You can still play HBO Go or YouTube on an old Apple TV after it gets abandoned
As users report being unable to access DRM-protected YouTube content on their third generation Apple TV, HBO has officially announced that it is abandoning early Apple TV models too. But, you can still stream the content to the set-top with an iPhone and AirPlay.
If the Apple TV 3rd generation isn't a museum piece, that remote control certainly is.
Apple currently sells both its most recent 2018 Apple TV 4K, and the preceding 2015 Apple TV HD, plenty of users are still on the prior models. As of April 30, 2020, however, they will no longer be able to view HBO apps -- and some users are now reporting general issues with even YouTube.
"In order to provide the best streaming experience, we need to make some changes to our supported devices list," said HBO in a statement on its site. "Starting on April 30, 2020, HBO GO will no longer be available on the Apple TV (2nd and 3rd generation)."
Unrelated reports on Reddit and in Apple's own support forums are claiming that the YouTube app is broken on the 3rd generation, too. Some users are claiming that on attempting to play any video, they get only a message saying only that "An error occurred loading this content."
In AppleInsider testing, we saw this issue on only a few selected YouTube videos with digital rights management embedded. For now, the majority of YouTube content plays perfectly fine, including all randomly-selected AppleInsider videos.
However, HBO abandoning these models, and YouTube owner Google having issues with it, is not surprising. The Apple TV (3rd Generation) dates from 2012, and the 2nd Generation is now a decade old. Neither support the App Store, so they only have the apps and the versions of apps that Apple installs or updates.
Users will still be able to watch HBO, YouTube, or any future problematic channels, however, because both of these models of Apple TV support AirPlay streaming. With the HBO, YouTube, or any other app playing on an iPhone or iPad, users can stream the output to the Apple TV. Streaming, even on a strong Wi-Fi connection, is not going to be as good or responsive as having a native app on the Apple TV, though, so this is just a work-around, and not a great one.
The easiest way to tell if you have an impacted model is to measure the height of it. If it is less than an inch thick, it is a second or third generation model. If you need a more discrete determination of model number, navigate to Settings, General, and About. The 2nd generation is model number A1378, while the 3rd Generation is either A1427 or A1469. The latter was for a revised version released in 2013.
If the Apple TV 3rd generation isn't a museum piece, that remote control certainly is.
Apple currently sells both its most recent 2018 Apple TV 4K, and the preceding 2015 Apple TV HD, plenty of users are still on the prior models. As of April 30, 2020, however, they will no longer be able to view HBO apps -- and some users are now reporting general issues with even YouTube.
"In order to provide the best streaming experience, we need to make some changes to our supported devices list," said HBO in a statement on its site. "Starting on April 30, 2020, HBO GO will no longer be available on the Apple TV (2nd and 3rd generation)."
Unrelated reports on Reddit and in Apple's own support forums are claiming that the YouTube app is broken on the 3rd generation, too. Some users are claiming that on attempting to play any video, they get only a message saying only that "An error occurred loading this content."
In AppleInsider testing, we saw this issue on only a few selected YouTube videos with digital rights management embedded. For now, the majority of YouTube content plays perfectly fine, including all randomly-selected AppleInsider videos.
However, HBO abandoning these models, and YouTube owner Google having issues with it, is not surprising. The Apple TV (3rd Generation) dates from 2012, and the 2nd Generation is now a decade old. Neither support the App Store, so they only have the apps and the versions of apps that Apple installs or updates.
Users will still be able to watch HBO, YouTube, or any future problematic channels, however, because both of these models of Apple TV support AirPlay streaming. With the HBO, YouTube, or any other app playing on an iPhone or iPad, users can stream the output to the Apple TV. Streaming, even on a strong Wi-Fi connection, is not going to be as good or responsive as having a native app on the Apple TV, though, so this is just a work-around, and not a great one.
The easiest way to tell if you have an impacted model is to measure the height of it. If it is less than an inch thick, it is a second or third generation model. If you need a more discrete determination of model number, navigate to Settings, General, and About. The 2nd generation is model number A1378, while the 3rd Generation is either A1427 or A1469. The latter was for a revised version released in 2013.
Comments
Wait. What?
How many years did you get out of your soon to obsolete one?
Not being able to watch HBO or Youtube on the third gen anymore is not a big deal to me personally.
I can report that Apple TV+ and Amazon channels are still working fine on the third gen, because I was just using those a few days ago.
Streaming video to it from another source is something that I just don't bother doing, because the quality is not the same.
I have 2 AppleTV 3s and 2 AppleTV 4ks. I enjoy HBO on all of them.
In all seriousness, I get the comment about "just buy a new one" and "the old one is, erm, old." It's just unfortunate because the 3rd-gen TV is minuscule and is a perfect backup device for when I travel.
There has been some talk of an updated Apple TV model coming out in the not-too-distant future, so those of you who can may wish to hold out and see if that pans out to be true in a month or three. I'm really enjoying the services I use on my 4K ATV, and I'm sure you will to if and when you move up.
We ended up returning the Roku and getting a Fire Stick. It’s not great either, but it’s far more usable than the Roku was.
Maybe I’ve just become used to the smooth response from our Apple TVs
The ATV third-get was released in 2012. That's 8 years of use. If you actually had this product (you don't), you'd have gotten 8 years of use from it (you didn't). There's little to complain about there. You have gone thru several pairs of shoes in that time, where are those? How many blades on your sawz-all have you gone thru and where are they now? Etc etc...
Just stop. We get it, you're bitter, you want a mini-tower, Apple kicked your dog, etc...
If shoes didn't wear out physically, a user might use them perpetually. The same applies to saw blades. In either case the shoes and saws themselves can be repaired, giving them a far longer lifespan.
In this case, a switch if sorts is being flicked and the device basically downgraded in usability.
We may have come to just accept this as 'progress' but as consumer appliances become 'digitised' and reliant on software 'switches' (be they OS support, software platform support or otherwise), there is a lot more that needs to be considered.
It is a complex subject and some day legislation will probably need to cover it. I'm talking about modern digital CE devices in general here, not just the ATV.