Is the Apple TV dead ????

[Crazy Badger]

I've got 4 devices if you include the TV (aTV4, Virgin TiVo, Firestick and TV) but only one remote to control them all. Get a Harmony Elite! Probably one of the best media devices I've ever purchased and it doesn't play anything 😀

 

[bopajuice]

I enjoy my AppleTV 4 and recently purchased the game pad so we can play games with it. Works great.

I understand that some apps are missing like Amazon. I do not understand what is taking so long. They announce it and we have to wait months to actually get it.

Personally, I am off the grid, so I utilize an over the air antenna with a OTA Tivo box which has the Amazon App Apple is missing. It too offers Netflix, Hulu, etc, but is much slower and the picture and audio quality does not match the AppleTV.

Even though my DVD player, Tivo box, and smart TV have most of the same apps built in, I prefer to use one device as my central hub. Aside from the lack of Amazon Prime, I use my Apple TV to watch HBO, Showtime, Directv Now, Netflix, Hulu, movies using iTunes, and most importantly use Plex for my personal media. No need to switch between devices. I have it all on one device in one place. Directv Now is starting to add some local channels, so pretty soon I can ditch the Tivo altogether. As soon as Amazon is added to AppleTV I see no reason to use anything else.

My son tried every box out there. Ruku, Amazon Fire, Nvidia Shield, etc. Each had it's pluses and minuses. Even though some of the other boxes were faster or offered 4k, better audio etc., none did it all, and none had the polished UI that Apple does. He started with an AppleTV 4 and went back to AppleTV after trying all the other iterations. He did keep the Amazon Fire. It has some cool features including displaying lyrics with music. The UI is pretty slick. But for him and myself AppleTV is still king.

 

[fpnc]

The only thing that SHOULD be dead about the Apple TV is the Siri remote. Its ergonomics (shape and control placement) are horrible and the touch surface is nothing but a needless exercise in frustration. I suspect that some of these "problems" were driven by Apple's desire to have game-controller functionality, but day-to-day usability should have taken precedent.

I just hope that in the next version Apple wakes up and realizes that the design of the Siri remote is really, really poor.

 

[Brenster]

Leaving Prime aside, getting ITV Hub and All4 would go a long way to gaining parity with FireTV/FireTV Stick. FireTV owner here as well as AppleTV, also in the UK, so really would like both to succeed. Amazon have done an amazing job marketing Fire TV & Stick along with The Grand Tour, to the point that the cardboard floor stands that Currys & Argos had for stacking/promoting the devices were all empty last Christmas.

Love my Apple TV (iTunes Extras, Now TV Entertainment pass and Apple Music client) but third party support and Apple's own promotion of it isn't in the same league as Amazon's efforts for its own device and services.

 

[se95dah]

I'm a bit afraid that Apples curated approach (which works so well on the iPhone) will prevent Apple TV becoming more than it is now. The user interface on ATV4 is a joy to use, but I spend a small proportion of my time in the interface and a large proportion watching content. On content, other devices have a big advantage, in the U.K. at least.

 

[andrewstirling]

I'm a bit afraid that Apples curated approach (which works so well on the iPhone) will prevent Apple TV becoming more than it is now. The user interface on ATV4 is a joy to use, but I spend a small proportion of my time in the interface and a large proportion watching content. On content, other devices have a big advantage, in the U.K. at least.

Content bothers me less now that I have a newer TV but I agree, the interface doesn't make up for the device's shortcomings. Not totally convinced the new Apple TV is for me either as we don't know yet how many of the current gen's shortcomings it's going to address. 4k is a given (and a must) but I'm also not interested in watching media on a device that cannot play at native framerate or play lossless audio.

 

[-Gonzo-]

What I would love to see with the next AppleTV is the ability to store and play from an external hard drive without the need of syncing up to a computer with iTunes.
I have loads of films that really should be downloaded but I rarely use a computer these days so having boot up the laptop every time I want to watch a film just seems too much of a chore but it's something I do need to do as lately my internet connection has been so unreliable it's made watching things a frustrating experience.

 

[le.bouch]

I haven't read all 10 pages of this so apologies for any duplication..

I'm in the UK too and have to say that content-wise I also find the ATV4 very disappointing, with essentially just the BBC iPlayer and Now TV available.

The obvious missing ones are the itv Hub, 4OD and Ch5. Is it a coincidence though that the BBC iPlayer is ad-free whilst the 'missing' apps are riddled with ads, all of which are out of Apple's control..?

As an aside, I have a recent Samsung smart TV which has all those apps, however their implementation is so bad I never use them!

 

[Crazy Badger]

It still amazes me that a public corporation like the BBC can create such a fantastic service like the iPlayer, yet commercial organisations such as ITV, C5 C4 (to some degree) and Virgin Media cannot (don't have Sky, so can't compare)

 

[IG88]

Yes, it's hard to believe ten years later that AppleTV still requires iTunes to be running in order to play anything from your own library (without running 3rd party software). I remember some interview with an Apple software engineer saying they'd like to support something like NAS at some point, but not yet. Not 10 years later either. The focus on iTunes (and thus SELLING CRAP as opposed to letting you play your own media/library) continues. I don't much suppose they like you encoding your own Blu-rays (Steve never wanted any kind of Blu-Ray support for the Mac; 3rd parties finally got it working) and without removing DRM, you're locked into just one media player (unacceptable, IMO) and thus Blu-Ray (including UHD) and/or 4K streaming services ultimately appear more attractive.

I have a Synology NAS, I’m using the Synology Video app on my 4K ATV to stream movies from the NAS.

 

[andrewstirling]

I have a Synology NAS, I’m using the Synology Video app on my 4K ATV to stream movies from the NAS.

I think that would still count as 3rd party software. Not that I personally see what the big deal is about using an app to stream from a NAS. I certainly wouldn’t consider it a restriction.

 

[IG88]

I think that would still count as 3rd party software. Not that I personally see what the big deal is about using an app to stream from a NAS. I certainly wouldn’t consider it a restriction.

The video app is better than, say having a Files app from Apple using SMB that would just have the list of movies in a folder view.

I suppose the gripe is that Apple doesn't have a native Video app that will connect to a shared network volume.

With the amount of $$ he has invested in home theater equipment, I'd imagine he could afford to buy a Synology NAS.

 

[andrewstirling]

True...Or he could get infuse and stream from just about everything you can think of.

 

[IG88]

True...Or he could get infuse and stream from just about everything you can think of.

I have Infuse 5 Pro on iOS, I see they have an Apple TV app too. I'll have to check it out.

Seems like he was complaining about needing to keep a computer awake to run iTunes. There has to be some sort of computer running something to share the files to the network regardless.

Like you said, I don't see the problem. There are 3rd party apps available that run on the ATV to stream movies from the network. I couldn't care less that Apple doesn't have a 1st party solution. None of my movies have DRM on them anyhow.

 

[andrewstirling]

I can’t recommend it highly enough. It’s an awesome app.

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

I have Infuse 5 Pro on iOS, I see they have an Apple TV app too. I'll have to check it out.

Seems like he was complaining about needing to keep a computer awake to run iTunes. There has to be some sort of computer running something to share the files to the network regardless.

Like you said, I don't see the problem. There are 3rd party apps available that run on the ATV to stream movies from the network. I couldn't care less that Apple doesn't have a 1st party solution. None of my movies have DRM on them anyhow.

I still see not a single reason to buy the new Apple TV over something else when it costs twice as much as something like the new FireTV if you don't have an iTunes library. You can run Kodi or Plex or whatever on FireTV also to stream your own movie collection without DRM and it's half the price. The only reason I see to get Apple is because it's the only device to run the Apple ecosystem software. Otherwise, it's overpriced and has no other benefits I can see. It's why I moved to FireTV over a year ago and run KODI without issue (all my Apple library was converted to non-DRM long ago and I use mostly BD conversions now anyway).

 

[Homeyjay]

I have a home theatre system here in the UK with the Fire TV. Just wanted to try the Apple TV as the whole family have iOS devices and some MacBooks. The idea was that we could play iOS games with the ATV which we’d already bought on the iPads. I didn’t realise that you needed specific versions of the games to play on the ATV natively and was pretty disappointed that hardly any of the games we already have are even available for ATV. I also found ou that a good many apps simply do not support mirroring so titles the the Room series (which we were looking forward to playing on the big screen) simply crashed or quit when mirrored on ATV.

We don’t use the crappy iTunes Store and don’t care about Apples overpriced media offerings in the UK and prefer to just rip our discs to run with Plex (from a Windows server) which runs well on pretty much every device.
Honestly, I can’t see any advantage of the ATV over the Fire TV, especially when you consider the price difference. There’s no difference in the picture quality between any of them anyway.

The only device that tempts me now is the Shield TV and that was probably what I should have bought all along!

 

[-Gonzo-]

We don’t use the crappy iTunes Store and don’t care about Apples overpriced media offerings in the UK

Overpriced, when was the last you you looked in the iTunes Store Lol?
There’s always bargains to be had, it wasn’t that long ago Predator & Die Hard we’re available in 4K for £1.99 each.
You could’ve also had The Maze Runner Films in 4K for £2.99 each.
Overpriced certainly isn’t a word I’d use.

 

[BMox81]

Overpriced, when was the last you you looked in the iTunes Store Lol?
There’s always bargains to be had, it wasn’t that long ago Predator & Die Hard we’re available in 4K for £1.99 each.
You could’ve also had The Maze Runner Films in 4K for £2.99 each.
Overpriced certainly isn’t a word I’d use.

Was going to say the exact same thing.

 

[andrewstirling]

Was going to say the exact same thing.

I suspect he’s not using plex to play movies he ‘ripped from physical media’. In which case any cost whatsoever is ‘overpriced’ in his world. Hopefully he’ll be a shield tv and stop resurrecting old threads. It still ranks as the worst piece of hardware I have ever purchased.

 

[Homeyjay]

No, actually, we purchase physical product - our internet speeds are very bad and it just makes more sense to buy them that way rather than spend all day downloading something!

 

[andrewstirling]

No, actually, we purchase physical product - our internet speeds are very bad and it just makes more sense to buy them that way rather than spend all day downloading something!

Well then your ‘overpriced’ comment confuses me. Why not say that your internet speeds are too slow to make streaming viable. If you’re used to buying physical ultra HD discs then you’ll know that the media on iTunes is far from overpriced.

 

[Homeyjay]

Listen, it’s just my opinion. No need to get upset about it. Whenever I’ve looked, the Apple Store has been more expensive for a download film than it is to buy on Amazon or equivalent retailer. If you buy physical movies when they’re new, you can sometimes even get the BluRay ones for under £10 and that’s just fine for me and my requirements.

The discussion was about Apple TV and that’s what my main comments were about.

 

[andrewstirling]

Listen, it’s just my opinion. No need to get upset about it. Whenever I’ve looked, the Apple Store has been more expensive for a download film than it is to buy on Amazon or equivalent retailer. If you buy physical movies when they’re new, you can sometimes even get the BluRay ones for under £10 and that’s just fine for me and my requirements.

The discussion was about Apple TV and that’s what my main comments were about.

But the main reason people are snapping up the Apple TVs is that you can get ultra HD versions of films for around £5. Even brand new films are half the price of the ultra HD physical disc equivalents. And what’s more, if you’ve previously bought the HD version, it gets upgraded free of charge to the UltraHD version. Whatever criticisms you level at the Apple TV 4k, to highlight the cost of the media is amongst the most bizarre.
They are consistently cheaper than their streaming rivals and use a significantly higher bitrate too. Of course this is all academic because your internet isn’t quick enough to support streaming anyway.

 

[-Gonzo-]

Of course this is all academic because your internet isn’t quick enough to support streaming anyway.

Which makes one wonder why even get an Internet streaming device in the first place.
Each to their own I suppose.