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Apple TV first impressions and questions.....
- Thread starter rossy100
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Much better experience. Sounds and Video quality is much, much better.
After reading about the problems I'm waiting a while. I also figured out today it would cost me $200 (100 out of some 400 titles) to convert my BDs to digital copy with Vudu so that I'd have everything currently in my iTunes video library available in Vudu/UVVU.
If the kind of stuff being mentioned doesn't get fixed, I'm done with iTunes. Get with the program Apple. Better yet, join the rest of the planet and add UVVU support direct to the store. What a joke.
If the kind of stuff being mentioned doesn't get fixed, I'm done with iTunes. Get with the program Apple. Better yet, join the rest of the planet and add UVVU support direct to the store. What a joke.
Double-tap the Home button to trigger the Multitasking menu. Swipe up to force-quit an app.
Got my ATV4 today. For reference, I also have the Roku4 and latest Amazon fire TV.
ATV4 is definitely better than the previous ATV. Faster for sure. I like the similarities to the other IOS platforms. Easy to pickup and use.
Remote - Still getting used to the new remote. Was very hard to use when setting up and entering all the passwords (yes I probably should have used my iphone). I think it will just take some getting used to , like when the new iphone came out. In a few years, everyone will be using this kind of remote.
Interface is nice. Much cleaner.
Searching/finding - seems way too hard at this point. The UI seems to be kind of beta-ish.
Apps - not impressed so far. Of course, I have purchased movies, music, apple music, etc from Apple. Also have Netflix, Hulu, youtube and others.
The apps seem to be much slower than either my FireTV or Roku4. Takes forever to watch a purchased movie. Get the spinning wheel. It says movie will be ready in 1 minute. And takes that long at least. (is it downloading the movie to the ATV4 drive before playing?) I press play on my Amazon Video app on Roku, and also instantly streaming of the movie.
Youtube is slower than either my Fire or Roku. And the interface seems slower and clunkier.
Siri - ugh (Amazon has the best voice interface hands down at the moment)
Just something about the overall interface/experience. Just doesn't seem as intuitive as the previous ATV. And definitely not as smooth as Fire and Roku.
I will keep it and see how things progress the next few months. But Apple has a lot to do. I guess we know why it got delayed now. Probably just have been delayed longer, but I guess they had to get it out the door since Amazon and Roku just updated theirs. And in time for Christmas.
This, along with my Apple watch, is getting me a little concerned about Apple. Even Apple Watch and Watch OS2, are still not where I think they should be. Maybe version 2?
Easy to blame things on the fact that Steve is no longer with us. But whatever. Apple has got to start doing a better job for launch products.
ATV4 is definitely better than the previous ATV. Faster for sure. I like the similarities to the other IOS platforms. Easy to pickup and use.
Remote - Still getting used to the new remote. Was very hard to use when setting up and entering all the passwords (yes I probably should have used my iphone). I think it will just take some getting used to , like when the new iphone came out. In a few years, everyone will be using this kind of remote.
Interface is nice. Much cleaner.
Searching/finding - seems way too hard at this point. The UI seems to be kind of beta-ish.
Apps - not impressed so far. Of course, I have purchased movies, music, apple music, etc from Apple. Also have Netflix, Hulu, youtube and others.
The apps seem to be much slower than either my FireTV or Roku4. Takes forever to watch a purchased movie. Get the spinning wheel. It says movie will be ready in 1 minute. And takes that long at least. (is it downloading the movie to the ATV4 drive before playing?) I press play on my Amazon Video app on Roku, and also instantly streaming of the movie.
Youtube is slower than either my Fire or Roku. And the interface seems slower and clunkier.
Siri - ugh (Amazon has the best voice interface hands down at the moment)
Just something about the overall interface/experience. Just doesn't seem as intuitive as the previous ATV. And definitely not as smooth as Fire and Roku.
I will keep it and see how things progress the next few months. But Apple has a lot to do. I guess we know why it got delayed now. Probably just have been delayed longer, but I guess they had to get it out the door since Amazon and Roku just updated theirs. And in time for Christmas.
This, along with my Apple watch, is getting me a little concerned about Apple. Even Apple Watch and Watch OS2, are still not where I think they should be. Maybe version 2?
Easy to blame things on the fact that Steve is no longer with us. But whatever. Apple has got to start doing a better job for launch products.
What sort of stuff do you mean? And why do they need UVVU support? I haven't bought a physical movie in about three years. Buying and renting my movies on iTunes seems to work perfectly fine, and I don't need to pay anything extra to have stuff converted or worry about it not working everywhere.
Double-tap the Home button to trigger the Multitasking menu. Swipe up to force-quit an app.
very nice and handy but it took a few seconds to respond. it feels like it is not doing anything.
Parts of the UI arent as intuitive as I'd like (its not always easy to tell where you are e.g. the App Store main page just looks a lot like the home screen... and parts of the UI aren't easy on the eye (I don't like the rectangular 2 tone icons)
Apart from that I really like it.
Apart from that I really like it.
Didn't read the whole thread (yet)... will go back and do so at some point...
First of all, there doesn't seem to be a way to pair a BT keyboard with the ATV4 - a huge oversight. Entering text on this thing is a nightmare. One long row of letters strung out across the screen is horrid. At least with the previous versions of the ATV, the alphabet was stacked into multiple lines and, therefore, somewhat more compacted into a scrollable space. Entering passwords and entering text into search boxes has to be one of the most un-Apple-like experiences of my life. This is the best that they could come up with?
I have no idea why Apple thought that
(1) this was a good interface for entering any text.
(2) they saw NO need to include support for a bluetooth keyboard.
(3) they didn't release an updated Remote iOS app in conjunction with this launch.
I absolutely hate the touch screen part of the remote. It seems inconsistent in the way it response to touches, and swipes. Altering the settings in the menu doesn't seem to improve the experience. Scrubbing through a video is painfully difficult. And then the play/pause button to resume playing post-scrubbing is located in an non-ergonomic location, relative to the touch screen panel used to effect the scrubbing.
There is no way to turn off those "swoosh" sounds as you move from menu to menu... another incredibly annoying "feature". Sure, you can turn off the key clicks, but the Star Wars sound effects remain. I can imagine the joy that will it bring my wife as she's laying in bed next to me trying to sleep as I navigate through these painfully designed screens, menus and search boxes.
I had the sound completely drop out after about 45 minutes of use. The only way to restore functionality was to unplug the power cable, wait and plug it back in. Very analogous to the old BlackBerry battery pull of my early smart phone years. One positive note, though, when the sound dropped out, so did the Star Wars navigation sound effects. Alas, resetting the device brought them back, as well.
Sorry, folks, this one is going back to Apple.
First of all, there doesn't seem to be a way to pair a BT keyboard with the ATV4 - a huge oversight. Entering text on this thing is a nightmare. One long row of letters strung out across the screen is horrid. At least with the previous versions of the ATV, the alphabet was stacked into multiple lines and, therefore, somewhat more compacted into a scrollable space. Entering passwords and entering text into search boxes has to be one of the most un-Apple-like experiences of my life. This is the best that they could come up with?
I have no idea why Apple thought that
(1) this was a good interface for entering any text.
(2) they saw NO need to include support for a bluetooth keyboard.
(3) they didn't release an updated Remote iOS app in conjunction with this launch.
I absolutely hate the touch screen part of the remote. It seems inconsistent in the way it response to touches, and swipes. Altering the settings in the menu doesn't seem to improve the experience. Scrubbing through a video is painfully difficult. And then the play/pause button to resume playing post-scrubbing is located in an non-ergonomic location, relative to the touch screen panel used to effect the scrubbing.
There is no way to turn off those "swoosh" sounds as you move from menu to menu... another incredibly annoying "feature". Sure, you can turn off the key clicks, but the Star Wars sound effects remain. I can imagine the joy that will it bring my wife as she's laying in bed next to me trying to sleep as I navigate through these painfully designed screens, menus and search boxes.
I had the sound completely drop out after about 45 minutes of use. The only way to restore functionality was to unplug the power cable, wait and plug it back in. Very analogous to the old BlackBerry battery pull of my early smart phone years. One positive note, though, when the sound dropped out, so did the Star Wars navigation sound effects. Alas, resetting the device brought them back, as well.
Sorry, folks, this one is going back to Apple.
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UK perspective here, this feels like a very, very early product.
The App Store is utterly barren. The list of missing apps is pretty alarming. Amazon Prime, Now TV, MUBI, All4, ITV Player, Viewster, Demand 5, Blinkbox, Animax, and of course BBC iPlayer. Now TV is advertised on Apple's own ATV product page as being available, but it's nowhere to be seen.
Other disappointing aspects - no podcasts app, no trailers app, Siri is mute and can't search the App Store or control Apple Music. And speaking of the App Store, what a mess. How are people meant to find anything? No categories, no filters, just a basic featured section and a search box. So many apps must be completely hidden from view unless you know the specific search term. An incredible oversight.
Also, what's with the YouTube and Crunchyroll apps? They look like incredibly early test versions with no UIs. Ugly as hell.
The App Store is utterly barren. The list of missing apps is pretty alarming. Amazon Prime, Now TV, MUBI, All4, ITV Player, Viewster, Demand 5, Blinkbox, Animax, and of course BBC iPlayer. Now TV is advertised on Apple's own ATV product page as being available, but it's nowhere to be seen.
Other disappointing aspects - no podcasts app, no trailers app, Siri is mute and can't search the App Store or control Apple Music. And speaking of the App Store, what a mess. How are people meant to find anything? No categories, no filters, just a basic featured section and a search box. So many apps must be completely hidden from view unless you know the specific search term. An incredible oversight.
Also, what's with the YouTube and Crunchyroll apps? They look like incredibly early test versions with no UIs. Ugly as hell.
Fortunately, both the 1st gen (white) and 2nd gen (silver) remotes work with the ATV4. Sure, you don't get the slick touch screen feature or Siri, but IMO, not sure it's totally baked anyway at this point. And $19 << $79... so there's that.
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I've not paired any remote to any of my ATVs... so just point and shoot. Works well for me, sans Siri and TouchScreen interfaces... but totally functional.
This is a bummer. Especially when the remote app is not yet updated to support the new Apple TV, I think I'll just keep using my Nexus Player and an ancient Apple TV 2 for AirPlay stuff until there are other input options than an on-screen keyboard for e.g. YouTube searches.
Ugh, I anticipated that the on-screen keyboard would be along the lines of my old Apple TV 2 but what you described is completely useless. And I wouldn't like to use even the old on-screen keyboard. So while there's no Bluetooth keyboard support and/or updated Remote app, I'll just skip this one. Thanks for saving me 179€ at least for now!
In addition to the text being strung out across the screen, the [SPACE] and Backspace/Delete buttons are on opposite ends of the long row of letters.
Jesus. And this is the same company that used to know good UX?
I noticed this too. It's pretty bad design in my opinion.
Looks like all design (if any) that was done for this keyboard was purely visual with zero regard for UX.
Apples UX has been horrible of late but this takes the cake. I'm really shocked at how bad it is. It feels like the Apple remote was used to try and cover up the fact.
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