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

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Comments

  • Reply 41 of 71
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member

    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. 
    Data caps are one problem.    The other thing I run into is that why in the hell would one want to stream a video if you expect to review it more than once.   As suggested in another post one thing I spend time viewing more than once is the WWDC videos.   Streaming them is just a waste of bandwidth so you want to store them locally.  Beyond that you may find yourself in a location where streaming just isn't possible.   Streaming just doesn't cut it off me in many cases.    I look at it this way there is trash you view once and wash your hands of and then there is the stuff that actually passes as reference material where you may view several times often stopping to pause reverse to better digest what is in the video.
    hmurchison
  • Reply 42 of 71
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member

    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 was actually thinking about going this route.    A NAS certainly has advantages but local storage would be significantly easier.   Frankly the SoC have the performance to do this but Apples reusing the iPhone chips likely means they come up short with respect to the required I/O.    These days though all it would take is a fully implemented USB-C port.


  • Reply 43 of 71
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    cjfurious said:
    Long time reader, first time comment...

    ... We stream exclusively, ...

    That is a mistake in my mind.   we will never have enough capacity for everybody to stream on demand.  
  • Reply 44 of 71
    eightzeroeightzero Posts: 3,056member
    eightzero said:
    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. 
    Where did you get the deal on the 4K TV, and how much did you pay?
    Amazon. $350 delivered to my door. Its a roku "TCL" brand 43". Has good reviews. The 1080p one was like $300. 
  • Reply 45 of 71
    fastasleepfastasleep Posts: 6,408member
    wizard69 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 was actually thinking about going this route.    A NAS certainly has advantages but local storage would be significantly easier.   Frankly the SoC have the performance to do this but Apples reusing the iPhone chips likely means they come up short with respect to the required I/O.    These days though all it would take is a fully implemented USB-C port.


    When you say local storage, do you mean the internal storage inside the ATV? Because there's not much of it. I don't think the USB port is meant to handle external storage at all.

    If you have a Mac in your house and a hard drive full of movies, why not just run Serviio or Plex or whatever you prefer from your Mac when you want to do that? I have a 2009 mini that does this all day long. 
  • Reply 46 of 71
    SoliSoli Posts: 10,035member
    wizard69 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 was actually thinking about going this route.    A NAS certainly has advantages but local storage would be significantly easier.   Frankly the SoC have the performance to do this but Apples reusing the iPhone chips likely means they come up short with respect to the required I/O.    These days though all it would take is a fully implemented USB-C port.


    When you say local storage, do you mean the internal storage inside the ATV? Because there's not much of it. I don't think the USB port is meant to handle external storage at all.

    If you have a Mac in your house and a hard drive full of movies, why not just run Serviio or Plex or whatever you prefer from your Mac when you want to do that? I have a 2009 mini that does this all day long. 
    I do understand the desire to at least be able to have a USB-connected drive or RAID that can hold and access your content off the Apple TV without using another device with an OS, but there are any number of NAS have built-in iTunes servers that can be accessed over a network. Same for Time Machine backups. These modern, consumer NAS seem to have an excess of features.
  • Reply 47 of 71
    fastasleepfastasleep Posts: 6,408member
    Soli said:
    wizard69 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 was actually thinking about going this route.    A NAS certainly has advantages but local storage would be significantly easier.   Frankly the SoC have the performance to do this but Apples reusing the iPhone chips likely means they come up short with respect to the required I/O.    These days though all it would take is a fully implemented USB-C port.


    When you say local storage, do you mean the internal storage inside the ATV? Because there's not much of it. I don't think the USB port is meant to handle external storage at all.

    If you have a Mac in your house and a hard drive full of movies, why not just run Serviio or Plex or whatever you prefer from your Mac when you want to do that? I have a 2009 mini that does this all day long. 
    I do understand the desire to at least be able to have a USB-connected drive or RAID that can hold and access your content off the Apple TV without using another device with an OS, but there are any number of NAS have built-in iTunes servers that can be accessed over a network. Same for Time Machine backups. These modern, consumer NAS seem to have an excess of features.
    I understand the want to connect a local drive, but that’s not a possibility. Also, hard to see that as “easier” anyway when you can’t manage the storage remotely to add more content, etc. NAS had already been brought up and I agree is probably the easiest solution for most people as it covers both limitations outlined above. :) I just assume most people here have a Mac anyway so they already have the ability to stream to their ATV with free software, so why not just do that?

  • Reply 48 of 71
    SoliSoli Posts: 10,035member
    Soli said:
    wizard69 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 was actually thinking about going this route.    A NAS certainly has advantages but local storage would be significantly easier.   Frankly the SoC have the performance to do this but Apples reusing the iPhone chips likely means they come up short with respect to the required I/O.    These days though all it would take is a fully implemented USB-C port.


    When you say local storage, do you mean the internal storage inside the ATV? Because there's not much of it. I don't think the USB port is meant to handle external storage at all.

    If you have a Mac in your house and a hard drive full of movies, why not just run Serviio or Plex or whatever you prefer from your Mac when you want to do that? I have a 2009 mini that does this all day long. 
    I do understand the desire to at least be able to have a USB-connected drive or RAID that can hold and access your content off the Apple TV without using another device with an OS, but there are any number of NAS have built-in iTunes servers that can be accessed over a network. Same for Time Machine backups. These modern, consumer NAS seem to have an excess of features.
    I understand the want to connect a local drive, but that’s not a possibility. Also, hard to see that as “easier” anyway when you can’t manage the storage remotely to add more content, etc. NAS had already been brought up and I agree is probably the easiest solution for most people as it covers both limitations outlined above. :) I just assume most people here have a Mac anyway so they already have the ability to stream to their ATV with free software, so why not just do that?
    I think the data storage issue is solvable, but I the NAS is the way to go if you want to use an iTunes-like setup. The other option is Plex, which I'm pretty sure has a 4th gen Apple TV App Store app. If not a NAS, you can connect with a Raspberry Pi 3 with great success on the cheap.


    I went the other way years ago with an extra Mac and haven't wavered, but buying a new Mac mini and then connected a RAID is not the cheapest way to go. I may check out Plex on the Mac to see if I like the interface (at some point). If I do, I may then move to a Raspberry Pi or just have it work off my NAS, assuming my NAS can also have a backup RAID off of its USB port so that I can have some level of protection.
  • Reply 49 of 71
    jdb8167jdb8167 Posts: 626member
    September is going to be expensive!
  • Reply 50 of 71
    wood1208wood1208 Posts: 2,905member
    Hope, apple put enough processing power, updates in ATV 5 so they don't have to replace it in 2 years like Gen 4.Looks like gaming aspect of ATV is lesser important than streaming. Local download/store would be nice like DVR function. Remote is OK,may need improvement.
  • Reply 51 of 71
    smaffeismaffei Posts: 237member
    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.
    Owned them all at one point. Roku has the absolute worst interface (part of why they are the cheapest), Fire TV is nicer, but it always feels like Amazon is trying to trick into buying something (free and purchase items intermixed). Apple TV seems the simplest to use, and their video codec produces the nicest picture.
    jahbladehmurchison
  • Reply 52 of 71
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,176member
    jcs2305 said:
    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.
    It only took a couple of days to figure out the Apple TV remote was not very good. Far too sensitive, tho I don't recall having a problem figuring out which end was which. But I also didn't use it for more than a couple of days since it was so horrid in actual use IMO. When I had my Apple TV connected downstairs I used a Logitech Elite instead, and it was OK. Now that my son has it upstairs he's using a much cheaper refurb'd Logitech Smart Control. If I had a do-over I would purchase the Smart instead for downstairs too. The Elite is really over-priced for what I use it for and the Smart Control is a very good universal remote and receiver at a third of the Elite's price. There's also a simple to use Logitech smartphone app if you have the Smart Control.

    Sidenote: Of all the remotes I've used the Roku one is by far the easiest and most reliable to navigate. The Shield remote is simple too, but like the Apple TV remote just too slim and while not quite as sensitive as Apple's still too likely to change volume or open an unintended menu. I don't like it for pretty much the same reason I didn't like the Apple TV remote and so use the Logitech instead. But dang the Shield candy-bar controller is fast tho. The Elite is sometimes irritatingly slow in comparison. As for the Shield's gaming controller it works great as a remote and equally as fast as the candy-bar but without the errant commands.
    edited August 2017
  • Reply 53 of 71
    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. 
    Right 4k isnt going anywhere  The TVs are getting cheaper this is a fad. Its staying multiple platforms are adapting to it. Comcast even is, in a few years stations will probably start adapting as well some already are.
  • Reply 54 of 71
    brucemcbrucemc Posts: 1,541member
    jay3000 said:
    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. 
    Right 4k isnt going anywhere  The TVs are getting cheaper this is a fad. Its staying multiple platforms are adapting to it. Comcast even is, in a few years stations will probably start adapting as well some already are.
    I don't think someone that pointed out that 4K was not mainstream 2 years ago, and bringing a 4K compatible AppleTV to market in a few years (e.g. now) would not be "too late" - is someone that is a 4K naysayer.  4K is absolutely going to happen (and of course is happening).  But it doesn't take much of a critical eye to see that it is in its infancy. There is still (2 years after a loud minority screamed that Apple was so stupid not to have 4K in the last ATV) very little content available in 4K, across the universe of content available (linear TV, streaming, on-demand rentals & purchases).  Even less that is well encoded and utilizes HDR.  Apple I expect is going to change that a lot in the next couple of months.

    Of course 4K is better than 1080p (when encoded correctly), but for the average person, the difference on a 50" TV (at a typical viewing distance) is not going to be that significant.  Certainly not as significant as the change from 4:3 ratio SD (often analog) to HD (16:9 ratio) was.
    williamlondon
  • Reply 55 of 71
    foggyhillfoggyhill Posts: 4,767member
    jay3000 said:
    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. 
    Right 4k isnt going anywhere  The TVs are getting cheaper this is a fad. Its staying multiple platforms are adapting to it. Comcast even is, in a few years stations will probably start adapting as well some already are.
    Who is saying its going anywhere, makers are just replacing 1080P panel factories for 4K ones were margins are a bit higher. Since its newer tech, the panels are better regardless of if they are 4K or not. There is no rush to 4K. People are replacing their 1080P TV's and buy a 4K cheap 4K set when they do it because basically that's where the market is capacity wise. That's particularly evident since the set sold are absurd things like 42 inchers with no HDR and pretty bad in most other dimensions. A crappy 4K set is still crappy, seeing bad color with more precision is not improving your viewing experience.

    So, mainstream 4Ks are mostly pretty blah since most sold are under 65inch that would make them make sense

    But, with HDR standards solidifying and decent 4K HDR sets coming to the mid range, finally it may be worth it to buy a new set..

    Though I've still got my Plasma set and I've not seen yet a LCD/LED set with a better motion reproduction. That's why I can't be bother to switch yet.
    Watching sports on a LED or OLED TV even in 4K is pretty painful.
    stompy
  • Reply 56 of 71
    Apple, how how about giving all of us early adapters of ATV4 a new, redesigned remote as an apology. It would help quell some of the ire I have for not only the existing remote, but the sad state of the App store on ATV.
  • Reply 57 of 71
    ksecksec Posts: 1,569member
    wood1208 said:
    Hope, apple put enough processing power, updates in ATV 5 so they don't have to replace it in 2 years like Gen 4.Looks like gaming aspect of ATV is lesser important than streaming. Local download/store would be nice like DVR function. Remote is OK,may need improvement.
    I am wondering on that too.
    A10? It may be a good fit because of the 4K, HEVC support, 16nm with an upgrade path to cheaper 12nm. But that is still using PowerVR. 
    A10X? Everything the above, but that is based on 10nm, meaning it wont exist in one or two years time ( Because 10nm will be completely replaced by 7nm, unlike 16/12nm which is staying for the long run.) And it is highly unlikely Apple will do an A10x in 7nm because there will be A11x.  
    May be it will be A11? Lower bin version of the one using in iPhone. 
  • Reply 58 of 71
    nhtnht Posts: 4,522member
    smaffei said:
    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.
    Owned them all at one point. Roku has the absolute worst interface (part of why they are the cheapest), Fire TV is nicer, but it always feels like Amazon is trying to trick into buying something (free and purchase items intermixed). Apple TV seems the simplest to use, and their video codec produces the nicest picture.
    Yah, this is what bugs me about Amazon Prime Video...so I just Netflix.
  • Reply 59 of 71
    mac_128mac_128 Posts: 3,454member
    Soli said:
    wizard69 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 was actually thinking about going this route.    A NAS certainly has advantages but local storage would be significantly easier.   Frankly the SoC have the performance to do this but Apples reusing the iPhone chips likely means they come up short with respect to the required I/O.    These days though all it would take is a fully implemented USB-C port.


    When you say local storage, do you mean the internal storage inside the ATV? Because there's not much of it. I don't think the USB port is meant to handle external storage at all.

    If you have a Mac in your house and a hard drive full of movies, why not just run Serviio or Plex or whatever you prefer from your Mac when you want to do that? I have a 2009 mini that does this all day long. 
    I do understand the desire to at least be able to have a USB-connected drive or RAID that can hold and access your content off the Apple TV without using another device with an OS, but there are any number of NAS have built-in iTunes servers that can be accessed over a network. Same for Time Machine backups. These modern, consumer NAS seem to have an excess of features.
    I understand the want to connect a local drive, but that’s not a possibility. Also, hard to see that as “easier” anyway when you can’t manage the storage remotely to add more content, etc. NAS had already been brought up and I agree is probably the easiest solution for most people as it covers both limitations outlined above. :) I just assume most people here have a Mac anyway so they already have the ability to stream to their ATV with free software, so why not just do that?

    The problem with NAS is, that Apple hasn't introduced a plug and play solution. Unlike just buying an external drive that my TV, or Mac, or even iOS device via wifi will easily recognize and access files, sexting up a NAS so that it can be accessed by any device on the network is not really a simple operation for most Apple customers. That said, plugging a hard drive into my 4K Smart TV isn't really a piece of cake either. I'm also not interested in setting up a dedicated Mac that's always up and running either. 

    So, for better or worse, I'm becoming exactly the kind of customer Apple wants -- all of my media has been purchased through iTunes, or otherwise uploaded to the cloud, and is all available wirelessly. So that's how I consume media. If I don't have access to the internet, then I can't watch anything, except what I've had the forethought to pre-load on my devices. It's not that there aren't some good solutions out there, it's just that there don't seem to be any easily accessible Apple solutions. In moving to 4K, I just don't know how Apple is going to be able to justify not allowing expanded local storage, merely to pre-download some 4K material that iTunes thinks you might want to watch, so it's ready to go. And there's not the same limitations that iOS devices have with the ATV. It's more of a fixed device like the Mac which of course allows storage to be easily expanded. And this till be especially true if Apple starts attaching 4K OLED panels to it ...
  • Reply 60 of 71
    waverboywaverboy Posts: 106member
    foggyhill said:
    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. 
    4K is useless in the mostly low quality TV panels sold, like 40-50 inchers you look at from 6-12 feet in non native format, simple as that.

    If your getting your TV from internet streams, what your actually seeing is a difference between those stream's quality mostly and not the TV.
    And off the air HDTV would be better than those streams.


    You can invent eagles eyes if you want, that's a fact.

    In movement, the resolution our eyes can latch on is even lower.
    In that case, a very high actual refresh rate would probably be better than a higher resolution anyway.

    If you have a 65 inch+ good quality TV, then you see the difference, especially in slower moving scenes.

    And I've got a good quality 4K computer screen so I know what I'm talking about.
    There is a diff there but I'm not sitting 8 feet away from my screen....

    If your adding HDR, which most cheap TV's don't have and native format encoding, then you would see a diff under 65 inch.
    But, the cheap panels people are buying are not giving you that.


    Things like 8K will be just as useless unless you use it as a way to get full wall TV/screens that you could use real close. The ideal use case there would be very different.



    Quoted for truth.
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