ATV4 - a real disappointment.

[MongoNZ]

I have no problem with that, just the people constantly complaining. I can see why they wouldn't have the remote app, but not the keyboard.



Entering Comcast or whoever's log in information for each app is disappointing although you only have to do it once for each app. Under settings and accounts, there should be a place to enter your cable companies info and have it applied to all of your apps. Unless this is a limitation imposed by the cable company (must be done for each app), seems like a logical fix.

Out of interest, I'd love to know why you think it's understandable that they don't support the iPhone remote app? It's a real shame for those of us using universal home automation apps....

 

[DNichter]

Out of interest, I'd love to know why you think it's understandable that they don't support the iPhone remote app? It's a real shame for those of us using universal home automation apps....

Only because they are trying to push for essentially the same functionality within the siri remote (multitouch). Not ideal and I agree text input is an area where I think the remote app should absolutely be used. I do see their mindset, but hopefully they are working on an updated remote app with even greater functionality (saved passwords, touch ID, gaming, etc.). Unfortunately I think it all boils down to Apple being stretched too thin at the moment. Lots to work on, especially with new platforms (tvOS, watchOS).

 

[le.bouch]

You can, did it Tuesday without issue. Took maybe a minute once I got an employee.

Just had an illuminating online chat with Apple sales support. They say that in the UK you have to return it online too, although it's fairly painless - it just gets picked up by UPS.

What was more interesting though was the guy seemed genuinely interested in why I wanted to return the ATV4. I gave him the list of common issues - he immediately replied that I was probably best to return it and let the device 'catch up to where it should be'. He said there were a lot of updates due 'soon' but not that soon. He said that the device had been 'rushed out' (his words) and that I wasn't the first to return it. I suggested that although a small gesture, returning units is the only way to make Apple sit up - it being all about the bottom line. I suggested that if there were unusually high returns for an item then someone might feel heat from Tim. 'Like Apple Maps, you mean?' (his words..)

It was nice to speak to a non-robot at Apple. I presume he still works there...

 

[DNichter]

Just had an illuminating online chat with Apple sales support. They say that in the UK you have to return it online too, although it's fairly painless - it just gets picked up by UPS.

What was more interesting though was the guy seemed genuinely interested in why I wanted to return the ATV4. I gave him the list of common issues - he immediately replied that I was probably best to return it and let the device 'catch up to where it should be'. He said there were a lot of updates due 'soon' but not that soon. He said that the device had been 'rushed out' (his words) and that I wasn't the first to return it. I suggested that although a small gesture, returning units is the only way to make Apple sit up - it being all about the bottom line. I suggested that if there were unusually high returns for an item then someone might feel heat from Tim. 'Like Apple Maps, you mean?' (his words..)

It was nice to speak to a non-robot at Apple. I presume he still works there...

Yes, sorry. I didn't think about the UK thing. That is very interesting and definitely refreshing to hear from an Apple employee. I just hope that Apple is a little more aggressive with the updates on this box. I am sure they know they couldn't get everything ready for release, but it is important to get more of these standard updates into tvOS as soon as possible. I would hate to see Bluetooth keyboard support as a tentpole feature of tvOS 10.

 

[turbineseaplane]

...He said there were a lot of updates due 'soon' but not that soon.

Uh-huh - Sure.

Either way, return it in the 14 day window and let your money sit on the sidelines until these updates come along (if they ever do).

They claim to have been working on this for "years" - So I'm hard pressed to believe they would release something now that isn't pretty darned close to what they wanted it to be (i.e. limited updates beyond new apps)

 

[urkel]

Only because they are trying to push for essentially the same functionality within the siri remote (multitouch). Not ideal and I agree text input is an area where I think the remote app should absolutely be used. I do see their mindset, but hopefully they are working on an updated remote app with even greater functionality (saved passwords, touch ID, gaming, etc.). Unfortunately I think it all boils down to Apple being stretched too thin at the moment. Lots to work on, especially with new platforms (tvOS, watchOS).

Not sure about that reasoning.

Considering the YEARS of delays then it's really hard to excuse a product for being released incomplete (or that Apple couldn't spare enough resources to ensure that the user experience up to their own standards.)


It's a shame because more and more it feels that Apple is spending a lot of time "designing" products but not actually putting time into "using" them.

 

[bigdog5142]

Mine went back to Best Buy tonight. I have to ATV3's in my house. Was going to upgrade the living room, but it just wasn't worth the price. It's a nice upgrade, but nothing very revolutionary, IMO. I should say I have an Xbox One, so no needs for any type of new gaming with the ATV4. If Apple releases a cable cutting app/subscription, I'll upgrade then. For now, the ATV3 fits our needs just fine.

 

[tdroz73]

Good-natured but slightly provocative question:

I wonder whether Steve Jobs - 'the product man' - would've let it out the door like this. Tim Cook - 'the money man' - is a fine fellow in his own right, but I sometimes feel like "it just works" has given way to "it just sells"...

... or maybe I'm just rose-tinted. I dunno.

[shrug]

The past few product releases - I've given them the benefit of the doubt, because its Apple. And there's a certain quality that comes with that. Or at least did. Now its not there. After my disappointment with this 4th generation Apple TV - shipping with an extremely fragile $79 remote (mine broke in less than 24 hours from a small drop onto a kitchen table) - my excitement for future products, i.e. iPad Pro is diminishing. The ATV4 is clearly unfinished and needed more time for the OS and more evolutions on the remote design before it was ready. Surface Book is looking pretty nice - so now I look at iPad Pro and compare it to that - and keep in mind recent disappointments with quality and even feature sets from Apple 'me-too' catch up products ... not sure what to think.

 

[bigdog5142]

The past few product releases - I've given them the benefit of the doubt, because its Apple. And there's a certain quality that comes with that. Or at least did. Now its not there. After my disappointment with this 4th generation Apple TV - shipping with an extremely fragile $79 remote (mine broke in less than 24 hours from a small drop onto a kitchen table) - my excitement for future products, i.e. iPad Pro is diminishing. The ATV4 is clearly unfinished and needed more time for the OS and more evolutions on the remote design before it was ready. Surface Book is looking pretty nice - so now I look at iPad Pro and compare it to that - and keep in mind recent disappointments with quality and even feature sets from Apple 'me-too' catch up products ... not sure what to think.

Man...I played with the Surface Book tonight and WOW! That's a nice machine! Only thing is the configuration I'd need for work would be the $2800 one...and there's no WAY I'm paying that. I'd buy an iMac 5K WAY before that.

 

[TrueBlou]

Mine went back to Best Buy tonight. I have to ATV3's in my house. Was going to upgrade the living room, but it just wasn't worth the price. It's a nice upgrade, but nothing very revolutionary, IMO. I should say I have an Xbox One, so no needs for any type of new gaming with the ATV4. If Apple releases a cable cutting app/subscription, I'll upgrade then. For now, the ATV3 fits our needs just fine.

I think that's a situation many will find themselves in. If you've already got an Apple TV and a gaming setup there just many not be enough yet to justify having the new ATV in your life.

I personally still love mine, doubt that will change and I'm still playing some games on the Apple TV despite my xbone, ps4 and wii u. But I'm a tech nut anyway so I'd be bound to get one.

Maybe it'll change in time but as it is just now I'm not recommending every one I know to get the new Apple TV yet, just the ones I know would enjoy it regardless. Everyone else is perfectly well catered for with what they already have.

 

[bigdog5142]

I think that's a situation many will find themselves in. If you've already got an Apple TV and a gaming setup there just many not be enough yet to justify having the new ATV in your life.

I personally still love mine, doubt that will change and I'm still playing some games on the Apple TV despite my xbone, ps4 and wii u. But I'm a tech nut anyway so I'd be bound to get one.

Maybe it'll change in time but as it is just now I'm not recommending every one I know to get the new Apple TV yet, just the ones I know would enjoy it regardless. Everyone else is perfectly well catered for with what they already have.

I'm a tech guy too and enjoyed the ATV4, but just couldn't justify the money with my current setup.

 

[TrueBlou]

I'm a tech guy too and enjoyed the ATV4, but just couldn't justify the money with my current setup.

Shame on you. I kid of course

 

[JoeShades]

I was going to bring mine back, but after a week i have decided to keep it, I am going to assume there will be either a Apple Podcast App or 3rd party one, Until then i will use home sharing which is not very good but ok for now. The Aerial screensavers are nice but they need to add more, Tired of seeing the same ones, so i will use my own photos

 

[Rooskibar03]

Add me to the list of disappointed folks. Was delivered yesterday and finally got to play with it tonight. First off it doesn't want to play through my HDMI switch. So I drag a new cord and plug directly into TV.

Upon firing up it tells me to use iOS Bluetooth to setup. Yeah that doesn't work, iPad and iPhone and neither finds the ATV.

Fine I'll swipe and click for wifi, Apple ID, etc.

Finally it's up and running. I'm underwhelmed. Go to install a few apps and it freezes on the 3rd one, Nat Geo. Have to unplug and reboot.

I'm just not seeing 200 bucks worth of value here. Will likely just go back to 3rd gen and get another one for the second TV.

 

[JoeShades]

That is hardware issue, just exchange it

 

[Tech198]

Not actually owning one yet, i'll get one anyway just to see, but unless the Apple TV 4 works with Harmony remote, i wont keep one.

Foxtel IQ fast forward/rewind can go up to 60 seconds, but Apple TV u must keep pushing to button to go 10 seconds more ?

Not a huge, i'd rather a PVR any-day...... just for this better feature, but its early days yet.

I may take this for a play over few days just to see how good Apple music is.

 

[TrueBlou]

Not actually owning one yet, i'll get one anyway just to see, but unless the Apple TV 4 works with Harmony remote, i wont keep one.

Foxtel IQ fast forward/rewind can go up to 60 seconds, but Apple TV u must keep pushing to button to go 10 seconds more ?

Not a huge, i'd rather a PVR any-day...... just for this better feature, but its early days yet.

I may take this for a play over few days just to see how good Apple music is.

It does work with a harmony, I've got mine set up with my harmony hub. Minus Siri of course but it's not like I use Siri all the time.

 

[MrXiro]

No 4K (I didn't care, until I excitedly received the ATV4 this morning and the other major faults showed themselves.)

Siri is almost useless. It offers just a small selection of films/TV, with no option to switch to a full catalogue. Full cat. requires a main search which can only be done using the 'good' ol' fashioned, slow 'letter scanning' with the remote. No dictation for search boxes. It can't even search shared libraries. Essentially, all the options which would have made Siri useful on the ATV are missing.

The remote is improved, but that's hardly saying much. It's too small so easily lost and still not user friendly; hence the next drawback being even more irritating:

No Remote App compatibility. Sure it'll come, but to miss launch day is unbelievable and each day without it is a complete bugger up.

iOSTV is just a facelift of the previous software. It looks nice, and I knew it wasn't wildly new from previews but the other shortcomings make this even more obvious and it starts to feel like a rip off.

So few apps available on release, especially in the UK. They've been developing this for a long time. How difficult would it have been to have the essential apps ready?

I could go on. And on. (And on.)

If I were really strapped for cash I'd send it back. Thankfully I'm disgustingly rich and don't need to (ok, ok, that's a lie. I'm grateful to be comfortable, and tragic enough to keep hold of what is pretty much a completely useless box of junk in the hope Apple will develop it into something worth bothering with. Moreover I've bought tonnes of films, music and TV shows from Apple and want to be able to watch them, but still really pissed I wasted £170 on this.)

I'm not one of the catastrophists; attacking Apple with every new release while continuing to buy their products. I loved them, until perhaps a year ago. Apple Music, which mucked up my much loved music library and now ATV4 have really let me down, and I'm sure millions of others too. For the first time I'm investigating other options for my music library (Plex looks great) and will be using Amazon Fire TV for a while, which until now was a pretty much unused gift. On trying it out more today, it's miles ahead of ATV. So annoying, and sad.

Wow. I've ranted. Develop Apple, develop like the wiiiind!

I said it before... my buddy with a Dev unit said... basically if you have an Atv3, it's just not worth getting at the moment... maybe some killer app will come out. But for now... don't bother.

 

[tdale]

Good-natured but slightly provocative question:

I wonder whether Steve Jobs - 'the product man' - would've let it out the door like this. Tim Cook - 'the money man' - is a fine fellow in his own right, but I sometimes feel like "it just works" has given way to "it just sells"...

... or maybe I'm just rose-tinted. I dunno.

[shrug]

I think you have it. If there were a few random bugs, thats ok. But its been sent out the door unfinished. Remote app, search, categories, its an unfinished product.

To the OP, as your not in the US, same here, the real value for me is my countries services, particularly SVOD will happen, they can wrote apps as easily as iOS apps, thats the real value

 

[2010mini]

I have no problem with that, just the people constantly complaining. I can see why they wouldn't have the remote app, but not the keyboard.



Entering Comcast or whoever's log in information for each app is disappointing although you only have to do it once for each app. Under settings and accounts, there should be a place to enter your cable companies info and have it applied to all of your apps. Unless this is a limitation imposed by the cable company (must be done for each app), seems like a logical fix.

The cable companies and networks WANT it that way. They all could very well do what showtime did: add a device via their mobile app.

But with all the negotiations that have to happen between cable companies, networks and local affiliates its next to impossible

 

[lsutigerfan1976]

I can honestly say that after trying the new Amazon fire tv box. And it's clunky interface. I will be sticking with Apple. Boy what a difference. And I really personally was never a fan of roku either. I will rough it, and wait for Apple to release more content.

 

[Phil A.]

I was ready to get one of these but the lack of keyboard and / or remote app support is a bit of a killer for me (all my passwords are huge and stored in a password manager) and I'm just not seeing the value in it at the moment so I'll stick with my ATV3 and see what develops in the future

 

[shanson27]

I like the user interface, looks very fresh and modern

 

[Kendo]

I'm buying one simply because I only use an Apple TV for iTunes movies and Airplay and an A8 should serve a lot longer than an A5 3rd gen. I don't need any bells and whistles like games or 4K.

 

[GroningenNL]

This. No excuse for this.

The way the remote app functions with the old AppleTV is very similar to how the new remote now works (touch, swipe, etc).

Yep but as long as Siri doesn't work in the rest of the world is't a strugle to search for anything, and don't forget inserting passwords.