I always hope for a little more ambition from the ATV. They dropped the wand controller requirement for games which is a good step. If they stayed half a year behind the iPhones with the same chip (so, A9 by now), and had a little more storage, with updates each year they could become pretty powerful little microconsoles.
I’d also really love to see what Apple silicon could do with a heatsink and active cooling.
This being Apple, they were probably holding back on 4K+HDR until they had some content to sell you. If it comes with an upgrade to a decent chunk of their catalogue with reasonable upgrade pricing it could be worth something.
You won't have an option to upgrade to UHD from HD. You may purchase a new copy of what you want in UHD but not pay a small fee to upgrade to it. It's not even in Apple's control to allow you to do that.
They did with music a few years back. Upgraded my whole downloaded catalog for pennies per track.
You payed more to free your music from DRM, not for better upgraded quality. Show me anywhere with any of the other streaming services, like Vudu, where you can have the HD version and upgrade to the UHD version when it's available. You can't because it doesn't exist and won't exist with Apple all of a sudden magically.
We have no idea what will happen. This is 100% a business strategy decision by Apple and the content providers. Nothing "magical" required.
I bought a HDTV last year and I really love it and yes I would love to take full advantage of some 4K content, however this added feature will not alone make Apple TV a much improved device. I cannot imagine what SJ's vision for Apple TV may have been and we can only guess what that product could have looked like if Steve had lived to see this day. None of that matters really when it comes to what can be done to make AT a more useful device. We can all nitpick the details regarding the remote, annoying "sign into iTunes" request but AT's after all this time is still a "work in progress". It will unlikely become a gaming platform so why did they bother introducing that option. We are still obligated to have a big cable company service so what exactly are those little network (still ad infested) apps really good for? I use my AT to stream HBO and Netflix and pretty much nothing else.
Bullsh** If it has 4k it will come with a faster processor. At least an A9.
If Apple decides to update iTunes with 4k this Apple TV will release same day as content.
I agree...why not build the thing for the future instead of today. Hell, I'd put in an A10X. Why it wasn't released with 4K in the first place is beyond me. The lack of 4K and 4K content is Apple TV's largest downfall in my opinion. You're paying $150 for something that doesn't even do 4K (only 1080p) when there are cheaper devices that do the same thing and support 4K.
Why not put in a TB of ram and octo-processors and 12 USB-A ports using that logic. Everything is a trade off.
Another possibility is to bump up the processor and graphics to support gaming at an increased level. I am also curious to see liquid sky bring a competitive service to the Apple TV...this could be great.
Apple should wait until 2018 to release ATV5 with some more bells and whistles besides 4K output. Apple could have added 4K in ATV4.
No reason to have added it a year ago as most normals didnt give a crap about 4k. I'm a pro techie and and even I still don't give a crap about it. Apple is rarely first in the spec wars.
So, the ATV 4.1 or ATV 5 will is finally catching up to what the ATV 4 should have been 15 months ago.
Not really, no.
Also, was there so much whining when the third gen added 1080p a few years ago? I don't remember it. Seems to me that the more we get from our devices, the higher the entitlement and subsequent whining becomes.
If its 4K, that means obviously it will have a new Soc and completely new internals. And obviously the OS will see a major update and features this yr.
The thing isn't going to grow a display or legs, it will still be the same box, but that doesn't mean it can't be significantly improved with new internals and software. Not that I have many complaints about the current one, I use it everyday.
I don't see how this is considered "minor" news. If Apple supports 4K, it brings a ton of implications:
1) 4K content on iTunes. It's a given -- they wouldn't support a premium format on Apple TV that if they can't monetize it. It'd make zero sense.
2) Possible 4K gaming and apps. This in itself would have interesting implications on the upgraded unit's required hardware capabilities.
3) Support for HEVC, which is pretty much the gold standard codec for 4K content. This would bleed over into native HEVC support in iTunes and Quicktime. This would be a huge benefit even for people who don't consume 4K content because movies encoded in HEVC versus H.264 are about 1/2 to 1/4 the size. Any video, 1080p or any resolution, would take up much less space on your computer.
If its 4K, that means obviously it will have a new Soc and completely new internals. And obviously the OS will see a major update and features this yr.
The thing isn't going to grow a display or legs, it will still be the same box, but that doesn't mean it can't be significantly improved with new internals and software. Not that I have many complaints about the current one, I use it everyday.
It needs nothing of the sort. The A8 can handle 4K as it stands, as I linked above. All it "needs" is HDMI 2.0, and only then if it'll support 4K60.
If an upgrade to a 5th generation or later ATV is required, that would be a little disappointing. But seeing as how I have no 4K TVs and don't plan to buy a new one soon…
These aren't standard A8 chips though, are they? They often have a core disabled, right? I know they did that with the A5 in the 3rd gen Apple TV, but not certain they did that with the 4th gen. Regardless, I don't think it's possible with the included HW even if the A8 can technically do it at 60+ Hz, and if it is just flipping a switch in SW then when wouldn't Apple want to see a 4K Apple TV when everyone else sells a 4K media extender.
I think this signals something else entirely ( If the rumours is true ).
In Apple's style, they will also launch 4K content on iTunes Stores, for 4K Movies to space / bandwidth efficient, you need HEVC. The next ( or really the current ) generation of Video Codec.
But HEVC has an ridiculously expensive license agreement, $25M Max/ year to MPEG-LA and $40M Max/year to HEVC Advance. 10 times the cost of AVC / H.264 $6.5M Max / Year. The sudden appearance of HEVC Advance Group was the reason Apple dropped all mention of HEVC / H.265 from their product page, initially being listed as a technology for Facetime. Late last year, HEVC Advance group announce that HEVC software implementation to be free of Royalties charges, both encoder and decoder. So theoretically Apple could put in a powerful CPU within Apple Tv to use HEVC in software mode.
Technically, the 4th Gen AppleTV A8 could play 4K content, but it's limited by it's 100BaseT ethernet and WiFi. This 5th Gen better have GbE or H265 compression. My best is both of those.
If they really are pushing services, then they should view the ATV hardware as break-even, and put the best SOC in there they can to support not just 4k video but also better games. The ATV 4 should have had the A9X.
This next one ought to have the A10X.
The games don't have to run at 4k -- fine for them to be mostly 1080p -- but with an A10X (and other more game friendly specs -- more RAM, more local storage) the AppleTV could be a pretty decent game console at a low price, in addition to all the other functions it can serve.
The Apple TV is the same size as the Echo Dot -- why can't it have the same great microphones with Siri integration so I can replace the Dot and have ONE device to control my living room via speech. Utterly brain dead if this is missing.
And 4k? Who cares?! It should have been in the last version!
Comments
It doesn't HAVE to come with a faster processor, but it probably will.
I always hope for a little more ambition from the ATV. They dropped the wand controller requirement for games which is a good step. If they stayed half a year behind the iPhones with the same chip (so, A9 by now), and had a little more storage, with updates each year they could become pretty powerful little microconsoles.
I’d also really love to see what Apple silicon could do with a heatsink and active cooling.
We have no idea what will happen. This is 100% a business strategy decision by Apple and the content providers. Nothing "magical" required.
Why not put in a TB of ram and octo-processors and 12 USB-A ports using that logic. Everything is a trade off.
Also, was there so much whining when the third gen added 1080p a few years ago? I don't remember it. Seems to me that the more we get from our devices, the higher the entitlement and subsequent whining becomes.
If its 4K, that means obviously it will have a new Soc and completely new internals.
And obviously the OS will see a major update and features this yr.
The thing isn't going to grow a display or legs, it will still be the same box, but that doesn't mean it can't be significantly improved with new internals and software. Not that I have many complaints about the current one, I use it everyday.
1) 4K content on iTunes. It's a given -- they wouldn't support a premium format on Apple TV that if they can't monetize it. It'd make zero sense.
2) Possible 4K gaming and apps. This in itself would have interesting implications on the upgraded unit's required hardware capabilities.
3) Support for HEVC, which is pretty much the gold standard codec for 4K content. This would bleed over into native HEVC support in iTunes and Quicktime. This would be a huge benefit even for people who don't consume 4K content because movies encoded in HEVC versus H.264 are about 1/2 to 1/4 the size. Any video, 1080p or any resolution, would take up much less space on your computer.
In Apple's style, they will also launch 4K content on iTunes Stores, for 4K Movies to space / bandwidth efficient, you need HEVC. The next ( or really the current ) generation of Video Codec.
But HEVC has an ridiculously expensive license agreement, $25M Max/ year to MPEG-LA and $40M Max/year to HEVC Advance. 10 times the cost of AVC / H.264 $6.5M Max / Year. The sudden appearance of HEVC Advance Group was the reason Apple dropped all mention of HEVC / H.265 from their product page, initially being listed as a technology for Facetime. Late last year, HEVC Advance group announce that HEVC software implementation to be free of Royalties charges, both encoder and decoder. So theoretically Apple could put in a powerful CPU within Apple Tv to use HEVC in software mode.
If they really are pushing services, then they should view the ATV hardware as break-even, and put the best SOC in there they can to support not just 4k video but also better games. The ATV 4 should have had the A9X.
This next one ought to have the A10X.
The games don't have to run at 4k -- fine for them to be mostly 1080p -- but with an A10X (and other more game friendly specs -- more RAM, more local storage) the AppleTV could be a pretty decent game console at a low price, in addition to all the other functions it can serve.
And 4k? Who cares?! It should have been in the last version!