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YouTube Discontinuing 3rd-Generation Apple TV App, AirPlay Still Available

shamino said:
At this point, nobody will miss it. The YouTube app on the 3rd gen AppleTV is practically useless compared to YouTube apps on other devices (like Roku, which also has a simple UI, but one that is far more usable).
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Confirmation bias. People who already have a 3rd gen ATV would have to by another device (like Roku) for that to be an option.
 
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Ah, balls. We just put an old one on the TV in the kid’s room precisely so he could have YouTube. We’ll have to buy something new, meaning probably the cheapest option, which won’t be Apple.
 
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YouTube tv app needs to bring back current spot in playlist by pressing down.
It now goes to the beginning of playlist.
Then i have to tap all the way to the right to get back to where i was in the playlist.
Infuriating.

it never used to be like this.
 
That’s too bad. I don’t need a new Apple TV. It does everything I want and I absolutely love that simple and beautiful remote.
 
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It's annoying because this is the only YouTube app in existence using an Apple template design. It's much better than any of the modern YouTube apps. Like how Netflix messed up their app with freedom to do what they wanted (Netflix template app was better than anything Netflix created 100% independently). I liked this YouTube app so much that I bought a spare Apple TV3 for just this use, in case my existing one broke. Sigh.
 
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Can they now spend some time fixing how their player scrubs the video timeline if I try to navigate the controls (e.g. going down to related videos or the HD settings).
 
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TVreporter said:
Disappointing to hear - would it really take much to keep it supported? Sure you can’t watch 4K video on it but the bulk of the videos still offer lower quality settings.
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zorinlynx said:
My suspicion is as follows.

Macs running Safari, iOS devices and the ATV4 were among the last holdouts still requiring h.264 video to play YouTube. Now that Apple is onboard with VP9, there's a good chance that YouTube wants to start phasing out h.264 on its platform since it has licensing fees, not to mention having to re-encode every single video into multiple formats.

They probably won't drop h.264 completely just yet as there are still plenty of Macs still running older operating systems and older versions of iOS, but being able to save licensing fees by serving fewer h.264 streams is a plus for them.
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speg said:
Why does it have to be removed? Can’t it just keep working without additional “support”?
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The removal of support isn’t because of resolutions or codecs, it’s because YouTube is always updating their security/encryption protocols, and this generation ATV doesn’t have the hardware to support the updated encryption that YouTube wants to use.
 
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shamino said:
At this point, nobody will miss it. The YouTube app on the 3rd gen AppleTV is practically useless compared to YouTube apps on other devices (like Roku, which also has a simple UI, but one that is far more usable).
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Personally I’ll miss it. I like the Apple ecosystem but haven’t invested in a 4th Gen yet since Netflix and YouTube, my main two uses, still worked fine. It’s not that I don’t get it, I completely get it, but it will definitely be missed by some.
 
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Can't say I understand why someone would want to make their content available to less viewers. Oh well. Bye YouTube!
 
Good thing I got use to the my LG TV YouTube app after the buggy green lines the YouTube app has on the Apple TV 3rd gen.

I’ll probably only use the atv for screen mirroring now
 
Anyone have thoughts on Roku? I'm replacing my parents and will need 3 devices (so price matters). The Premiere is only $25 each.
 
4th gen doesn’t have optical out, so not compatible with how I have things setup and how I like it to work (ie, when I’m just playing music I don’t want to have the screen on at all).
:mad:
 
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zorinlynx said:
My suspicion is as follows.

Macs running Safari, iOS devices and the ATV4 were among the last holdouts still requiring h.264 video to play YouTube. Now that Apple is onboard with VP9, there's a good chance that YouTube wants to start phasing out h.264 on its platform since it has licensing fees, not to mention having to re-encode every single video into multiple formats.

They probably won't drop h.264 completely just yet as there are still plenty of Macs still running older operating systems and older versions of iOS, but being able to save licensing fees by serving fewer h.264 streams is a plus for them.
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No way!

There is a lot of hardware that supports h.264 hardware decoding, but will very much struggle to decode vp9 in software. Google isn't going to kick them all out of Youtube.

I could maybe see Google, say, cutting off h.264 1080p, so those devices were limited to 720p only. But I really can't see them dropping it entirely.
 
posguy99 said:
I'll miss it. The current app works just fine. I have three ATV3's and see no reason whatsoever to bother with any of the later ones. If one of them breaks I wouldn't be replacing it with an Apple product.
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Exactly same situation here. I have an ATV3 and the ONLY thing I use it for is YouTube every single day. Time to find a new non-Apple box. Any suggestions?
 
I have a Gen 3 and it’s the most frustrating piece of technology I own.

Always drops wifi while watching movies, freezes up only to suddenly catch-up clicking all the buttons you just mashed.

Can’t wait to be rid of it.
 
Wanted797 said:
I have a Gen 3 and it’s the most frustrating piece of technology I own.

Always drops wifi while watching movies, freezes up only to suddenly catch-up clicking all the buttons you just mashed.

Can’t wait to be rid of it.
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So strange!

Mine works flawlessly since my wife gifted to me as brand new 8 years ago and after using it almost every single day since then. May be you have a defective one or even your Wifi could be the flawed one.

Are you sure your Wifi modem is close enough to your ATV? Have you ever tried a wired connection between the 2 boxes?
 
To this day, still my favorite Apple TV. Great remote, thin and small, easy to use, and the UI make it the best Apple TV, IMO.

I have never been a fan of the App Store on the newer Apple TV.

A new Apple TV is well overdue.
 
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Wanted797 said:
I have a Gen 3 and it’s the most frustrating piece of technology I own.

Always drops wifi while watching movies, freezes up only to suddenly catch-up clicking all the buttons you just mashed.

Can’t wait to be rid of it.
Click to expand...
Never had an issue with my ATV3. Among the best Apple products I have ever owned.
 
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The YouTube app is pretty weak even on the ATV 4K. No support for 4K/60, no HDR, and the UI is always months behind what has been rolled out on other platforms. It's a poor effort.
 
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