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Apple TV first impressions and questions.....

Abazigal said:
Apple TV came in at about 6 pm yesterday. Just set it up, here are my first impressions (and it's not a very good first impression).

1) Setup wasn't as smooth as my ATV 3. Logging in to my Wifi network via my phone took a few tries (the first couple of times just kinda froze there with no result).

2) Couldn't get any of my bluetooth peripherals to pair. My MAD C.T.R.L controller couldn't connect, and my K480 bluetooth keyboard could not be detected. Don't know what the problem is.
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pedz said:
Surprised by the number of people still surprised that Siri doesn't search local libraries, given that it has been extensively discussed since before the release. A few people pointed out that it is not technically simple as the search is done in the cloud. But I think the reality is local libraries are much more of a niche audience and we all know that Apple doesn't focus on niche audiences. Lots of people on this forum talk about local libraries all day (and I have one too), but I don't know a single person that keeps a local library outside of these forums. The average person doesn't do it and it is not going to be a focus of Apples, and that shouldn't be too surprising.

I find the universal search to work quite well, it searches multiple services as advertised and it does prioritize free options over iTunes. The one thing I'm suspicious of is when doing a general search (e.g. a genre) I don't see many results for things that are not on iTunes, may be the search is driven from iTunes.

I do hope they update the interface for local libraries as that can't take much effort, but given Plex and other options are now available I'm not sure how critical that is.
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To piggyback on this because i agree with all of it, I also believe the reason SIRI cannot search your local music or home movie/video library is due to privacy issues. I read somewhere yesterday that since siri works with apples servers, searching your local server would be a privacy violation. makes sense as Siri seems to work with everything else just fine.. and quickly.

I read that Siri music search may follow in the coming months. It was a quick read yesterday and i do not remember the source.

I also find the new keyboard much quicker while using swipe. why need to navigate up and down as well as left and right, when you can stick to only left and right? swipe gestures makes it super fast to select any letter.
 
Disappointed for sure in my AT4. Biggest issues:

1. No control via iPhone or Watch Remote app anymore (really Apple!!!)
2. Siri is terrible
3. Touchpad is not accurate for games
4. Interface movement feels off to me and I liked the old Apple TV interface and controller better

I really hope they update it fast because nothing worked right...honestly, my LG TV magic remote and apps feel much more like an Apple product and work much faster.
 
Just set mine up last night. I'm coming from an ATV2 which was getting long in the tooth (slow, old interface, only 720p) so it feels like a big improvement; if you're used to ATV3 then maybe you won't be as impressed. Overall, pretty happy with the new interface and the remote; didn't think I would like swiping as much as clicking the old remote buttons but I'm used to it now.

My observations:
  1. On-screen keyboard is a pain as folks have said. The two horizontal lines make for lots of scrolling versus the old stacked grid. Hopefully they will update the OS to allow optional layouts.
  2. Setting it up is a pain if your password is long. I think I had to type it in about 5 or 6 times while going through the setup process, plus logging into Netflix, Hulu, et al. Even buying my first app required a login even though I had already put in my iTunes info (I set it to never require a password since I don't have kids or houseguests who would abuse that!)
  3. Using the iOS Remote app would have been nice for the keyboard (see #2), hope they update it soon. You may want to link a bluetooth keyboard if you have a lot of typing to do.
  4. App Store could use some finesse, can only "discover" what they show you or else search. But I'm sure it will become as robust as the iTunes store eventually did. Selection is a little thin at launch.
  5. Setting up the various TV apps to work with my cable account was relatively painless. Thank god you don't have to type your login info into the ATV; they just post a code and then you go through a browser to activate the app. (HINT: log into your cable company page first, then every activation screen will fly through the process)
  6. Picture and sound quality were good. I put on "2001" on Netflix and cranked the sound, came through in 5.1 just fine. Old purchase of "Inception" in iTunes movies was also good.
  7. Downloaded a scifi racing game to test out; controller was a little awkward and I crashed a lot trying to steer. I may have to buy 3rd-party gamepad if I want to get serious.
  8. HDMI-CEC: if you have this option turned on in your TV or receiver (it has many brand names, check this article to find yours) then you may notice the ATV4 can control your A/V equipment automatically. Or, you may notice things going haywire. I have an older Pioneer receiver and the ATV4 did not automatically know how to control the volume, but it would switch the receiver on/off automatically when it went to sleep or woke up. I disabled the HDMI-CEC and now it's fine.
  9. That said, learning my Pioneer remote was probably the easiest time I've ever had with that process. Just go through the setup menu, turn up volume, turn down volume, DONE.
  10. Happy to see PLEX in the App Store, looking forward to playing with that soon! That was probably my biggest gripe with the old ATVs and the reason why I did a jailbreak on my ATV1. The ATV4 can really function as a Media Server now.
  11. I think the App Store on the ATV4 is going to be the game changer. Those of you on the fence may want to wait a while until it's more robust, but I think we're going to see a whole slew of useful apps and games in the near future and it's going to be a big deal.
 
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camarobh said:
Nice improvements overall, but very disappointed that the interface to local iTunes library is virtually the same as before, and Siri won't search it. At least group shows first by name, then season, then episode. The list of tv shows I have in my library is so long it takes forever to scroll by flicking the touch pad. At least before I could hold down the button.
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Agree, it's an improvement with the interface, but currently am disappointed that the interface to local iTunes library Movies, TV shows etc is not made any easier, if anything it's harder. Siri won't search it consistently; and there's no list by date function etc. So it's hard to browse recent additions to the library. I ATV3, just a click back to "menu" and all my recent Movies or Tv shows are there to see....

Need iPhone remote to work asap, and improvements to Siri interface especially searching local iTunes library. It'd be great if we could even get an app to do things with the local library, like delete an item, or maybe rename it... I won't get another ATV4 just yet!
 
  1. On-screen keyboard is a pain as folks have said. The two horizontal lines make for lots of scrolling versus the old stacked grid. Hopefully they will update the OS to allow optional layouts.
There is a serious bug I've seen now a couple of times in several apps. I suspect it's an UI element bug of tvOS:

- You are prompted for a login + password
- You enter the login name via the onscreen keyboard
- Then you're supposed to enter the password. However, the onscreen keyboard plus text box for the password are shown next to each other, centered. So you miss a part of the alphabet on the left side (non visible) and the textbox is hardly visible.
- You hit back, you see the login + empty password below
- You move to the password box and hit select
- Now the keyboard + textbox for password are show below each other and fit on the screen

Very annoying.

There's also something funny with the search in the Appstore. Sometimes you get an old-style compact square keyboard with apps on the right side. Sometimes you get horizontal one line keyboard with apps below. Who decides which format is selected ? Confusing

Makes me wonder about the Q&A department of Apple.
 
whodatrr said:
Got my first of two, and played with it for a couple minutes. It's an improvement, but not exactly earthshaking. Remote helps a bit, but my kids tend to break them and I worry about the replacement cost. Apps were limited, but we'll see how that improves?

If I had it to do over again, I'd probably save $50 and buy the 32G unit. I suspect that extra $50 will need to go into a remote replacement, in the coming year.

It's an OK bump, but I won;t be replacing all of our ATVs with it (we have 4). When a 4k unit comes out, we'll shuffle these to the bedroom TVs.
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That's about what I think. The major improvement will be the software. No need to really reinvent the wheel on the OS since it wasn't completely horrible. But you add the impressive voice controls and app store and you've got a freaking winner.

I'm looking forward to seeing what games become available. I really hope this turns into something along the lines of the Wii/Wii U and gives us decent games. If it's just another race to the bottom with crap like Candy Crush, I may scream. I don't expect it to be able to handle something like 2K sports games, but surely a Pac-Man port and other similar games could get sold for a few bucks to be worthwhile.
 
Got a call from Apple.. they take feedback seriously. I sent a long e-mail about the **** up(s) during shipment of my ATV4 and the current state of the ATV4 itself.

Person on the phone claimed the exec team actually discusses/reads those e-mails.

They are reviewing "pre-order" process (yes it was supposed to be a pre-order last week monday) and what happened after that.
 
loekf said:
Got a call from Apple.. they take feedback seriously. I sent a long e-mail about the **** up(s) during shipment of my ATV4 and the current state of the ATV4 itself.

Person on the phone claimed the exec team actually discusses/reads those e-mails.

They are reviewing "pre-order" process (yes it was supposed to be a pre-order last week monday) and what happened after that.
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Who did you send feedback to? It's known they read it, but excellent to get a direct response.
 
My biggest disappointment is that in many areas Apple kept the same exact dates UI especially in home sharing and purchased areas, with as much time that they had it's really inexcusable
 
I just got mine last night, but only had about 30 minutes to play around with it.

1) Set up was very easy with the iPhone.
2) I agree that the horizontal keyboard is annoying, although a little less so with the touch controller since you can just swipe fast to get to the letters instead of click, click, click.
3) I love the feel of the remote, and most controls were very intuitive.
4) I primarily got this device for the universal search feature and it failed me on the first try. I asked it to play the latest episode of the Daily Show, which I know is on Hulu, which is supposed to be supported by Siri, but it only brought up old Jon Stewart episodes. Not so smart. Disappointing. The Hulu app in general was buggy and laggy though so maybe that was the issue. I really hope this improves.
5) App store is annoying - hard to find anything.
6) Setting up all the TV apps is very cumbersome. I did 4 or 5 last night and probably have another 15 to go - ugh.

I will spend more time with it tonight. My feeling is that it is a similar release quality to the Apple Watch - it has a lot of potential and will probably get a lot better with time, but it would have been nice for it to work smoother on release.
 
AppleWes said:
Nope, even bluetooth keyboards won't work. Apple removed support for them along with the Remote app. :( :confused:
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Really? Ugh. I could swear I saw the option in the settings but I didn't actually try it yet. There is a Bluetooth menu -- is that just for game controllers at this point?
 
dawindmg08 said:
Really? Ugh. I could swear I saw the option in the settings but I didn't actually try it yet. There is a Bluetooth menu -- is that just for game controllers at this point?
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As far as I know [from tests/reviews online] keyboards are blocked, but other Bluetooth things work (game controllers and I assume headphones per reply in this thread).

Not sure what Apple has against keyboards. Why are they so bad to use?!
 
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Question for you guys. Apologies if this has been discussed before - I've just read through many a forum in search of this answer, this thread included, and my eyes are starting to hurt :confused: Anyway, when listening to music in the Music app (Apple Music Radio specifically), I can't for the life of me figure out how to skip a song. Has anyone figured this out yet?
 
I am disappointed with this new AppleTV. The lack of 4k support, I don't mind, but the 1080p upscaling is horrible on my 4k TV.

I've been switching between Amazon fire TV 4k and the new AppleTV to compare image quality on my LG OLED 4k TV. All the movies are 1080p and the difference is huge. Amazon fire TV does way better upscaling 1080p, so much that I have returned the ATV4. I have a lot invested in Apple ecosystem but at this time I am willing to switch to Amazon movies.

I don't use apps or play games so these products are used purely for movies/TV shows. If I wanted to play games, I would play on my Nvidia Shield TV. ATV4 does not even compare to Nvidia shield.

Amazon fire TV wins by a mile.
$99
Superior 1080p upscaling
4k support

At this point, Apple needs to release a new product soon.
 
I am enjoying mine. Upgraded from an appletv2 and knew what I was buying. It's faster, glossier os and lots of potential. Apple Music works well on it and the games run a lot better than I was expecting.

Also for all the criticism it has had its hardly been out and changed are happening. Categories has been added to the App Store as has charts. The keyboard has changed from one line back to the square structure. I think this has a lot of potential with the App Store. Happy purchaser here.

Main thing I don't like however is the remote is easy to lose, not know which way you are holding at times. Otherwise happy.
 
I just want to know what Apple was thinking with this on screen keyboard. It is atrocious
 
Loving it so far, but being new to airplay - there's something wrong with the sound quality when mirroring from my ipad. I've got this IOS app, IHOPKC which works great on my Ipad but when mirrored to my TV the sound seems somewhat muffled? Not quite sure how to describe it, at first I thought it was just different because the sounds coming off my TV now, but it there's something else going. Netflix/movies sound just fine tho.
 
Is t possible to "cast" YouTube videos to the YouTube app not AirPlay. I ask cuz casting was awesome. You could keep flinging stuff to the tv and it would add it to the que. also other people in the net work could add stuff to the tv question as well.

Is such compatibility possible on the apple tvs. (It worked well on my roku)
 
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