The Next Apple TV

[saxman211]

I just looked in the buyers guide and saw a caution note next to the Apple TV. Does this mean a new one may be around the way? If so, what could it have that the current Apple TV doesn't? Should I hold off on getting it? Or do you think it's ok to get one? I guess I should note that I have a smart TV and I'm definitely curious about what apps the apple tv would have, but don't want to get it if the next apple tv is that much better.. Thanks in advance!!

 

[brandscill]

I just looked in the buyers guide and saw a caution note next to the Apple TV. Does this mean a new one may be around the way? If so, what could it have that the current Apple TV doesn't? Should I hold off on getting it? Or do you think it's ok to get one? I guess I should note that I have a smart TV and I'm definitely curious about what apps the apple tv would have, but don't want to get it if the next apple tv is that much better.. Thanks in advance!!

Seems highly unlikely there would be a new Apple TV. The current one has support for Dolby Vision, HDR10, Dolby Atmos and 4K resolution video with gigabit ethernet. Perhaps, and it seems unlikely, apple will release a cheaper Apple TV device but other than that there isn't anything new they could add.

I've think you're safe to buy one.

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

Rec.2020, HDMI 2.1, AV1 hardware decoding, Wi-fi 6, A12X. I can't come up with anything else? So 2020 is most likely for the next update I think, as the majority of these are still a couple of years away.

 

[BODYBUILDERPAUL]

I really don't know why they've a caution next to it. A huge mistake there from MacRumours. It's only 1 year old!
I reckon next September 2019 - HDMI 2.1 and 120fps UI for definite A12X chip too That will be a super fast beast!

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

I really don't know why they've a caution next to it. A huge mistake there from MacRumours. It's only 1 year old!

Because it is closing in on the average - An average which is skewed quite heavily by the March 2012 release.

 

[Casey Royals]

There’s an Apple event on 30 October, if my memory serves me correct), rumors suggest new iPads, may be other announcements, including an Apple TV.

 

[saxman211]

There’s an Apple event on 30 October, if my memory serves me correct), rumors suggest new iPads, may be other announcements, including an Apple TV.

Really? A new Apple TV that fast??

 

[BODYBUILDERPAUL]

Really? A new Apple TV that fast??

No absolute chance. At present, the ATV is an absolute leader! There's nothing out there to touch it for long term performance, reliability and user satisfaction.
It's got everything at present. It'll get HDMI 2.1 in time once next years TVs are launched with it in the spring of 2019.

 

[mpainesyd]

Maybe the ability to screen free-to-air TV without needing a separate tuner and an expensive app (I use an HD Homerun tuner & Channels app)?
It has always puzzled me why they called it a "TV" when this simple, basic function has never been supported. I haven't had a real TV in the house for years - a Mac and EyeTV did everything. Unfortunately when Apple TV came along there was no decent app to stream the EyeTV to it, despite an app being available for iPhones and iPads.

 

[AVonGauss]

Deleted.

 

[Sakurambo-kun]

Rec.2020, HDMI 2.1, AV1 hardware decoding, Wi-fi 6, A12X. I can't come up with anything else? So 2020 is most likely for the next update I think, as the majority of these are still a couple of years away.

Add to that HLG and VP9 support. Both are essential for any streaming platform which wants to support all the big hitters.

A better remote would certainly be nice too (with back lighting and a shape designed for actual human hands), as would mics in the ATV itself for always on 'Hey Siri'.

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

Add to that HLG and VP9 support. Both are essential for any streaming platform which wants to support all the big hitters.

Since VP9 is an h265 competitor, I don't see that happening. Also, what sites actually use VP9, other than Youtube for 4K streaming?

It is my impression that HLG is primarily for cable streaming, so does that actually make sense from an AppleTV point of view? We can also bump the rec.2020 support to rec.2100, since HLG is included there.

A better remote would certainly be nice too (with back lighting and a shape designed for actual human hands), as would mics in the ATV itself for always on 'Hey Siri'.

Two very nice ideas! Although most people likely hide their Apple TV away in a cupboard, or on the back of the TV, so I don't think Apple will include the latter. It would also compete with the HomePod then..

 

[Solver]

Maybe Apple will announce a new remote with, “find my remote.” It sure needs one.

 

[Tech198]

I dunno what else an Apple TV could have

Maybe Apple will announce a new remote with, “find my remote.” It sure needs one.

I don't think that could work in the same house. The only reason 'Find my iPhone' works well is when its in another location... How often would you leave your remote over at a friends place?

 

[flyinmac]

Personally, I still prefer the 3rd generation model for my uses. The 4th and 5th generation interface is clunky, and more cumbersome at some tasks. Like shuffling all music videos is a pain compared to the 3rd generation.

Yes, you can shuffle the entire library. But playlist shuffling is a mess.

Yes, there’s apps available for the 4th and 5th generation. But those are hardly worthwhile for me. I’ve relegated my 4th generation to my bedroom. And use the 3rd generation in all the main areas of the house. It’s easier for people to interact with my 3rd generation models. I spend less time telling others how to do something. They can just jump right in and go on the older models.

So... if the 6th generation suddenly regains features, it would become interesting. But most likely it’ll continue the trend of further molding users into doing things in a more specific and Apple way.

 

[MistrSynistr]

I have Roku's for my smaller tvs in other rooms but for my room and the living room I have 4k ATVs. They are the best.

 

[Macalicious2011]

With Dolby Atmos and 4K capability now available, I doubt we'll see new ATV hardware soon. Content is is a huge area of improvement and a native streaming service would go a long way in giving the ATV greater purpose.

Most importantly Siri is still very very bad. It's incapable of understanding me when I mention the name of a person with an obscure name or non American/English cities.

 

[Sakurambo-kun]

Since VP9 is an h265 competitor, I don't see that happening. Also, what sites actually use VP9, other than Youtube for 4K streaming?

It is my impression that HLG is primarily for cable streaming, so does that actually make sense from an AppleTV point of view? We can also bump the rec.2020 support to rec.2100, since HLG is included there.


Two very nice ideas! Although most people likely hide their Apple TV away in a cupboard, or on the back of the TV, so I don't think Apple will include the latter. It would also compete with the HomePod then..

VP9 is as far as I know only used by YouTube, but as YouTube is one of the most popular sites in the world it's rather important Apple support it fully.

As for HLG, it is indeed intended for live broadcasts, but it's also used by broadcasters' on demand services. Where I am in the UK for example it's used by the BBC. In Japan NHK use it, in the US DirecTV use it, and interestingly it's also supported on YouTube (they also support HDR10).
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With Dolby Atmos and 4K capability now available, I doubt we'll see new ATV hardware soon. Content is is a huge area of improvement and a native streaming service would go a long way in giving the ATV greater purpose.

Most importantly Siri is still very very bad. It's incapable of understanding me when I mention the name of a person with an obscure name or non American/English cities.

I don't get why Siri is so basic on the Apple TV. It's worse than the initial launch version of Siri many years back. Why can't it talk? Why can't it set reminders or send iMessages? Why can't it set timers, answer simple questions, or even perform calculations? It lacks even the ability to tell me who is on screen in the show I'm watching. It's amazingly dumb.

 

[BODYBUILDERPAUL]

VP9 is as far as I know only used by YouTube, but as YouTube is one of the most popular sites in the world it's rather important Apple support it fully.

As for HLG, it is indeed intended for live broadcasts, but it's also used by broadcasters' on demand services. Where I am in the UK for example it's used by the BBC. In Japan NHK use it, in the US DirecTV use it, and interestingly it's also supported on YouTube (they also support HDR10).
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I don't get why Siri is so basic on the Apple TV. It's worse than the initial launch version of Siri many years back. Why can't it talk? Why can't it set reminders or send iMessages? Why can't it set timers, answer simple questions, or even perform calculations? It lacks even the ability to tell me who is on screen in the show I'm watching. It's amazingly dumb.

No, it truly is not important that Apple support VP9 because of YouTube. Firstly, the Apple TV 4K does an amazing job of upscaling HD to 4K and secondly, YouTube will be moving to AV1 next year. VP9 will be forgotten.

 

[JeffPerrin]

In the near future, I would like to see a modest CPU/GPU bump so as to eliminate the need for an internal fan.

As for a major update, Apple needs to come up with a gaming unit that would allow Apple TV to compete on the same ground as the console gaming.

 

[Sakurambo-kun]

No, it truly is not important that Apple support VP9 because of YouTube. Firstly, the Apple TV 4K does an amazing job of upscaling HD to 4K and secondly, YouTube will be moving to AV1 next year. VP9 will be forgotten.

There's a mountain load of VP9 content on YouTube, which I can't imagine Google will transcode into anything else. Why would they bother? Pretty much every 4K device supports VP9, except the ATV.

And as for upscaling, come on, upscaling is a last resort which should be avoided at all costs. Plus YouTube's 4K content is at a vastly higher bit-rate, which does as much if not more to improve image quality over the extremely over compressed 1080p stuff. The difference is night and day.

 

[BODYBUILDERPAUL]

There's a mountain load of VP9 content on YouTube, which I can't imagine Google will transcode into anything else. Why would they bother? Pretty much every 4K device supports VP9, except the ATV.

And as for upscaling, come on, upscaling is a last resort which should be avoided at all costs. Plus YouTube's 4K content is at a vastly higher bit-rate, which does as much if not more to improve image quality over the extremely over compressed 1080p stuff. The difference is night and day.

I disagree maybe every Android device (why would any person want Android??????????) supports VP9 but Apple's market for iPad Pro's, MacBook Pro's, iPhone is truly HUGE and Google are insane for ignoring such a high quality market!

YouTube/Google have already agreed to AV1 - the industry moves FAST!

 

[brucewayne]

I doubt we will see VP9 on Apple TV - especially since Apple, Google and Microsoft are all supporting its successor AV1. Same with HLG - mostly geared to linear video/broadcast TV and not a streaming device

It is a stand that Apple will take - remember flash? We would still have it around if apple hadn't went all in on HTML5.

As far as the hardware, unless they decide to get serious about gaming there is no need to use the A11x/A12

 

[LCC0256]

Rec.2020, HDMI 2.1, AV1 hardware decoding, Wi-fi 6, A12X. I can't come up with anything else? So 2020 is most likely for the next update I think, as the majority of these are still a couple of years away.

When sir would you conservatively estimate the change over to AV1? I just ripped 300 DVDs to H264 because it was recommended for my Apple devices. Will H264 be backwards compatible or will I have to re rip my entire library?

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

When sir would you conservatively estimate the change over to AV1? I just ripped 300 DVDs to H264 because it was recommended for my Apple devices. Will H264 be backwards compatible or will I have to re rip my entire library?

AV1 is already available for decoding in all major browsers (Short of Safari, of course, because Apple), and major video decoders. There's even an available playlist on Youtube, with AV1 encoded clips, for testing purposes. So preliminary support is already rolled out, and we are currently late in Phase 2 of the AV1 release schedule:

Version 1.0.0 of the AV1 specifications was made available in June, this year, so now we are really only waiting on hardware support, which will take more time. Practically all vendors are already behind it, so we will *finally* see a universal media codec!

As it is stands now, 2020 is where most hardware units will have hardware decode support:

As for you, the end user, h.264 is the most widely used standard we currently have, and one that is fully supported, and will remain fully supported by Apple for many years to come. So no need to reencode everything you have done now. Also, AV1 is not targeting low resolution sources anyway, so the space saved by doing AV1 encodes of DVD material, would be miniscule anyway. Even going h.265, which you would be able to decode and play on most of your stuff now, would only save you about ~10% space. And chances are that you don't have hardware h.265 decoding in your devices, unless you have the latest iPhone/Apple TV/iPad/Mac.

TLDR; So be happy, enjoy your h.264 content, as it will still play on your hardware 10 years from now. And it is likely anyway, that you'll toss the discs and encodes in 5 years anyway, and go all in on streaming, as it just is more convenient and physical discs are on the way out (Despite them still being the superior format when it comes to quality - In a few years, we will be streaming 5.1 HD audio and higher video bitrates and then it will be good enough for the vast majority of people. And then we only need good availability of movie extras..).