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Apple TV 4K Reviews: Expensive But With Cheaper 4K Movies, Some Limitations Like 1080p YouTube

With the amount of cash etc that Apple has why is it always behind. They release this 4k hdr capable apple tv like it is the greatest thing but then dont support atmos out of the box ? why is it a software update in the future (that will never come) .. it makes no sense
 
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840quadra said:
You may be correct.

My thought process is more on the software side. I think the real issue is that Google hasn’t updated their Apple TV application to support 4K. Either because they haven’t had access to, or, chose not to. Making a codec / content that supports Apple devices, is nothing new for Google, they have done it in the past. They may not see any value in it now, or, haven’t started work on it.
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Google isnt going to reencode all their content just so Apple can avoid implementing a (possibly open source) codec.

I view this through the same lens as the reason why your iphone doesnt natively support flac files. It easily could, Apple just doesnt add codec support.
 
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840quadra said:
I would think the limitations of YouTube, would be more on Google, than Apple.
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It's not a big deal to me. I don't go on YouTube for 4K content. Honestly, if 1080p isn't good enough for your YouTube video, 4K isn't going to make it better.

Few people even shoot in 4K and even those that do, rarely do any of them shoot anything worth watching in 4K.

Maybe if you like watching people play 4K video games it might be worth while. But that's a narrow audience to go after.
 
Mescagnus said:
Say what??

My OLED TV supports both HDR & Dolby Vision, but I don’t want Apple TV to convert SDR content to HRD automatically, as SDR content is not meant to be experienced this way!

Surely ATV 4K should detect if content is HDR, and display it accordingly – and leave SDR alone, unless I specifically want to view it in ”artificial” HDR.

This should be an option in the ATV’s settings. If not, Apple needs feedback on this. Content should be displayed as the content creator intended!

I’ll have to see how it actually works, UPS has my ATV 4K on the way, delivery is tomorrow.
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I’m in the same boat as you. I’ll be furious if this is the case. Will have to disable HDR on the ATV4K for SDR material if possible... ridiculous.
 
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star_nerdy said:
It's not a big deal to me. I don't go on YouTube for 4K content. Honestly, if 1080p isn't good enough for your YouTube video, 4K isn't going to make it better.

Few people even shoot in 4K and even those that do, rarely do any of them shoot anything worth watching in 4K.

Maybe if you like watching people play 4K video games it might be worth while. But that's a narrow audience to go after.
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There are some cool 4K videos on youtube.
 
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McTaste said:
I doubt app developers can easily introduce codecs to Apple’s closed system. It is up to Apple to add support.
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McTaste said:
Google isnt going to reencode all their content just so Apple can avoid implementing a (possibly open source) codec.

I view this through the same lens as the reason why your iphone doesnt natively support flac files. It easily could, Apple just doesnt add codec support.
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That is not correct anymore.

Apple supports FLAC files

Again, Google has adapted their content in the past, to work with Apple devices. But they cooperated better with each other back then.
 
RogerWilco said:
What is all this fuss about Atmos? It was designed for use with theater systems, not in somebody's apartment with their $75 "surround sound" speakers. I'm thinking the processing requirements to implement Atmos would put quite a strain on the A10 chip in the current :apple:TV.
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Some of us want an :apple:TV that is fully toe-to-toe with the "bag of hurt." That means we want an :apple:TV with AT LEAST comparable capabilities in both picture & sound... not tradeoffs... and then not excuses trying to rationalize such tradeoffs. If cheap 4KBD players and cheap 4K streamers from other players can do it, why can't :apple:TV? It's not like Apple lacks resources or human talent to fully compete on fundamentals like picture & sound quality.

Personally, I'm thrilled to finally be able to buy a 4K:apple:TV after a couple of years of seeing pretty much every other player already there. I'm disappointed that the audio side did not get the equivalent great leap forward that Apple applied to the picture side. Maybe :apple:TV6 will "catch up" on the audio side in 2 or 3 more years?
 
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OllyW said:
Amazing, they are both Google and Apple apologists at the same time? :D

It could be the readers of the reviews are showing more prejudice than the actual reviewers. ;)
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No, not on my end. I don't know about Google's secret deals, but I can say it makes no sense to give Apple even a partial pass on not having produced a leading-edge ATV by this point, particularly at the price they're charging. There is a reason they haven't, and whatever it is, it's not because it's impossible or because they can't afford it.

Frankly, the same logic applies to their other products that have been lagging behind in tech, but not price, over the last several years (particularly pro machines).
 
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swingerofbirch said:
If you have a 4K TV, you already have almost everything that the Apple TV offers, with the exception of the iTunes Store. And what does the iTunes Store have that tons of other services don't?
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This is on point. Most of the streaming tech will get built into the 4K TVs, many have it already. It's not going to eliminate the streaming boxes, but it will make the high price point hard to justify. And still no Amazon Prime Video...
 
I know the Apple TV has been around for a while but I gotta say and maybe its just me but every time I see or hear Apple TV I think of Apple actually having made an actually TV and not some silly box that delivers media content. Basically in essence its just a cable box in a way. This combined with that leaked photo or video or whatever of what was or could have been a possible Apple TV in the works I actually had my hopes high that along with the new iPhone 10 that Apple was gonna announce an actual TV but sadly that wasn't the case and I still find it retarded to call this thing Apple TV when clearly it isn't a TV nor does it have a monitor or display to go with it. I think mentally Apple should check themselves.
 
HobeSoundDarryl said:
Some of us want an :apple:TV that is fully toe-to-toe with the "bag of hurt." That means we want an :apple:TV with AT LEAST comparable capabilities in both picture & sound... not tradeoffs... and then not excuses trying to rationalize such tradeoffs. If cheap 4KBD players and cheap 4K streamers from other players can do it, why can't :apple:TV? It's not like Apple lacks resources or human talent to fully compete on fundamentals like picture & sound quality.

Personally, I'm thrilled to finally be able to buy a 4K:apple:TV after a couple of years of seeing pretty much every other player already there. I'm disappointed that the audio side did not get the equivalent great leap forward that Apple applied to the picture side. Maybe :apple:TV6 will "catch up" on the audio side in 2 or 3 more years?
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Look at the alternatives in this price range of streaming gadgets. None of them support the complete Atmos, only the dumbed-down version (DD+ or whatever it's called this week). It takes serious processing power and serious $$ on the equipment side to implement Atmos. Not going to happen today at $199, maybe in a few more years.
 
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Apple Corps said:
The far bigger issue is that the "new" Apple tv DOES NOT SUPPORT YOUTUBE 4K - not much more needs to be said.
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Actually it's not that big of an issue for everyone. I personally only watch youtube for some how to videos or some reviews. Honestly its full of sooo much junk that its just a time suck so who cares if its in 4k HDR...yawn
 
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intz2nu said:
I know the Apple TV has been around for a while but I gotta say and maybe its just me but every time I see or hear Apple TV I think of Apple actually having made an actually TV and not some silly box that delivers media content. Basically in essence its just a cable box in a way. This combined with that leaked photo or video or whatever of what was or could have been a possible Apple TV in the works I actually had my hopes high that along with the new iPhone 10 that Apple was gonna announce an actual TV but sadly that wasn't the case and I still find it retarded to call this thing Apple TV when clearly it isn't a TV nor does it have a monitor or display to go with it. I think mentally Apple should check themselves.
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It's nothing like a cable box because it's not connected to a :mad: cable company thank goodness.
 
dschulian said:
YouTube app on Apple TV is like a timeback machine to the year of 2007.
I wish Google and Apple whould get their **** together.
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Like a lot of things in the electronic and software market, there is no real reason to cooperate with a competitor or allow access to content, at least from the company's perspective. Customers can and do get frustrated by cost or feature mismatch or disappearing content but you don't have much choice in the matter. You either buy that companies product and content or you don't have legal access to a lot of programs and live with the fact that features may or may not be available on that system.
 
arggg14 said:
And still in 2017, some things just look better playing from physical media. Sad.
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I don’t see this changing anytime soon. How good can a compressed stream be when 4k blu rays are well over 50gigs a Blu-ray.
I don’t see streams getting better than physical discs anytime soon.
Most people give up quality for convenience. Most anyway.
 
If you have a 4K TV, then you probably have YouTube, Amazon, VUDU etc via the TV apps. Why would you want to stream through another device when you can stream right to the TV app? I'm missing something. I'm excited about the ATV4K. Not for the price of course, but having many movies I purchased updated to 4K for free! Thought I was going to have to double and triple dip for some 4K material. But for some unknown reason, Apple was generous in giving a free upgrade. I thought surely they would charge some fee for that. And for me, with just a sound bar, Atmos and the like is not of interest right now.
 
lcseds said:
If you have a 4K TV, then you probably have YouTube, Amazon, VUDU etc via the TV apps. Why would you want to stream through another device when you can stream right to the TV app? I'm missing something. I'm excited about the ATV4K. Not for the price of course, but having many movies I purchased updated to 4K for free! Thought I was going to have to double and triple dip for some 4K material. But for some unknown reason, Apple was generous in giving a free upgrade. I thought surely they would charge some fee for that. And for me, with just a sound bar, Atmos and the like is not of interest right now.
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i dont like the built in tv apps .. i currently use an nvidia shield and got the 4k apple tv for my large itunes library which i stopped updating a year ago but after getting free 4k updates im rethinking that
 
x-evil-x said:
I don’t see this changing anytime soon. How good can a compressed stream be when 4k blu rays are well over 50gigs a Blu-ray.
I don’t see streams getting better than physical discs anytime soon.
Most people give up quality for convenience. Most anyway.
Click to expand...

Just go watch your discs, dude.

Mine are all in the garage collecting dust and retailers are reducing space. The end is coming.
 
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