Apple Suggests Apple TV 4K Will Gain Dolby Atmos Support in Future tvOS Update

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Ahhhhh, "just one future update away..." the appeasing spin solution to all things any Apple product lacks. The same was slung for all of the bugs and issues with the "4" too. And then we wait and wait and wait for such updates, hoping even seemingly simple improvements are delivered in a timely manner.

What is lacking with the this oft-slung spin is the corresponding concept of WHEN. For example, it's also a phone in just one future update. It's also a super computer cluster node in just one future update. In other words, it can be almost anything possible in modern software if the software is written for it. So WHEN is it this... or that? It becomes this or that whenever Apple decides to get around to writing the software.

Maybe it actually will adopt ATMOS next week? Or maybe that's next year? Or maybe there will be ATMOS2 in play before it adopts ATMOS? My guess: tangibles like that left out usually find their way into the next hardware model (where new money can be made from touting them). In spite of this rumor, I suspect ATMOS is much more likely in the future "6" than in some upcoming software update even in the next year or two. We've seen this before. We should know how this works by now.

But I'll hope right with anyone else interested in it!

 

[LordVic]

novels contribute to the problem of kids being sick.

say what?

 

[840quadra]

Darn it Apple. Hadn’t considered a 4K HDR TV for many reasons. Looking at prices of them, They are really reasonable now, The 4K HDR TV is affordable, and, Free upgrades of purchased HD movies to 4K HDR... I think I may be at Costco / Best Buy, etc this week doing some shopping......

 

[JeffPerrin]

No Youtube in 4k. Deal breaker for me.

Pretty sure this it's up to YouTube to support 4K in their tvOS app. Give it time...

 

[belvdr]

say what?

I think they are referring to reading in a car can make some folks feel nauseous.

Darn it Apple. Hadn’t considered a 4K HDR TV for many reasons. Looking at prices of them, They are really reasonable now, The 4K HDR TV is affordable, and, Free upgrades of purchased HD movies to 4K HDR... I think I may be at Costco / Best Buy, etc this week doing some shopping......

I'd like 4K but it's still too pricey for me. I'm a few-hundred-dollar TV guy, not 4 digits and beyond. Additionally, I'd have to update my Roku, and considering there's not much 4K content that I wish to stream means I'm not looking yet. Of course, this is all chicken-and-egg. Someone (consumers or providers) needs to move first and provide a reason for the other to move too. I think it's more affordable for them.

As for ATV, I have an older model without the hard drive and a real old model with a hard drive. Honestly, I never liked Apple's interface nor their lockdown. I switched to Roku as I can put unofficial channels on it, if I like, and it seems to embrace things more quickly than Apple. Speaking of this, does Apple still consider the ATV a hobby?

 

[840quadra]

I think they are referring to reading in a car can make some folks feel nauseous.
I'd like 4K but it's still too pricey for me. I'm a few-hundred-dollar TV guy, not 4 digits and beyond. Additionally, I'd have to update my Roku, and considering there's not much 4K content that I wish to stream means I'm not looking yet. Of course, this is all chicken-and-egg. Someone (consumers or providers) needs to move first and provide a reason for the other to move too. I think it's more affordable for them.

As for ATV, I have an older model without the hard drive and a real old model with a hard drive. Honestly, I never liked Apple's interface nor their lockdown. I switched to Roku as I can put unofficial channels on it, if I like, and it seems to embrace things more quickly than Apple. Speaking of this, does Apple still consider the ATV a hobby?

There are plenty of 4K HDR TVs out there for under 4 digit pricing, depending on the size you need. My limit for space in rooms is about 50”. Have a Roku as well, not as big of a fan of it as you are, but it is nice. My ATV4 has VLC and is served content from my Mac Pro, and a few online sources. I can, essentially, watch anything I like on it.

 

[jeffreco]

I'm excited to get this update if for any other reason than much of my library is getting a free upgrade to 4K, but it won't become my primary streaming box until it can at least passthrough Atmos. I don't understand this not being a day one feature as a lot of people interested in 4k and UHD are going to want it. Love my Apple TV's, but it seems like every time they do a new roll out of it, they just miss the bullseye.

 

[lique831]

And novels!

Yes! My 3 year old loves reading novels on 8 hour road trips!

 

[fathergll]

I'm completely torn on my current TV setup. I have a 2012 Panasonic plasma which is quite good for 1080p blurays but so much content is moving over to streaming that's it's frustrating getting low quality HD stream from say Netflix that I'm considering 4k TV. Granted things get released to bluray but it's an expensive option and for example if i wanted to get Narcos season 3 i'd have to wait until the summer of 2018 for the bluray version which destroys the current HD version I get on my Roku.

I don't want to get rid of my plasma for no reason when it works so well but I also don't want to watch the Roku streams. The only way to get access to really good streams is 4k and investing money in blurays at this point seems stupid.

 

[belvdr]

There are plenty of 4K HDR TVs out there for under 4 digit pricing, depending on the size you need. My limit for space in rooms is about 50”. Have a Roku as well, not as big of a fan of it as you are, but it is nice. My ATV4 has VLC and is served content from my Mac Pro, and a few online sources. I can, essentially, watch anything I like on it.

I'm limited to roughly 55" TVs so I may take another look. I have had really good luck with LG so I prefer to stick with them but only if I can find something in the $500-600 range. I also prefer dumb TVs. In fact, it would be nice to simply get a monitor in that size, but when it's labeled a "monitor", the price goes up exponentially.

I have no local content, other than some DVDs laying around. I only dig those out once a year, if that. What part of the Roku bugs you and which model do you have?

 

[profets]

Gotta love Nilay's / The Verge's review.

Start off by complaining about Apple not supporting Youtube 4K HDR (maybe mention instead that it's Youtube who are currently choosing not to support HEVC/h265 like the rest of the industry and that they could still update their app for 4K?).

He does go on to praise how fluid and fast the UI is, and how only iTunes is offering 4K HDR movies for $20 ($30 elsewhere), but then says to just use apps built into your TV, or if you're going to spend money to get a $250 Xbox instead.

 

[splogue]

A slight disappointment that it doesn't support Atmos out of the box, but only slight given that they are working on adding it.

I have two systems that support Atmos, and it is fantastic. Instead of a flat circle of sound projecting outward from the television, it is a giant bubble of sound. It isn't just about hearing sounds from above, though there is that, it is more about hearing sounds from everywhere around you.

I've really been looking forward to the new Apple TV. I actually got up at 3AM to preorder mine (I'm on East coast), even though I was fairly certain I could have slept in and still made it into the first batch. I already have the cabling ready for when it arrives tomorrow!

 

[840quadra]

I'm limited to roughly 55" TVs so I may take another look. I have had really good luck with LG so I prefer to stick with them but only if I can find something in the $500-600 range. I also prefer dumb TVs. In fact, it would be nice to simply get a monitor in that size, but when it's labeled a "monitor", the price goes up exponentially.

I have no local content, other than some DVDs laying around. I only dig those out once a year, if that. What part of the Roku bugs you and which model do you have?

I am with you on the dumb TV. I have no interest in a smart TV, and LG & Sony are my usual Goto brands. Haven’t had Cable or OTA since 1999 , I have always had downloaded content, or watched DVD off of my computer onto TV sets.

The Roku I have is a 3, and it is just UI stuff that I don’t like that much. Honestly, I prefer to have something like a Linux / MacOS system connected to a TV over that. But, I am more used to that, Have had Computers hooked up to TV sets since the Quadra 840AV, I didn’t get mine until a couple years after it went out of production.

 

[splogue]

Not totally familiar with Dolby Atmos... but if there is also a headphone implementation like Dolby Headphone (virtual surround over headphones) then that's good news for apartment dwellers in NYC as one can't set up a home theater easily.

Dolby does have a headphone version of Atmos. No idea if the ATV will support it of course, but the XBox S does with a small additional charge for the Dolby app. I have it, and it works very well.

 

[BWhaler]

Seems like Apple is really taking a beating on these launches.

I think this is a good thing.

To be clear, I don’t mean to be disrespectful to the people who worked so hard, who sacrificed so much, to bring these products to market. It’s unbelievably hard to do.

But Apple has overly emphasized hardware as it’s AI, apps, cloud services have lagged. Hopefully this will be a bit of a wake up call for them.

These reviews of Apple Watch, Apple TV, and users reactions to ios 11 on the Apple boards should be a big wake up call for them.

 

[Darryl.Jenks]

Wake me when this this catches up to years-old tech. I'll pay 100% of the money when the device actually delivers a first-rate experience.

 

[BWhaler]

Why does Apple ship products behind what the market delivers? For more money.

The end of this review is correct. Subtle, but correct. An AppleTV, or an iphone truthfully, sits in the midst of a bigger ecosystem. The days of Apple being so far ahead of everyone else in ways that made us forgive missing key capabilities is long gone.

Apple has to get better at shipping quality, full-featured apps and cloud solutions.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

I'm completely torn on my current TV setup. I have a 2012 Panasonic plasma which is quite good for 1080p blurays but so much content is moving over to streaming that's it's frustrating getting low quality HD stream from say Netflix that I'm considering 4k TV. Granted things get released to bluray but it's an expensive option and for example if i wanted to get Narcos season 3 i'd have to wait until the summer of 2018 for the bluray version which destroys the current HD version I get on my Roku.

I don't want to get rid of my plasma for no reason when it works so well but I also don't want to watch the Roku streams. The only way to get access to really good streams is 4k and investing money in blurays at this point seems stupid.

You do realize that this new box will stream highest quality 1080p to your existing TV just fine, right? In other words, one does not have to buy a new 4K TV to use this new box from Apple.

As to "low quality HD streams," just step back to any 4K thread about TV posted more than a week ago and the bulk of this crowd will ridicule 4K to no end, calling it a useless gimmick, "that I can't see" (so you can't either), and a whole host of recycled arguments they also used against 1080p while Apple still clung to 720p as HD before they released the "3." Unless all those people didn't know what they were talking about, you are already perfectly equipped "as is."

Of course, they all seem to have mysteriously disappeared as soon as Apple rolled out this new 4K box, not daring to call Apple stupid for embracing the "gimmick" that "no one can see" per "the chart"... even without the whole internet being upgraded to handle the bandwidth and storage options being exactly the same as they were before, etc. Where have those people gone?

Wait, I see some of them in new threads showing enthusiasm for what Apple has for sale now. Apparently 4K was just a useless, stupid thing last week and before. Now that Apple has embraced it in this new box, it's "shut up and take my money" time for all.

 

[randyhudson]

Why is this a big surprise? It's not like the Apple TV has to process the audio signal in any way. It just has to send the data straight out to the receiver, speaker bar, etc.

 

[Brenster]

Atmos, and the implication that it requires DD+ bitstream output for external decoding, would be the icing on the cake. Already switched to buying movies on iTunes as I’m tired of accumulating generation after generation of physical medi (VHS then Laserdisc then DVD then HDDVD and/then BluRay). Only 1080 capable on the Tv but can decode DD+ on the AVR as Fire Tv let’s me do.

HDR on my iPP and iTunes Extras are great already, just need Atmos/DD+ bitstream to seal the 4K system upgrade deal.

 

[blackcrayon]

No Youtube in 4k. Deal breaker for me.

Hopefully a temporary issue, but like the article says it needs to be supported by Apple software across the board (iOS Safari, macos Safari).

But since the Youtube App is not an Apple app, I don't see why Google couldnt just make a version of the app with the decoder built in.

 

[mdelvecchio]

Why is Apple always so late to the game on visual and sound quality? Why is experience quality second rate to them? It's weird.

How long has Google ShieldTV, Roku, and a myriad of smartTV's had 4K, HDR, and bitsream for Atmos/DTS. Since before AppleTV4...

ATV4 is two years old. As a techie I’d never even heard of Atmos two years ago, so it’s not a priority for Apple since normals don’t care. Apple products are for the mass market of normals.

 

[fathergll]

You do realize that this new box will stream highest quality 1080p to your existing TV just fine, right? In other words, one does not have to buy a new 4K TV to use this new box from Apple.

1080p movies from Apple are not "highest quality". I've downloaded them from the store. They tend to be around 5GB in size and in no way can compete with a movie that is roughly 30GB from a Blu ray. The sound is especially a weak point.

 

[iReality85]

Why is Apple always so late to the game on visual and sound quality? Why is experience quality second rate to them? It's weird.

How long has Google ShieldTV, Roku, and a myriad of smartTV's had 4K, HDR, and bitsream for Atmos/DTS. Since before AppleTV4...

Relax, not too many consumers are even utilizing Dolby Atmos at the moment. Even if it's supported by ATV, it needs to be supported by a) your AVR or TV, and b) encoded into the content itself (movie). There needs to be end-to-end support, just like 4K, Dolby Vision, etc.

At the moment, most people who are enjoying Dolby Atmos are doing so with their AVR, since otherwise only high end TVs support it right now (and if you own a high end TV, chances are you also own at least a mid-level AVR which would support Dolby Atmos).

The ATV5 comes with HDMI 2.0a, and people have been able to use Dolby Atmos since HDMI 1.4. However, Dolby Atmos won't really take off until HDMI 2.1, which allows for eARC (Enhanced Audio Return Channel) over HDMI, and takes advantage of object-based sound set ups. Fortunately, HDMI 2.1 allows manufacturers to "cherry pick" specs, which means companies like Apple can implement certain aspects of HDMI 2.1 without going fully from HDMI 2.0a/b to HDMI 2.1.

My take on this is that Apple is saying they'll add support for eARC, and thus Dolby Atmos, in a future iOS11 update.

 

[bladerunner2000]

Is the Apple TV 5 still gimped by having a USB port on the back but purposely not allowing you to connect an external drive so apps like VLC can playback content natively?