Query: if you bought HD movies on iTunes before they offered 4k, you get the free upgrade to the 4k version of those?
Yes, but maybe not.
You do get 4K if it's available and it's the same movie, but it looks like studios are being sneaky by making the version slightly different so they can charge you again for the 4K title.
SoC upgrade is fine and all that, but would average ATV 4K owners know or care? I doubt it. It already supports 4K video and Dolby Atmos, has BT 5.0. I suppose Apple could add WiFi 6, if that's deemed worthwhile. Rationalizing Apple's SoC mix is a reasonable thing for them to do, but hardly seems worthy of a new product unless there are new customer-facing features.
People do bitch about the remote — I have no particular complaint about mine, though — so I suppose they could do something with that.
Overall a new ATV 4K sounds like the solution to a non-existent problem. Or a rumor about a non-existent product?
Somebody please explain to me why a STREAMING box needs 128GB. And don’t say for downloads. 128GB would get you a few 4K movies. Do people really have hundreds of apps on their TVs like they do their phones?
It's pity they're not putting storage capacities in the terabytes on these things to allow you to download all your iTunes movie purchases - because if you don't download them, and the content provider pulls it from the iTunes store - you're screwed. Just had a title removed from my library that I bought in 2015 for this reason. [snip] And you don't get any recompense or any notification whatsoever from Apple prior to the title being withdrawn. It makes buying movies from them a massive risk (even worse with other digital stores such as Amazon or Google Play as you don't get to download them as a file as you do with iTunes - assuming one has a computer, of course).
Apple doesn't own the copyright to movies from major studios, and doesn't set the availability or terms of sale. That's why, for instance, new releases are sold for some time before being offered for rental. And when a studio, or its distributor, pulls a title from online sale or rental, its gone. It's also common for titles to be pulled from streaming temporarily during the period when they're being aired on cable or network TV. Again, that's a contract thing that the streaming service has no control over.
My current Apple TV 4K works great and servers it’s main purpose. I ditched the spectrum digital box saving a monthly fee and use the spectrum app on the Apple TV ....... it works great.
Bite the bullet and spend the $10 for a brightly-colored glow-in-the-dark ATV remote case. It will protect it against a fall (I have two cracked ones...), will make it easy to tell up/down by touch, and makes it easier to find.
Nothing can completely fix the remote, but it will improve it dramatically.
Hmm, not too excited about the chip upgrades, although less laggy is always nice. In particular, I'd like to see enough RAM so Apple can hold multiple Apps in memory so that I can switch between them with less wait. That's probably at least partly a code design issue, though.
The biggest thing for me is the remote. I just do not like it, especially compared to the TIVO remote that's comfortable and offers easy, fast access to all the functions without remembering Morse-code sequences (BTW . . . _ _ _ . . . does _not_ bring up the help menu ;-) I hope they find some way to accommodate people like me. I'd even accept paying some ridiculous add-on cost for a remote that's more TIVO-like.
The Apple TV 4K is by far the best streamer, I own them all, fast, 4K interface unlike the competition's slow, low rez interfaces. This new model w/more memory, faster proc will allow Apple to position the device for THEIR 'next gen' gaming. There is a rumor of an Apple gaming controller - would make for a compelling bundle if they can attract some A-game titles. I gave Apple Arcade a try, good quality games, but it still feels like iPhone games on a bigger screen, not a console alternative. And any improvement to the remote would be very much appreciated.
It's pity they're not putting storage capacities in the terabytes on these things to allow you to download all your iTunes movie purchases - because if you don't download them, and the content provider pulls it from the iTunes store - you're screwed.
The problem here is even if you download your movies, if it’s pulled from the Apple library, it’s flagged as unplayable. So unless you’ve decrypt the original file, your still screwed.
This is why I still buy 4K Blu-ray disks, I get the iTunes code for convenience and physical media should it ever get pulled. And for some reason, the sound with Dolby TrueHD sounds better too.
Is this true? I had exactly the same issue as mbdrake - in that a 2014 film purchase from Apple was pulled a year or two ago. No notification from Apple or anything, I just found one day it wasn’t there. At first they denied it and said it was only ever a rental but once I found proof of purchase Apple said the studio had pulled it from the store and if I wanted any refund I’d have to take it up with them. They told me - as posters did here - that I should have downloaded and kept a version on local storage. (Apple’s policy re 4K purchases now negates this argument). However, if it would have been unplayable even then I don’t see they have a leg to stand on. I love the convenience of Apple TV and NOT having loads of discs needing storage. However, it does make me come to your side of the argument that perhaps I should go back to discs.
It's pity they're not putting storage capacities in the terabytes on these things to allow you to download all your iTunes movie purchases - because if you don't download them, and the content provider pulls it from the iTunes store - you're screwed. Just had a title removed from my library that I bought in 2015 for this reason. As I have 1.75Tb worth of movies and that Apple storage is incredibly expensive, keeping them in the "cloud" seems the only reasonable way of doing it. But no.
And you don't get any recompense or any notification whatsoever from Apple prior to the title being withdrawn. It makes buying movies from them a massive risk (even worse with other digital stores such as Amazon or Google Play as you don't get to download them as a file as you do with iTunes - assuming one has a computer, of course). Subscriptions to Apple TV+, Netflix, Amazon, Disney, etc. are fine - you know what you're getting and you're willing to accept that you'd lose access to them if you stopped subscribing or if their licensing no longer permits them to stream the title.
So for me, the Apple TV has lost its appeal somewhat.
I'd love to see Apple create a headless home media server, but I doubt that will ever be in the cards. The Apple TV is a streaming box first and, with iOS/iPadOS/tvOS's support of Xbox One and PS4 controllers, an Apple Arcade device second (which is why it has 128 GB of space). You have many options for local storage, though—throw Plex on a NAS device and install those apps, set up a DLNA server, or (for a first-party solution) use an older Mac with an attached multi-TB drive and set up Media Sharing across your network. Personally, I buy discs of the things I want to always have on-hand and use the digital copy merely for convenience. I might spend $4.99 on a sale for something my family or I enjoy and can't stream and don't see a reason to have in our disc library, but I don't bother downloading and archiving the copy any longer. That works for me—your mileage may vary.
Somebody please explain to me why a STREAMING box needs 128GB. And don’t say for downloads. 128GB would get you a few 4K movies. Do people really have hundreds of apps on their TVs like they do their phones?
My current Apple TV 4K works great and servers it’s main purpose. I ditched the spectrum digital box saving a monthly fee and use the spectrum app on the Apple TV ....... it works great.
Same here. I bought an Apple TV 4k about 4-5 months ago, I got it for a killer price when att were blowing them out. I have no interest in the new one coming out, the 4k model is plenty capable and will be plenty capable for a good number of years to come.
I ditched my spectrum cable box, but I don't user their app either now, because I ditched the cable completely, and I only pay for internet service from them now. I never really watched cable tv much anyway, so no use in having it. Things are working out great without cable tv.
It's pity they're not putting storage capacities in the terabytes on these things to allow you to download all your iTunes movie purchases - because if you don't download them, and the content provider pulls it from the iTunes store - you're screwed. Just had a title removed from my library that I bought in 2015 for this reason. As I have 1.75Tb worth of movies and that Apple storage is incredibly expensive, keeping them in the "cloud" seems the only reasonable way of doing it. But no.
Buy an NAS RAID and plug it into your home network.
I have a Synology DiskStationDS218+ with 2 workstation class Seagate 8TB drives for about $800 total.
It was a little tricky to setup, but now all my media files are stored on it and use it for wireless Time Machine backups for my wife’s and my MacBook Pros.
PLUS, all my stuff is safe at home, not floating around somewhere to disappear if somehow the wires get cut.
Absolutely agree a NAS would be one way of backing up, but this makes a couple of assumptions:
1) You have a computer that can connect to the NAS - not sure whether NAS devices come with an iPad app that can connect to share files, but then again, if you download from iTunes to an iPad, the file isn't exposed to the iPad filesystem.
2) Your average consumer shouldn't need to do this. The beauty of the Apple iTunes/Apple TV experience (which they're prompting heavily) is that you buy the movie or TV show and enjoy it across all devices easily - e.g. you don't need to download the file, keep it, and if the copyright owner decides to pull the title from iTunes, fiddle with streaming it to the Apple TV (which should be possible still with AirPlay, but it makes the assumption you have another Apple device to do that, and again, it depends on what devices you have in your possession do this).
3) You can't download 4K/HDR content (to the best of my knowledge).
The big problem in all this is it's a bit of a hangover from the days in which you'd have to download the file from iTunes before you can play it - rather than it being stored in Apple's cloud (not iCloud) and streamed from there.
This affects other digital services, BTW (such as Prime which absolutely stipulates that you can't stream purchased titles again if the content is no longer available on their store), but Apple's terms are somewhat murky due to the language being used. But blog posts from over 7 years ago indicate that this has been going on for a significant amount of time.
It's pity they're not putting storage capacities in the terabytes on these things to allow you to download all your iTunes movie purchases - because if you don't download them, and the content provider pulls it from the iTunes store - you're screwed. Just had a title removed from my library that I bought in 2015 for this reason. As I have 1.75Tb worth of movies and that Apple storage is incredibly expensive, keeping them in the "cloud" seems the only reasonable way of doing it. But no.
And you don't get any recompense or any notification whatsoever from Apple prior to the title being withdrawn. It makes buying movies from them a massive risk (even worse with other digital stores such as Amazon or Google Play as you don't get to download them as a file as you do with iTunes - assuming one has a computer, of course). Subscriptions to Apple TV+, Netflix, Amazon, Disney, etc. are fine - you know what you're getting and you're willing to accept that you'd lose access to them if you stopped subscribing or if their licensing no longer permits them to stream the title.
So for me, the Apple TV has lost its appeal somewhat.
Or just the ability to plug in a USB hard drive. I bought a $300 mini PC to essentially turn into a movie server, ended up being to slow so I ended up buying a low end Mac mini, which works like a champ but if I could have just plugged the USB drive into my AppleTV, problem would have been solved without the extra expense or headache.
But the average consumer shouldn't have to do this, and at such cost, because Apple is pimping - heavily - about the virtues of playing your "purchased" movies from practically everywhere (and without that asterisk that states that content pulled isn't available, and no, you don't get any notice or refunds). See the previous posting which also states that you can't download 4K/HDR content.
That said, I DO very much like the idea of plugging in a portable hard drive (via USB 3.0/Thunderbolt 3) or via NAS to an Apple TV and have a "backup" function which can download the content directly to it, along with a "Restore" function. And as long as those files could then be copied/backed up somewhere else for additional safekeeping, that would be good too. But then again, it still adds complexity to something which should be entirely cloud-based. Just because it's an intangible product doesn't mean to say that it should suddenly vanish on a copyright owner's whim (or bad fortune if the distributor goes bust).
It's pity they're not putting storage capacities in the terabytes on these things to allow you to download all your iTunes movie purchases - because if you don't download them, and the content provider pulls it from the iTunes store - you're screwed. Just had a title removed from my library that I bought in 2015 for this reason. As I have 1.75Tb worth of movies and that Apple storage is incredibly expensive, keeping them in the "cloud" seems the only reasonable way of doing it. But no.
And you don't get any recompense or any notification whatsoever from Apple prior to the title being withdrawn. It makes buying movies from them a massive risk (even worse with other digital stores such as Amazon or Google Play as you don't get to download them as a file as you do with iTunes - assuming one has a computer, of course). Subscriptions to Apple TV+, Netflix, Amazon, Disney, etc. are fine - you know what you're getting and you're willing to accept that you'd lose access to them if you stopped subscribing or if their licensing no longer permits them to stream the title.
So for me, the Apple TV has lost its appeal somewhat.
This isn't a media server, it's a media streamer... If you want all your movies saved locally, do it on your computer and use it as a media server. My iMac has long been used as my "iTunes" server with some 2 terabytes of movies, tv shows, music, podcasts, and photos all stored on an external hard drive.
You're making the assumption everybody has a computer or NAS. Plus 4K/HDR content cannot be downloaded as a file. Maybe if Apple were to make the Apple TV a dedicated media server as well with sufficient storage (or the ability to add extra storage) and worked super nicely with iPhones, iPads, Macs and Windows PCs running Apple TV app - that'd be one possible way of doing it, I suppose.
It's pity they're not putting storage capacities in the terabytes on these things to allow you to download all your iTunes movie purchases - because if you don't download them, and the content provider pulls it from the iTunes store - you're screwed.
The problem here is even if you download your movies, if it’s pulled from the Apple library, it’s flagged as unplayable. So unless you’ve decrypt the original file, your still screwed.
This is why I still buy 4K Blu-ray disks, I get the iTunes code for convenience and physical media should it ever get pulled. And for some reason, the sound with Dolby TrueHD sounds better too.
The trouble with that is if the unit failed, all downloads would be lost. You'd need some way of transferring everything to another device. I too would keep buying 4K UHD blu-Ray discs, but: (a) UK has terrible fair use policies which technically makes it illegal to transcode material from it to other formats, (b) studio inconsistency with releases (it can be bad enough with regular HD Blu-Ray - especially around TV shows) and (c) I don't have enough storage space!
Comments
You do get 4K if it's available and it's the same movie, but it looks like studios are being sneaky by making the version slightly different so they can charge you again for the 4K title.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8081515
The biggest thing for me is the remote. I just do not like it, especially compared to the TIVO remote that's comfortable and offers easy, fast access to all the functions without remembering Morse-code sequences (BTW . . . _ _ _ . . . does _not_ bring up the help menu ;-) I hope they find some way to accommodate people like me. I'd even accept paying some ridiculous add-on cost for a remote that's more TIVO-like.
I ditched my spectrum cable box, but I don't user their app either now, because I ditched the cable completely, and I only pay for internet service from them now. I never really watched cable tv much anyway, so no use in having it. Things are working out great without cable tv.
1) You have a computer that can connect to the NAS - not sure whether NAS devices come with an iPad app that can connect to share files, but then again, if you download from iTunes to an iPad, the file isn't exposed to the iPad filesystem.
2) Your average consumer shouldn't need to do this. The beauty of the Apple iTunes/Apple TV experience (which they're prompting heavily) is that you buy the movie or TV show and enjoy it across all devices easily - e.g. you don't need to download the file, keep it, and if the copyright owner decides to pull the title from iTunes, fiddle with streaming it to the Apple TV (which should be possible still with AirPlay, but it makes the assumption you have another Apple device to do that, and again, it depends on what devices you have in your possession do this).
3) You can't download 4K/HDR content (to the best of my knowledge).
The big problem in all this is it's a bit of a hangover from the days in which you'd have to download the file from iTunes before you can play it - rather than it being stored in Apple's cloud (not iCloud) and streamed from there.
This affects other digital services, BTW (such as Prime which absolutely stipulates that you can't stream purchased titles again if the content is no longer available on their store), but Apple's terms are somewhat murky due to the language being used. But blog posts from over 7 years ago indicate that this has been going on for a significant amount of time.
That said, I DO very much like the idea of plugging in a portable hard drive (via USB 3.0/Thunderbolt 3) or via NAS to an Apple TV and have a "backup" function which can download the content directly to it, along with a "Restore" function. And as long as those files could then be copied/backed up somewhere else for additional safekeeping, that would be good too. But then again, it still adds complexity to something which should be entirely cloud-based. Just because it's an intangible product doesn't mean to say that it should suddenly vanish on a copyright owner's whim (or bad fortune if the distributor goes bust).