There is no 4K support, not should there be, considering that few people have 4K TVs, few people have enough bandwidth to streak 4K content, and there's very little 4K content to begin with.
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New Apple TV First Impressions: Not a 'Revolution,' But Siri and tvOS Shine
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There is no 4K support, not should there be, considering that few people have 4K TVs, few people have enough bandwidth to streak 4K content, and there's very little 4K content to begin with.
I think 4K would have been nice, but I didn't think the ATV4 would have it. Yes, the iPhone would have been a source for content, but looking at the ATV2's 720p, it wasn't like Apple to include it. There isn't enough content yet.
4K will probably be on the ATV5 or ATV6, depending on how often they will update them.
I get why folks who want 4K are disappointed. But no one realistically expected 4K support at this point. It's quite obviously a perfect upgrade for a future incremental update. Though I don't see it coming too soon. Too much of a niche market for now. But growth of 4K tvs and content will eventually drive the upgrade. Apple is actually pretty good about understanding when it's important to lead the market and when not to.
The new apple tv is going to be great and it's the app store that will blow it open. Yes, Roku has many of the same features, but not the combo and quality of goods/services that apple can deliver here. I don't think apple, google, or amazon were ever threatened by Roku breaking into the market early. I have both. The roku UI is frustrating to me to be honest. But I use it and it works and i'm happy to have it.
Anyone ever use fan.tv? They have their own mobi device (sp?) but they have an ipad app that I could see working quite nicely somehow integrated with the apple tv. It's a dream. I just like how easy it is to see, not just what services are showing a show, but how much it costs on each service (before clicking away from it).
The new apple tv is going to be great and it's the app store that will blow it open. Yes, Roku has many of the same features, but not the combo and quality of goods/services that apple can deliver here. I don't think apple, google, or amazon were ever threatened by Roku breaking into the market early. I have both. The roku UI is frustrating to me to be honest. But I use it and it works and i'm happy to have it.
Anyone ever use fan.tv? They have their own mobi device (sp?) but they have an ipad app that I could see working quite nicely somehow integrated with the apple tv. It's a dream. I just like how easy it is to see, not just what services are showing a show, but how much it costs on each service (before clicking away from it).
4K content as well as 4k tv's are such a small segment of the market that it really is premature for Apple to support it.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
I respect most of the comments so far, but who's really holding back 4k adoption for boxes like these?
Comcast. Sky. Frontier/Time Warner Cable. CenturyLink. Velcom. Verizon. ATT U-Verse. The list of lousy ISPs with data caps and plenty of excuses goes on, and on, and on...
We can't use the fat pipes to their potential if someone won't open up the spigot...
The general belief is that 4K will come with h.265 which is billed as a much more efficient storage format than the current h.264. File sizes won't necessarily be that much larger for 4K if h.265 is used. Apparently, Apple has already at least somewhat embraced h.265 in FaceTime software on iDevices.
BUT, for those consumers who don't want 4K video files, no problem: just as those who purchased
TV3 could opt for the 720p or even the SD version of a video, I would expect a 4K TV to also offer the 1080p, 720p or SD versions too. Anyone with data issues or "too slow" broadband could simply keep doing what they are doing now. Better hardware will have no trouble playing lessor software.
I'm pretty sure (Eddie?) mentioned during the demo that it supports HDMI-CEC. He mentioned being able to use the remote to control your TV and A/V receiver volume, as well as switching inputs.
But, yeah, I'm a Harmony user, too, and also don't want to revert to multiple remotes.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
It's premature only because the profit motive for Studios to offer much 4K is not in play. Why? Because there's no hardware flowing into the masses homes capable of 4K playback right now. Fill up millions of homes with a 4K-capable player and the content will show. Studios simply need to see that there is enough opportunity for profit to make it worth it to them.
Today, we saw some software Studios demo products that ONLY run on new
TVs that are in no one's home yet. Why would those Studios burn valuable time and money coding software that not a single consumer can buy or use right now? They anticipate making a lot of profit when the new TV is available for purchase. That's a good gamble on their part. What would happen if the new TV did launch with 4K playback hardware? Another kind of Studio(s) would have wanted to be among the first to offer video content in 4K.Sometimes Apple tries to reinvent something that needs a bit of work like for instance mobile phones. The results of their work have created the best mobile phones ever. At other times they try to reinvent something that already works just fine. Their results are occasionally bad like with the crappy, useless Apple Mouse models that have tortured users for years.
For television I'm just fine with cable and a remote. Remotes could be a little better but turning the set on, hitting "4" and "3" for channel 43 is just fine. I want a TV turner that is neutral, not one trying to sell me more Apple downloads.
For television I'm just fine with cable and a remote. Remotes could be a little better but turning the set on, hitting "4" and "3" for channel 43 is just fine. I want a TV turner that is neutral, not one trying to sell me more Apple downloads.
Then why are they supporting it on the iPhone?
What happened to the my computer icon. How will someone watch movies or tv shows that weren't bought through iTunes but are part of their media collection?
I would like to play the sound through bt headphones or through my iPhone at night. Can it do that?
So what is the difference between an App and a TV station on the Apple TV? Won't I be able to download an App, click it, and then get a "show"? I guess this isn't super different than going to a website. But "shows" are something we watch on TVs and websites are largely seen on computers and sometimes mobile devices. And this is a TV. So if someone has some web content video, can't they just repackage it as an tvOS App and then boom they have an easy way to get onto your TV.
Most of the features seem to be OK, Siri search and all that. However, what happened to the home hub where HomeKit could be integrated? Probably saving that for the next version to sell us an upgrade.
I have been fairly loyal to Apple and am deeply embedded in the ecosystem, but my wallet is only so big. Interesting that they kept the current ATV in the lineup, but I don't recall them mentioning if it could be upgraded to the new OS to take advantage of some of the features. The $149 price point is what I expected, but I also expected just a little more.
Will wait until the true use reviews come out.
I have been fairly loyal to Apple and am deeply embedded in the ecosystem, but my wallet is only so big. Interesting that they kept the current ATV in the lineup, but I don't recall them mentioning if it could be upgraded to the new OS to take advantage of some of the features. The $149 price point is what I expected, but I also expected just a little more.
Will wait until the true use reviews come out.
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HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
There's not a single app in the app store to take advantage of the A10 chip for next year's iDevices. So why bother building the A10 after this launch?
There's not a single app coded to fully exploit Skylake's completely unique features, so why bother to develop computers with Skylake?
Etc.
Hardware leads. Roll out advances in hardware and the software and infrastructure plays catch up. It's always been that way.
No people have "force touch" needs but that's coming in the new phone anyway. Pretty much everyone could pay for anything before Apple Pay but Apple Pay was developed anyway. Nobody had or needed touchID but Apple rolled that out anyway. USB3C. Thunderbolt. Lightning. Retina HD or Retina 5K (when retina was apparently the limit of human eyes)
I realize we have to "rally the troops" in support of Apple here but Apple DID EMBRACE 4K today. The iPhone shoots 4K. iMovie will edit 4K shot on the iPhone. Retina 5K iMacs and FCPX also fully support 4K video editing. iTunes will store 4K videos rendered from iMovie or FCPX. There are tons of 4K TVs in the wild from pretty much every manufacturer. What's missing: iPhone shoots 4K, iMovie or FCPX edits 4K, iTunes stores it, Apple TV, 4K TV. Just one crucial link in the chain.
Presumably through an App that access wherever you have that content. The device itself has limited storage so you aren't going to want to store too much content there.
I have a friend that buys physical media. He is like the only one I know that does it.
I remember at the end of the format wars(I picked up a super cheap HD-DVD player), I had a feeling that bluray was not going to be as big as DVD was, even though everyone I talked to then said it would be bigger.
DVD was such a huge leap compared to VHS, and while bluray was really nice update, it didn't change the way people watched movies and shows. Plus bluray was expensive. People did not want to replace their DVD collections like they replaced their VHS ones.
Now that the bluray prices are down, it is too late. Streaming is now the huge leap in how we are watching movies and shows.
Bluray will probably not go anywhere anytime soon, but streaming pretty much put bluray into a niche category for A/V pros.
Give it a few months and allow for it to settle in the ecosys with new specialized apps... And you will see that apple has indeed changed the tv experiance!....in a big way .....
I have zero interest in 4K right now. In fact, all of my HD media right now is only 720p, the rest of the media is SD. I simply would not have the space on my NAS to store it all if it were all in 4K. I'm already using 5.94TB out of 10.73TB, and TBH, my cash would be put to much better use elsewhere than to upgrade the storage so that I would have the space.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
I don't know about that. Pros tend to favor QUALITY even over convenience. Blu Ray kills iTunes store media in the 2 aspects that should matter most: picture and audio quality. Streaming is definitely more convenient and may win the wallets of the bulk of consumers much like MP3 and then AAC seems to have won the masses over CDs (while also doing so by sacrificing quality). Yet you still have people who will buy and rip the CDs so they can pick their own quality settings. And you still have people that will buy and rip Blu Ray for the same reason. If one wants best possible quality, streaming is not there yet. If you don't care that much about quality or are a "good enough" kind of consumer, streaming is very appealing.
Lost optical audio, I don't even know if my soundbar can use HDMI, WTF Apple?
Apple needs to add the Bacon number as an answerable question by Siri.
"Siri, what is the Bacon number for Tom Hanks?"
"Siri, what is the Bacon number for Tom Hanks?"
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
A 4K
TV would not have forced someone like you to change anything. It would simply be more robust hardware able to play your 720p collection to it's maximum. One would never have to buy or store a single 4K file if they wouldn't want to do so. BUT it doesn't work the other way, meaning, those who do want 4K now can't make a 720p or 1080p-capped
TV give them what they want. One option would make everybody happy. Another cuts a segment out (for now).
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
The earlier thread has some guys posting links to some kind of HDMI splitter adapter for sale that will split audio out of HDMI to toslink. But I too wish they hadn't jettisoned that port. Those of us with "zone 2" receivers that need analog audio are already using an adapter off that port to convert toslink to analog. Now it might be HDMI splitter adapter to Toslink adapter to analog (with lots of hope that both will work together).
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It seems cool, but how would this work with apps like Beamer? That's pretty much all I use my ATV for, to show videos from my computer to my TV via the ATV — so I don't think this upgrade is in my future. I don't care about the App Store since most of the apps they offer now have my interests covered.