Dear Apple: Why I Will Not be Buying a 4K ATV Anytime Soon

[Poontaco]

For teh lulz.

I am joking, of course. But I have as much right as you do to be here, and I’m allowed to have a differing opinion. I’m doing nothing wrong.

Hahahahaha.
Of course you can have a different opinion, and I never thought you were doing anything wrong.
I just find it strange that you choose to spend your time here.
I can't imaging ever wanting to spend an afternoon perusing forums on curling irons or bed sheets or some other random thing I have no interest in.

300 thread-count?! What kind of crap sheets are these?
This curling iron takes 26 whole seconds to heat up?! That's terrible! I would never......

 

[bruinsrme]

Hah! Apple products are not value for money. So in this case, you really don’t get what you pay for.

Oh I agree. Well then again value is a perceived characteristic.
Some don't see the value of plopping down a cool $1100 for new hockey skates and a new stick. Me? I do.
I certainly don't see the value of spending $20+ dollars on a haircut when clippers cost $30, but some do.

Certainly a $400-500 TV is affordable to a large part of the population as Walmart has figured out.
Hell Walmart has had $50 inch 4k TVs for $379.

I thought MBPs were overpriced. I have found them to be quite a value actually

 

[GizmoDVD]

A decent 4k TV is now $600 or less.

 

[bcgullett]

Meh. 4K TVs are still too expensive to be main stream so it's still a niche product anyway.

I don't agree with that. A 4K tv is not equal to all 4k tv's. There are several additional considerations that will truly enhance your viewing experience if you research past the basics and further understand what capabilities each brand and then model level has.

 

[rayward]

Circling back to the original issue (HomeSharing dropping off my ATVs), many of you suggested a new router. I'd been hanging on with my tower-style AEBS, waiting for Apple to update their network hardware but recently, in a very unJobian move, Apple decided to discontinue the line, so that option went away.

I just switched to AT&T (for internet only, cutting the cable), so I thought I'd see how their Pace 2-Wire router handled network duties and, I am happy to say, that it is performing admirably. Most notably, the ATVs are holding their connection to HomeSharing. It puts out a solid wifi signal across two bands and has an optional guest network. I can even use an Airport Express to expand the wifi to the under-served parts of my house.

So, it seems the router was the problem. So I was tilting at the wrong windmill when complaining about the ATV, it was the AEBS all along.

 

[BODYBUILDERPAUL]

Circling back to the original issue (HomeSharing dropping off my ATVs), many of you suggested a new router. I'd been hanging on with my tower-style AEBS, waiting for Apple to update their network hardware but recently, in a very unJobian move, Apple decided to discontinue the line, so that option went away.

I just switched to AT&T (for internet only, cutting the cable), so I thought I'd see how their Pace 2-Wire router handled network duties and, I am happy to say, that it is performing admirably. Most notably, the ATVs are holding their connection to HomeSharing. It puts out a solid wifi signal across two bands and has an optional guest network. I can even use an Airport Express to expand the wifi to the under-served parts of my house.

So, it seems the router was the problem. So I was tilting at the wrong windmill when complaining about the ATV, it was the AEBS all along.

Absolutely! ALWAYS the router. Whenever I had HomeSharing problems - freezing off video - it was always the crappy routers. I'm on my third one in 3 years. My last one was a Zyxel - absolutely dire - the WiFi faded for 4 months and then the 2.4ghz signal simply died one day! Usually interference on 2.4ghz were a neighbour has theirs on bands 3,4,9, 13 and it causes horrible problems. I try to run everything on 5ghz and that's reliable 90% of the time, the other 10% is really WiFi to blame.

I still prefer to watch an iTunes film direct from their iCloud servers in all fairness - for me, it's flawless and starts within .5 seconds

 

[rayward]

Absolutely! ALWAYS the router. Whenever I had HomeSharing problems - freezing off video - it was always the crappy routers. I'm on my third one in 3 years. My last one was a Zyxel - absolutely dire - the WiFi faded for 4 months and then the 2.4ghz signal simply died one day! Usually interference on 2.4ghz were a neighbour has theirs on bands 3,4,9, 13 and it causes horrible problems. I try to run everything on 5ghz and that's reliable 90% of the time, the other 10% is really WiFi to blame.

I still prefer to watch an iTunes film direct from their iCloud servers in all fairness - for me, it's flawless and starts within .5 seconds

Of course that's what it turned out to be, but I had an Apple-brand router (connected via Ethernet, so no WiFi fade) which is why I was so reluctant to look there for the cause. You'd think an Apple router would know how to handle HomeSharing, right?

 

[BODYBUILDERPAUL]

Of course that's what it turned out to be, but I had an Apple-brand router (connected via Ethernet, so no WiFi fade) which is why I was so reluctant to look there for the cause. You'd think an Apple router would know how to handle HomeSharing, right?

Yes and No - I read owners comments on the Apple site over the years and people either loved the routers of hated them with nothing in between. Routers are certainly weird beasts aren't they
I switch mine off when I sleep as I'm a health freak

 

[danny842003]

Yes and No - I read owners comments on the Apple site over the years and people either loved the routers of hated them with nothing in between. Routers are certainly weird beasts aren't they
I switch mine off when I sleep as I'm a health freak

What are the health benefits?

 

[BODYBUILDERPAUL]

What are the health benefits?

Not having your body exposed to fresh WiFi for 8 hours There are still no long term tests for WiFi although France has just banned WiFi from all of its schools!
Each to their own on this subject but with 1 in 2 people are now developing cancer in the western world caused by humans, it is seriously about time that humans questioned what the h**l is going on instead of simply thinking that it's OK.

The body is an incredibly complex piece of wonderfulness and I do everything that I possibly can to keep mine perfect and the healthiest that a human body can be. (No, I do not believe that the human body should ever be exposed to WiFi or cellular masts etc. 5G next year is the biggest threat to all of humanity as it's simply not tested - but hey, Apple, Samsung & the rest will make a fortune from it).

 

[bruinsrme]

Until you can fix the HomeSharing connection issue on the 2K ATV4, why would I shell out money on a product that would fail at - for me - it's main function: streaming media from my iTunes library?

FIX IT!

Still too soon?

 

[johannnn]

Not having your body exposed to fresh WiFi for 8 hours There are still no long term tests for WiFi although France has just banned WiFi from all of its schools!
Each to their own on this subject but with 1 in 2 people are now developing cancer in the western world caused by humans, it is seriously about time that humans questioned what the h**l is going on instead of simply thinking that it's OK.

The body is an incredibly complex piece of wonderfulness and I do everything that I possibly can to keep mine perfect and the healthiest that a human body can be. (No, I do not believe that the human body should ever be exposed to WiFi or cellular masts etc. 5G next year is the biggest threat to all of humanity as it's simply not tested - but hey, Apple, Samsung & the rest will make a fortune from it).

Why on earth should people stop doing random things? We have scientists for a reason. What people should do is reading Pubmed instead of binge watching Netflix.

Non-thermal radio frequency radiation (i.e. wifi/cellular) has very low energy and is extremely poor at penetrating skin.
Radiation with much higher energy, e.g. CT/PET scans, as well as ultraviolet radiation (i.e. sunburn) indeed is correlated to increasing cancer risk.
Obesity
"Caloric restriction" significantly reduces cancer risk. The World Cancer Research Fund International states that 1/3 of cancer cases in US could be prevented by a healthy diet, a healthy weight, and being physically active. Obesity has recently overtaken tobacco as the #1 risk factor for cancer.
Age
Up to 2/3 of cancer increase is due to longevity according to recent statistics. The life expectancy has risen rather linear the last century, but cancer risk increases exponentially with age.

TLDR: Keep use your wifi. But don't smoke, don't live in a city with heavy air pollution, eat your veggies, work out, don't tan, and stop with todays carbohydrate-rich diet (e.g. stop drinking soda). That should keep your safe the first 3/4 of your life.

/Biochemistry PhD

 

[400]

If you are worried over wifi then long term exposure to many frequencies and power levels when out in the open must do anyones noodle in if they thought about it. All them satellites beaming stuff down, say 30 or so over the UK, multiple transponders on each, the foot prints are usually a few countries wide. They do not go direct to the dish, the dish is in the footprint.

TV transmitters on the go, Radio, taxi firms transmitters for the cars on the road and a few police and military systems. Cell masts blasting out then your cell phone is talking to the masts all the time to tell them where they are........

Then the cosmos is trying to kill us with all that radiation form the sun and the universe.

I use a lot of lead backed tin foil.


Though we did have one phone that set off our non ionising radiation detector into the red when it hooked up to the mast to take a call and rang.

 

[danny842003]

Not having your body exposed to fresh WiFi for 8 hours There are still no long term tests for WiFi although France has just banned WiFi from all of its schools!
Each to their own on this subject but with 1 in 2 people are now developing cancer in the western world caused by humans, it is seriously about time that humans questioned what the h**l is going on instead of simply thinking that it's OK.

The body is an incredibly complex piece of wonderfulness and I do everything that I possibly can to keep mine perfect and the healthiest that a human body can be. (No, I do not believe that the human body should ever be exposed to WiFi or cellular masts etc. 5G next year is the biggest threat to all of humanity as it's simply not tested - but hey, Apple, Samsung & the rest will make a fortune from it).

What’s threatening about 5G specifically? What are you happy to inflict wifi on your body during the day but not at night if it’s such a threat?

 

[mpainesyd]

Of course that's what it turned out to be, but I had an Apple-brand router (connected via Ethernet, so no WiFi fade) which is why I was so reluctant to look there for the cause. You'd think an Apple router would know how to handle HomeSharing, right?

Not a great help to you, I know, but my use of Homesharing on the Apple TV has become less reliable after the latest macOS/iTunes/TvOS updates. The main problem seems to be that the Mac won’’t wake from sleep when I use the Computers TVOS app. I have to manually wake it up. At other times I sometimes have to restart iTunes on the Mac for the (4th gen) ATV to see it.
It does concern me that Homesharing doesn’t fit the the Apple business model of selling streaming services and that it will go the way of Front Row.

 

[Tech198]

Thanks for the response. I have also posted this multiple times in Apple's support forums, but without reply.

My signature line shows my hardware, sans router which is an Airport Extreme of a certain age (at least 5 years old), running on up-to-date firmware at factory settings. The ATV4 and iMac are connected to the AEBS via Ethernet, the only intervening device being a 10-port gigabit network switch. The iMac running Sierra (fully patched) and the ATV is running a fully patched tvOS 10.

You need to contact apple feedback: www.apple.com/feedback.

Apple discussion forums are just community driven... No one working for Apple replies on there.