Apple Seeds Second Beta of tvOS 17.6 to Developers

[MacRumors]

Apple today seeded the second beta of an upcoming tvOS 17.6 to developers for testing purposes, with the second beta coming two weeks after the release of the first beta.

Registered developers are able to download the tvOS 17.6 update by opting in to the beta through the Settings app on the Apple TV. A registered developer account is required.

tvOS software releases are usually minor in scale compared to other operating system updates, focusing primarily on smaller improvements rather than outward-facing changes. We don't yet know what's included in tvOS 17.6.

Apple shares some information on tvOS releases in its tvOS support document, which is updated after each tvOS launch, but Apple does not provide notes during beta testing.

Though we don't always know what's new in tvOS betas, we let MacRumors readers know when new updates are available so those who are developers can download new software upon release.

Article Link: Apple Seeds Second Beta of tvOS 17.6 to Developers

 

[artifex]

I hope someone pokes around the firmware looking for new devices.
I'll hold off if I know a better one's coming this year, otherwise I'll hope for a Amazon/Best Buy/Micro Center AppleTV price war over Prime Days. (Amazon has been out of stock of the ones shipped and sold by them/official Apple account for days.)

 

[Powerbooky]

I hope someone pokes around the firmware looking for new devices.
I'll hold off if I know a better one's coming this year, otherwise I'll hope for a Amazon/Best Buy/Micro Center AppleTV price war over Prime Days. (Amazon has been out of stock of the ones shipped and sold by them/official Apple account for days.)

How about an M4 AppleTV 4K or even 8K? That would be something.

From a professional stand point hardware playback ProRes support would be a very nice to have. I can see a few applications to use that.

 

[Sherry Livingston]

One or two updates ago our AppleTV started having small but annoying issues. Often when starting to stream video the TV and AppleTV loose connection for few seconds.

Also the play/pause button does not work on all the apps.

 

[Getabeard80]

How about an M4 AppleTV 4K or even 8K? That would be something.

From a professional stand point hardware playback ProRes support would be a very nice to have. I can see a few applications to use that.

8k is still years away, think 2030. Yes there are a few TVs that can support it, however, the only content available is compressed YouTube file and only 1, yes 1, movie.

 

[haydesigner]

Also the play/pause button does not work on all the apps.

That's an app issue, not an AppleTV issue.

 

[Sherry Livingston]

That's an app issue, not an AppleTV issue.

Agree. But did Apple change something at some point, because I never had this issue with any app. Nowadays several apps have this issue.

 

[Sherry Livingston]

And the biggest bug at the moment is that in one of the apps HDR version of certain sport streams suddenly stopped working.

And as those happen to be the Euro Cup 2024 streams…. Samsung SmartTV and PS5 have been my favourite streaming machines during the last week. And I have started to think that do we even need the AppleTV.

Somehow I feel that AppleTV is not anymore way ahead of the competition….

 

[Powerbooky]

8k is still years away, think 2030. Yes there are a few TVs that can support it, however, the only content available is compressed YouTube file and only 1, yes 1, movie.

I know, it was just a crazy idea for more professional use (since I work in the television broadcasting business). There's enough content but not available on public channels. But in a way it is competition for many (smaller) cinema's. And besides that... the monitors that do support fully 8K are indeed very, very expensive. Even a proper 4K screen is expensive.

And the biggest bug at the moment is that in one of the apps HDR version of certain sport streams suddenly stopped working.

And as those happen to be the Euro Cup 2024 streams…. Samsung SmartTV and PS5 have been my favourite streaming machines during the last week. And I have started to think that do we even need the AppleTV.

Somehow I feel that AppleTV is not anymore way ahead of the competition….

That isn't really an ATV issue, rather than a services problem in the app itself. The 4K HDR thing is that it still is in a testing phase. The extra care and bandwidth during production isn't really profitable for now as most broadcasters only take the 1080 HD SDR package from the UEFA. 4K HDR on Euro2024 is technical showcase for now in the broadcasting industry, just like it will be on the upcoming Olympics. So I'm not surprised that some apps just stop working. It may as well be a plain broadcasting rights issue.

For that matter, every new event will make some platform popular for some time until the services/apps stop working.
The ATV itself is very good and has a much more smooth UI than most TV's. And software support doesn't end after one or two years in an attempt to make you buy a newer TV. Our ATV 4K 2017 still gets new software, runs all services available at high bitrates and doesn't stutter at all. Couldn't do that with Chromecast.

 

[Sherry Livingston]

The problem is only with AppleTV version of the app. The same stream works in PS5 and Samsung TV.

And strangest thing is that the stream worked also in AppleTV for few days and then stopped. And neither the app or the AppleTV has received any updates…