Who else is disappointed with the new Apple TV?

[JGRE]

Did not say "I see no value". I said I do not understand the insistence on 4K. Again so few people HAVE 4K TVs. Sure, you can film 4K video with new iPhones but unless you have a 4K TV, there will not be much benefit. In three years when they update AppleTV again, 4K will be the standard and worth including. Until then, it was probably viewed by Apple as an extra cost simply not worth adding for most people.

Guess you could compare 4k on the ATV with NFC on the iPhone, Apple only included it one's they has proper use (Apple pay) for it.

 

[JGRE]

Remember when the Apple TV2 didn't need 1080p. Because Apple has better pixels than everyone else.

Didn't take long for them to dump that and replace it with the 1080p ATV3 and 1080p content on iTunes. The same will happen with 4k.

Sports streams over the air are likely to be minimally compressed and I think HD will help a lot for sports like hockey where it is difficult to see the puck. Add in OLED's ultra fast refresh times and it easily adds up to a superior setup to what we have now for sports. The technology for all this exists today, although admittedly we are talking about 5-figure investments in equipment to get it.

Sure, but at some point the human eye will not be able to notice the difference anymore. For me 1080p is the top of the hill, anything beyond gets only into my living room as it come complementary with the TV set at no extra charge. The difference between 720p and 1080p is very well to see, but 1080p to 4 or even 8k....

 

[Sedulous]

Remember when the Apple TV2 didn't need 1080p. Because Apple has better pixels than everyone else.

Didn't take long for them to dump that and replace it with the 1080p ATV3 and 1080p content on iTunes. The same will happen with 4k.

Sports streams over the air are likely to be minimally compressed and I think HD will help a lot for sports like hockey where it is difficult to see the puck. Add in OLED's ultra fast refresh times and it easily adds up to a superior setup to what we have now for sports. The technology for all this exists today, although admittedly we are talking about 5-figure investments in equipment to get it.

Broadcast digital television is limited to 19 Mbit/s. And MOST broadcasters split that up over multiple sub-channels. For comparison, DVD is around 10 Mbit/s and uncompressed 1080p bluray is 48 Mbit/s. So it seems that 4K broadcasts will be quite compressed. Sports like hockey would not benefit.

What's the big deal anyway. In a few years when 4K is mainstream you can pick up an AppleTV5 with 4K support for $100.

 

[JAT]

Sports streams over the air are likely to be minimally compressed and I think HD will help a lot for sports like hockey where it is difficult to see the puck. Add in OLED's ultra fast refresh times and it easily adds up to a superior setup to what we have now for sports. The technology for all this exists today, although admittedly we are talking about 5-figure investments in equipment to get it.

This hasn't been true so far. The original stream from MLB/NFL/etc may be wonderful, but TV stations compress the hell out of the stream, so what the end user sees sucks. 4K is just that much harder to stream, they won't magically begin giving us better quality.

1080, heck, even 720 is wonderful for hockey, if the signal is good. You don't need 4K or the latest $10k tech screen, tech is perfectly fine. I turned on my first HDTV well over a decade ago, at 90", and it was amazing. Then, they started trashing the signal to the point of macroblocking on any fast scenes. You know, like all of hockey and football are fast scenes.

I try NOT to point this out to people at their houses when they show me their "big" screen at 40" and say the football is amazing, and I'm watching the local NBC affiliate spit out 1" blocky lost data bits due to the 2 subchannels in the stream. "Yeah, it's great, huh". 🙄

But hey, if anyone does want the best, it doesn't say "OLED". And it's back on sale for only 4 digits! Right here.

 

[cynics]

I like it. Seems like your standard update, I don't know how many times I've said this but I've never been impressed with a single incremental update from Apple across their entire product line up.

If I sit back and think about the annoyances of my AppleTV it would be things like menu diving, which Siri should address. Or looking up reviews on my iPad, which should be addressed. Lack of 3rd party app support, should be address. A unified search method, should be address. A fairly crappy remote with a watch battery, should be addressed. No volume control, should be addressed. Bluetooth headphone support, should be addressed...etc etc..

It would be nice to have 4K support of some sort but let's face it, there really isn't enough content out there to be utilized enough for that to be a deal breaking feature...at least not yet. I watched all the 4K content Netflix has to offer casually in 2 weeks or so and most of it was because I wanted to enjoy the image, not the actual show. Plus, Apple has little to gain since they don't sell any content, I don't mean to seem like an apologist but more of a realist.

 

[aberrero]

But hey, if anyone does want the best, it doesn't say "OLED". And it's back on sale for only 4 digits! Right here.

Wow. I remember that projector costing $25k. I'm actually tempted.

You're right about the situation, my experience with hockey has been pretty awful. Especially Center Ice is compressed as all hell, to the point where I can't even tell if it is HD or not. I just have to believe that they will deliver high quality 4k, somehow. HEVC will help, but they can't just squeeze 4k into a 720p-sized stream.

 

[aberrero]

I like it. Seems like your standard update, I don't know how many times I've said this but I've never been impressed with a single incremental update from Apple across their entire product line up.

If I sit back and think about the annoyances of my AppleTV it would be things like menu diving, which Siri should address. Or looking up reviews on my iPad, which should be addressed. Lack of 3rd party app support, should be address. A unified search method, should be address. A fairly crappy remote with a watch battery, should be addressed. No volume control, should be addressed. Bluetooth headphone support, should be addressed...etc etc..

It would be nice to have 4K support of some sort but let's face it, there really isn't enough content out there to be utilized enough for that to be a deal breaking feature...at least not yet. I watched all the 4K content Netflix has to offer casually in 2 weeks or so and most of it was because I wanted to enjoy the image, not the actual show. Plus, Apple has little to gain since they don't sell any content, I don't mean to seem like an apologist but more of a realist.

Apple does sell content, a lot of it. If they want networks to take them seriously offering a 4k box would go a long way. Or maybe they made it non-4k to be non-threatening?

 

[JAT]

Wow. I remember that projector costing $25k. I'm actually tempted.

Pretty sure it was always $10k. There is a $25k model still available.

Edit: it's a $28k model.

 

[JAT]

Man, went to Costco today, stopped at the 4K directv display. HORRIBLE!! UK soccer was on, I don't know if it was supposed to be 4K signal or not, but it was a bad, bad signal. The top of the score bug was a 50s-esque mess of static/noise. And the grass was complete mush.

This would turn me off from both the tv and the directv.