Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
I suppose I'll buy the new version.......If I ever get around to buying a 4K TV.

I was an early adopter. The first person I knew to get a DVD player. And first again with a 1080P TV, HD DVD, and Blu-ray. But then something happened.... I skipped 3D TV, and still haven't jumped onboard with 4K TV. I just don't see the return on investment. Unless the TV is huge, or the viewing distance unusually close, I don't see enough of a difference to warrant the investment.

Now 4K (or 5K) for a computer screen is a completely different story, as I sit much closer.
 
There still isn't. I happily bought an Apple TV 4 and I won't miss anything by not having a 4K version.

Not trying to 'defend' anything but I don't feel the remotest bit of concern by not having 4K.

I'm more irritated that most UK tv companies still haven't released tvOS apps.

Not sure why you're surprised by this, they had no presence on the previous geo ATVs and there is nothing to suggest that Apple sell enough of these things to make it worth their time or investment particularly the likes of C4 ITV etc who don't have the luxury of fleecing people for a licence fee like the BBC do.

Honestly I just don't see the point in owning an Apple TV in the UK, unless you've got an absolute tonne of iTunes video content. You can get Netflix, iPlayer and most of the other interesting services on much cheaper devices. Remote is terrible too.
 
  • Like
Reactions: nebo1ss
so, we'll still have a slightly larger Apple TV "box" anyway..

U can only cram so much in to same size, until u either start loosing stuff, or making it bigger.

Maybe the old Apple did that for free... :D

Content will be the big question from Apple. Apple's not gonna offer 4K movies or anyting for free.. Copyright holders will strike Apple like lightening.
 
I'm not interested in 4K until 4K is pretty much the standard for everything: shows, movies, tv shows, sports.

There's only some stuff on Youtube, Netflix and Amazon right now. Considering they took forever just to get to broadcast 1080i/720p, by the time 4k becomes standard, we'll have 8K or better.
 
IMO, the ATV3 apps are a lot better than their ATV4 counterparts, so if your ATV3 is working fine for you, I would recommend sticking with that.
Do you mean "resell" movies to people that already bought 1080p or 720p in iTunes?
If I remember correctly, the last time iTunes switched to 1080p, all my existing purchased content had the option to upgrade to 1080p for free.

You are correct; however, I recently got into a heated exchange with a Apple Rep via email about this. She said that Apple never did this. You see, the external hard drive that had all of my downloaded purchases failed. When I went back to re-download them, some of the movies weren't in 1080. The email exchange ended with me having to tell the Rep that not only was this true, but I was also working for Apple at the time and I remember telling customers about it. Now it seems that if you don't keep a copy of those movies you upgraded for free, you will have to purchase them again after a period of time. I guess that there is a time restriction.

I contacted some old co-workers. They all remembered because it was a big deal. We had a training for it. I remember being happy because I didn't have to be on the floor that day and I would be able to upgrade all of my movies when I got home.

I am so tired of the new Apple Reps who repley to you as if you don't know anything, especially to former employees. Some of the people they have working in their call centers are reading from a script, are impatient, don't read your emails throughly and know nothing. I got so mad, because it became a back and forth exchange that wasn't necessary. I wasn't going to let the Rep have the last the word. She was acting as though I had asked her for a credit, which I didn't. I ended the exchange with,"When you no longer work for Apple, you will then understand how this feels. Don't send me anymore emails!"

Sorry about this being so long. I saw your reply and I was like, "this person remembers! This is why I love Mac Rumors!" I don't post much, because when I was in "the cult" we knew that Apple kept an eye one everything we posted online. Yes, we were told not to post anything on this site. I've seen some current employees on here. I wish them all the best. Maybe it's different now under Tim Cook. Nevertheless, it makes me laugh becuase, it's taken me years to get a lot of that programing out of my system.
 
Last edited:
I'll just say that since I switched to a Roku Ultra from my 4th gen ATV when I got a new HDR 4k TV I have missed it quite a bit. The apps are much better and the interface is much better. I really hope this is true, I'll be getting it right away if so.

Of course, anyone that can comes here and says the Roku experience is better than Apple TV is a flat out liar or just trolling because they have no life. The ui on Roku is a joke, The amazon fire was also terrible but the recent refresh has improved it
 
Of course, anyone that can comes here and says the Roku experience is better than Apple TV is a flat out liar or just trolling because they have no life. The ui on Roku is a joke, The amazon fire was also terrible but the recent refresh has improved it

It could be that some people just prefer it. There is certainly nothing magical about the ATV UI.
 
There is already millions of devices that have 4K capabilities that are in the wild...iPhones! With no where to show this footage bar a small screen computer.

Then you have all of Netflix originals in 4K, Youtube, Google Play movies following out 4K rentals and purchases, Amazon Prime and many other 4K video apps.

There is a tonne of content out there already.

4K TVs have been adopted faster than anything proceeding it in its current life cycle. That is to say after 4 years of sales they are the majority of the market, compared to HD or even CRT panels DVD and Blu-ray sales. In the next year it will be something like 90/10 split in 4K vs 1080p TVs if not higher.

Plus they are much cheaper now than ever with 4K OLED getting very competitive it's a no brainier.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bjorn Jarnankar
Not sure why you're surprised by this, they had no presence on the previous geo ATVs and there is nothing to suggest that Apple sell enough of these things to make it worth their time or investment particularly the likes of C4 ITV etc who don't have the luxury of fleecing people for a licence fee like the BBC do.

Honestly I just don't see the point in owning an Apple TV in the UK, unless you've got an absolute tonne of iTunes video content. You can get Netflix, iPlayer and most of the other interesting services on much cheaper devices. Remote is terrible too.

I actually like the remote. The way we get films now seems to be iTunes. Plus we get our content from Netflix and NowTV.

We could have got a cheaper device but would have missed iTunes and Apple Music, and the third party games.
 
I like the 4K content I have. In the UK, I cannot see how they can integrate the big two 4k players in the live TV market onto the Apple platform. Netflix is my other source as is a stand alone bluray player. The live sport is very good, the films on the player are excellent especially with HDR, however Netflix HDR is hit and miss though the 4k is very good.

When I first saw the Apple TV 4 in the shop, I nearly bought it there and then however the content pricing struck me as odd. I have netflix, already paid for and I have live sport already paid for. So with the greatest respect to Apple TV, I was not about to buy a 1080 solution with a 4k tv that needed extra 1080 content paying for.

The trick they will have to pull off is integrating all the content available. I am not sure what is covered live in the US or what the delivery speeds are like, but certainly I would like to see some offering here in the UK. Not sure what the world wide market is like. The trick will be to get people like me from existing content providers. If there is a bluray film available, and the Apple TV offering is a lessor quality, the bluray win.

Edit. That last bit about bluray winning, that is unless there is an overall benefit that will tempt me.
 
Even if there were plenty of 4k content, the lack of upgrade pricing on iTunes makes it a nonstarter for me. I'm not double dipping. The studios have made a real disaster out of 4k Blu-ray codes. Many don't redeem in 4k, and of those that do many only redeem in 4k on certain sites so you need a spreadsheet to figure out where to redeem your code. Pick the wrong one you're screwed. Ultraviolet isn't very useful if I have to redeem and view my 4k content on each studio's specific site. And of course none of the 4k codes redeem at iTunes, it's all Ultraviolet, which further dampens my enthusiasm.
 
Don't skate where the puck is, skate where it's going to be. That's how Apple is supposed to think, isn't it? It's funny, I've seen you (if I'm mistaking you for someone else, apologies) on the other side of this argument when it comes to Apple getting rid of legacy tech and embracing the future. What's so different now?

Apple's development of the ATV has been lackluster compared to their other ventures. All of their other products support 4K in one fashion or another and the one product specifically designed for viewing doesn't support it. It makes no sense. Even just taking into consideration all of the 4K content that can be created on iPhones, you'd think they would have an outlet for that content on the ATV.
Also, can we please talk about how the Apple TV is in the upper end of the price-spectrum for its product category and that Apple tries to establish more and more that they are a PREMIUM brand?

What's premium about maxing out at FHD in 2016/7? Exactly: nothing.
The $30 Android box from China could do FHD years ago, 4K is in that range by now as well, stop sleeping Apple.

And H.265 needs to be here yesterday, certainly for 4K recording too on the iPhone. H.264 4K footage and no expandable storage? :eek:
(And no, iCloud is NOT storage expansion)

Glassed Silver:win
 
I find it interesting that all the defenders are so hung up on "content", which I assume is referring to video content like films and series. It's not like there was a ton of great apps when iPhone 1 was release, but Apple made it possible. They were ahead.

But let's disregard "content" for a second. What about having a more crisp interface? What about viewing my photos on my TV without upscaling low resolution versions? Or even viewing my own 4K filmed videos? Let's not forget all apps and games who could greatly benefit from more resolution.

It's just very weird that Apple, who's been previously pushing the importance of retina and image quality, until now (?) saying 1080p is "good enough".
 
God forbid Apple accept lower than 40% profit margins. Sometimes, positioning a product as a loss-leader is necessary to gain market share. Particularly in the set top streaming market, and facing stiff competition from Google, Amazon, and Roku.

It wouldn't even matter if Apple loses a bit of money on hardware, money is generated by selling content.

Who wants to get a 200$ set top TV box to be limited in choices compared to competing products for one third the price?
 
Mine freezes all the time for seconds at a time and then comes back to life, un-queuing all of the clicks I did while it was hung. Very annoying. I don't use the included remote any more because I got tired of swiping down through long lists of movies in my library (because they won't allow Siri to search through the embedded meta data) only to accidentally swiped slightly sideways and have it move to a different menu, forcing me to start all over again at the top of the list.

Mine has been stuttery and freezes a lot since the release of that terrible TV App. I had such high hopes for it. I have 500 movies and TV Shows on iTunes, so I'm stuck with the ATV, but yeah, lately, haven't been too happy with it. I also hate that when I'm browsing the store the stupid thing doesn't let me know what content I already purchased. I have to accidently buy something before it'll say "Oh, you already purchased do you want to buy again..." Why can't it show me that I purchased the item the minute I click on it like EVERY online store in existence? Hyperbole, I'm sure there are some out there just as bad and backwards as iTunes.
 
I've been saying for a while that ATV4 was a huge disappointment and I'm still using my ATV3 since 2012.

I'd really like to see an ATV5 released before the holidays that includes 4K support with an A10X.

Apple should keep the ATV4 on the market at a cheaper price point.
 
I find it interesting that all the defenders are so hung up on "content", which I assume is referring to video content like films and series. It's not like there was a ton of great apps when iPhone 1 was release, but Apple made it possible. They were ahead.

But let's disregard "content" for a second. What about having a more crisp interface? What about viewing my photos on my TV without upscaling low resolution versions? Or even viewing my own 4K filmed videos? Let's not forget all apps and games who could greatly benefit from more resolution.

It's just very weird that Apple, who's been previously pushing the importance of retina and image quality, until now (?) saying 1080p is "good enough".

No one ever mentions how nice 1080p content looks upscaled to 4k as well. I bought a 4K TV last year and can never go back to 1080p.

Apple is just strategically slowly trickling out features for their products that competitors already have each year rather than releasing truly innovative devices anymore.
 
  • Like
Reactions: AsherN and oldmacs
Content will be the big question from Apple. Apple's not gonna offer 4K movies or anyting for free.. Copyright holders will strike Apple like lightening.

This may end up being true, but I am pretty sure that Apple offered free 1080p movies and TV show upgrades when they upgraded iTunes from 720p to 1080p.

I really do not see a difference other than the different leadership at Apple.
 
So why are you commenting? Just look at the post, say to yourself "huh, not for me", and move on.

Well since some comments touches the 1080 vs 4K in a negativ manner I simply commented that I welcome 4K but I won't buy it initially because I don't have a 4K TV. But, that means that the ATV4 will (probably) come down in price which I welcome.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.