Even though I have owned every model of AppleTV, it is IS seriously flawed when Siri cannot search your own personal collection of movies and music. C'mon, really Apple ?
That's not a serious flaw, thats real life -- every piece of content has to be properly tagged w/ metadata for Siri to be able to pick it up, and support multiple languages. The content providers do this. Who will do it for your personal collection?
I've owned every Apple TV since it was released. So fu** Apple TV. For 10 years I've had to put up with the horrible vertical GUI when scrolling through my personal library. I have to scroll through 200 movies to get to the one I want to watch and I can't even search. Basically, if you didn't buy the movie from Apple, screw you.
Hmm. So what other set-top box allows you to search for your own movies locally via voice? None that I know of. Fuck them too?
It is simply a supplement to the iPhone. If you own an iPhone there is no better streaming box in the market. PERIOD... These boxes are simply an easy way to extend your phone into your television. Thats it.
Why can't that (streaming) be done by sending content directly to the TV from the phone/router and bypassing the ATV altogether?
Most TV's have Ethernet and Wi-Fi.
I have an ATV (third gen I think) but it's just collecting dust.
Having to beam it to the TV set would suck, because it would require me to switch receiver inputs back to the TV input rather than the ATV, where mine sets 99% of the time. And you'd have to get all the manufacturers to work together to create a streaming protocol by committee, good luck with that.
We were led to believe after 3 years and Steve's dying breath uttered "I solved the TV interface blah blah" statement, that we WERE expecting a "breakthrough" product through TV 4
Far from it - starting with: out of the box NOT being able to get sound. Can you say 2016 MacBook Pro "Touch Bar"? Yep this nonsense of "nothing you have will now connect" started waaaaaaay back with TV alienating users ability to use their current devices. Come on... no sound is a big one no matter how much you now like TV 4. And to top it off the "fix" was NOT something you could just drive to BestBuy and buy, no it was so unique you had to order it online and wait for it to arrive?
And all of this hassle was created because they removed the audio port for... yep you guessed it a USB-C port, but not because you could use it it was ONLY in case you had to bring it to the genus bar for repair. They removed the optical sound port for Genius Bar to get access to something that MIGHT break? Well that's not a vote of confidence no matter what you think?
ok that's that.
Next up the interface: you have other boxes having the ability to stream and play 4K video - something Apple claimed was too "nitche" to even consider? This from the same company that took 5 years to get us 1080p on TV? Hello? Has no one at apple been to a Costco the past 2 -3 years?? The 4k TV's have been out for 3 "non computer upgrade cycles" at least .
So the new mac has 4 USB-C only because we need to "stay ahead of the curve", and no headphone jack on iPhone 7 (same reason) but they release a tv box specifically for a TV that doesn't offer something that's been on a tv for 2-3 years?? That shows me a lot about the team running its development of this device.
And then the user interface. Since the moment it was released, as a developer and beta tester I have bitched and complained about the scrolling options when looking at your OWN movies. One slight tiny movement of the finger throws you out of the "TITIES" column into the "UNWATCHED" column or "GENRES" column - then when you try to go back to where you were ("I almost made it to the letter "D") it makes me start over and over and over back to the letter "A". Seriously? How hard would it be to make it an actual dedicated "non jumping" column for each topic? One you stay in while scrolling downwards? What a pain in the ass. And each beta request was met with "please send screen shots were not sure what you're describing?" WTF? Oh I sent screen shots but they ask I describe what each screen shot was for. So I made a damn movie and then I never heard from them ever again until one day I got a notice "this ticket is now closed as a dupicate@. When I asked what that meant I was told "weee not at liberty to discuss this". Huh?
And it took 19 months to come up with even a slight "fix"? Now at least when it "jumps columns", it At least tries to get closer to where you were in the 26 letter alphabet, but I hardly find this scrolling option "state of the art" or "groundbreaking". My 8 year old kid who mastered wii at 3 with smaller hands has no advantage either. Over and over he yell "Dad I can't get to Scooby-Doo it keeps jumping columns around "F" can you come do this?
Now before someone jumps in and says "just use Siri!" Yeah about that... Siri won't search through your shit, only things you bought from Apple. So why can't she search the drive connected to my Mac providing me with my 2,000+ bluray movie library? The iPhone the Mac itself - know how to search. How come the groundbreaking TV 4 cant? At least that would be a workaround around the scrolling column disaster.
Ill stop there. Trust me there's much more to go on about.
So before we totally attack this asshole - and yes he is an asshole - consider that after a 3 year wait and death of our beloved CEO this is what they have given us? And now we're heading on it's 2 year anniversary of its release and still no resolve to these two main issues? Sorry but this (TV 4) was then and in many aspects still is a mess compared to other tv boxes out there.
I love Apple. They are MY company but they are making some really bizarre decisions and doing more alienating their users (regarding requests for things WE want and need) then they are providing groundbreaking releases. I'm just one man with an optinion but is it too much to ask once you enter a column you stay in that column? Imagine EXCEL jumping columns while scrolling but instead of other columns in the same document it starts scrolling through other documents instead. What a mess that would be! How is this different? Why aren't they fixing it along with Siri finding our stuff connected to the device? "Either purchase it from us or screw you?" That's the new apple?
I feel your pain. When I realised it didn't even want to try and play anything that wasn't in an approved format and had a limited remote to navigate a limited interface I quickly lost the will to search for workarounds.
ATV supports the video formats Apple has always supported. They arent going to support MKV or whatever formats torrented content uses. But it's real darn simple to download the Plex app on your ATV and get stream any and all of it.
AppleTV 4, when it was announced, came with the promise of introducing a real human-computer-voice interface for the TV. That was a great promise to simplify the experience of interacting with a TV, which until today, remains largely unintuitive. Unfortunately, Apple completely failed to live up to that promise, as even where Siri is supported, its functionality is minimal.
Apple never promised anything like that.
That's just your fantasy pipe dream.
Promise as in "a promising product" not a vow to deliver. Your nitpicking just proves it's a valid point.
It did turn out to be a pipedream though, because in fact, Apple never even lived up to the promise (actual promise here) to follow with more Siri support in the future. They merely managed to roll it out in a hand full of English speaking countries and never even tried to match iPhone level functionality, let alone expand upon that. How can Apple justify I can tell Siri on my iPhone to play any song in my library, in English OR German, yet I can't tell my ATV to do that in EITHER language. In fact because my AppleID is Swiss, I can't use Siri at all? How does that make ANY sense?
I feel your pain. When I realised it didn't even want to try and play anything that wasn't in an approved format and had a limited remote to navigate a limited interface I quickly lost the will to search for workarounds.
ATV supports the video formats Apple has always supported. They arent going to support MKV or whatever formats torrented content uses. But it's real darn simple to download the Plex app on your ATV and get stream any and all of it.
If you're going to go that route you can use an app like iVI (Mac App Store). It will strip and replace the container without any further encoding. It will also grab all correct metadata from open databases for TV shows and movies, as well as a cover image, and then import it into iTunes for you.
We were led to believe after 3 years and Steve's dying breath uttered "I solved the TV interface blah blah" statement, that we WERE expecting a "breakthrough" product through TV 4
Far from it - starting with: out of the box NOT being able to get sound. Can you say 2016 MacBook Pro "Touch Bar"? Yep this nonsense of "nothing you have will now connect" started waaaaaaay back with TV alienating users ability to use their current devices. Come on... no sound is a big one no matter how much you now like TV 4. And to top it off the "fix" was NOT something you could just drive to BestBuy and buy, no it was so unique you had to order it online and wait for it to arrive?
And all of this hassle was created because they removed the audio port for... yep you guessed it a USB-C port, but not because you could use it it was ONLY in case you had to bring it to the genus bar for repair. They removed the optical sound port for Genius Bar to get access to something that MIGHT break? Well that's not a vote of confidence no matter what you think?
ok that's that.
Next up the interface: you have other boxes having the ability to stream and play 4K video - something Apple claimed was too "nitche" to even consider? This from the same company that took 5 years to get us 1080p on TV? Hello? Has no one at apple been to a Costco the past 2 -3 years?? The 4k TV's have been out for 3 "non computer upgrade cycles" at least .
So the new mac has 4 USB-C only because we need to "stay ahead of the curve", and no headphone jack on iPhone 7 (same reason) but they release a tv box specifically for a TV that doesn't offer something that's been on a tv for 2-3 years?? That shows me a lot about the team running its development of this device.
And then the user interface. Since the moment it was released, as a developer and beta tester I have bitched and complained about the scrolling options when looking at your OWN movies. One slight tiny movement of the finger throws you out of the "TITIES" column into the "UNWATCHED" column or "GENRES" column - then when you try to go back to where you were ("I almost made it to the letter "D") it makes me start over and over and over back to the letter "A". Seriously? How hard would it be to make it an actual dedicated "non jumping" column for each topic? One you stay in while scrolling downwards? What a pain in the ass. And each beta request was met with "please send screen shots were not sure what you're describing?" WTF? Oh I sent screen shots but they ask I describe what each screen shot was for. So I made a damn movie and then I never heard from them ever again until one day I got a notice "this ticket is now closed as a dupicate@. When I asked what that meant I was told "weee not at liberty to discuss this". Huh?
And it took 19 months to come up with even a slight "fix"? Now at least when it "jumps columns", it At least tries to get closer to where you were in the 26 letter alphabet, but I hardly find this scrolling option "state of the art" or "groundbreaking". My 8 year old kid who mastered wii at 3 with smaller hands has no advantage either. Over and over he yell "Dad I can't get to Scooby-Doo it keeps jumping columns around "F" can you come do this?
Now before someone jumps in and says "just use Siri!" Yeah about that... Siri won't search through your shit, only things you bought from Apple. So why can't she search the drive connected to my Mac providing me with my 2,000+ bluray movie library? The iPhone the Mac itself - know how to search. How come the groundbreaking TV 4 cant? At least that would be a workaround around the scrolling column disaster.
Ill stop there. Trust me there's much more to go on about.
So before we totally attack this asshole - and yes he is an asshole - consider that after a 3 year wait and death of our beloved CEO this is what they have given us? And now we're heading on it's 2 year anniversary of its release and still no resolve to these two main issues? Sorry but this (TV 4) was then and in many aspects still is a mess compared to other tv boxes out there.
I love Apple. They are MY company but they are making some really bizarre decisions and doing more alienating their users (regarding requests for things WE want and need) then they are providing groundbreaking releases. I'm just one man with an optinion but is it too much to ask once you enter a column you stay in that column? Imagine EXCEL jumping columns while scrolling but instead of other columns in the same document it starts scrolling through other documents instead. What a mess that would be! How is this different? Why aren't they fixing it along with Siri finding our stuff connected to the device? "Either purchase it from us or screw you?" That's the new apple?
I feel your pain. When I realised it didn't even want to try and play anything that wasn't in an approved format and had a limited remote to navigate a limited interface I quickly lost the will to search for workarounds.
ATV supports the video formats Apple has always supported. They arent going to support MKV or whatever formats torrented content uses. But it's real darn simple to download the Plex app on your ATV and get stream any and all of it.
I think I'll shave off the dust, upgrade the system and give it a go. Plex wasn't an option last time checked. It was such a poor experience I just lost interest in it. If it can run Plex it would be nice. Fingers crossed!
If Apple copies the echo it won't be in the aTV. Because the echo needs to be in the middle of the room.
The only way to transform the living room is with an actual TV. Not a box.
Why is that? My Echo Dot sits next to my ATV about a foot from the far wall to the right hand side of the TV.
The Echo Dot in my bedroom sits on a shelf to the right hand side of the bed in a corner.
And the minute you put anything inside a TV you render it obsolete in 12 months unless you replace the complete television which in my case means shelling out £3.5k for a TV instead of £179 for a box or to be more exact £79 for a Fire TV to replace my ATV.
Unless you have a very small room or a very big voice thats fairly pointless.
Modern TVs should hang on a wall, nothing else is needed.
AppleTV 4, when it was announced, came with the promise of introducing a real human-computer-voice interface for the TV. That was a great promise to simplify the experience of interacting with a TV, which until today, remains largely unintuitive. Unfortunately, Apple completely failed to live up to that promise, as even where Siri is supported, its functionality is minimal.
Apple never promised anything like that.
That's just your fantasy pipe dream.
Promise as in "a promising product" not a vow to deliver. Your nitpicking just proves it's a valid point.
It did turn out to be a pipedream though, because in fact, Apple never even lived up to the promise (actual promise here) to follow with more Siri support in the future. They merely managed to roll it out in a hand full of English speaking countries and never even tried to match iPhone level functionality, let alone expand upon that. How can Apple justify I can tell Siri on my iPhone to play any song in my library, in English OR German, yet I can't tell my ATV to do that in EITHER language. In fact because my AppleID is Swiss, I can't use Siri at all? How does that make ANY sense?
No sense at all and what happened to the Spanish Spanish female voice in iOS 10? She sounds far worse than the old Spanish Siri.
There's definitely something South American in her.
BOTTOM LINE IS THIS: YOU CAN ONLY DO SO MUCH WITH A STREAMING BOX THAT COSTS $150 AND IS STUCK CONNECTED TO YOUR TV.
Now if AppleTV was a $400 product then you could expect something revolutionary. But it isn't. It was mean to supplement your iPhone. Period.
CEO Sog strikes again. CAPS prove he's right. Why not a $999 Apple TV Mr. Wall St.
You missed my entire point.
I'm not saying Apple should release a $400 streaming box.
I'm saying people are expecting way too much for a streaming box that cost $150. They are expecting a $150 device to change the world, solve world hunger, and bring an end to war. Please.
The AppleTV is simply a supplement to the iPhone. PERIOD. Its simply an extension to the iPhone. A way to use your iPhone on a larger screen.
I think it's simpler than that. What a box needs to do is to consolidate all the cable channel and streaming service apps into a single interface where the source is irrelevant and design a new interface that makes it super easy to find what you're looking for if you know what you want to watch and some genius way of finding something interesting if you don't know what you want to watch. Netflix has a reasonable interface, but it's more obvious than groundbreaking.
It's never going to be groundbreaking because selecting and watching a TV show (whether broadcast, cable or stream) is not groundbreaking. And that might be perfectly okay. The iPhone may have been groundbreaking, but making a call on the iPhone was not groundbreaking. But Apple does need to make the AppleTV far superior to the alternatives already out there. But another problem is that the Android interfaces on the smart TVs are already doing pretty much everything the AppleTV does. I don't have an AppleTV. My Blu-ray player gets Netflix and several other services (my TV does as well, but it's older and the interface is inferior) and at least in my case, that's all I need.
Apple TV is not a bad product, it's just a little dated at the moment (4K and HDR will bring it up-to-date). In order for it to be a breakout hit, however, Apple needs to "give it away." And by give it away, I mean charge more for it. Here's how:
Advertise a program that allows people to head down to their local Apple Store or Best Buy and pick up an Apple TV Gen 5 plus Apple game controller for just $9.99/month for 24 months, no money down. Further, with this deal, subscribers get a 3-month trial of Apple Music for free.
People don't want to plunk down hundreds of dollars at a store to take home a set-top box, no matter what it does. Unlike iPhones, set-top boxes are boring bricks that gather dust by the TV. Comcast hands everybody one "for free".
Apple needs to "give Apple TV away", while making better margins on it than they ever have before, and simultaneously adding subscribers to Apple Music. It's not the gadget that's the problem, because Apple TV is honestly rather nice.
Fix the business model!
ATV supports the video formats Apple has always supported. They arent going to support MKV or whatever formats torrented content uses. But it's real darn simple to download the Plex app on your ATV and get stream any and all of it.
I think I'll shave off the dust, upgrade the system and give it a go. Plex wasn't an option last time checked. It was such a poor experience I just lost interest in it. If it can run Plex it would be nice. Fingers crossed!
ATV 4 has Plex in the App store, and it works as well as any Plex client. Earlier ATVs need to be jailbroken to run plex.
I hate to agree with this article- but I do. im a huge Apple fan...yet the Apple TV is a bit sad That controller! Still don't know why it has buttons. Planet of the apps. Seriously? carpool karaoke...left me speechless.
Karokii and Pof Apps (Gwyneth tell me whats a goid app strategy) make me Cringe and say.. "Apple please no"
Remore ..no ergonomic consideration.....
And that fragmented poorly thoughtout UI....
no consolidation of favorits.. no notification for new favorite content.. no consistsncy, each app is its own universe.....very poor use of screen real estate....... very poor discovery ...
its just a very poorly thought out product.... there is no excuse .
ATV supports the video formats Apple has always supported. They arent going to support MKV or whatever formats torrented content uses. But it's real darn simple to download the Plex app on your ATV and get stream any and all of it.
I think I'll shave off the dust, upgrade the system and give it a go. Plex wasn't an option last time checked. It was such a poor experience I just lost interest in it. If it can run Plex it would be nice. Fingers crossed!
ATV 4 has Plex in the App store, and it works as well as any Plex client. Earlier ATVs need to be jailbroken to run plex.
Yes. Thanks for the info. My Apple TV will only go.up.to 7.2.2 so its a no go without jailbreaking. Just went through the upgrade process and saw it wasn't going to be for Plex.
Might drop some cash on a Minix though. No more Apple TV for me unless they spruce it up a fair bit.
Apple TV is not a bad product, it's just a little dated at the moment (4K and HDR will bring it up-to-date). In order for it to be a breakout hit, however, Apple needs to "give it away." And by give it away, I mean charge more for it. Here's how:
Advertise a program that allows people to head down to their local Apple Store or Best Buy and pick up an Apple TV Gen 5 plus Apple game controller for just $9.99/month for 24 months, no money down. Further, with this deal, subscribers get a 3-month trial of Apple Music for free.
People don't want to plunk down hundreds of dollars at a store to take home a set-top box, no matter what it does. Unlike iPhones, set-top boxes are boring bricks that gather dust by the TV. Comcast hands everybody one "for free".
Apple needs to "give Apple TV away", while making better margins on it than they ever have before, and simultaneously adding subscribers to Apple Music. It's not the gadget that's the problem, because Apple TV is honestly rather nice.
Fix the business model!
pretty good idea.
$9.99 per month. Of course you would need to do credit checks on all of these
Exactly, just like Comcast does before they hand you that "free" cable box.
Another approach to this is: Apple should become a cable company, and "give the Apple TV away" just like Comcast and Charter and all the rest do. You can even get the cord-cutting "skinny bundle" once they sort the licensing out.
Stop trying to sell a dull black box! It's never going to connect with people on a mass scale no matter what features you add. Sell the experience and give the box away***
***for a monthly subscription fee. Limitations apply. Credit verification may be required.
A) Apple TV does a lot of things great, I use it all the time, it's a great value for what it does, it's very useful in many ways: streaming hulu/netflix/HBO, renting movies, air play to my speakers, love the slow-mo backgrounds, which I keep on in the background just by themselves, which is always a hit with guests.
B ) It seems pretty clear that Apple had high hopes for being the primary box that the cable content would be siphoned through; too bad that legislation mandating this capability be provided by the cable companies didn't pan out.
C) Gaming is sorely lacking. There's got to be a lot of people like me that don't want to get involved in a PS or XBOX but still wants a fun FPS ffs. I love the game Mr Jump though.
D) A gesture/voice recognition module would be fantastic.
E) Where the f*ck is the killer app to kill all other apps on the Apple TV ????? ..seriously, what the hell is taking so long: karaoke.
Dude you can do karaoke on AppleTV. But you need some hardware:
1. Youtube App. Search - type song name and Karaoke. There is literally almost any decently famous song with Karaoke lyrics on Youtube. This is Much better then paying for songs on a traditional karaoke system
Now you could simply sing along with your TV or use a mic connected to a sound system.
Or if you are serious:
1. Buy a cheap mixer on Amazon. This one is good for $29, it has echo effects and can handle 2 mics:
2. Buy a PA speaker. WARNING DO NOT USE YOUR TV OR HOME THEATER SPEAKERS WITH A MIC!!! Tv and Home theater speakers are meant for compressed sound. If you run a mic with singing you will break them.
Here's a nice speaker that can go LOUD in a decent size room. Cost $89 in Amazon. I use this single speaker in a 15x20 room that has 20 foot ceilings and is connected to another 12x15 room. It is very loud. Don't even THINK of using you TV speakers/home theater. You will kill them;
In total the hardware will cost about $150 for 2 mics. And this will absolutely BLOW AWAY Karaoke systems costing $400 or more. Plus you have 100% flexability with Youtube Karaoke videos. Other systems require you to buy their SONGS at high prices.
How to connect this?
Use you TV audio output. Run an audio cable (Red/White) from you TV to the mixer. Run an audio cable from the mixer to the PA speaker. Connect mics to mixer. You are done. If you TV does not have Audio (Red/White) output you can use a converted (if your TV has digital output).
A great Karaoke App is IMPOSSIBLE without HARDWARE. Like I said before you can't use your TV/home theater speakers. They will get destroyed by uncompressed singing. And you don't want to use a crappy mic on the remote or your phone. You need a nice mic. You need a mixer. You need a PA speaker.
But really Youtube is the best Karaoke video source. Its free. It has a TON of selection. Its pretty much perfect for Karaoke.
Thanks for that, I'll definitely check that stuff out. However, it seems pretty obvious to me, and even more so after reading your post, that an Apple Karaoke app would be a whopping success on the Apple TV. And the lack of such an app at this point seems like a HUGE oversight and missed opportunity.. to popularize the Apple TV, enhance Apple's overall ecosystem, and to dramatically increase the value of Apple Music with a tie-in. Every year I keep waiting for Apple to do this obvious move. It's been obvious for a long time, and it seems crazy to me that they haven't done this. Apple is in a unique position to do this better than anyone. Who's in charge of services there..
Also, completely agree that it would be a terrible idea for Apple to buy netflix.
Why would Apple make an App? How would it work? Would Apple also make a speaker/mic/mixer to go along with it?
Also remember if its an Apple App then you would have to pay music rights just like Apple Music. On Youtube its free because users are uploading the videos.
Again please explain what would be the benefit of an Apple Karaoke App? With out hardware ( quality mic, mixer, and PA speaker) its useless and even dangerous. If you do karaoke on your TV speakers you will destroy them.
You are saying an Apple Karaoke App is an obvious move. But it isn't. Cause it WONT WORK WITHOUT HARDWARE. You can't just have a Karaoke App and magically connect a mic to your TV. It does not work that way. Please explain how an Apple Karaoke App alone would work? How can you do karaoke without a Mic? How can you do karaoke without a mixer? A mixer BLENDS your voice and the music, without it you will sound horrible. And what about speakers that can HANDLE live singing? You TV speaker and even $10k home theater speakers can't.
There is an App that allows Karaoke on your AppleTV that uses your iPhone as a mic. It is HORRIBLE. The sound is delayed by a split second and throws everything off. Plus the sound quality is crap. There are too many limitations. The iPhone mic is not good enough. Wireless is not fast enough to reproduce your voice without delay or cutouts. Try recording your singing using your iPhone, its crap. You need a real mic. Plus your speaker will get destroyed eventually unless the app is converting your voice to compressed audio on the fly. And thats why there is a delay.
There is so much synergy between various Apple hardware and services, and such an opportunity for Apple to provide a fun, fantastic experience, which competitors can't match, IMO it's crazy that Apple hasn't made a karaoke app yet. A huge missed opportunity.
To address your points.. they don't seem to be significant barriers. There's a lot of different ways Apple could approach it.. separate subscription for karaoke compatible songs, fold it into a specialized services plan that includes Apple Music, a la carte fees that are billed weekly or something.. Apple already has lyrics to most songs in Apple Music, shouldn't be impossible to do a karaoke app, and add voice synthesizing/blending software. There must be a way to have basic functionality with using an iPhone mic, but of course Apple could pre-arrange hardware to be made by a 3rd party (like they have done for iPad keyboards for example); or make any extra hardware themselves if it's really necessary.
ATV 4 has Plex in the App store, and it works as well as any Plex client. Earlier ATVs need to be jailbroken to run plex.
Yes. Thanks for the info. My Apple TV will only go.up.to 7.2.2 so its a no go without jailbreaking. Just went through the upgrade process and saw it wasn't going to be for Plex.
Might drop some cash on a Minix though. No more Apple TV for me unless they spruce it up a fair bit.
Actually, I take that back: you can run Plex on ATV2 & 3 without jailbreaking. I jailbroke my ATV2, so I was confusing the two issues.
We were led to believe after 3 years and Steve's dying breath uttered "I solved the TV interface blah blah" statement, that we WERE expecting a "breakthrough" product through TV 4
Far from it - starting with: out of the box NOT being able to get sound. Can you say 2016 MacBook Pro "Touch Bar"? Yep this nonsense of "nothing you have will now connect" started waaaaaaay back with TV alienating users ability to use their current devices. Come on... no sound is a big one no matter how much you now like TV 4. And to top it off the "fix" was NOT something you could just drive to BestBuy and buy, no it was so unique you had to order it online and wait for it to arrive?
And all of this hassle was created because they removed the audio port for... yep you guessed it a USB-C port, but not because you could use it it was ONLY in case you had to bring it to the genus bar for repair. They removed the optical sound port for Genius Bar to get access to something that MIGHT break? Well that's not a vote of confidence no matter what you think?
ok that's that.
Next up the interface: you have other boxes having the ability to stream and play 4K video - something Apple claimed was too "nitche" to even consider? This from the same company that took 5 years to get us 1080p on TV? Hello? Has no one at apple been to a Costco the past 2 -3 years?? The 4k TV's have been out for 3 "non computer upgrade cycles" at least .
So the new mac has 4 USB-C only because we need to "stay ahead of the curve", and no headphone jack on iPhone 7 (same reason) but they release a tv box specifically for a TV that doesn't offer something that's been on a tv for 2-3 years?? That shows me a lot about the team running its development of this device.
And then the user interface. Since the moment it was released, as a developer and beta tester I have bitched and complained about the scrolling options when looking at your OWN movies. One slight tiny movement of the finger throws you out of the "TITIES" column into the "UNWATCHED" column or "GENRES" column - then when you try to go back to where you were ("I almost made it to the letter "D") it makes me start over and over and over back to the letter "A". Seriously? How hard would it be to make it an actual dedicated "non jumping" column for each topic? One you stay in while scrolling downwards? What a pain in the ass. And each beta request was met with "please send screen shots were not sure what you're describing?" WTF? Oh I sent screen shots but they ask I describe what each screen shot was for. So I made a damn movie and then I never heard from them ever again until one day I got a notice "this ticket is now closed as a dupicate@. When I asked what that meant I was told "weee not at liberty to discuss this". Huh?
And it took 19 months to come up with even a slight "fix"? Now at least when it "jumps columns", it At least tries to get closer to where you were in the 26 letter alphabet, but I hardly find this scrolling option "state of the art" or "groundbreaking". My 8 year old kid who mastered wii at 3 with smaller hands has no advantage either. Over and over he yell "Dad I can't get to Scooby-Doo it keeps jumping columns around "F" can you come do this?
Now before someone jumps in and says "just use Siri!" Yeah about that... Siri won't search through your shit, only things you bought from Apple. So why can't she search the drive connected to my Mac providing me with my 2,000+ bluray movie library? The iPhone the Mac itself - know how to search. How come the groundbreaking TV 4 cant? At least that would be a workaround around the scrolling column disaster.
Ill stop there. Trust me there's much more to go on about.
So before we totally attack this asshole - and yes he is an asshole - consider that after a 3 year wait and death of our beloved CEO this is what they have given us? And now we're heading on it's 2 year anniversary of its release and still no resolve to these two main issues? Sorry but this (TV 4) was then and in many aspects still is a mess compared to other tv boxes out there.
I love Apple. They are MY company but they are making some really bizarre decisions and doing more alienating their users (regarding requests for things WE want and need) then they are providing groundbreaking releases. I'm just one man with an optinion but is it too much to ask once you enter a column you stay in that column? Imagine EXCEL jumping columns while scrolling but instead of other columns in the same document it starts scrolling through other documents instead. What a mess that would be! How is this different? Why aren't they fixing it along with Siri finding our stuff connected to the device? "Either purchase it from us or screw you?" That's the new apple?
I feel your pain. When I realised it didn't even want to try and play anything that wasn't in an approved format and had a limited remote to navigate a limited interface I quickly lost the will to search for workarounds.
ATV supports the video formats Apple has always supported. They arent going to support MKV or whatever formats torrented content uses. But it's real darn simple to download the Plex app on your ATV and get stream any and all of it.
I think I'll shave off the dust, upgrade the system and give it a go. Plex wasn't an option last time checked. It was such a poor experience I just lost interest in it. If it can run Plex it would be nice. Fingers crossed!
For once we agree Yeah Plex has come a long way over the years. While I have a Mini plugged into my TV/receiver as well, I no longer need it -- the ATV client does what it's supposed to. Plus if you pay the 5 bucks or whatever, you can access all your content remotely via iOS devices.
If Apple copies the echo it won't be in the aTV. Because the echo needs to be in the middle of the room.
The only way to transform the living room is with an actual TV. Not a box.
Why is that? My Echo Dot sits next to my ATV about a foot from the far wall to the right hand side of the TV.
The Echo Dot in my bedroom sits on a shelf to the right hand side of the bed in a corner.
And the minute you put anything inside a TV you render it obsolete in 12 months unless you replace the complete television which in my case means shelling out £3.5k for a TV instead of £179 for a box or to be more exact £79 for a Fire TV to replace my ATV.
Modern TVs should hang on a wall, nothing else is needed.
Not if your room doesn't allow for it. In my living room the TV must be placed in the corner, which means a TV stand that tucks into the corner and points the set out into the room. YMMV
Apple TV is not a bad product, it's just a little dated at the moment (4K and HDR will bring it up-to-date).
Consdering iTunes is a huge market retailer for movies, and does not support 4K or HDR, I'm struggling to believe that the lack of this truly makes it dated. Certainly not so 15 months ago when released. But even today, I only read about HDR perhaps a month ago. And I'm a software dev mac guy who spends way too much time with tech and reading about tech and buying tech. If I'm still digging 1080p plasma then I have a hard time believing Apple is late to the party.
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That's not a serious flaw, thats real life -- every piece of content has to be properly tagged w/ metadata for Siri to be able to pick it up, and support multiple languages. The content providers do this. Who will do it for your personal collection?
Having to beam it to the TV set would suck, because it would require me to switch receiver inputs back to the TV input rather than the ATV, where mine sets 99% of the time. And you'd have to get all the manufacturers to work together to create a streaming protocol by committee, good luck with that.
ATV supports the video formats Apple has always supported. They arent going to support MKV or whatever formats torrented content uses. But it's real darn simple to download the Plex app on your ATV and get stream any and all of it.
It did turn out to be a pipedream though, because in fact, Apple never even lived up to the promise (actual promise here) to follow with more Siri support in the future. They merely managed to roll it out in a hand full of English speaking countries and never even tried to match iPhone level functionality, let alone expand upon that. How can Apple justify I can tell Siri on my iPhone to play any song in my library, in English OR German, yet I can't tell my ATV to do that in EITHER language. In fact because my AppleID is Swiss, I can't use Siri at all? How does that make ANY sense?
Modern TVs should hang on a wall, nothing else is needed.
There's definitely something South American in her.
It's never going to be groundbreaking because selecting and watching a TV show (whether broadcast, cable or stream) is not groundbreaking. And that might be perfectly okay. The iPhone may have been groundbreaking, but making a call on the iPhone was not groundbreaking. But Apple does need to make the AppleTV far superior to the alternatives already out there. But another problem is that the Android interfaces on the smart TVs are already doing pretty much everything the AppleTV does. I don't have an AppleTV. My Blu-ray player gets Netflix and several other services (my TV does as well, but it's older and the interface is inferior) and at least in my case, that's all I need.
Advertise a program that allows people to head down to their local Apple Store or Best Buy and pick up an Apple TV Gen 5 plus Apple game controller for just $9.99/month for 24 months, no money down. Further, with this deal, subscribers get a 3-month trial of Apple Music for free.
People don't want to plunk down hundreds of dollars at a store to take home a set-top box, no matter what it does. Unlike iPhones, set-top boxes are boring bricks that gather dust by the TV. Comcast hands everybody one "for free".
Apple needs to "give Apple TV away", while making better margins on it than they ever have before, and simultaneously adding subscribers to Apple Music. It's not the gadget that's the problem, because Apple TV is honestly rather nice. Fix the business model!
Might drop some cash on a Minix though. No more Apple TV for me unless they spruce it up a fair bit.
Another approach to this is: Apple should become a cable company, and "give the Apple TV away" just like Comcast and Charter and all the rest do. You can even get the cord-cutting "skinny bundle" once they sort the licensing out.
Stop trying to sell a dull black box! It's never going to connect with people on a mass scale no matter what features you add. Sell the experience and give the box away***
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To address your points.. they don't seem to be significant barriers. There's a lot of different ways Apple could approach it.. separate subscription for karaoke compatible songs, fold it into a specialized services plan that includes Apple Music, a la carte fees that are billed weekly or something.. Apple already has lyrics to most songs in Apple Music, shouldn't be impossible to do a karaoke app, and add voice synthesizing/blending software. There must be a way to have basic functionality with using an iPhone mic, but of course Apple could pre-arrange hardware to be made by a 3rd party (like they have done for iPad keyboards for example); or make any extra hardware themselves if it's really necessary.
Not if your room doesn't allow for it. In my living room the TV must be placed in the corner, which means a TV stand that tucks into the corner and points the set out into the room. YMMV
Consdering iTunes is a huge market retailer for movies, and does not support 4K or HDR, I'm struggling to believe that the lack of this truly makes it dated. Certainly not so 15 months ago when released. But even today, I only read about HDR perhaps a month ago. And I'm a software dev mac guy who spends way too much time with tech and reading about tech and buying tech. If I'm still digging 1080p plasma then I have a hard time believing Apple is late to the party.