Sounds like I shouldn’t buy an Apple TV? First because there’s a new one inbound, “someday soon”, and secondly because... it’s not worth having?
My girlfriend got tired of sitting at my iMac in my small “studio” to watch things, so she bought us a TV. It was impossible to find a non-“smart” TV. We started with a 4K LG we hated the picture quality of (I’m hoping it was defective and not “normal”). Returned it.
Replaced it with a $100-cheaper 1080p Vizio (because where would we get 4K content anyway, without super high bandwidth or Blu-Ray, and why deal with upscaling issues). We both approve of the picture on it, but, as expected, the OS and apps are shit! Bad & inconsistent UI choices, tons of latency.
We’ve been sort of tolerating it, but sometimes connect a MacBook Pro to get a MUCH better experience... with a MUCH more cluttered room, risking falling over things & tripping on cables (plus my old MacBook Pro stutters; her new one doesn’t).
So I’ve really been thinking of getting an Apple TV for, I assume, a much better user experience. Yeah, nah?
Apparently I'm the only one that doesn't mind the Apple TV remote (yeah the touch area can be a little frustrating). Works great for me. But I'd definitely be down for upgraded processor, better gaming, and am totally cool if they find ways to improve the remote beyond what it is right now.
Sounds like I shouldn’t buy an Apple TV? First because there’s a new one inbound, “someday soon”, and secondly because... it’s not worth having?
My girlfriend got tired of sitting at my iMac in my small “studio” to watch things, so she bought us a TV. It was impossible to find a non-“smart” TV. We started with a 4K LG we hated the picture quality of (I’m hoping it was defective and not “normal”). Returned it.
Replaced it with a $100-cheaper 1080p Vizio (because where would we get 4K content anyway, without super high bandwidth or Blu-Ray, and why deal with upscaling issues). We both approve of the picture on it, but, as expected, the OS and apps are shit! Bad & inconsistent UI choices, tons of latency.
We’ve been sort of tolerating it, but sometimes connect a MacBook Pro to get a MUCH better experience... with a MUCH more cluttered room, risking falling over things & tripping on cables (plus my old MacBook Pro stutters; her new one doesn’t).
So I’ve really been thinking of getting an Apple TV for, I assume, a much better user experience. Yeah, nah?
I love my Apple TV. It’s great for the obvious reasons, but also some of the less obvious ones. Friends can come over and we can stream something from their phone, including their travel pics and videos and movies from streaming services I don’t subscribe to, and it all works flawlessly. I have it hooked up to a projector and my stereo, and I can wirelessly stream basically my entire music collection from my phone to my stereo in Apple Lossless quality. I’m doing it as I write this. Plus, unlike Roku and many Smart TVs, it doesn’t sell my data to third parties, which I appreciate. I also like being able to tell Siri to “go back fifteen seconds” if I missed something. I put a piece of an old bicycle tube around the base of the remote and added a little yellow electrical tape for visibility, which solved most of my issues with the remote, but you can also buy cases for a few bucks if that’s too much trouble. I wish there were a sleep button on the remote, but there is a two-step process that achieves that, it’s just a little less elegant, especially if you’re just using it for audio and can’t see the prompt on the screen.
So I’ve really been thinking of getting an Apple TV for, I assume, a much better user experience. Yeah, nah?
Over here... yeah.
Right now, I own 3 ATVs, 1 is HD, the other 2 are 4K. All are connected to HD TVs, one of which is a fairly recent LG.
I’ve never owned another streamer, so take this with a grain of salt... but it is night-and-day compared to any embedded apps in my LG (WebOS) or Blu Ray players. Actually I take it back, I experimented with a FireStick 4K which was gifted to me, new in box. I quit trying to make it work after a couple of hours, pretty miserable in comparison.
Assuming you have the network bandwidth to support it, the ATVs are just so smooth in operation. Apple’s apps in particular are just great. The best non-native apps I’ve used so far are Disney+ and HBOMax. Those guys really did their homework. YouTube is also well-behaved.
Occasionally I’ll experience a glitch with Hulu, Prime, and miscellaneous “freebies” that require a hardware restart to clear up. But it’s not often, maybe once a month at most.
Sounds like I shouldn’t buy an Apple TV? First because there’s a new one inbound, “someday soon”, and secondly because... it’s not worth having?
My girlfriend got tired of sitting at my iMac in my small “studio” to watch things, so she bought us a TV. It was impossible to find a non-“smart” TV. We started with a 4K LG we hated the picture quality of (I’m hoping it was defective and not “normal”). Returned it.
Replaced it with a $100-cheaper 1080p Vizio (because where would we get 4K content anyway, without super high bandwidth or Blu-Ray, and why deal with upscaling issues). We both approve of the picture on it, but, as expected, the OS and apps are shit! Bad & inconsistent UI choices, tons of latency.
We’ve been sort of tolerating it, but sometimes connect a MacBook Pro to get a MUCH better experience... with a MUCH more cluttered room, risking falling over things & tripping on cables (plus my old MacBook Pro stutters; her new one doesn’t).
So I’ve really been thinking of getting an Apple TV for, I assume, a much better user experience. Yeah, nah?
I have a Sony TV that's a few years old. Last gen you could get without the Android OS. Love the picture quality, but the streaming software was slow and clunky and it was obvious that the various services did not prioritize keeping the software up to date. So, I started using my 3rd gen ATV more and more except for 4K content. I finally bought an ATV 4K and relegated the older model to the bedroom. The user experience is far superior to what is built in to the TV. Haven't used the built-in streaming since.
As a bonus, the Sony TV remote works virtually every feature on the ATV. For the couple it doesn't, I just use my phone. It doesn't let you access the side bar or "double click" to force close apps that might need it.
Wait a second. According to an earlier rumor, there's a warehouse full of new ATVs just waiting for the right time to launch. You know, since COVID made selling something that might improve the TV/Streaming experience really hard.
How on earth would you trigger the find my remote when all the buttons are on the remote? Might there be a button or some sort of UI on the next Apple TV?
How about any other Apple device?
II guess though it seems more than a little bit absurd to have to log on to iCloud to get the remote that's slipped between the sofa cushions to buzz through a speaker/motor that only exists to buzz when it's fallen between the sofa cushions.
Reeks of over engineering, on a product that could really do with some engineering attention to make it functional rather than findable.
OK so you don’t actually have an iPhone or iPad, right? You’ve not used Find My? There is no cumbersome logging in. Tap app, see devices.
Sounds like I shouldn’t buy an Apple TV? First because there’s a new one inbound, “someday soon”, and secondly because... it’s not worth having?
My girlfriend got tired of sitting at my iMac in my small “studio” to watch things, so she bought us a TV. It was impossible to find a non-“smart” TV. We started with a 4K LG we hated the picture quality of (I’m hoping it was defective and not “normal”). Returned it.
Replaced it with a $100-cheaper 1080p Vizio (because where would we get 4K content anyway, without super high bandwidth or Blu-Ray, and why deal with upscaling issues). We both approve of the picture on it, but, as expected, the OS and apps are shit! Bad & inconsistent UI choices, tons of latency.
We’ve been sort of tolerating it, but sometimes connect a MacBook Pro to get a MUCH better experience... with a MUCH more cluttered room, risking falling over things & tripping on cables (plus my old MacBook Pro stutters; her new one doesn’t).
So I’ve really been thinking of getting an Apple TV for, I assume, a much better user experience. Yeah, nah?
I have both an ATV and a brand new Vizio in one room. The Vizio “smart” UI system sucks, is painfully slow. Using its iOS app to launch Vizio-apps is a little better, but not much. The ATV is leagues faster and better.
Sounds like I shouldn’t buy an Apple TV? First because there’s a new one inbound, “someday soon”, and secondly because... it’s not worth having?
My girlfriend got tired of sitting at my iMac in my small “studio” to watch things, so she bought us a TV. It was impossible to find a non-“smart” TV. We started with a 4K LG we hated the picture quality of (I’m hoping it was defective and not “normal”). Returned it.
Replaced it with a $100-cheaper 1080p Vizio (because where would we get 4K content anyway, without super high bandwidth or Blu-Ray, and why deal with upscaling issues). We both approve of the picture on it, but, as expected, the OS and apps are shit! Bad & inconsistent UI choices, tons of latency.
We’ve been sort of tolerating it, but sometimes connect a MacBook Pro to get a MUCH better experience... with a MUCH more cluttered room, risking falling over things & tripping on cables (plus my old MacBook Pro stutters; her new one doesn’t).
So I’ve really been thinking of getting an Apple TV for, I assume, a much better user experience. Yeah, nah?
I love my Apple TV. It’s great for the obvious reasons, but also some of the less obvious ones. Friends can come over and we can stream something from their phone, including their travel pics and videos and movies from streaming services I don’t subscribe to, and it all works flawlessly. I have it hooked up to a projector and my stereo, and I can wirelessly stream basically my entire music collection from my phone to my stereo in Apple Lossless quality. I’m doing it as I write this. Plus, unlike Roku and many Smart TVs, it doesn’t sell my data to third parties, which I appreciate. I also like being able to tell Siri to “go back fifteen seconds” if I missed something. I put a piece of an old bicycle tube around the base of the remote and added a little yellow electrical tape for visibility, which solved most of my issues with the remote, but you can also buy cases for a few bucks if that’s too much trouble. I wish there were a sleep button on the remote, but there is a two-step process that achieves that, it’s just a little less elegant, especially if you’re just using it for audio and can’t see the prompt on the screen.
FYI, for most apps that support the normal video watching API, you can edge-click the remote to backup or go forward 10 seconds. Doing so is faster than asking Siri to do it.
I also used a rubber band on end of the remote. Now I have a silicone case that makes it altogether better.
So I’ve really been thinking of getting an Apple TV for, I assume, a much better user experience. Yeah, nah?
Over here... yeah.
Right now, I own 3 ATVs, 1 is HD, the other 2 are 4K. All are connected to HD TVs, one of which is a fairly recent LG.
I’ve never owned another streamer, so take this with a grain of salt... but it is night-and-day compared to any embedded apps in my LG (WebOS) or Blu Ray players. Actually I take it back, I experimented with a FireStick 4K which was gifted to me, new in box. I quit trying to make it work after a couple of hours, pretty miserable in comparison.
Assuming you have the network bandwidth to support it, the ATVs are just so smooth in operation. Apple’s apps in particular are just great. The best non-native apps I’ve used so far are Disney+ and HBOMax. Those guys really did their homework. YouTube is also well-behaved.
Occasionally I’ll experience a glitch with Hulu, Prime, and miscellaneous “freebies” that require a hardware restart to clear up. But it’s not often, maybe once a month at most.
Funny, YouTube isn’t well-behaved for me. It doesn’t honor my HomePods as the selected audio endpoint; I have to manually deselect and re-select them every session if I want YT to use. It also doesn’t support the normal pull-down-from-top UI which allows for endpoint changing on the fly during playback. And it uses non-native video scrubbing, due to being a console port.
How on earth would you trigger the find my remote when all the buttons are on the remote? Might there be a button or some sort of UI on the next Apple TV?
How about any other Apple device?
Unless they change things, you need an apple remote to connect another device to the Apple TV, so if you haven’t done so already you’re screwed.
The Siri Apple TV remote is definitely a huge improvement from the original one (that was close to unusable,) but I still find it a bit counterintuitive and the shape makes it very easy to drop and/or lose between couch cushions.
Two ATVs here. Love them. You can turn down the sensitivity and put the remote in a sleeve. Other options are the remote app or add a regular tv remote to control the atv. The interface is smooth and fast.
Now I have a silicone case that makes it altogether better.
This. I think I paid a little more than $10 for each of mine. Transformed them from irritating to great.
You can get them for 2 bucks and are absolutely amazing. No matter how many times I give this advice people still bi**h about the remote and forego cases anyway.
How on earth would you trigger the find my remote when all the buttons are on the remote? Might there be a button or some sort of UI on the next Apple TV?
Also, being able to find the remote is just about the least of all the problems I have with the remote. I hope that isn't the only thing they're adding.
Probably by using your iPhone, Apple Watch, computer or iPad, or HomePod. I would imagine a "Hey Siri, find my Living Room Apple TV remote" would do it.
My issue with the AppleTV is the remote, which is not friendly. A simple remote without a touchpad on it, like the one for the Nvidia Shield would go a long ways. I have gotten to the point where I only use the AppleTV to view movies purchased from iTunes. For everything else (HBOMax, Disney+, Netflix, etc.) I use the Shield.
The Siri Remote is an absolute blessing. We use it in the house with young children and no one has problems with it. It's second nature to use. Going back to a button-mess or Roku style remote is a nightmare. Something that takes me 15 seconds on the Siri Remote can take a minute or more on others.
So I’ve really been thinking of getting an Apple TV for, I assume, a much better user experience. Yeah, nah?
Over here... yeah.
Right now, I own 3 ATVs, 1 is HD, the other 2 are 4K. All are connected to HD TVs, one of which is a fairly recent LG.
I’ve never owned another streamer, so take this with a grain of salt... but it is night-and-day compared to any embedded apps in my LG (WebOS) or Blu Ray players. Actually I take it back, I experimented with a FireStick 4K which was gifted to me, new in box. I quit trying to make it work after a couple of hours, pretty miserable in comparison.
Assuming you have the network bandwidth to support it, the ATVs are just so smooth in operation. Apple’s apps in particular are just great. The best non-native apps I’ve used so far are Disney+ and HBOMax. Those guys really did their homework. YouTube is also well-behaved.
Occasionally I’ll experience a glitch with Hulu, Prime, and miscellaneous “freebies” that require a hardware restart to clear up. But it’s not often, maybe once a month at most.
Funny, YouTube isn’t well-behaved for me. It doesn’t honor my HomePods as the selected audio endpoint; I have to manually deselect and re-select them every session if I want YT to use. It also doesn’t support the normal pull-down-from-top UI which allows for endpoint changing on the fly during playback. And it uses non-native video scrubbing, due to being a console port.
This. You beat me to it.
I have never heard anyone with much positive to say about the YouTube app.
Also, I can't use my HomePod as the selected audio for the YouTube app at all as it uses a custom API for the audio and the sound is never in sync with the video. Every other video streaming app (including live stream sports) keeps the audio and picture in sync when using the HomePod.
Occasionally I’ll experience a glitch with Hulu, Prime, and miscellaneous “freebies” that require a hardware restart to clear up. But it’s not often, maybe once a month at most.
You know you can force-quit apps by hitting the Home (TV) button twice and then swiping up on the misbehaving app?
How on earth would you trigger the find my remote when all the buttons are on the remote? Might there be a button or some sort of UI on the next Apple TV?
How about any other Apple device?
II guess though it seems more than a little bit absurd to have to log on to iCloud to get the remote that's slipped between the sofa cushions to buzz through a speaker/motor that only exists to buzz when it's fallen between the sofa cushions.
Reeks of over engineering, on a product that could really do with some engineering attention to make it functional rather than findable.
OK so you don’t actually have an iPhone or iPad, right? You’ve not used Find My? There is no cumbersome logging in. Tap app, see devices.
Or just ask Siri where it is. You don't even have to touch your iPhone.
How on earth would you trigger the find my remote when all the buttons are on the remote? Might there be a button or some sort of UI on the next Apple TV?
How about any other Apple device?
Unless they change things, you need an apple remote to connect another device to the Apple TV, so if you haven’t done so already you’re screwed.
The Siri Apple TV remote is definitely a huge improvement from the original one (that was close to unusable,) but I still find it a bit counterintuitive and the shape makes it very easy to drop and/or lose between couch cushions.
They're talking about using Find My on another device, not using the ATV Remote app to find it.
Comments
My girlfriend got tired of sitting at my iMac in my small “studio” to watch things, so she bought us a TV. It was impossible to find a non-“smart” TV. We started with a 4K LG we hated the picture quality of (I’m hoping it was defective and not “normal”). Returned it.
Replaced it with a $100-cheaper 1080p Vizio (because where would we get 4K content anyway, without super high bandwidth or Blu-Ray, and why deal with upscaling issues). We both approve of the picture on it, but, as expected, the OS and apps are shit! Bad & inconsistent UI choices, tons of latency.
We’ve been sort of tolerating it, but sometimes connect a MacBook Pro to get a MUCH better experience... with a MUCH more cluttered room, risking falling over things & tripping on cables (plus my old MacBook Pro stutters; her new one doesn’t).
So I’ve really been thinking of getting an Apple TV for, I assume, a much better user experience. Yeah, nah?
hopefully i will have bought the new Sabrina Android TV by Xmas.
all i want from Apple is a cheapish Apple Home Hub
FYI, for most apps that support the normal video watching API, you can edge-click the remote to backup or go forward 10 seconds. Doing so is faster than asking Siri to do it.
I also used a rubber band on end of the remote. Now I have a silicone case that makes it altogether better.
Funny, YouTube isn’t well-behaved for me. It doesn’t honor my HomePods as the selected audio endpoint; I have to manually deselect and re-select them every session if I want YT to use. It also doesn’t support the normal pull-down-from-top UI which allows for endpoint changing on the fly during playback. And it uses non-native video scrubbing, due to being a console port.
The Siri Apple TV remote is definitely a huge improvement from the original one (that was close to unusable,) but I still find it a bit counterintuitive and the shape makes it very easy to drop and/or lose between couch cushions.
You can get them for 2 bucks and are absolutely amazing. No matter how many times I give this advice people still bi**h about the remote and forego cases anyway.
Obviously !! LOL
The Siri Remote is an absolute blessing. We use it in the house with young children and no one has problems with it. It's second nature to use. Going back to a button-mess or Roku style remote is a nightmare. Something that takes me 15 seconds on the Siri Remote can take a minute or more on others.
I have never heard anyone with much positive to say about the YouTube app.
Also, I can't use my HomePod as the selected audio for the YouTube app at all as it uses a custom API for the audio and the sound is never in sync with the video. Every other video streaming app (including live stream sports) keeps the audio and picture in sync when using the HomePod.
They're talking about using Find My on another device, not using the ATV Remote app to find it.