Cheaper Apple TV stick on March 25th?

[bigjnyc]

I saw a few rumors a while back that Apple may release a cheaper Apple tv stick style to push their new tv service.... I haven't really seen anything new or any updates.. But if this was going to happen wouldn't it make sense for Apple to release such a device on the 25th along with their subscription announcements. i already have 3 Apple TV's at home but would love a cheaper Apple tv stick for another tv, my apartment and for travelling.

 

[BODYBUILDERPAUL]

I really do not want Apple to release a cheaper 'stick'. Great components and excellent build quality cost money. Leave the cheaper stuff to Amazon and Google.
Having a great processor, auto frame rate sensing, Dolby Atmos compatability, Dolby Vision compatibility, reliable airplay 2 all costs money.
Buy cheap and you buy again and let's be honest, Apple have never been good at releasing 'cheaper' end products.
Apple really does not do cheap these days.
Don't expect a Ferrari for Ford Focus money. If something is cheap, there's always a reason!

 

[MattG]

Yes, it'd be great if Apple released an Apple TV product that was actually worth what they were charging for it...doubt it'll happen though.

 

[Juicy Box]

Don't expect a Ferrari for Ford Focus money

I have also been using car analogies when describing the state of the ATV and tvOS.

I agree with your comparison with the ATV4K to a Ferrari, but I have a different point of view on the matter.

I think the ATV4 is the best streaming box out there, and very powerful. The problem with it is that Apple has done very little to encourage developers to utilize the power of the ATV4K.

Especially at the beginning of the tvOS, Apple seemed to put roadblocks and obstacles in the way of developers that would potentially make the ATV more that just a streamer box.

While some of the roadblocks and obstacles have been addressed, any momentum the ATV had going for it died.

Because of Apple actions, the current state of the ATV4K is that it is an overpowered, but very expensive Netflix and HBO streaming box.

It is much better than the cheaper streaming boxes, especially with the tvOS UI and AppStore UI, but once you get into the apps, they are now mostly universal across all platforms.

The power is mostly wasted.

Now for my analogy: The ATV4K is like buying a Ferrari to do grocery runs. It will sure perform better than using a Ford Focus, but the cost of the Ferrari might not be worth the current use of it.

This is especially true for secondary televisions, like bedrooms and guest rooms.

Why spend $200 for an ATV4K for a smaller TV in a room that it wouldn't get utilized as much, when you can use the built-in a Smart TV apps, or a cheap FireStick? The apps are basically identical, why not pay a fraction of the price of an ATV, and get a mostly identical experience when it comes to the apps?

This is were a cheaper ATV would come into play.

 

[Michelasso]

I really do not want Apple to release a cheaper 'stick'. Great components and excellent build quality cost money. Leave the cheaper stuff to Amazon and Google.
Having a great processor, auto frame rate sensing, Dolby Atmos compatability, Dolby Vision compatibility, reliable airplay 2 all costs money.
Buy cheap and you buy again and let's be honest, Apple have never been good at releasing 'cheaper' end products.
Apple really does not do cheap these days.
Don't expect a Ferrari for Ford Focus money. If something is cheap, there's always a reason!

If it's ever happening it might just be an AirPlay 2 device, like the Chromecast Ultra for Google Cast. It would add AirPlay 2 functionalities to TVs that won't support it.

AirPlay 2 costs nearly nothing to Apple (it's there already, it's only a protocol, a piece of SW). My Yamaha AVR can play audio via Airplay 1 with its dumb CPU), and I have turned even my S-L-O-W Fire TV stick into an AirPay 1 device with Air Receiver (video from Infuse gets cast as well). All the rest you mentioned instead have its price. But the most important pieces would be the HEVC decoder with Dolby Vision support. It could easily use a slow CPU, running on a quite stripped version of tvOS (or not even that. AirPlay 2 may have most of the pieces of SW needed).

But.. yeah. I doesn't sound like something Apple would make. Still it's also true that I wouldn't have imagined Apple porting AirPlay to third party TVs. So who knows.. They have may decided to make a standalone device themselves. It would help selling iDevices anyway...

 

[bigjnyc]

I really do not want Apple to release a cheaper 'stick'. Great components and excellent build quality cost money. Leave the cheaper stuff to Amazon and Google.
Having a great processor, auto frame rate sensing, Dolby Atmos compatability, Dolby Vision compatibility, reliable airplay 2 all costs money.
Buy cheap and you buy again and let's be honest, Apple have never been good at releasing 'cheaper' end products.
Apple really does not do cheap these days.
Don't expect a Ferrari for Ford Focus money. If something is cheap, there's always a reason!

Well then Apple is going to have a hard time getting the masses to use their new tv service.... a lot of people aren’t going to shell out $150 up front for a receiver. And I certainly don’t see them releasing the TV app to the Firestick or chromecast. I already have 4 Apple tv’s it would be nice to get a cheap smaller version to travel with and add to a tv that’s not often used in the house..... that’s all I’m saying

 

[MBAir2010]

My TV (720) received a bhuddah day present last year a fire stick via wifi.
Amazon Prime has some very good TV shows that i now watch.
silly question, can i see any of these on an apple TV?
i had a 2nd gen apple TV but got lost or lend that out to someone
or used that as a hockey puck when i lived on a frozen lake
so that device was meaningless to me at the time.
I would like to get a player with an ethernet port for better streaming,
but dont want to pay a lamborgini price just to go out and buy a jar of gerkins.
this new thing might interest me, but can i watch amazon prime shows on that?

 

[chrfr]

My TV (720) received a bhuddah day present last year a fire stick via wifi.
Amazon Prime has some very good TV shows that i now watch.
silly question, can i see any of these on an apple TV?
i had a 2nd gen apple TV but got lost or lend that out to someone
or used that as a hockey puck when i lived on a frozen lake
so that device was meaningless to me at the time.
I would like to get a player with an ethernet port for better streaming,
but dont want to pay a lamborgini price just to go out and buy a jar of gerkins.
this new thing might interest me, but can i watch amazon prime shows on that?

Amazon Prime video is available on the Apple TV 3 and newer. There's no detail on what any sort of cheaper Apple device might offer.

 

[Audit13]

Apple will allow the installation iTunes on Samsung TVs so a streaming stick may not be necessary at all as I expect iTunes to also appear on TVs from LG, Sony, Vizio, etc.

https://www.macworld.com/article/3331183/itunes-app-samsung-smart-tv.html

 

[Scott Davilla]

Sticks are crap They were crap when they 1st came out years ago and they are still crap. Poor heat dissipation and crappy USB power dongles. Everyone violates HDMI specs with respect to connector interface. The only thing they are is cheap. Remember, you will always get what you pay for.

 

[macpro2000]

lol I think the Apple TV 4k is cheap. I'd easily pay double.

 

[mrex]

i wouldnt pay more... it still has no browser, cant use skype etc.. it is a quite dummy black box next to my android box on the shelf.

 

[priitv8]

Everyone violates HDMI specs with respect to connector interface.

In which way, exactly?

 

[Scott Davilla]

Devices have a socket for hdmi, never a plug. plugs are for cables.

 

[chrfr]

Devices have a socket for hdmi, never a plug. plugs are for cables.

The Fire TV Stick has an HDMI socket.

 

[Scott Davilla]

firetv sticks have plugs, firetv 1/2 and cube have sockets.
plugs are male connectors, sockets are female connectors. Pretty easy to see the difference.

 

[priitv8]

Devices have a socket for hdmi, never a plug. plugs are for cables.

I can still understand the desire to optimize, if your device basically fits inside a cable plug.
There are even some tools made, that follow same form:

Sonero X-AVT110
I was quite surprised to discover myself, that HDMI specifies +5V power supply only for source connector and not for sink. Because of this a tool like the one above, will need external power supply and can not be fed directly from HDMI.

 

[Scott Davilla]

Also, the HDMI socket was never designed to have that much weight hanging off it. Depending on socket design, it could rip the connector right off the circuit board.

That was an early problem with HDMI sockets, they depended only on the surface mount pins and had no through hole mechanical mounting. A heavy cable would rip it right off the pcb.

 

[seek3r]

I can still understand the desire to optimize, if your device basically fits inside a cable plug.
There are even some tools made, that follow same form:

Sonero X-AVT110
I was quite surprised to discover myself, that HDMI specifies +5V power supply only for source connector and not for sink. Because of this a tool like the one above, will need external power supply and can not be fed directly from HDMI.

Most TVs also have USB ports, so you can still power the plugs off the TV, just needs an extra cable. My parents have a couple amazon firesticks at their house, powered off the TVs USB ports in both cases.

 

[Philg5150]

Projectors need an ATV, not a stick or smart tv apps!

 

[Macalicious2011]

If they are launching a TV service then a stick is an absolute must for high penetration of the service.

Given that most TVs are smart and have built in netflix, ATV is too expensive for most consumers to justify buying while airplay utterly sucks unlike chromecasting because video gets interrupted the second you view any video on your iPhone.

Apple will allow the installation iTunes on Samsung TVs so a streaming stick may not be necessary at all as I expect iTunes to also appear on TVs from LG, Sony, Vizio, etc.

https://www.macworld.com/article/3331183/itunes-app-samsung-smart-tv.html

Only 2019 models will have an iTunes app. Remember that most people only upgrade their TVs every 5-10 so its hardly like someone with a 2017 Samsung will ditch it for a 2019 model just to grt iTunes.

 

[Audit13]

It may be possible to load iTunes onto older TVs with a firmware update even though there have been no official announcements for TVs other than 2019 models.

 

[Shanghaichica]

i wouldnt pay more... it still has no browser, cant use skype etc.. it is a quite dummy black box next to my android box on the shelf.

I’ve got an android tv box that I was given as a present a few years ago. It’s as buggy as hell, always freezing and buffering. I don’t even have it connected to my TV anymore.

 

[littlepooch21]

If they are launching a TV service then a stick is an absolute must for high penetration of the service.

Given that most TVs are smart and have built in netflix, ATV is too expensive for most consumers to justify buying while airplay utterly sucks unlike chromecasting because video gets interrupted the second you view any video on your iPhone.


Only 2019 models will have an iTunes app. Remember that most people only upgrade their TVs every 5-10 so its hardly like someone with a 2017 Samsung will ditch it for a 2019 model just to grt iTunes.

The 2018 and 2019 models will get the iTunes app.

 

[futurist101]

Maybe Apple can come out with a mid-range device like a "HalfPod". It would be half the size of a HomePod with only a three-microphone array with about half the audio quality and half the price.