What to Expect From the Next Apple TV

[nathansz]

• With any of these chips, the Apple TV will support console-quality games thanks to much improved CPU and GPU performance.

No. No it won’t.

 

[nathansz]

Currently Apple TV does everything just fine other than persistent storage, which has nothing to do with hardware

Drives streaming on 4K hdr oled just fine

Hard to imagine what new hardware could improve at this time

 

[joaogma]

Apple could make this a Hi-Fi streaming device/source supporting e-ARC HDMI or SPDIF audio and Hi-Res 24 bits 196 KHz audio but they just don´t see the opportunity they have. I will never buy this product if it doesn´t support Hi-Res audio and that is frustrating because I really would like to have a box that do it all, instead I rely on my Samsung TV for managing streamings and media and my WiiM to stream hi-res audio.

 

[bondr006]

No. No it won’t.

If iPads can do this with Apple silicon, Apple TV can do it.

 

[IJustWannaTalk]

@IJustWannaTalk

Here is the tv from where I sit on the couch. It’s about 17 feet and I can read the words fine. I am Air Playing from my iPhone. The photo is 1x. I know the picture is not that sharp but I was using my M1 iPad Pro to take the photo.

View attachment 2532797

That feels easier than having it available directly on AppleTV.

 

[IJustWannaTalk]

Well, if you had the ability to change font size, that wouldn’t be a problem…at least for me. I airplay Safari to my 60” TV and it works for me. Would just like it native to the Atv.

Airplay from iOS or iPadOS seems like a much better experience.

 

[bondr006]

That feels easier than having it available directly on AppleTV.

Airplay from iOS or iPadOS seems like a much better experience.

Could be. I guess we won’t know for sure until they give us that choice. TBH IMO, if they could get the iPhone air-play experience from a native Safari, I think the easiest most convenient method would be a native Safari using an iPhone as the input for both text and navigation. Second most convenient would be using the Atv remote. If you have an extra BT keyboard to use, that’d be icing on the cake.

 

[seek3r]

No. No it won’t.

I mean, the hardware will support it just fine… there just still wont be many games to use it

 

[bluespark]

either an optical or a usb(c) port would make the pass through a lot simpler! HDMI splitters are a clunky and limiting.

I agree.

 

[bluespark]

Can you use your apple TV to browse basic cable channels with an antenna hooked to the TV? I've thought about making an apple TV my main GUI on my tv because of how slow and laggy the actual tv is, but thought it would be cumbersome switching UI's if i wanted to watch some of the local channels.

I use Hulu for local programming as well as "basic cable" channels -- no antenna required!

 

[dubiousgif]

I use Hulu for local programming as well as "basic cable" channels -- no antenna required!

Antenna is free though.

Can you use your apple TV to browse basic cable channels with an antenna hooked to the TV? I've thought about making an apple TV my main GUI on my tv because of how slow and laggy the actual tv is, but thought it would be cumbersome switching UI's if i wanted to watch some of the local channels.

There are devices like AirTV, Tablo, and HDhomerun that allow you to integrate antenna channels into apps for Apple TV.

 

[johnprogrammer]

I have not an Apple TV. Doesn't it have a remote control?

 

[markrath]

The AppleTV app was supposed to be the hub for all things streaming, Iwould love to see that come to fruition. I don’t know if this is an issue of streaming services not wanting this but I would love to be able to search a movie and I get results from Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max (or whatever it’s called this week), etc etc. Right now it only shows results for a small handful of services.

 

[markrath]

I have not an Apple TV. Doesn't it have a remote control?

If you want to call it that. It’s very limited IMO. I would to see it more as a universal remote.

 

[MacAlien]

It'd be swell if they allowed hearing devices to connect to AppleTV like their other products.

 

[nathansz]

I mean, the hardware will support it just fine… there just still wont be many games to use it

Most Mac’s don’t even have console level gpus, let alone iPhone chips

So no, the hardware won’t support it

 

[pappl]

- A remote with touch that doesn’t suck.
- More movie recommendations with AI. If i search for a genre or actor i want results matching my interest and no BS.

 

[Brien]

Exactly — the camera rumor always seemed bizarre to me for this reason. Everyone I know hides these in a cabinet. I have seven of them, and all seven TVs are wall-mounted with no visible cables or boxes. I’m not about to change that for the Apple TV.

Unless they change the form factor to be like a webcam, and it mounts to the TV edge.

(I wouldn’t use the camera though!)

$100 or less could be a game changer.

 

[seek3r]

Most Mac’s don’t even have console level gpus, let alone iPhone chips

So no, the hardware won’t support it

The most successful console currently on sale is the switch, in terms of raw hardware power the current aTV beats the switch hands down.

 

[nathansz]

The most successful console currently on sale is the switch, in terms of raw hardware power the current aTV beats the switch hands down.

the original switch sure, I'm thinking more ps 5 or xbox series x, so equivalent to around a 6700xt or 3060ti

current aTV isn't competing with that and nor is whatever A series chip they might put in a new one

if they actually wanted to do a high end console they would have to use an m series pro or max

was just reminded with some free time that m4 pro struggles to get over 40 fps at high settings on some pretty undemanding games

so it would probably need a max or ultra to do 60 fps at high settings consistently

no iPhone chip in an aTV is doing that

 

[IJustWannaTalk]

Could be. I guess we won’t know for sure until they give us that choice. TBH IMO, if they could get the iPhone air-play experience from a native Safari, I think the easiest most convenient method would be a native Safari using an iPhone as the input for both text and navigation. Second most convenient would be using the Atv remote. If you have an extra BT keyboard to use, that’d be icing on the cake.

This feels like a very small use case scenario, but good luck.

 

[Mr. Chewbacca]

The best feature for me would being able to use my AirPods and speakers at the same time. I have bad hearing so I cat hear it without headphones or crazy loud volume.

I currently use an optical cable plugged into the tv but it would be nice to wear my little ear bud vs a huge headset.

 

[sos47]

The thing that prevents my wife and I from using our first gen Apple tv 4k model is that lack of directional buttons on the remote. Instead ours has the touch pad like remote that is frustrating to use. I may consider the new Apple TV if the remote is like a real tv remote with directional buttons. Doesn't the current model Apple TV remote have the directional buttons now?

I just use my LG Remote
Never used the ATV Remote
(Yes and the ATV switches automatically on when i switch to the atv port and off when i shutdown the tv)

 

[gugy]

I know Apple won't do it but I would love AppleTV to have a way to attach an external drive so I could have all my movie library locally and Apple have a software like Plex/Infuse to access it in a simple way.

 

[mgroot]

Passthrough and I will literally pay $300 for it (even though this should work for existing models on tvOS 26).

Coming in all of the 26 releases https://developer.apple.com/documentation/avfaudio/avaudiocontentsource/passthrough

Passthrough audio is finally on the way to Apple TV

We've confirmed at WWDC that tvOS 26 is getting passthrough audio, which could allow a higher quality listening experience by disabling audio preprocessing on the Apple TV hardware, before hand-off to a sound system.

appleinsider.com