed with a swipe up over live TV.
Picture in picture.
Title bar with date / time / wifi etc.
Flash storage.
Safari.
Photos.
Messaging.
iTunes.
Notifications swipe in from top right like OSX.
Notification centre.
Live desktop wallpaper should you switch from TV / Apps etc.
Motion screen savers.
User accounts.

Maybe in another 5 years..
 
The tvOS is the big announcement here. It's going to completely distinguish the Apple TV from the competition. So many spec chasers here missing the forest for the trees. As many have already said, 4k streaming is a joke for most people. It's not a good experience. I have fantastic bandwidth, and I still get buffering from time to time on 1080p. Until the internet infrastructure catches up, Apple won't support it. Historically Apple has always opted for a better user experience, vs. offering flexibility for a niche market (yes, it's niche outside of the tech blog realm).

Personally, I'm super excited to see what developers come up with for this new OS. They'll roll out their subscription TV service and the homekit stuff soon, and eventually they'll get around to 4k.
 
Oh boy if Kodi app makes its way into the App Store then let me take out my credit card.
 
”…with support for key iOS technologies like Metal, GameKit, and UIKit, all of which will allow developers to bring console-quality games to the device.”'

Which is why it would be nice with an A9 chip, wouldn't it? It feels a bit like this Apple TV was supposed to be released last year then the iPhone 6 and the A8 chip came out.
 
Traverse said:
If Apple introduces a good game controller, the Apple TV could become an acceptable gaming machine with apps such as Final Fantasy and other higher-end games.
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Since this is their first open SDK Apple TV, my take is we'll see the performance increase come fifth generation when they have the moxy for the volume deals of the fancy parts.
 
utazdevl said:
Literally with every new :apple:TV OS release, our personal content has been marginalized and minimized even further. In the first :apple:TV, "My Movies" was the first item in the first list. Looks likje they are burying it even deeper in the newest OS. Kinds of silly when you consider it is the only feature that :apple:TV has that none of the other set top boxes even come close to offering the simplicity of.
Click to expand...

Yes, I will still argue that the final incarnation of :apple:TV1's navigation was the very best yet. Our own "movies" being in a menu called "movies" and our own "TV Shows" being in a menu called "TV Shows" was far more Apple-like "just works" than anything since. "Computers" doesn't sound like it should be the home of our own movies or TV Shows.

I wish Apple would go back and review that navigation and resurrect many great (IMO) lost features like those... and even using the "Shows" tag so that serialized movies (like Star Wars, Harry Potter, James Bond, etc) could lump into one menu item and all seasons of "TV shows" could appear in one Show menu item instead of being broken out, etc. There was a lot of great Apple UI innovation in :apple:TV1.
 
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