The promise of an Apple TV (1 Viewer)

[Clinton McClure]

Yamaha RX-V995, circa 1999. Other than a lack of HDMI, there is absolutely nothing wrong with it and I see no reason to replace it.

 

[Sam Posten]

We'll see.
https://medium.com/@abdophoto/apple-wants-to-sell-you-a-television-set-just-not-today-edfa515ec8f6#.21qywxczd

 

[Robert Crawford]

Yamaha RX-V995, circa 1999. Other than a lack of HDMI, there is absolutely nothing wrong with it and I see no reason to replace it.

A little too old for my taste.

 

[Clinton McClure]

To add to my above post, I would like to replace it sometime in the future but I have no reason to right now. When we rearranged our living room a few years ago, I didn't rehang my surround speakers and removed my center channel. I still have the blu-ray player and an AppleTV connected to the Yamaha receiver with TosLink cables and still have my Anthem amp in the equipment rack but only the front left and right channels are connected. When I stream music, I use the amp and my Paradigm mains in stereo mode but for movies, I only use the receiver and headphones.

There's a chance we will be moving next spring and then I may look at getting a new receiver or pre/pro and amp and doing a 7.1 channel setup.

 

[mattCR]

Well, hopefully you entered into the HTF give-a-way option to see if you can win a new receiver

 

[Sam Posten]

I guess we just have very different world views. It's clearly affecting your enjoyment of the hobby to not have a modern receiver. You can replace a 16 year old receiver with amazing new tech for as cheap as $100 and get a world class one for a couple hundred bucks... For someone who obviously enjoys HT like you do Clinton I don't see it as a splurge but a near necessity. =)

 

[schan1269]

For Clinton...I'd offer him an Integra DTR 5.8(essentially an Onkyo 605 with preouts) with the remote and a printed manual(which Integra has online anyway) for the remote codes(how "current" they are...no clue) for $175...shipped.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I guess we just have very different world views. It's clearly affecting your enjoyment of the hobby to not have a modern receiver. You can replace a 16 year old receiver with amazing new tech for as cheap as $100 and get a world class one for a couple hundred bucks... For someone who obviously enjoys HT like you do Clinton I don't see it as a splurge but a near necessity. =)

I don't like to tell people how to spend their monies so I won't start now. However, I could never stick with the same receiver for 16 years after so many tech advances in that time span. I've bought five different receivers in the last four years alone. Come next year, I'll probably buy another one for the new audio codecs and 4K/UHD.

 

[Patrick Donahue]

Regarding what's going on with the audio weirdness in the ATV - I found this in another forum and thought it spells it out perfectly. The question now is if it's just a bug that can be fixed or if this is how it's supposed to be...


What the content starts as -> sound output via HDMI


Auto Mode:

5.1 -> 7.1 PCM (2 channels not active)

2.0 -> 2.0 PCM


Dolby Surround Mode*

5.1 -> 5.1 Dolby bitstream

2.0 -> 5.1 Dolby bitstream (only left and right active)


Stereo Mode

5.1 -> 2.0 PCM

2.0 -> 2.0 PCM


One poster I read said there is a bug with the Auto Mode - it is supposed to be bitstreaming DD or DD+ to the receiver to let it decode but instead decodes it itself and sends 7 channel PCM.


*In this mode, no matter what the content starts as, whether it be 7.1 or 2.0, it comes out as 5.1

 

[mattCR]

That's interesting. Right now, I'm not getting it to transmit bitstream anything, it's always decoded multichannel. Hmm. Again, no DTS of any sort support, to my knowledge.

 

[Patrick Donahue]

A highly polished experience, to be sure

 

[Noel Aguirre]

No 4K - not for me. Next gen perhaps.

 

[Sam Posten]

Anyone tried Sketch Party?
https://medium.com/@mattbraun/sketchparty-tv-for-the-new-apple-tv-the-story-so-far-ca4be9076a6a

 

[Patrick Donahue]

This kind of stuff from Apple does not sit well with me...

 

[satam55]

I got a question that applies to the 2nd-4th generation Apple TVs that I haven't got a clear answer on

When you stream media from your PC/Mac to the Apple TV (using the Home Sharing feature on iTunes), will it save or cache the media to the Apple TV's internal storage like when you stream from iTunes on the Apple TV?

 

[Sam Posten]

No

 

[satam55]

I just realized this week that the GPU in the Apple A8 chip/4th-Gen Apple TV is in the same PowerVR 6XT Series as the GPU in the 2nd-gen Amazon Fire TV. Not only that, the Apple TV (GX6450) has the higher-end GPU over the Fire TV (GX6250).

That means Hardware-wise, the Apple TV should be able to play 4K video. I wonder why Apple is holding it back.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

That means Hardware-wise, the Apple TV should be able to play 4K video. I wonder why Apple is holding it back.

Me thinks its just another product to sell. If Apple can keep people upgrading....

 

[Raul Marquez]

Me thinks its just another product to sell. If Apple can keep people upgrading....

Hoping that a firmware upgrade can add 4k....

 

[Sam Posten]

I just realized this week that the GPU in the Apple A8 chip/4th-Gen Apple TV is in the same PowerVR 6XT Series as the GPU in the 2nd-gen Amazon Fire TV. Not only that, the Apple TV (GX6450) has the higher-end GPU over the Fire TV (GX6250).

That means Hardware-wise, the Apple TV should be able to play 4K video. I wonder why Apple is holding it back.

Because the GPU supports it MEANS NOTHING. It's the rest of the hardware chain that matters. There is nothing to indicate that the rest of the hardware stack has 4k compliant hardware.