The new TV App is coming to third generation Apple TV hardware

AppleInsider

Apple is working to bring as many customers as possible to its updated Apple TV experience and subscription video service by looking to older devices, with new beta software for the third-generation Apple TV indicating it may be among the devices that will be able to use the new app.

Apple's updated Apple TV app as shown during Monday's event

Announced on Monday, Apple's new Apple TV app experience offers a number of changes to the current version offered in tvOS. As part of Wednesday's new developer betas, a new build for Apple TV Software 7.3 for use with the third-generation Apple TV became available for testing.

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The unusual appearance of an update for the older Apple TV hardware strongly suggests Apple is looking to provide its updated experience for owners of the third-generation model, as well as the current-generation Apple TV and Apple TV 4K. However, at present, the user interface experience is very slow, owing to the age of the hardware.

AppleInsider is currently examining the new beta to see what has changed. So far, it has been discovered the beta includes proper Apple ID verification code input, instead of needing to tack it onto the end of the password, as required in some cases. Additionally, the update does not bring AirPlay 2 to the third-generation Apple TV -- It remains AirPlay 1 compatibility instead.

Apple is already attempting to open up the new Apple TV app to as many devices as possible for the incoming update, including making it available on smart televisions from Samsung, LG, Sony, and Vizio, as well as apps for Roku and Amazon's Fire TV streaming devices. Roku CEO Anthony Wood suggested on Tuesday the decision to bring the app to non-Apple hardware was to enable Apple to gain as big an audience as possible for its subscriptions.

The new Apple TV experience includes Channels, which will provide "a la carte" options to subscribe to channels, potentially providing more freedom to customers than traditional cable TV packages. Furthermore, Apple intends to launch its Apple TV+ video streaming service to customers via the app, which will offer a selection of original content from major Hollywood players.

curtis hannah

So they are bringing the upgraded Apple TV app to the 3rd Generation? Is that not really odd considering it never received the Apple TV app (to my knowledge) to date. It also downplays the software advantage the 4th gen Apple TV has had over the 3rd.

Mike Wuerthele

curtis hannah said:

So they are bringing the upgraded Apple TV app to the 3rd Generation? Is that not really odd considering it never received the Apple TV app (to my knowledge) to date. It also downplays the software advantage the 4th gen Apple TV has had over the 3rd.

Looks like, and this is the first Apple TV app on the third gen. However, it is very, very, very slow. When testing for this article, we found that you can easily scroll faster than the thumbnail graphics can keep up, which isn't a problem on the Apple TV HD or Apple TV 4K.

It is also still only an AirPlay 1 target. The HD and 4K are AirPlay 2.

wattouk

I think this would be a backwards step for Apple. If they get it running on old hardware then it'll be an awful user experience due to the age and put people off future apple hardware. I think it would have made more sense to lower the price of the Apple TV HD.

HenryDJP

wattouk said:

I think this would be a backwards step for Apple. If they get it running on old hardware then it'll be an awful user experience due to the age and put people off future apple hardware. I think it would have made more sense to lower the price of the Apple TV HD.

Doubtful that it will be an awful experience. Not sure how you would arrive at that? Apple's iOS 12 runs fantastic on my iPhone 6 Plus that's 4 years old now. The #1 complaint that Apple customers make is having to keep buying new hardware to get the latest features. I can't see how this is a bad thing offering the TV app to legacy AppleTV customers. 

Mike Wuerthele

HenryDJP said:

wattouk said:

I think this would be a backwards step for Apple. If they get it running on old hardware then it'll be an awful user experience due to the age and put people off future apple hardware. I think it would have made more sense to lower the price of the Apple TV HD.

Doubtful that it will be an awful experience. Not sure how you would arrive at that? Apple's iOS 12 runs fantastic on my iPhone 6 Plus that's 4 years old now. The #1 complaint that Apple customers make is having to keep buying new hardware to get the latest features. I can't see how this is a bad thing offering the TV app to legacy AppleTV customers. 

The third generation hardware is from 2012. This isn’t overall a bad thing, but like we said in the article, the UI is very slow.

1983

Great news! I still use my 3rd gen device extensively. I was wondering if Apple would bring the TV app to it or not. My query seems to have been answered  

davidmalcolm

That box has an A5 Processor. The Apple TV App honestly doesn't do that much. They probably just need to tweak the UI a bit, maybe use slightly lower res images or something. The A5 was a trooper of a processor and there are TONS of these boxes out there.

canukstorm

Mike Wuerthele said:

curtis hannah said:

So they are bringing the upgraded Apple TV app to the 3rd Generation? Is that not really odd considering it never received the Apple TV app (to my knowledge) to date. It also downplays the software advantage the 4th gen Apple TV has had over the 3rd.

Looks like, and this is the first Apple TV app on the third gen. However, it is very, very, very slow. When testing for this article, we found that you can easily scroll faster than the thumbnail graphics can keep up, which isn't a problem on the Apple TV HD or Apple TV 4K.

It is also still only an AirPlay 1 target. The HD and 4K are AirPlay 2.

When Schiller announced the new A12X-based iPad Pros, he said that they had Xbox One S level of graphics power.  Imagine if Apple came out with an updated ATV with that same SoC & what it would do for Apple Arcade games on your TV

mcdave

curtis hannah said:

It also downplays the software advantage the 4th gen Apple TV has had over the 3rd.

No more so than releasing the App on other platforms.  Love my ATV4 but it’s overkill for most people, an updated smaller box would push the service wider too.  They should have ATV on a card for TV manufacturers to integrate directly.

john.b

I was genuinely surprised when the Amazon Prime channel/app/whatever made it to my 3rd gen TV (after Apple and Amazon kissed and made up in December of 2017). It breathed new life into an old device, and is actually now my daily driver for my 1080p living room TV. 

Here’s hoping they have the good sense to get any performance issues resolved before releasing an update for 3rd gen TV hardware to the general public. Until iOS 12, many earlier iOS releases had functionally bricked older devices. I’d hate to see that happen to the 3rd gen boxes. In fact, I think it would be a good idea to make sure automatic updates are turned off until we can confirm any new updates will be usable. 

Thanks to Malcom, Mike, etc. for pointing this out in advance. 

cornchip

Apple and their consumer-hostile, planned obsolescence. always out to screw their customers for a buck...

Yes, I'm being sarcastic.

karma31

The unusual appearance of an update for the older Apple TV hardware strongly suggests Apple is looking to provide its updated experience for owners of the third-generation model, as well as the current-generation Apple TV and Apple TV 4K. However, at present, the user interface experience is very slow, owing to the age of the hardware.

I downloaded the 7.3 update but the tv app won't work. It says "12h830 is required, you have 12h825 " ... 12h825 is the only build I've seen, am I missing something? How can I get it to work? Thanks!