The promise of an Apple TV (1 Viewer)

[[email protected]]

I just want the best one for my needs, don't really care what brand. That said I don't even have a 4K TV yet but, I watched one at a store and know that's something I want. I'm just waiting for the prices to fall a little and I'm thinking we will be hearing alot more about 4K this holiday season.

 

[Sam Posten]

If nothing else I agree with the final line:
http://toucharcade.com/2015/09/08/editors-notes-the-case-against-apple-tv-gaming/

I don't expect a massive console challenger, I think whatever they introduce will hamstring AAA games by a lack of a massive hard disk and a dedicated gamer worthy controller. More WII than Xbox

I hope I am wrong
I hope they don't screw it up

 

[Sam Posten]

So does Ars:
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/09/an-apple-tv-game-console-faces-the-same-problems-as-other-microconsole-failures/

But we are all betting before the reveal, ask me again tomorrow!

 

[DaveF]

I can't even guess the fate of appletv doing games. I think it faces the "second input" problem: why fool with the appletv when my iPad has angry birds? Isynwife going to switch to AppleTV to play her next Words with Friends move, when she can use her iPhone and not interrupt Leverage on Netflix?

But, as an add-on essentially free part of the iOS platform, why not? It seems low risk and maybe high reward.

 

[[email protected]]

Roku added that stuff a couple years ago, with the gaming remote. Thought it was pretty cool for a couple months....haven't played any games since. 4K-3D- and enough room to download a 4k movie or 2. Open platform, all the apps, like on Roku. Then I'll buy one-or 5.

 

[Ted Todorov]

Ugh, they killed the Toslink audio output from the new AppleTV. Unless someone tells me how you can get 5.1 audio out of HDMI to a Denon Rveiver that doesn't support HDMI (I actually have a another Denon with HDMI, but it is strictly got the secondary bedroom receiver job because it's amplifier quality is so much worse than the older receiver in the living room where the TV is. Swapped them back in a matter of days).

Sad, very sad.

 

[Clinton McClure]

The new AppleTV is neat but there is nothing there which makes me want to upgrade my two current AppleTVs.

 

[Ted Todorov]

The new AppleTV is neat but there is nothing there which makes me want to upgrade my two current AppleTVs.

Is Apple Music going to work on the old (version 3) AppleTV?

Anything else? Are they going to fix the Remote app which is currently pathetic? (For instance when used with iTunes on your Mac it is incapable of launching songs from Apple Music).

 

[Clinton McClure]

Is Apple Music going to work on the old (version 3) AppleTV?

Anything else? Are they going to fix the Remote app which is currently pathetic? (For instance when used with iTunes on your Mac it is incapable of launching songs from Apple Music).

Good questions Ted. Unfortunately I do not have an answer for either. Currently, if I want to play music through my living room receiver, I Airplay it from iTunes on my MacBook Pro to my AppleTV, then send it via Toslink to my Yamaha receiver. That's the main reason I will not be upgrading from my current ATV3 to ATV4. I'm not going to replace a perfectly good receiver because Apple didn't include optical out on the new ATV.

 

[Dave Moritz]

Apple is always trying to sell itself as an innovator and this newest flavor of Apple TV falls far short of innovative and or cutting edge. It is the same recycled thing we have seen before with a few added features.

• 32GB Apple TV $149
• 64GB Apple TV $199

It is like they did not want to even appear to push the envelope in any way shape or form. I seriously do not see those with the previous Apple TV going out and replacing what they have with this new version which really is not an upgrade.


Added:

• Siri search capability
• New remote

Not Added:

• No 4K/UHD
• Slot for additional flash storage
• No SATA connection for external SSD or external hard drive
• No lossless audio content or capability

Even though I am not interested in purchasing digital downloads I was still hoping for some serious upgrades to have cutting edge capabilities for those who do digital downloads and most higher resolution video and lossless audio. I was hoping more flexibility and also more options for streaming and higher quality video streaming options. To me this is to close to what what out before and is kind of embarrassing and not inoperative.

 

[Sam Posten]

This is terrific for users: Write Once Run Everywhere is lazy and typically ugly.
https://medium.com/@dlpasco/apple-tv-a-world-without-webkit-5c428a64a6dd

 

[Sam Posten]

Dave, two things: One, it is clear that this Apple TV should have been out a year ago and not having 4K would have been a lot more forgivable at that point. One would hope it is a shoe in for a WWDC 2016 refresh of the new ATV.

Second, your other lists of 'wants' makes it appear you don't really 'get' what Apple targets. It targets the heart of the market and provides compelling feature sets that give people what they need, and which advance their platform as a whole. They don't just add features to add them. See Samsung's offerings if that's what you want. 4K on phones shows that Apple sees that feature as critical. Not having user expandability is a core tenet of their strategy, it would require extraordinary advantages to the average user for them to go back on that. Not likely any time soon.

You and I and other tech heads live in a space where we say "I NEED to have vast buckets of storage I can fill with my stuff". Apple lives in a world where only a small percentage will ever take advantage of that and providing it has some unforeseen counter issues, like how to manage it all and it also cuts down heavily on their margins.

They don't do it just to be contrary. They don't do it just to overcharge for flash storage. They have legit reasons for doing things the way they do and it's no big deal to them if a small number of very vocal power users doesn't like it.

You can move to another platform or be reasonable and do it Apple's way =)

Fight it? That's just going to frustrate you alone.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Apple has never jumped to support the newest standards immediately, so I'm not surprised at the lack of 4K/UHD support - they didn't support Blu-ray either. There's still not a lot of content available in 4K compared to how much is available in 1080p.


Apple TV can play lossless audio in the Apple Lossless format and uncompressed audio in the WAV and AIFF formats. And although it doesn't do lossless audio with movie streams, it offers support for Dolby Digital Plus 7.1. I'm all for lossless support, but since most streaming providers aren't offering movies streaming with lossless audio in the first place, it doesn't seem like a big deal to me that the device isn't supporting a feature that content providers aren't offering either.


And Apple has never been about a lot of customization in their devices, so the lack of a connection for an external hard drive or additional internal storage isn't a surprise to me - they've never offered those options for their iPhones, iPod Touches, or iPads, so I wouldn't have expected them in this new upgrade.


To me, the biggest thing about this update is the ability to add different apps. I got an Apple TV a couple years ago and it's great for what I use it for - but the biggest weakness in my eyes is how extremely limited the apps are, and how it's only changeable by Apple. My old Roku, which is beyond the point of being update-able so I can't really use it anymore, had a huge selection of potential apps and more were being added all the time. This update sounds like it's really just giving the Apple TV the wider selection of potential apps and channels that Roku has had for a long time. I'm not rushing out to buy one tomorrow, but when my old one bites the dust, I'll be happy to have the improvements.

 

[Sam Posten]

Just re-read what i wrote to Dave above and it's definitely more harsh than I intended, I wanted it to be more light hearted than it came out. Sorry!

I should say I'd love to see Apple push more boundaries with stuff, especially on Media, sound and graphics. But I totally GET why they focus on the market segments they do, and because I am such a big tech head myself it pains me when I see other techheads who harp on Apple for doing what they do. Those complaints reflect more on US and our wants and needs than what Apple is all about.

So apologies if I made it too personal!

 

[Dave Moritz]

Totally ok Sam


I am also a tech head and I guess I just want to see the best product that can be put at that allows the both the average consumer to use it as well as home theater geeks like us. I guess I just don't get it when a company says they are innovative and they turn out something very vanilla or at least what I view as vanilla.

 

[Sam Posten]

Sometimes it's not what you add but in what you don't add, or take away!

 

[DaveF]

I've listend to about 10 hours of post-9th podcasts giving quick-takes on the announcements. One person observed that Apple's cheapest, least important product (AppleTV) starts with more storage (32GB) and has much cheaper upgrade to 64GB than its most important flagship product (iPhones).

 

[DaveF]

As for me: the AppleTV keeps falling into the category of things I want to want, but can't find an excuse to buy. What little streaming TV I watch is adequately served by my TiVo. Games are cool, but not a device seller. And the demo'd apps of MLB, Gilt, and Vacation-something are uninteresting to me, per se.


Plus, the price increased to $149.


I'd buy one at $99, because neato-gadget cheap. But $149 pushes me back to "hmmm...do I really need this?"


I look forward to hearing what apps come out for it though. A few choice apps that work with and enhance regular-use iPhone apps could push me over the edge.


An OverCast app for the AppleTv would be compelling. I could turn on podcasts that way when I'm cooking, instead of pairing my iPhone to the kitchen BT speaker.

 

[Dave Moritz]

Can a Mac Mini play digital downloads from iTunes stored on a PC?

 

[Clinton McClure]

I would think it could but I don't know for sure. I was looking into a Mac Mini and a RAID storage array as an HTPC this past spring but ditched the idea because of the WAF and the time it would take to backup my BD and DVD collection. Instead, I'm working on replacing a lot of my DVDs with blu-rays, getting an Oppo BDP-103 for our main living room HT and moving my super slow Sony blu-ray player to the bedroom.