Apple to launch 4K Apple TV model at September iPhone event

AppleInsider

Apple at an upcoming special event next month intends to release a refreshed Apple TV model with upgraded internals capable of pumping out 4K video, according to a report on Thursday.

Citing sources familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reports the updated set-top box will put a focus on live streaming content like news and sports, a direction being taken by streaming services like Hulu.

The higher resolution output, double that of current fourth-generation Apple TV hardware, requires an upgraded processor and potentially other internal improvements. Today's report goes on to claim that a next-generation Apple TV will also support HDR content.

Alongside new hardware, Apple is also working on a revamped TV app that can support live television programming. The existing TV app, debuted in October, collects content from third-party streaming apps into a single repository for browsing, searching and viewing.

Apple is currently in discussions with movie studios to deliver 4K movies to customers through the iTunes store, the report said. The company is in similar talks with content distributors that already market tvOS apps.

Today's report seemingly puts a release date to months of rumors.

Earlier this month, lines of code discovered in Apple's HomePod firmware revealed the tech giant is working on a next-generation Apple TV that boasts support for 4K video and HDR in both 10-bit and Dolby Vision formats. The information fell in line with a February rumor claiming the hardware refresh carries the codename "J105," a designation most recently seen in the seventh iOS 11 beta release.

Apple is expected to release a slew of new hardware at its annual September event. A trio of iPhone models, including the hotly anticipated "iPhone 8," are thought to headline the event alongside a refreshed LTE-capable Apple Watch.

zroger73

4K! This is great news for those of us with 20/20 vision sitting 4 feet away from our 80" televisions!

On a more serious note, I hope the Siri remote gets a complete re-thinking. It looked "neat" a couple of years ago, but after almost two years of real-world use on three Apple TVs, I think the design is terrible. It's too small, too thin, too symmetrical, too sensitive...

eightzero

Good news all around. I just bought a 4k tv, because the additional cost was all of about $50. My old 1080p one died, so I had to replace it. $50? I'm in.

I'll buy a 4k ATV to pair with it, and repurpose the existing ATV4. That's worth the next $150. 

hmurchison

Can we finally get local playback of video from storage?  

I've hit my Xfinity 1024GB cap consistently.  4K isn't going to make that harder even with HEVC. 

d_2

 Completely agreed on revising the remote 

The live TV play will be interesting versus the current over the top solutions as well as HD homerun

 And 4K UHD is 4X the resolution of 1080P, not 2x

boltsfan17

zroger73 said:

4K! This is great news for those of us with 20/20 vision sitting 4 feet away from our 80" televisions!

On a more serious note, I hope the Siri remote gets a complete re-thinking. It looked "neat" a couple of years ago, but after almost two years of real-world use on three Apple TVs, I think the design is terrible. It's too small, too thin, too symmetrical, too sensitive...

Oh great, another 4K naysayer. You probably had the same attitude towards 1080p as well. 

StrangeDays

Great, looking forward to a re-tooling of complaints to the usual "But they should have had this from the start!" Meanwhile, 4K is just starting to become a thing with normals. (As for me, despite being a non-normal techie, I have no plans to give up my 1080p Panasonic plasma, which is perhaps the best plasma set there was).'

Do hope for a better remote, tho, so I don't have to do this:

boltsfan17

hmurchison said:

Can we finally get local playback of video from storage?  

I've hit my Xfinity 1024GB cap consistently.  4K isn't going to make that harder even with HEVC. 

That's one thing I miss from the first generation ATV. It was nice being able to download stuff locally for playback. Surprisingly I haven't hit my Xfinity data cap yet. I'm constantly streaming 4K content as well. 

eightzero

If the rumors are to be believed (a 9/12/17 event) then based on last year, a 9/4/17 announcement would be expected:

http://appleinsider.com/articles/16/08/29/apple-sends-invitations-for-iphone-7-event-on-sept-7-see-you-on-the-7th

The 9/7/16 event was announced on 8/29/16; or the Monday before.

However, that Monday (9/4/17) is a bank holiday in the US (Labour Day) so this seems unlikely.

A week before seems awfully late for an invitation. Maybe announce the event on 8/28?

Place your bets.

almondroca

hmurchison said:

Can we finally get local playback of video from storage?  

I've hit my Xfinity 1024GB cap consistently.  4K isn't going to make that harder even with HEVC. 

Ditto. Have had to use NAS storage with Plex app on ATV4. Local storage would be simpler.

hmurchison

almondroca said:

hmurchison said:

Can we finally get local playback of video from storage?  

I've hit my Xfinity 1024GB cap consistently.  4K isn't going to make that harder even with HEVC. 

Ditto. Have had to use NAS storage with Plex app on ATV4. Local storage would be simpler.

I'm thinking about going Plex server as well and downloading my 192 movies from iTunes to local storage.  We try to be 
Carbon friendly at our home and it doesn't sit well with me that i'm constantly streaming from a datacenter that likely isn't 
as carbon friendly as our local hydroelectric power company.  

The fact that we have 10TB and rising Hard Drives  available makes storage really a non-issue and I have a fast mesh Wifi network at home. 

justme12

I'm looking into a Amazon Fire Stick. 

I've owned EVERY Apple TV from the beginning - I just feel I really just feel I've been a pay to Apple beta tester. Felt this way two generations of AppleTV back. I think I'm done with the ATV now.

Apple you have gotten a few hundred? Thousand dollars from me for ATV now. Why bother anymore? Going to buy the cheaper stuff. Does the same thing at this stage.

gilly33

I'm in. Can't wait for this thing to be available. Hope we don't have to wait until December.

ihatescreennames

StrangeDays said:

Great, looking forward to a re-tooling of complaints to the usual "But they should have had this from the start!" Meanwhile, 4K is just starting to become a thing with normals. (As for me, despite being a non-normal techie, I have no plans to give up my 1080p Panasonic plasma, which is perhaps the best plasma set there was).'

Do hope for a better remote, tho, so I don't have to do this:

Overall I don't mind the Siri Remote.  The two things that bug me are what you've illustrated here, having to put something on the 'bottom' so you know what buttons are where.  The second is the touch pad seems to either be too sensitive or not sensitive enough and will switch back and forth with no warning.

I have a 50" (? Maybe, 51", 52"?) Panasonic plasma, as well.  It's great!  I bought it in late 2010 through some special Panasonic website that gave discounts to the company my wife works for.  If memory serves, it was going for about $1100 but I could get it for $850 through the company.  Excellent!  Ordered it and a few other things.  After a week all the other stuff arrived but no TV.  Two weeks after that Panasonic called my wife, apologized for the delay and mentioned it was out of stock with no clear time when it would be in. They offered instead to send us the same TV but the 3D version, it was going for a little over $2000.  So we ended up with a nice Panasonic 3D plasma TV for about $850.  I hardly ever watch anything in 3D.  The Bluray player came with Avatar in 3D and I think we have one other Bluray that's 3D.  Whatever.  It's still a great TV.

eightzero

d_2 said:

 Completely agreed on revising the remote 

The live TV play will be interesting versus the current over the top solutions as well as HD homerun

 And 4K UHD is 4X the resolution of 1080P, not 2x

Concur. I think the "live tv" is still going to be a streamed live version though. I would really like to see a coax cable jack on the back of the ATV with embedded TV tuners for OTA "live tv" but I don't (ever) expect it. That's HDHomeRun.

jcs2305

zroger73 said:

4K! This is great news for those of us with 20/20 vision sitting 4 feet away from our 80" televisions!

On a more serious note, I hope the Siri remote gets a complete re-thinking. It looked "neat" a couple of years ago, but after almost two years of real-world use on three Apple TVs, I think the design is terrible. It's too small, too thin, too symmetrical, too sensitive...

I swear if you breath too near the remote it is fast forwarding or rewinding!  It's maddening! I like some aspects of it, but I find myself using my actual TV remotes more than the Siri remote because they are larger, and easier to feel for and grab without messing with what you are watching.

jbdragon

justme12 said:

I'm looking into a Amazon Fire Stick. 

I've owned EVERY Apple TV from the beginning - I just feel I really just feel I've been a pay to Apple beta tester. Felt this way two generations of AppleTV back. I think I'm done with the ATV now.

Apple you have gotten a few hundred? Thousand dollars from me for ATV now. Why bother anymore? Going to buy the cheaper stuff. Does the same thing at this stage.

I have a fire stick. The thing sucks. I couldn't even play their own content without a lot of buffering. I had to use my ROKU which lasted the same content perfectly.

As someone who has a number of different streaming devices.  I would rate the higher end ROKU's better then the Apple tv 3.  But I rate the Apple TV 4 higher now for a few reasons.  I thing the apps inn it are much better. PLEX I think has the best interface it. . Just about everyone now supports it other then Amazon, but that should change shortly. Works with my harmony remotes still so I don't need to use Apple's remote.  My Amazon fire stick wouldn't work with harmony.  Being a stick, no wired internet which I think would works much better.  Lost the little remote and so suck using the dumb app.  I hate having to control a streaming device by a app.  There's a far larger app community for Apple TV.

Mike Wuerthele

hmurchison said:

almondroca said:

hmurchison said:

Can we finally get local playback of video from storage?  

I've hit my Xfinity 1024GB cap consistently.  4K isn't going to make that harder even with HEVC. 

Ditto. Have had to use NAS storage with Plex app on ATV4. Local storage would be simpler.

I'm thinking about going Plex server as well and downloading my 192 movies from iTunes to local storage.  We try to be 
Carbon friendly at our home and it doesn't sit well with me that i'm constantly streaming from a datacenter that likely isn't 
as carbon friendly as our local hydroelectric power company.  

The fact that we have 10TB and rising Hard Drives  available makes storage really a non-issue and I have a fast mesh Wifi network at home. 

VLC does what you're talking about here, with local on-device storage. Plex is nice too.

If you download the movies to iTunes, you can use the Computers menu item to stream from it, though -- so if all you've got is movies from Apple, you're good to go.

rogifan_new

Gurman doesn’t get scoops anymore. Everything he reports is basically duh!

virtua

zroger73 said:

4K! This is great news for those of us with 20/20 vision sitting 4 feet away from our 80" televisions!

On a more serious note, I hope the Siri remote gets a complete re-thinking. It looked "neat" a couple of years ago, but after almost two years of real-world use on three Apple TVs, I think the design is terrible. It's too small, too thin, too symmetrical, too sensitive...

I think the HDR support is the much bigger prize here.  

kevin kee

And nobody ever thought to download Remote? I only use my iPhone/iPad to remote control my ATV, makes all that typing much easier.