It depends on your timing. I didn't even get what I paid for my ATV2 when I sold it. ☹
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
First Unboxing of New Apple TV Shows off Packaging, Device and Remote
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
It depends on your timing. I didn't even get what I paid for my ATV2 when I sold it. ☹
I'm glad they don't. Most of them just end up in landfills unused. And not just the landfills, but also the waste in resources in making them in the first place. Hundreds of millions of cables... billions.
Same with all those included earbuds. How many iPhones and iPods has apple sold in the last 10 years?
Please - no more included cables (at least after a cable type has become an inexpensive commodity).
I did, thank you for the close up of the remote. For a while I thought it was cheesy like the Fire TV. All in all for a quick I enjoyed it. Cant wait fro more!
I'm not a developer and don't know the first thing about coding an app into existence, nor did I break any agreement.
The hardware supports 4k, but seeing as there is little to no content on iTunes, Netflix or Hulu only time will tell if Apple flicks the switch. As for optical audio, optical cannot carry the HD audio codecs like DTS-MA and Dolby TrueHD. It can only carry the bitstreamed legacy DD and DTS or 2-channel PCM. So the only "FAIL" is your understanding of the technology.
It'd be a bigger pain in the ass if you couldn't recharge it.
I didn't realise that I could actually do this, so just shelved out $15 for a spare optical cable.
Needless to say, not wanting to upgrade to new AppleTV for a year or so anyways.
Optical cannot carry the HD audio codecs like DTS-MA and Dolby TrueHD. It can only carry the bitstreamed legacy DD and DTS or 2-channel PCM.
Edit: or multichannel LPCM, DTS-HD, DD+
Last edited:
You're kidding right? We live in the digital age. Analogue audio is like playing an old 78 in comparison.
That's what I asked myself since they've presented the new ATV: Will they update the box much sooner than in the past and already release a new 4K version in one year – or will they simply enable 4K via software. (The ATV chip is capable for this, as you've said.) I know that a lot of people are probably laughing about the second idea when talking about Apple, but in this case, I think the chances are quite good for a software 4K upgrade.
I don't believe it has an HEVC decoder. It doesn't have a graphics engine capable of doing jitter and drop frame correction.
The question people forget to ask is, what content is actually available out there now on the platforms you find on the ATV in 4K? Answer is none on iTunes, none on Hulu and a handful on Netflix, and they're mostly nature videos. Until the content providers actually create 4K content, screaming for 4K hardware is pointless and ignorant until there's actually something worthwhile to watch on it.
Isn't that the job of the 4K TV, to scale frame rates and correct for over and under scanning?
I think we are sitting on the fence to significantly more 4K content. That's exactly the reason why the timing of releasing an AppleTV at this exact time point without 4K ability seems very strange to me. Either they update the hardware already again in 1, 2 years max – or they will enable 4K via a software update IMO.
The Netflix 4K content grows quite nicely by the way, much more than "poser" nature videos already at this point.
Also, you need to roll out the 4K hardware first to push 4K videos. In a way, it's like banning the floppy disk, DVD drive, only the exact other way around.
Just saying, compare it to something like the Shield TV. It has faster memory and bus, but it does 4k 60hz at 40bit color and has a scaling and frame interpolation chip in the signal prorcessor so that you won't get lipsync issues when a frame is dropped which Apple TV lacks.
Show me a product that does come with a HDMI cable in the box.
I think the bigger priority for Apple when it comes to 4K content, is that they actually create a buzz around the technology before slapping it on and giving in to a the very small demand for it.
Think about it, how would they have demoed 4K playback to the crowd? By logging in to Netflix and searching for a few specific shows? It'd be embarrassing to have to go anywhere other than iTunes for something like that.
Which is why I think that it's great that the iPhone 6S can shoot 4K at 30 fps. Get people at least somewhat familiar with the technology first, which creates buzz, which creates demand for content, which will THEN create a real demand for playback ability.
There are times when it's necessary to put the cart before the horse. This is NOT one of those times.
Think about it, how would they have demoed 4K playback to the crowd? By logging in to Netflix and searching for a few specific shows? It'd be embarrassing to have to go anywhere other than iTunes for something like that.
Which is why I think that it's great that the iPhone 6S can shoot 4K at 30 fps. Get people at least somewhat familiar with the technology first, which creates buzz, which creates demand for content, which will THEN create a real demand for playback ability.
There are times when it's necessary to put the cart before the horse. This is NOT one of those times.
The major problem with content providers is they have to invest millions of dollars for 4K Cameras, Editing suits, recording and storage devices, and on and on it goes, when they've only just switched to 1080 HD. Too much too soon would be they cries of the accountants. Maybe, just maybe by the end of the decade will 4K be close to standard content figures.
Great job getting a hold of this so early!
There are lots of questions over Siri universal search and the touchpad-based video skipping feature. How will these work with different apps, and how will we search and navigate content on unsupported apps?
Would love to see if these work for HBO Go (already saw HBO Now) and more importantly, whether they work for iTunes Home Sharing videos.
There are lots of questions over Siri universal search and the touchpad-based video skipping feature. How will these work with different apps, and how will we search and navigate content on unsupported apps?
Would love to see if these work for HBO Go (already saw HBO Now) and more importantly, whether they work for iTunes Home Sharing videos.
I may be wrong but isn't 4K for most of the existing movies (and maybe even TV shows) simply a case of a new 4K scan? Isn't the source material already of higher resolution than 1080?
Furthermore, many new Netflix shows are in 4K now – and when it comes to the fiction TV show market, they produce the most interesting and exiting new content at the moment. (At least IMO.)