ATV4 Not Ready for Prime Time

[stumbledotcom]

I’ve had an Apple TV since the 2007 launch. Use my ATV3 daily for playing music in the living room, displaying my photos, and of course watching videos from iTunes, Netflix, HBO and Showtime. Decided to get an ATV4 because of the integrated, video search with Siri.

Yes, I read the reviews and knew support for Remote.app was missing. Saw the complaints about the on-screen keyboard but dismissed them. How bad could it be?

Turns out really bad. Set up yesterday afternoon was painful and protracted. It takes your info from an iPhone but you still have to enter your iCloud password on screen? If you have followed Apple’s recent guidance and changed your password to the robust style, it’s incredibly tedious. Still the set up is a one time thing, right?

By the way, none of the reviews I read in advance mentioned that support for the Apple Bluetooth keyboard is missing. I’ve kept a spare one in the living room to use with ATV for years. Even if you buy the argument that Remote.app functions are duplicated by the Siri remote, ignoring BT keyboard seems very short-sighted.

Once I get the apps I want downloaded and set up, I start using the thing. Siri works well within the much-discussed limitations. Integrated search is nice as far as it goes. However I start finding gaps in the legacy functions.

Music is particularly crude. I can’t find a way to shuffle my albums, artists, or playlists. The only shuffle option seems to apply to all songs in My Music collection.

Photos also comes up short. Even with Home Sharing enabled, which requires you to use that damn onscreen keyboard to enter your iCloud password again, ATV4 cannot see the photo collections on our local Macs that ATV3 pulls up. The only choices are Photostream or Shared iCloud albums. What?

And the option to have the screensaver pull pictures from other sources such as Flickr is gone.

All in all, I find ATV4 at best half baked. Yes, I know it will get better over time. But that’s not acceptable. Right now, ATV3 is just more capable and does more of the things I want.

It’s obvious to me that Apple shipped ATV4 before it was ready. So I’ve decided to return mine. This is huge for me because it’s the first Apple product I’ve disliked so much I had to get rid of it.

Maybe I’ll give ATV4 another try when the gaps and glitches are fixed. For now, it’s bad. MobileMe level bad.

 

[TrueBlou]

Photos also comes up short. Even with Home Sharing enabled, which requires you to use that damn onscreen keyboard to enter your iCloud password again, ATV4 cannot see the photo collections on our local Macs that ATV3 pulls up. The only choices are Photostream or Shared iCloud albums. What?

If you are using home sharing from a Mac, you need to use the Computers app to access the shared photos, they don't show up in the Photos app on the Apple TV.

But yeah, there's a few issues they need to sort out.

 

[stumbledotcom]

If you are using home sharing from a Mac, you need to use the Computers app to access the shared photos, they don't show up in the Photos app on the Apple TV.

But yeah, there's a few issues they need to sort out.

Yes, I know. I've had it set up and working with the ATV3 for years. When I go into Computers app, ATV4 tells me there are no photos on either Mac.

 

[TrueBlou]

Yes, I know. I've had it set up and working with the ATV3 for years. When I go into Computers app, ATV4 tells me there are no photos on either Mac.

Thats weird, it's working on mine. Did you set it up again on the Mac, or just continue with the existing setup that was in place for the ATV 3?

Not sure why you aren't getting shuffle options either, I can shuffle artists, albums and songs on both Apple Music and via the Computers app. It's at the top of the list in each sub section.

 

[stumbledotcom]

Thats weird, it's working on mine. Did you set it up again on the Mac, or just continue with the existing setup that was in place for the ATV 3?

Existing setup. Your message prompted me to turn off Share Photos in iTunes then enable it again. That solved the issue. Thank you. Guess it qualifies as a bug rather than a feature omission.

Not sure why you aren't getting shuffle options either, I can shuffle artists, albums and songs on both Apple Music and via the Computers app. It's at the top of the list in each sub section.

Again, you're right. Shuffle is at the top of the song list when your drill into an Album. I was using ATV3 behavior where you can press play from list of Album names then invoke Shuffle from Now Playing. Shuffle is missing from the pop-up menu that you get from clicking and holding while a song is playing.

Still can't find a way to shuffle a Playlist of songs.

 

[TrueBlou]

Good that some issues are resolved, weird that the shuffle isn't showing for the Playlists though. Hopefully Apple will get the niggles ironed out sooner rather than later.