Apple TV 4K official (1 Viewer)

[JohnRice]

If you aren't doing a lot of gaming or really loading up a LOT of apps, I doubt the 64GB is needed. I actually want to avoid the temptation to get into gaming.

Does anyone know why the picture would be better with the 4K? I'm taking about more nuance. On my other ATVs using an LED/LCD TV, there would be "stair stepping", for lack of the correct word, in fine gradations. Only on LCD TVs though. It isn't noticeable on my plasma. It just looks more film like on stuff I have on my server. I thought it was just passing through what it received, but clearly not.

 

[Clinton McClure]

I was absolutely ecstatic to see Apple released an Amazon streaming app for my 3rd gen AppleTV. I streamed the first episode of series 2 of The Grand Tour last night and it worked perfectly. Looks like I can retire my janky Fire sticks now.

 

[Clinton McClure]

What is shocking is news that Amazon Prime now also works on the old AppleTV 3. When Amazon stated it, most people thought it was a typo.

I can vouch for that, Ted. I own two AppleTV 3s and Amazon streams perfectly on them.

 

[JohnRice]

I can vouch for that, Ted. I own two AppleTV 3s and Amazon streams perfectly on them.

Did it just appear on the home page? Because you can't selectively download apps on the gen 3 can you?

 

[DaveF]

Do the Fire devices do surround sound?

 

[JohnRice]

Do the Fire devices do surround sound?

I have a full size Fire TV, and yes, it does at least DD+. I can't imagine it won't be coming for ATV.

 

[DaveF]

I assume it’s coming. It’s a question of when. I find it hard to imagine this is just a bug and surround is supposed to be working. Allegedly the app was finished this summer; the release delays are the corporate fighting between Apple and Amazon.

It could be this app is super unimportant to Amazon and they just had one guy writing after hours in his spare time and we’re lucky it even works?

So does the audio get a quick fix, out next week? Or is it announced in 2018 WWDC and finally apppear this time next year?

 

[Clinton McClure]

Did it just appear on the home page? Because you can't selectively download apps on the gen 3 can you?

Yep. It was there when I got home from work yesterday afternoon, no search and download required.

 

[Ted Todorov]

I have Netflix. I have gen 4 aTV. When I compared two years ago, Netflix on Tivo was better than on aTV. Haven’t looked since.
A key difference, because I was watching “Switched at Birth” was the aTV version had terrible, ugly subtitle fonts while the tivo version had nicely readable fonts. It was enough that my wife complained and insisted we switch back to the tivo for Netflix.

Give it another shot -- the subtitles on the aTV 2/3 were terrible. They are fine on the current one. And while I haven't tried Netflix on my Tivo Roamio (which doesn't do 4K, so why) but TV shows recorded via TiVo, and transferred (in original MPEG 2 stream format) and played back via aTV/Infuse actually look better. (better 1080i to 1080P conversion? - who knows), but the idea that TiVO Roamio does better with Netflix than the AppleTV 4K is wrong.

 

[Ted Todorov]

I can vouch for that, Ted. I own two AppleTV 3s and Amazon streams perfectly on them.

Indeed I've actually seen reports that the Amazon app is better on the aTV3 then the version on the aTV 4K

 

[dpippel]

Better in what way?

 

[JohnRice]

Indeed I've actually seen reports that the Amazon app is better on the aTV3 then the version on the aTV 4K

I'd also like to know. Since I have both Gen 3 and 4K ATVs, I guess I can compare them. The 4K ATV is doing something with upscaling that is spectacular. Stuff on my iTunes server that is from anamorphic DVDs look amazing.

 

[JohnRice]

There appears to have been an update to the Amazon app today, but still 2 channel audio.

 

[DaveF]

Give it another shot -- the subtitles on the aTV 2/3 were terrible. They are fine on the current one. And while I haven't tried Netflix on my Tivo Roamio (which doesn't do 4K, so why) but TV shows recorded via TiVo, and transferred (in original MPEG 2 stream format) and played back via aTV/Infuse actually look better. (better 1080i to 1080P conversion? - who knows), but the idea that TiVO Roamio does better with Netflix than the AppleTV 4K is wrong.

The terrible subtitles were on a Gen 4 aTV. So when we compared, we thought the Roamio Netflix was better on the whole to aTV. That was over a year ago, so hopefully the Apple TV Netflix app has improved. I'll try it out sometime over the holidays.

Having both a quality Netflix app and a Amazon Video app would be great. It would make my AppleTV's useful. Which would be nice, since I've been mostly disappointed with the aTV. I like the trailers app a lot, YouTube is sometimes handy (but I wish for 'casting' like the TiVo has; AirPlay is ok, but it adds another layer of lossy compression), and the Emby app is useful. But the aTV music interface, like the rest of the Apple ecosystem, is verging on terrible it's almost always easier for us just to use the cable-music channels.

So, fingers crossed for Amazon video app getting a quick fix, and finding that the Netflix now works for us.

 

[DaveF]

There appears to have been an update to the Amazon app today, but still 2 channel audio.

So not just some little bug...

 

[Clinton McClure]

I love my atv3s. I use them regularly for airplay music streaming from iTunes on my MacBook Pro, and I use (weekly if not daily) the YouTube, Amazon, Netflix, and Hulu apps.

 

[JohnRice]

I use my ATVs daily. The gen 3 works fine, but it is kind of slow and I've found it dropping streamed music. The 4K is just more responsive. I stream a lot of video from iTunes with them, and the 4K image is just noticeably better with the same source material.

FWIW, there was another update, but I haven't checked yet if Amazon has 5.1 now.

 

[Clinton McClure]

My receiver can use the TOSlink fiber connection from the 3rd gen atv (ancient Yamaha RX-V995) and still works like the day I bought it, and my tv is a 720P Panny plasma so there's no need for me to update to a newer receiver and a 4k atv.

 

[DaveF]

Got a question, not quite in the HTF wheelhouse, but maybe I’ll get lucky

How is the new AppleTV as a Plex / Emby / Kodi client? If anyone does this, or has good secondhand knowledge, I really want to hear more. I’m close to buying an Nvidia Shield. But the new AppleTV might be better.

Thanks.

 

[dpippel]

I'm very happy with the Plex client implementation on the new ATV, and I had the Shield prior to getting it. Plex on the Shield works well too, but the ATV is much more polished than Android TV, and the Shield's interface has a weird resolution that makes it look a bit soft. All-in-all, for me, the ATV is unquestionably the superior product.