Developers Now Receiving Apple TV Units for App Testing Purposes

[rondeb17]

It's a good point, but I think it could depend on how quickly 4k becomes more mainstream. I think the long product cycle on Apple TV will continue. At least as a consumer, there's no way I'd be buying a new TV box every year. I'm having a tough time with this one since I already own 3 Apple TV's currently.
On a slight deviation, I also own Amazon Echo and must comment that "Alexa" is far superior to Siri in some respects. She doesn't have as much access as Siri, but the user experience and voice recognition is so much better than I imagined. If I didn't own so many movies through iTunes, it'd be a no-brainer to me to get the Fire.

Maybe. It has been shown that the A8 can play 4K. The HDMI standard associated with this TV can output 4K at 30fps. So conceptually, a software update could turn on 4K playback in this model.

However, this is Apple we're talking about. A hook as obvious as 4K can be a big reason to sell us another TV box instead of giving us that upgrade in this box: 2 chunks of revenue instead of one. Why is it a hook? Because it's now only a matter of time until people who are shooting and collecting so much 4K with their new iPhones will be longing for a way to easily push that at 4K to the new 4K TVs they are buying when they replace their HDTVs.

What was the big upgrade from TV2 to 3? Pretty much only 1080p. This seems like a perfect repeat scenario set up to motivate the same kind of upgrade cycle.

 

[Surf Donkey]

Wow lots of excuses in here. Typical Apple white knight arguments. Amazon punched them in the jaw offering 4K, upping the CPU and RAM, expandable SD card, Alexa.... all for 50 bucks less. The ability to sideload Kodi and whatever else you want is icing on the cake. I do believe ATV is lacking SlingTV as well for the cordcutters which Amazon offers (and frequently has discount packages with).

I do expect Apple to come back with a TV package (and possibly DVR??) in a future release to differentiate them from Amazon. But this iteration of the ATV is a disappointment. They should have seen what the competition had coming and swung harder.

 

[Beerstalker]

So CAN the new Apple TV play 4k with a firmware update? I just find it interesting that Apple made no mention of 4k at the keynote whatsoever. I don't know much technical info on 4k, but doesn't it seem like this could be activated?

No, the AppleTV 4 will never do 4K with a firmware update, at least not for movies/TV shows. All of the studios are requiring HDMI 2.0/HDCP 2.2 to be used for their content. The AppleTV4 only has HDMI 1.4 so the studios will not let their 4K content be used on it.

It could theoretically support games/apps at 4K resolutions with 30 fps.

 

[WestonHarvey1]

Wow lots of excuses in here. Typical Apple white knight arguments. Amazon punched them in the jaw offering 4K, upping the CPU and RAM, expandable SD card, Alexa.... all for 50 bucks less. The ability to sideload Kodi and whatever else you want is icing on the cake. I do believe ATV is lacking SlingTV as well for the cordcutters which Amazon offers (and frequently has discount packages with).

And nobody's going to buy it, same as all other Amazon hardware.

 

[Surf Donkey]

And nobody's going to buy it, same as all other Amazon hardware.

The competition doesn't exist because.... Apple? I love Apple, a lot. But that is just a stupid response.

Be happy Roku and FireTVs are out there. Otherwise you wouldn't have seen any update to the ATV this year.

 

[D-Dave]

You all still do not get it. 4K is still in its infancy!
[...]
Apple currently does NOT have 4K content. Why would they release a product that would push you to another ecosystem?
Think like a successful business and not like a tech fan for a sec and you will see why.

But you do realise that absolutely every other product of the apple lineup is geared towards 4k, don't you?
Probably the most common useage scenario will likely be video shot on the new iphone that people would realy like to show the rest of the family/friends/whoever-isn't-fast-enough...so instead of having it just displayed via apple-tvs airplay, well, you start to copy it to a computer and hook that up the tv...fantstic...

 

[zorinlynx]

Apple hasn't actually stated that the new ATV doesn't support 4K. Who's to say that it doesn't?

 

[IGI2]

4K TV is still nowhere near mainstream. No contents, and panels are generally crap for consumer level price tag.
Looking at 1080p content on 4k TV is just blurry and weird. On top of that, the network bandwidth on average is still far behind streaming for 4K contents.

Oh those poor little Americans.

 

[sammaffei]

And that guy said **** the NDA. This is why we can't have nice things.

Yep. I've got one coming. I'm not going to post any photos or status updates. I appreciate the gift.

 

[sammaffei]

4K TV is a sillier fad than 3DTV was. At least you could see 3DTV.

Breaking Bad and Daredevil in 4K on Netflix says you're wrong.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

It's a good point, but I think it could depend on how quickly 4k becomes more mainstream. I think the long product cycle on Apple TV will continue.

I agree and that's part of the frustration for those of us who wished Apple had went ahead and did it in this box. History says that Apple updates the box about every 3-4 years. If history pans out this time, Apple will likely be last to finish joining the 4K party (like they seemed about last to join the 1080p party). They're already there in pretty much every other way (products to shoot 4K, edit & render it, store 4K files in iTunes, etc).

On the other hand, there is some hope for sooner because they've already gone 4K (recording) on the iPhone. If you look back at what preceded the shift to 1080p, iPhones launched that could shoot 1080p, then iPads launched that could shoot 1080p and then we got TV3. While just ONE sample, my guess is that this will repeat that scenario... meaning new iPads next year will get this year's iPhone 4K camera and an TV 5 "now with 4K" will either launch with those iPads or upwards of a few months thereafter (again, just like it went down with TV3).

While that may seem logical and has one historical precedent, is that a reason to wait on the "5"? I don't think so (for me anyway). There are other terrific benefits in the new TV that should bring enough value to make it worth it to buy it, enjoy it and then sell it to upgrade to the "5" when Apple finally gets around to rolling it out. If we "lose" $50 between the price of new and the selling price as used, $50/12-18 months means we burned about $3-4/month to enjoy the new benefits between now and then. Chump change.

I'm also going to guess that there is enough horsepower in the A8 to take the 4K video we shoot on our iPhones and downscale it to 1080p (or 720p) to push it to our existing sets (which, for those who already have a 4K set, would mean downscale to 1080p, then the 4K TV upscales that back to 4K (which, of course is far from the same)). If true, at least we won't have to render 1080p versions for this TV while also rendering 4K versions to store until we can replace the former with the latter when we get the "5".

 

[JustinDaigle]

Even as a 4K TV owner, the offtopicness of everyone arguing over 4K in this thread is a little annoying. I just wanted to hear some people's first impressions of their dev units as I wait impatiently for mine to come in later today.

 

[Popeye206]

Even as a 4K TV owner, the offtopicness of everyone arguing over 4K in this thread is a little annoying. I just wanted to hear some people's first impressions of their dev units as I wait impatiently for mine to come in later today.

Exactly... personally... I don't care about 4K but I do care about how well or bad the functions in the new AppleTV run.

Others can go on and on and on about 4k but I don't see it as a huge deal or a deal breaker. What Apple needs to focus on now is getting the game developers rocking with AppleTV and work on programing choices. That is what will bury the competition... not 4K.

 

[scott911]

4K TV is a sillier fad than 3DTV was. At least you could see 3DTV.

you're kidding, right?

Did you say the same thing about the move fropm cassette to cd? From VHS to DVD, From STD to HD?
Do you have a microwave, that dangerous FAD if I recall...

Do you seriously think that in a year of two, there will be no more 4K tv's at best buy, and they'll return to stocking their shelves with only 1080p because it was a FAD?

 

[scott911]

1080p looks fine on 4K. It looks fine on my 5k iMac too. The cheap sets have bad upscaling. As far as content and 4K sets, Apple TV, more than any other device will push adoption rates to a suitable level in about a year.

agreed . don't get a cheap set.
when done right, up scaling is great.

wish the nay sayers would get some real experience with this before spouting off...

 

[RangerOne]

Would it have been so difficult to give Apple TV 4k capability? I've had a 4K TV for 2 years already, I have a 4K video camera and a 4K drone and soon will receive my 4k iPhone. It looks like they built a 1080P Apple TV that we'll need to upgrade in another year. And if they wait 2 years... ouch. Amazon's new FireTV is already 4k.

And BTW, to all those saying 4K is a fad: I very, very clearly see the immensely clearer difference in my 56" television at about 12 feet. Everyone who comes over comments on how brilliant and clear the television is compared to our old 1080P set. 4k is in no way a fad like 3DTV. I can barely even stand to watch a 1080P television anymore -- hotel televisions are always disappointing.

I do agree that you should get a HIGH QUALITY 4K television. There is a big difference in the upscalers used. I will say that even our Apple TV Generation 3 looks fantastic when upscaled (far better than 1080P), but it's still lacking compared to a native 4K player with 4K content.

Other than my 4K concerns, I'm very excited about the new Apple TV. It was a huge announcement, and a long-awaited one. I wish I had registered for the developer lottery. I'm not a gamer, but I'm also very excited about the app/gaming capability. We have Xbox One and honestly, that UI is so ridiculously unintuitive and difficult to navigate, particularly for multiple users, but I can see myself dumping that thing if the Apple TV can really get decent frame rates (I wish it had the A9X).

 

[MacVault]

Why does Apple insist that I also need a stereo amplifier of some kind in order to use my Apple TV? I want to pair via bluetooth or plug audio directly from Apple TV into my Bose Soundlink Mini portable speaker. Arghhhh

Please tell me I can pair bluetooth speakers / headphones to the new Apple TV! Can anyone confirm??

 

[iOrbit]

who cares about 4k on the new apple tv! who cares if they could or could not have, the point is they DID NOT, i repeat: DID NOT put 4k into the new apple tv. you're going to buy it, or not buy it. Arguing for the sake of being right over 4K as a feature in the new Apple TV is really pathetic to watch. it achieves nothing else.

 

[WestonHarvey1]

you're kidding, right?

Did you say the same thing about the move fropm cassette to cd? From VHS to DVD, From STD to HD?
Do you have a microwave, that dangerous FAD if I recall...

Do you seriously think that in a year of two, there will be no more 4K tv's at best buy, and they'll return to stocking their shelves with only 1080p because it was a FAD?

No. Eventually all TVs will be 4K because that's just what they're going to be manufacturing. I'm saying there will be no real, sustained demand for 4K TV content because of the increased cost of delivery and the lack of benefit.

When people sit there watching their 4K streams stop to buffer constantly, they're going to switch back to 1080p. That's when they'll notice they can't see the difference anyway, and won't care.

You mentioned a bunch of technologies where there the benefits of the leap were immediate and obvious. The benefit of 4K in the living room is the brief moments you walk near the TV and say "ooooh! ahhhh!", then go sit down and watch what might as well be 1080p from that distance.

All the people who claim they have super human vision and can see the difference from 20 feet away, good for them. That's not most people.

 

[Surf Donkey]

No. Eventually all TVs will be 4K because that's just what they're going to be manufacturing. I'm saying there will be no real, sustained demand for 4K TV content because of the increased cost of delivery and the lack of benefit.

When people sit there watching their 4K streams stop to buffer constantly, they're going to switch back to 1080p. That's when they'll notice they can't see the difference anyway, and won't care.

You mentioned a bunch of technologies where there the benefits of the leap were immediate and obvious. The benefit of 4K in the living room is the brief moments you walk near the TV and say "ooooh! ahhhh!", then go sit down and watch what might as well be 1080p from that distance.

All the people who claim they have super human vision and can see the difference from 20 feet away, good for them. That's not most people.

With the FireTV you need a stable speed of 15Mbps. They are sporting HEVC decoding that will benefit 4K and 1080p bandwidth. They are claiming half the bandwidth on this.

Fiber is already offered in many area and even most cable connections offer 15Mbps as a base speed now. So I don't really believe 4K will buffer as much as you think for most users.

 

[koolaid-drinker]

For anyone wondering, TVOS is bare atm.

No app store listed on it.

It comes bare and needs to be restored when received.

 

[sammaffei]

But you do realise that absolutely every other product of the apple lineup is geared towards 4k, don't you?.

I have to agree here. New phones can shoot 4K video but the new Apple TVs can't display it. Seems silly (and shortsighted).

 

[sammaffei]

For anyone wondering, TVOS is bare atm.

No app store listed on it.

It comes bare and needs to be restored when received.

This would jibe with my belief that these units were going to be handed out at WWDC but the announcement was pulled last minute. Based on this assumption, I already knew a system install was going to be needed.

 

[WestonHarvey1]

With the FireTV you need a stable speed of 15Mbps. They are sporting HEVC decoding that will benefit 4K and 1080p bandwidth. They are claiming half the bandwidth on this.

Fiber is already offered in many area and even most cable connections offer 15Mbps as a base speed now. So I don't really believe 4K will buffer as much as you think for most users.

Fiber is nowhere near a mainstream option.

A stable 15Mbps excludes a huge amount of people. I have a 50mbit connection and can only get the advertised speed after about 1AM. It dips down to under 10mbit during the day. And I do not live in the sticks.

 

[koolaid-drinker]

This would jibe with my belief that these units were going to be handed out at WWDC but the announcement was pulled last minute. Based on this assumption, I already knew a system install was going to be needed.

Model a1625

As for the big memory question... there is no way to tell which memory size it has atm.
The settings screen does not show the memory size.