Apple TV HD vs. Apple TV 4K Buyer's Guide

[GregoriusM]

@GregoriusM I can also give you a tip I just discovered myself. IF you use Plex with the Apple TV, you can turn off auto adjust quality, and set it to use the new Player. This will allow Plex to directPlay MKV with Apple TV, from my testing DTS HD MA 5.1 is direct played, when I tried a movie with TrueHD 7.1, it was transcoded to FLAC, probably because I only have a 5.1 setup, or it does it automatically. Either way, FLAC is lossless so you don't lose quality. It just converts TrueHD to FlAC before it's sent as PCM from the Apple TV. Anyway, discovering this (from the Plex forums) has made the Apple TV even nicer for me to use for local streaming. I'm not stuck with Infuse now. According to the Plex App when changing the settings I did, going to technical details on a streaming file, and it's being direct played, it says it's using mpv. Just thought I would share in case no one here knew this.

Awesome. Thanks so much. I do use Plex to stream tv shows and movies from a friend’s Apple TV in my city. At least I think it’s on his Apple TV. I’m not sure how all Plex works. But, I’ll try your suggestion if I can find the settings. Thanks so much!

 

[MacinMan]

@GregoriusM I forgot to mention in the above post. The settings mentioned for Auto adjusting the quality were for the old player, so unless that's turned off, even with the new player, enabled it won't work. Funny thing is, the Plex client defaults with what Plex calls ABR enabled and also the new player is defaulted to on. Problem is ABR has to be off to make Plex work correctly with MKV and similar formats and directPlay with the4 apple TV.

 

[MacinMan]

Awesome. Thanks so much. I do use Plex to stream tv shows and movies from a friend’s Apple TV in my city. At least I think it’s on his Apple TV. I’m not sure how all Plex works. But, I’ll try your suggestion if I can find the settings. Thanks so much!

OK, just keep in mind I gave you those settings based on LOCAL streaming, not internet streaming. Local as in if you had a NAS, or computer with connected storage on your lAN that contained the media.

Just set the quality to Maximum for both local and internet streaming in the settings, if you have a decent internet connection.

 

[GregoriusM]

OK, just keep in mind I gave you those settings based on LOCAL streaming, not internet streaming. Local as in if you had a NAS, or computer with connected storage on your lAN that contained the media.

Just set the quality to Maximum for both local and internet streaming in the settings, if you have a decent internet connection.

I have 80 mb down and I set it to maximum in Plex. It seems to work great in my 5.1 setup. I’m stoked! Thanks so much!

 

[MacinMan]

Thanks for the Help everyone. I did the deed today, and went to Best Buy, and picked up an Apple TV 4K 2nd Gen 64GB. Everything has been set up and the Apple TV 4 is now out of service.

The 1st Gen 4K is now in the bedroom and the new one is in the living room. Both are 64GB now, so equal storage now between devices.

The new device isn't a huge change, but it's faster, so that's nice. Not a big difference like 4K vs 4 was though. Also both have gigabit Ethernet now, so now no confined to 10/100 on the 4. The 4th Gen is still perfectly usable, but I think it's better for a more basic setup.