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Apple TV first impressions and questions.....

xlost6 said:
I have a couple of Best Buy gift cards and a Reward Zone certificate I would like to use on this instead of paying full cash for it. Which I did yesterday ($212 to be exact). I bought the Siri Remote Loop with it. Now I just want to return and buy it at Best Buy.

So should I just reset ALL settings and then repackage everything to return? I'm heading to the Apple Store anyway.
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No reason why not if you have a better deal elsewhere.
 
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Fancuku said:
lol

I too am surprised how people on here don't know about CEC. But I guess Apple adding it 7 years after the technology was introduced might have something to do with it. lol
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I think everyone knows its been around, but it hasnt been used reliably until now.... at least on my devices.
 
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CEC = evil, due to (potential) incompatibilties in the protocol and manufacturers use different names for it:

SimpLink, Anynet+, Bravia Sync, EasyLink

I forgot one more thing:

There are audible plops and clicks when you navigate through the menu's. Probably because the navigation sound is played first, then the click sound when you select something straight after. Lazy programming it you ask me. They should add some fade-in/fade-out mechanism to avoid these. Likely caused by playing UI sounds too fast after each other.

Never had these on iPhone/iPad.
 
I am loving the new Apple TV. The new UI makes it very fresh and fun to use. I'd even go as far as to say that if it had the same UI as the previous ones, it wouldn't be selling nearly as much.

Minor annoyances are no customer reviews for movies and no categories for apps. I know it will likely never happen, but adding Amazon Prime would make this the only box to have.

I have mi evfunning through a Pioneer VSX 53 which does 7.1 and HD audio. Everything I've watched so far in HBO and Showtime is in stereo. iTunes content is in PCM.
 
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hauntvictim said:
Wow some high expectations you guys have. I think it's fantastic! New UI and an App Store. That's it? Yeah but the implementation is where the wow factor is for me. Setting it up via just my iPhone was brilliant. I can't recommend this product enough, it's sure to only get better!
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The App Store is a plus ... but what good is it with such a horrible implementation of a promising UI? I'm not really doubting that Apple will get this "there" (where ever they decide "there" is), but I am really tiring of the really crappy launch product followed by endless updates just to get it workable. I have defended Apple for over 10 years, but they seem to be foisting more and more of this shoddiness on us.
 
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le.bouch said:
Disappointed with the Photos app - was expecting the full (or at least similar) OSX and iOS experience. Photostream has never worked properly for me, hate its functionality and yet here we are again. Bugger.
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So you can't browse your full iCloud Photo Library?

This product just gets more and more disappointing.
 
does anyone else have two "Apple TV" options show up under audio selection in some apps? The 2nd one doesn't play audio and causes the ATV to choke up a bit. I have the 2 options in trailers and netflix apps, but not the movies app. Hmmm
 
leesweet said:
Keyboards can't be paired, so that doesn't work at all.
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Seriously!? So the iOS Remote apps don't work, and Apple now forces you to hunt and peck to log into your internet services with the Siri remote!?

The ability to use Bluetooth keyboard was one of the only things that made the TV useable ...
 
gswilder said:
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.
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I'm quoting your post since my feedback and yours is identical. You've covered all my concerns quite nicely.

I do think that in my case if I didn't have the current FireTV and Roku4 as comparison devices the ATV wouldn't look too bad. But when you have superior devices it really does put Apple to shame.

However I did my part and continue to give my cash to Apple, hopefully they'll invest it in product improvement. They are falling rather flat as of late.
 
unobtainium said:
So you can't browse your full iCloud Photo Library?

This product just gets more and more disappointing.
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No. Within the Photos app you only get Photostream (yuk) and any Shared Folders that you create (and share, obv). I wasn't expecting to be able to edit on the ATV but was expecting the app to behave like its iOS and OSX counterparts. It has the same name and icon, after all.

As pointed out to me today, you can go to iTunes on your Mac (and PC?) and tell it to share whatever folders you want (inc All Photos) from the computer's Photos app to your Apple TV.
You view this on your ATV under 'Computers', not the Photos app.
 
dwfaust said:
HDMI-CEC is a wonderful thing.
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Yeah, WHEN it works :(

Works fine w/ my Samsung LCD TV, not so much w/ my Yamaha receiver...both of which work fine w/ my Fire TV.

Lots of neat features in the ATV4 release...with an equal number of shortfalls/frustrations with it.

What happed to Standard Definition rentals? HD only for $5.99? Am I missing it?
 
shamus99 said:
I think everyone knows its been around, but it hasnt been used reliably until now.... at least on my devices.
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Worked perfect on all my panasonic and samsung devices for the last 7 years...
much more reliable than say Airplay.!
 
I've only played with ATV4 for a couple of hours now, but so far I've been really impressed. It's clear that Apple spent a lot of time on the remote/UI. Siri is fantastic and incredibly fast.

The setup was a breeze... I used my iPhone (highly recommended) and then installed a bunch of apps without a hitch. The App Store is a little barren (not surprising) but as all the reviewers said, there's a TON of potential here; by Christmas, I suspect we'll have more apps than we'll know what to do with.

My only regret is that I didn't get the 64GB version because I can see myself downloading a lot of apps.
 
I like the new Apple TV but I have a few grumbles.

The up and down swipe on the remote instinctively feels like it should be the opposite action

I hate the linear alphabet on the search

I'm constantly picking the remote the wrong way round

No podcast app !

The Siri search for TV shows should show me all seasons, I don't like that I have to drill down so much to find the episode I'm looking for.
 
I don't get complaints in here about the new keyboard layout. I find it easier to use than the old one since all the keys are laid out left to right - no more click, click, click to move up and down the alphabet which I found maddening.

Now, I simply "glide" across as many keys as I need by controlling the intensity of my left/right gesture on the trackpad. It's a major improvement IMO.
 
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I think I read somewhere that there is no Podcast app can someone verify this? Watching Podcasts is the main thing that I do with my ptresent Apple TV
 
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le.bouch said:
No. Within the Photos app you only get Photostream (yuk) and any Shared Folders that you create (and share, obv). I wasn't expecting to be able to edit on the ATV but was expecting the app to behave like its iOS and OSX counterparts. It has the same name and icon, after all.

As pointed out to me today, you can go to iTunes on your Mac (and PC?) and tell it to share whatever folders you want (inc All Photos) from the computer's Photos app to your Apple TV.
You view this on your ATV under 'Computers', not the Photos app.
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I believe the reason, thumbnails. My calculation is 6 % of your total GB of photos is required to use the photos app. In my case the photos would require 3.5 gb of the Apple TV storage. Doing photos the way Apple implemented on Apple TV uses far less storage and streams locally. My best guess.
 
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mdmt619 said:
does anyone else have two "Apple TV" options show up under audio selection in some apps? The 2nd one doesn't play audio and causes the ATV to choke up a bit. I have the 2 options in trailers and netflix apps, but not the movies app. Hmmm
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Yup, also seen when trying Airplay. Thought it was my old ATV3 still in the Bonjour database somewhere. Might be discoveryd playing up as well.
 
npmacuser5 said:
I believe the reason, thumbnails. My calculation is 6 % of your total GB of photos is required to use the photos app. In my case the photos would require 3.5 gb of the Apple TV storage. Doing photos the way Apple implemented on Apple TV uses far less storage and streams locally. My best guess.
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Interesting. I know some people are wetting themselves over the potential of games and apps but I would surely give up a few GB of my storage for Photos to work properly. Or at least I'd like the choice. But then Apple aren't usually very good at giving us choice..
 
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le.bouch said:
Interesting. I know some people are wetting themselves over the potential of games and apps but I would surely give up a few GB of my storage for Photos to work properly. Or at least I'd like the choice. But then Apple aren't usually very good at giving us choice..
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Agreed, however, Apple imposes 200 mb and other limits on outside developers apps. Might get some push back if Apple violated their own rules. ;)
 
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