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Hands-On With the Redesigned Apple TV 4K Siri Remote
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depending on your hardware, yes. I have mine set up. If you connect everything with HDMI and have hardware that understands the CEC protocol, you can do it. Basically anything that's 4K era or newer probably knows CEC. You can set it up so when you push the home or power button, you can turn on your TV, AV receiver, Apple TV at once. You can put the Apple TV to sleep or push the Power button to turn everything off. You can also control your AV system volume via bluetooth this way. So you can lower the volume from way across the room with the Apple remote. It's a pretty simple protocol, but if your gear supports it, it's worth diddling around with. Makes me much more lazy.
?? It's right above the volume buttons.
You can use pretty much any traditional remote and train the ATV to use it.
that's a TV app button, not a home button. That's good to have but I also I want a dedicated button that takes you to the home screen.
Try clicking Settings -> Remotes and Devices -> TV Button.
I think the new remote is better. I am still getting used to the wheel. It also feels much better in hand without a case than the old remote.
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I got the new remote to work with my last gen ATV 4K. I constantly get the "remote lost" notices and "remote connect" seconds after. Tried re-pairing a few times, the frequency dropped but still appears from time to time. Is there any way to fix it? my old remote doesn't have this issue.
And the scrubbing wheel doesn't work with any 3rd party apps....
And the scrubbing wheel doesn't work with any 3rd party apps....
You can assign this button to work as a home button rather than a TV app button.
thanks, I did not know that. This will lose me a dedicated TV app button though and I want that one too.
double-clicking on the back button also works as a home button. I think I'll stick with that without losing anything. But the point of my original post was that I prefer more buttons and less combos in a remote, particularly for basic things such as a home button.
Functionality wise it's an improvement in most ways. But god damn it's big and ugly. I'd much rather seen them go for a similar size as last time, and include U1 chip or something.
The ‘replace remote not Apple TV’ argument is interesting. I’m in the UK and paid £169 for the new Apple TV. The remote alone would have cost £55 so you would argue the unit cost me £114. I then sold my old Apple TV 4K for £110. So the new one has cost me only £4 plus eBay seller fees, which I think were £15 all in. So £19 more to replace my 3 year old Apple TV over the cost of just the remote. Happy with my choice.
Apple alongside the second-generation Apple TV 4K debuted a redesigned version of the Siri Remote, which is now available to customers with new Apple TV orders and as a $60 standalone replacement for the original Siri Remote.
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We picked up the updated Siri Remote to see if it's worth picking up if you have an original Apple TV 4K or HD and are tired of the first iteration of the remote, which has several shortcomings.
Apple entirely overhauled the Siri Remote's design. It has an all-aluminum body that does away with the touchpad interface, instead adopting a touch-based clickpad and several additional buttons for control purposes.
The new remote is thicker than the prior version, and Apple has used that thickness change as an explanation for why the Siri Remote 2 doesn't need Find My. It's bigger, thicker, and shouldn't get as easily lost in couch cushions, though whether that's true remains to be seen and will vary from household to household.
Along with no Find My, the new remote does not feature a gyroscope or an accelerometer, so you can't play games with it. Apple now recommends gaming controllers for playing games rather than the standard remote.
The clickpad that Apple added can be used like a standard directional button, and you can also swipe around if you want, but you don't have to. It's much more versatile than the prior touch interface, and it's useful to be able to scroll/scrub through content using a circular swipe gesture.
The buttons are tactile and satisfying to press, and Apple has added dedicated mute and power buttons along with the standard buttons for play/pause, volume control, and more. Siri can be activated through a side button.
Like the prior Siri Remote, you can charge this one using Lightning, and other than the physical changes, it operates the same as the original remote so it should be intuitive for most Apple TV users. If you're fed up with the original Siri Remote, the updated version has the potential to be a good alternative if you don't mind the selling price. Get a new Siri Remote? Let us know what you think in the comments.
Article Link: Hands-On With the Redesigned Apple TV 4K Siri Remote
I think it's wild that they had an event where they showed someone losing their keys in a couch cushion, but could locate them due to AirTags, which was a cute video…
…and then proceeded to introduce a remote you can easily lose in a couch cushion, without built-in Find My support.
Most likely, those two product teams simply didn't coordinate with each other.
Oh absolutely! I keep pressing the new mute button and its so annoying. Why hasn't it just been put where the old Siri button was?
The new remote is almost perfect - just wish they'd understand we all use these things without looking down at it. I mainly use mine in the dark.
I bought two and love them. Scrubbing doesn't work with all the apps yet, and I keep pushing mute instead of play/pause from muscle memory, but I'll get used to that in no time. It's worth it to have a mute button finally! If people want more buttons or backlit buttons, this is not for them. I love its simplicity and functionality.
Once again, when users are speaking of losing their remotes, they (we) are speaking about every other place but the couch. That´s the first place one looks, generally speaking. Seriously, apple stop playing stupid. I believe it is just another ploy to try to push us to BUY air tags, honestly.
I am loving the remote so far. With HDMI CEC devices I replaced 3 remotes down to this one. My 20 month old toddler figured out the on button and can navigate to Peep and the big wide world. And even with a 20 month old toddler running around has been lost 0 times.
I'll echo that... alongside my new recliners received a few months ago. USB-A output only. Very handy to have that port beside the couch corners though, and an easy way to ensure the remote never goes missing... though come to think of it, it reminds me of my old JVC VCR with a cord in the early 80s.
No one will agree with me but I think I actually prefer the original Siri remote. Swiping feels awkward on this concave + convex circle bump thing. And I will never use the 4-way buttons. And the new extra buttons are kind of pointless. We had power before (press and hold TV button as opposed to press and hold Power button). And we kind of had mute at well (press and hold Vol Down). We'll see. I only got it today (UPS had a mystery delay on Friday). Maybe the jog / scrub feature will win me over. But so far I actually don't like it. Thinking of returning the whole thing (I bought a whole new AppleTV 4K not just the remote).
p.s. Regarding power the ONLY thing attached to my TV is my AppleTV so maybe that's why it seems pointless to me? I've only been using one remote for as long as I've had an AppleTV. So maybe a decade? I ditched all my old A/V gear ages ago. Maybe that's always why the D-Pad seems pointless to me.
p.s. Regarding power the ONLY thing attached to my TV is my AppleTV so maybe that's why it seems pointless to me? I've only been using one remote for as long as I've had an AppleTV. So maybe a decade? I ditched all my old A/V gear ages ago. Maybe that's always why the D-Pad seems pointless to me.
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The buttons on the new one are much louder and always make an audible click no matter how softly you press.
Seems like they changed the switch components - not a fan of that move.
Seems like they changed the switch components - not a fan of that move.