Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple TV 4K initial impressions
- Thread starter cmsj
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Same here in Italy, with Apple TV64GB and Vodafone fiber.
When i connect the AppleTV to the router by cable the ATV is able to block them self and ALL devices connected with the router. Seriously!
I just connected the Atv to another router (xiaomi) that is more powerful and even by CABLE it work amazing (70Mbit in download without issue). I think AppleTV is huge of resource for the ethernet port of my old router but not for the new one.
Sounds like my issue. Once the ATV stops working via ethernet, none of my other ethernet ports work with other devices connected. I then have to reboot the router. I left the ATV on wifi last night and everything else seemed to stay connected via ethernet.
Is this what you were experiencing?
But it's not. Maybe in his specific instance, but from my experience, I've had a lot issues with older cables not displaying HDR properly and found out it was because I needed to update my cables. For a lot of people older cables may still work, but when issues occur it's usually the HDMI cable. Consider yourself lucky, but it's been proven time and again that this is NOT false. You may just be lucky that your cables still work.
Last edited:
My 32GB arrived today ... setup was a breeze, zero hassles using a Amazon HDMI 2.0 my Sony 65A1 looks superb.
No issues to report when watching Apple HD or 4K sources ... Netflix looks good too!
For me it’s better than my previous Apple TV’s picture quality on the same screen.
Hope that helps ...
No issues to report when watching Apple HD or 4K sources ... Netflix looks good too!
For me it’s better than my previous Apple TV’s picture quality on the same screen.
Hope that helps ...
Which 4k from apple have you viewed e.g. movie rentals or purchases.
Hdr or 4k non hdr.
It’s a fun design, but I put audio through a reciever and proper 3.1 speaker & woofer system; no TV speaker beat a decent HiFi system.
The ATV 4K sound is dope btw ...
The ATV 4K sound is dope btw ...
I’ll echo the ease of setup...really nice. Loving the syncing between ATV’s, too
This box is noticeably more responsive that the 4thGen. Moving between screens, launching apps, etc are all impressively fast. I have a couple of 3rd Gen ATV’s that I’m now selling off. I can’t take the old UI anymore, haha!!
The movie trailers look amazing in 4K, as do the screen saver videos.
I just wish they would’ve redesigned the remote beyond adding a white ring on the Menu button.
This box is noticeably more responsive that the 4thGen. Moving between screens, launching apps, etc are all impressively fast. I have a couple of 3rd Gen ATV’s that I’m now selling off. I can’t take the old UI anymore, haha!!
The movie trailers look amazing in 4K, as do the screen saver videos.
I just wish they would’ve redesigned the remote beyond adding a white ring on the Menu button.
I’m glad to hear that it’s more responsive, I never really found the old UI slow but it would hang from time to time. Such as when switching apps and stuff.
Hopefully I don’t notice any degraded 1080p content like The Verge was talking about on my TV. Once the Amazon Prime app is released I’ll be happy.
Just got mine a few minutes ago. Setup was very easy, but after using ‘setup with device’ it went through that setup and then hung in a loop. So I then selected manual setup and all finished just fine. Had my setup from my ATV4 and all.
Picture quality is fine on my 4K Sharp non-HDR set.
Picture quality is fine on my 4K Sharp non-HDR set.
That is the same issue i am having as well. When it was working i was getting the full speed, ~100mbps, but after a few minutes everything stopped. Have not had issues on wifi though.
+1
+1 nothing new here except a product that is worse than before.
I cannot believe apple released a product this bad. The fact the new apple tv up-scales everything is really stupid. The 4k hdr is super washed out and mutes colors, horribly, on 90% of content. The "screen saver" is artificially overdone.
using Anthem MRX 720 and sony xbr 65 930d (HDR 4k tv and appropriate pass-throughs)
as a test i used native netflix 4k built into the tv and put it up against the apple tv 4k netflix app, there was a clear difference. I have to run the new apple tv in SDR otherwise it looks like complete garbage.
I compared Pacific RIM bluray vs Pacific RIM from iTunes (4K streaming) and i can see pretty clear the picture quality difference. AppleTV4k was able to create picture more natural and clear where the BluRay version wasn't. I also made some comparation between "Guardians of Galaxy 2" from BluRay and other 4K movies from iTunes. For example in Collateral Beauty (ATV) some night scenes with some light look very incredibile (my tv is SDR, i can imagine will be more better on HDR tv): but on the BluRay version was not exactly the same.
I have not compared NetFlix because in my opinion the 4K is not compressed very well.
Looking forward to see some UHD Disc vs Appletv4K. Did someone compare that scenario?
I’m going to post my experience for anyone who has an LG C7 OLED. In short, I was extremely frustrated upon the first few days of use with my Apple TV 4K. From the “HDR Everything” to the lack of granular audio controls, I felt like I had downgraded from my Apple TV 4th gen. HOWEVER, after doing some extensive fiddling with settings, I am now pretty overjoyed with the box.
For those who have the LG C7, head over to rtings.com. I followed most of their settings, including the important note on setting Dynamic Contrast to Low. This activates a tone mapping function in the TV and I have noticed that it dramatically improves the HDR/D-Vision content.
But for the biggest improvement (and this has been covered by other helpful posters in other threads) - you must ensure that the Quick Start option is set to ON in your iTunes app settings. At first, I disabled it as the description makes one believe that you’d get better quality by turning it off as it would only play the highest quality at the expense of some buffering time. NOTE that I have 300Mbps internet, so speed isn’t an issue.... With Quick Start OFF, I rented a certified D-Vision 4K film from the iTunes Store - Kong: Skull Island. It looked pretty bad and then I noticed that it was just labeled as “HD” in the drop-down menu. After reading more into the Quick Start setting (and then also, at the same time, changing to the rtings.com settings for the TV), I turned on Quick Start, restarted the movie and WOW. Seriously - I have never seen such amazing picture on a home television. The HDR was bright, looked amazing, blacks were inky, colors were rich and full, and I just sat there for two hours in awe. (AND - I was pretty much expecting a crappy movie, but was pleasantly surprised. If you want to just have two hours of fun, monster-movie action wtih some great special effects, definitely watch this movie.)
Turns out that turning ON the Quick Start setting is telling the Apple TV that your internet is fast enough for 4K (they need to update the settings description for the feature as it’s very misleading). Now, my 300Mbps is bringing in stellar 4K rentals from iTunes, consistently.
Now, this doesn’t solve the problem of the “HDR Everything” as the non-native HDR content will still look over-processed, but I’ve read that Apple is working to better preserve the original non-HDR content in future updates.
So, I know that everyone has different experiences, settings, viewing scenarios, etc. But I hope this is helpful to those of you with a C7 who may need to tweak just a few things.
EDIT: Just adding a note that the Quick Start only impacts 4K HDR movies that are streamed from iTunes. It won’t affect other apps like Netflix or content that is streamed from your home network. But since 99% of my 4K HDR movie watching will be rentals from iTunes, this works for me. YMMV.
For those who have the LG C7, head over to rtings.com. I followed most of their settings, including the important note on setting Dynamic Contrast to Low. This activates a tone mapping function in the TV and I have noticed that it dramatically improves the HDR/D-Vision content.
But for the biggest improvement (and this has been covered by other helpful posters in other threads) - you must ensure that the Quick Start option is set to ON in your iTunes app settings. At first, I disabled it as the description makes one believe that you’d get better quality by turning it off as it would only play the highest quality at the expense of some buffering time. NOTE that I have 300Mbps internet, so speed isn’t an issue.... With Quick Start OFF, I rented a certified D-Vision 4K film from the iTunes Store - Kong: Skull Island. It looked pretty bad and then I noticed that it was just labeled as “HD” in the drop-down menu. After reading more into the Quick Start setting (and then also, at the same time, changing to the rtings.com settings for the TV), I turned on Quick Start, restarted the movie and WOW. Seriously - I have never seen such amazing picture on a home television. The HDR was bright, looked amazing, blacks were inky, colors were rich and full, and I just sat there for two hours in awe. (AND - I was pretty much expecting a crappy movie, but was pleasantly surprised. If you want to just have two hours of fun, monster-movie action wtih some great special effects, definitely watch this movie.)
Turns out that turning ON the Quick Start setting is telling the Apple TV that your internet is fast enough for 4K (they need to update the settings description for the feature as it’s very misleading). Now, my 300Mbps is bringing in stellar 4K rentals from iTunes, consistently.
Now, this doesn’t solve the problem of the “HDR Everything” as the non-native HDR content will still look over-processed, but I’ve read that Apple is working to better preserve the original non-HDR content in future updates.
So, I know that everyone has different experiences, settings, viewing scenarios, etc. But I hope this is helpful to those of you with a C7 who may need to tweak just a few things.
EDIT: Just adding a note that the Quick Start only impacts 4K HDR movies that are streamed from iTunes. It won’t affect other apps like Netflix or content that is streamed from your home network. But since 99% of my 4K HDR movie watching will be rentals from iTunes, this works for me. YMMV.
i had a problem with my yamaha amp and the 4k atv , turning off bluetooth on the amp sorted that out
it refused to play itunes movies and instead was air playing just the sound
it refused to play itunes movies and instead was air playing just the sound
I have the same TV and internet set up. Agree with everything you said. I'll try the rtings settings. I've had nothing but problems with the ATV. Although I will say I watched Transformers all the way through, the first move I did - I've just been spot checking throughout the week and I will say after about 10 minutes the video quality cleared up and it did look 4kISH in some scenes, but it was still horribly compressed and soft in others. Same with Wonder Woman and I compared WW to the UDH BR and it was night and day.
[doublepost=1506769738][/doublepost]
thanks! and the previews are the 4k versions, you'll have to go into the movies themselves which is what I did to spot check the quality. I watched 5 or 10 minutes of 10 different 4k movies.
Yes, I’m spot-checking as well. I’m noticing that not all encodes are created equally. Wonder Woman looked a little garish and overly grainy (however I’ve read that was intentional). I’m glad I rented Kong as it shows that when a movie is econded properly and well, then the ATV 4K can also produce a stellar picture.
And a note on the rtings settings - I’d advise against doing the granular CMS (color management) controls as those are so specific to your set’s physical makeup that it likely will produce some awful effects (banding, etc.). So, stick to their settings minus the CMS (they even say the same).
While I can relate to the HDR-everything complaint, I do not see any differences between the two on audio front. Did I overlook something?
I have the C7 and changed it to 4K/Dolby Vision at 30MHZ really improved the PQ over the 4k/DV 60hz setting. And you want Dolby Vision over HDR10. DV is just better and doesn't impact the whole movie/picture like HDR10 does.
[doublepost=1506770226][/doublepost]
Well the other issue with doing is, is like you said not all encodes are equal. Some movies are clearly better than others. John Wick 1 & 2, Sully, Deadpool, MadMax & Pacific Rim are some good ones to test.
Are you able to post some pics from the DISC and ATV4k? Because i read many review that say "atv4k and disc are pretty similar". Of course, I'm not expecting similar to be the 'same'. But you say "night and day" that means a lot of difference between the two versions.
You can't really show it in pictures. You have to do your own tests. But watch say John Wick on 4K UHD BR and watch the iTunes version. The iTunes version is barely streaming in 1080p that alone 4k. You can tell just by looking at the closeups. On the iTunes stream it is too damn soft and fuzzy as heck.
