Apple TV 4K Teardown Reveals 3GB of RAM and Larger Venting System With Replaceable Fan

[richman555]

Thanks Apple! This is a pretty nice piece of kit!

 

[dafire]

I am not sure removing the USB-C port was a particularly great idea. Sure, xCode 9 can deploy via wireless network, but what if, as a developer, you end up in the situation where you've no network access. It does happen! I don't care about Kodi and the likes, but from a developer's perspective I think this just made things a bit less friendly.

You can always create a wifi network with your mac...

 

[err404]

I have to be honest, compared to the shield, this is the biggest piece of garbage I have seen. Doesn't support Atmos, and the thing tries to make everything HDR. Also wouldn't play any of my UHD videos on plex without transcoding (which could be a plex issue but still).

Shield out of the box supported everything and works flawlessly.

The shield doesn’t support DV, and Atomos is coming to the Apple TV (as is 4k AirPlay).
If the Apple TV Plex client is lacking in some way, contact Plex. The hardware is certainly capable enough, even if they decode in software. The latest versions of Plex for iOS and the server seems to have broken something. I have noticed a massive increase in server load with playing on iOS that started maybe 3 weeks back.
The switching is a bit annoying right now, but it has been less than a week. It is worth seeing how they respond to the out cry.
I get why they want to keep the TV in a single mode, it keeps the TV from going black every time you start playback.
Much of the “problem” with SDR mode switching is caused by your TVs processing. Many TVs widen the SDR range and/or shrink the HDR range to better take advantage of the panel. This means that in HDR mode, accurately transmitted SDR colors will get mapped to a reduced range by your TV. This is made worse because you are probably used to your TV widening that same content beyond the accurate value.
But this is why your TVs profile for SDR and HDR are independent.
I’m not sure what the best solution will be. Sure simply changing modes for each video is an OK brute force method, but the TV changing modes will compromise the smoothness of the UI.
Personally I’d like to see a way to widen the range of SDR to compensate for the reduced range imposed by the TV. You may call this “fake hdr”, but it would really be used to return the displays range back to accurate spec for said content, rather then exaggerate the range.

 

[WilliamG]

Interesting it doesn't have 4GB of RAM. I assumed the iPad Pro had that much to help push the extra pixels. 4K TVs have more pixels than any iPad, so I guess I was wrong. Unless tvOS needs a lot less RAM than iOS? Or maybe they are just being Apple, saving themselves a dime or 2.

Because people use iPads for actual work like Pencil stuff etc?

 

[BrentD]

The 4-screen view all at once is cool for sports, but the NFL is already blocking it, at least on the Fox Sports Go app. I'm sure other leagues will follow suit soon enough.

 

[tipoo]

I'm wondering if the 128 bit RAM interface is in tact, with 3/4ths the RAM of the iPads with this chip.

Could start counting the pins going into the SoC from the RAM traces, if someone is bored

 

[LiveM]

A fan... one of those Apple products where the previous version is better.

 

[Tarheels23]

I am absolutely loving mine so far. Even with the resolution increase, it is noticeably snappier than my 4th gen models. Launching apps, using the switcher, boot up, everything is just a breeze. Also, watching 4 simultaneous football games in 1080p HD through the new ESPN app is some kind of magic.

View attachment 721262

I agree. I spent all day Saturday muliticasting the college games. The Fox sports 1 App has the same feature. I have the Playstation Vue but my local game sounds so much better on the Fox Sports 1 App.

 

[whooleytoo]

I am absolutely loving mine so far. Even with the resolution increase, it is noticeably snappier than my 4th gen models. Launching apps, using the switcher, boot up, everything is just a breeze. Also, watching 4 simultaneous football games in 1080p HD through the new ESPN app is some kind of magic.

View attachment 721262

Nice!! The future is here!

But surely multi-screen viewing like this needs to be handled at the OS level, not left to the app-makers to provide.

Gaming on one sub-screen, news channel on another, two live sports games on the remaining two... ADHD heaven!

 

[GhostRaider]

A fan... one of those Apple products where the previous version is better.

There's a point where a processor cannot support its own thermal heat so obviously it has to have a cooling system. Here in this case, Apple has most likely overclocked the A10X processor to support 4K. Could they have made a better processor for the Apple TV 4K so that it doesn't use a cooling fan? Sure, but why reinvent the wheel when you already have made a processor that can handle such task?

 

[dwaltwhit]

I

Apple needs to repair that remote. I can’t believe Tim Cook uses that remote, and thinks it’s fine. I’m not sure if Eddie Cue is responsible for it, but if he is....

I really like the remote. The only complaint I have is it is so thin. I bought an 8-9 dollar jacket for it and now have no complaints

 

[Mac 128]

I

I really like the remote. The only complaint I have is it is so thin. I bought an 8-9 dollar jacket for it and now have no complaints

I actually like how thin it is. I used double-sided tape to attach it to the back of my Sony remote, so If I need it to access Siri, or touchpad, I can just flip it over. Most of the other controls were automatically mapped through to the Sony remote, so I don't need to access it much, anyway.

 

[Traverse]

Didn't even know it had a fan.
[doublepost=1506471444][/doublepost]

A fan... one of those Apple products where the previous version is better.

It sits under your TV. How is the fan going to affect you? The TV is on, you can't year it. You don't interact with the puck itself, so it can get warm.

 

[ingik]

I hope not, some of us use Mini's to do real work, not ChromeBook-esque crap.

iMac nano maybe?

 

[macpeach55]

iMac nano maybe?

Nano will be released next year but then pronounced still too thick.
Looking forward to the Mac Minus in 2019 - it has negative thickness

 

[Tech198]

I guess with all the heavy work of 4K you need to vent out more air. USB-C will be missed, Short lived. considering it only lasted one product life cycle.

One port is gained,, the other is lost... That's Apple in a nutshell.

 

[dwaltwhit]

I actually like how thin it is. I used double-sided tape to attach it to the back of my Sony remote, so If I need it to access Siri, or touchpad, I can just flip it over. Most of the other controls were automatically mapped through to the Sony remote, so I don't need to access it much, anyway.

brilliantly simple solution! I may have to do this!

 

[LiveM]

Didn't even know it had a fan.
[doublepost=1506471444][/doublepost]
It sits under your TV. How is the fan going to affect you? The TV is on, you can't year it. You don't interact with the puck itself, so it can get warm.

A fan = moving parts, dust and deterioration. It also makes it a lot more power-hungry.

 

[Traverse]

A fan = moving parts, dust and deterioration. It also makes it a lot more power-hungry.

But as adverse as Apple is toward moving parts and the added manufacturing costs show me that Apple really didn’t have a choice.

 

[tipoo]

A fan = moving parts, dust and deterioration. It also makes it a lot more power-hungry.

It's probably one in thousands of Macbook Pros that ever need a replacement fan before the system itself dies. Fans are cheap to replace in the very rare cases they die.

It also only has a 13 watt PSU, the old one without a fan was 11W.

I actually am enthused that there's a fan in there, an actively cooled A10X with sizable (for this power class) heatsink means this could be an interesting microconsole, and earn that 100 extra over the Fire TV.

Apple should really court game devs for it though. Or even start their own.

 

[Chris King]

Also interested in this.

I have the same question how are you going to do Xcode and what if you want a older tv os version