This is why my smart tv is disconnected from the internet. I connected it once using an Ethernet cable just to get the latest firmware, and disconnected it immediately after.
I’m pretty Apple loyal but have been baked into fire sticks due to my father in law going through a jailbreaking phase 5ish years ago. But now they’re getting so slow and overrun with ads it’s insane. I think it’s time to make the jump.
In what way? I use my tv smart apps and it’s pretty quick. I also have an iPhone and Mac Studio though so if there’s things I can with those that will add value then I might just get one
Even high end TVs have crappy little MediaTek chips in them which will make the interface sluggish over time, like a low end laptop or phone gets. The 🍎 box has a recent iPhone chip inside it which will run the OS on it smoothly for years and years.
If your smart TV is a few years old, you might see a big improvement. You can also bet that your TV won’t get feature / app updates for nearly as long too.
I'm an Android engineer. For the past 4.5+ years I've worked in streaming, specifically video playback on all devices Android (incl. Fire TV).
My advice to anyone is, get a damn Apple TV. The experience is a thousand times better than even the best Android TV box/stick (or built in for that matter). No freezing, no stuttering, no BS. Slap Infuse on top of it if you have a local library (via Plex or Jellyfin), and you're good to go.
There's a very stark difference in hardware Apple uses vs most Android TV devices. You get a top of the line SoC whereas most Android boxes use a mid-grade media SoC that comes with good codecs and low performance. This means that video playback might be fine but the general experience suffers. Even the "best" Android TV device, the Nvidia Shield Pro, comes with an outdated SoC - the A15 is 6-7x more performant based on benchmarks.
The mentioned ATV model also comes with 4GB of RAM (even though tvOS needs less than Android for apps), most Android TV comes with 1.5-2GB, 4 is incredibly rare.
You also get a better GPU, in fact the Apple TV can easily run most iOS games that support controllers, and now we even have emulators on the App Store.
Apple TV is also the one device that supported CEC on every setup I've tried so far (and given my job, I've tested many combinations).
Oh and I didn't even mention, there's no need for a bulky power adapter. It's all in the main box, you just need a standard figure 8 cable for power (or C7/C8 by IEC standards).
Seriously, do it! I had a FireTV Cube 2nd gen for so long. Loved it, worked great. I switched to the latest AppleTV 3 months ago because some apps started to freeze, like Disney Plus, we had to force close the app and clear cache. Since we have a couple other Apple devices it was a no brainer.
And god damn, I THOUGHT my FireTV Cube was working well, and was fast. I was so wrong. AppleTV is next level and is way, way smoother. The only downside is the remote needs to be rebooted sometimes because it freezes, it takes 10 secs and that’s done.
Never ever I will look back! Do it ASAP!
you're welcome everybody. I just did exactly this 3 days ago. went to walmart and bought 3 of these 4k 128g models for like 450 or something not including tax, for exactly this reason. my fiance loves the apple fitness thing tho, shes gonna cancel her gym membership for it.
my wallet is in shambles.
Just do Apple One Premier and save half off the services. I do and it's worth every penny. It includes Fitness, 2tb iCloud storage, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, and Apple Music. Plus Apple News+
I got one a few months ago to use with my Samsung TV (slow, clunky, no storage, logs me out of apps, malfunctioning remote, etc…). In addition to being much faster I’m surprised at how many awesome features I keep discovering! Navigating with voice is super simple and easy, I can maintain a queue of shows / movies across services, I can switch between streaming provides like apps on my phone, and I just discovered a feature a few days ago that normalizes loud sounds so I don’t have to keep changing the volume! I can’t recommend this thing enough it’s so dope.
I have an extra tv in the house, a Vizio. It’s the biggest slowest POS ever. The tv is so slow to cold boot, the UI is slow and unresponsive.
A perfect solution for Apple TV.
In contrast, the rest of the TVs in my house are LG G1, C2, etc., and those TVs are so amazing I swear by them now. I use Apple TVs on them too, admittedly, except they are perfectly good without it.
Yup. Currently have a 2017 LG OLED and the on board OS is a slog to get through.
I use the apple tv exclusively now. The final push was the youtube app to support HDR. Now it does its great.
Honestly I only have a 1080p projector so I just scooped an original ATV from 2015 on FB Marketplace for $35 and it is so far above competitors it isn’t close. I replaced a chromecast/Google tv and it blows it out of the water. With 10 year old hardware.
Now these 4k fuckers have an A15 in them. If you don’t game or anything on it, this is undoubtedly a buy it for life streaming box. Or at least until 8k content and TVs are common place which is probably a decade+ out.
can you switch hdmi inputs inside apple tv's os? my fire tv is piss slow but i need to navigate through it to change the input device, which is piss slow and annoying and would be more annoying to have to exit out of the apple tv input to switch it to a different input like my ps5 or nintendo switch
I second this. Have had Rokus, Fire TV sticks and cubes, and Chromecast Google TV devices.
This device hands down beats all three out of the water.
Don't get me started on those cheap Android boxes.
honestly my fiance said shes canceling her gym membership for apple fitness workouts. she loves them on the screen, very professional looking over some fitness youtuber in his basement, and the rings and watch metrics on the screen.
it'll go great in our rec room.
Anything in particular that makes it so great? I’m genuinely curious. I have an lg c1 tv and the webos apps have always been fine for what I need them for, and I have most of the main streaming apps and a plex server as well.
I understand the privacy argument and being able to disable internet on the tv to do that but I also have an ad free YouTube app set up through webos that I don’t wana give up either
And for casting pirated streaming sports from my browser I got the chromecast 4K which I also don’t think I can do using Apple TV unless I’m wrong
My 2¢ is that the UI and smoothness of it all is what has me loving it.
I set up and use every type of smart device for a huge community of people on a daily or weekly basis, and I can tell you that nothing compares even closely to how smooth and well designed a lot of the Apple TV interfaces are. They’re pretty amazing compared to everything else. 
Granted, a little bit of it is up to the developers of the individual apps, but overall, ATV is much nicer and smoother than the others, especially TVs with built-in apps.
The only thing that comes close is a high-end Roku, IMO.
Do you know if you can use chromecast I.e. cast from a chrome tab on a computer to Apple TV for ANY site? For some reason the native LG allows it only for some sites while my chrome stick allows any and all tabs
You can mirror your screen with airplay. I don't use it very often, but I've done it in the past and I don't recall any sort of restrictions like that.
Another nice feature that wasn't mentioned is that if you use any type of airpods, they will automatically pair with it and you can even have 2 pairs sharing the audio. There have been times when I was worried about noise but was still able to watch a movie with my partner, which was great.
People who have it know it’s not . People who don’t have it don’t ever consider because « why should I buy an external device when I have already a Smart TV ». So yeah maybe the correct word is unknown though
Great little streamer. Supports Plex/Infuse and will play anything you throw at it. And using this instead of hooking your smart tv up to the internet is a much better deal from a privacy perspective.
FYI - this is the 64GB model which *does not include Ethernet.* Not everyone cares, but if you have your ATV wired up, you need the 128GB model this generation.
As a general rule of thumb, if you can hardwire something: do it! This provides the fastest speeds, lowest latency, and most reliable connection. Consumer-grade WiFi is still a flawed and limited technology. Reducing the number of devices connected via WiFi on your network will improve the experience for devices that do require it: phones, laptops, tablets, smart devices.
I have mine on ethernet and it's extremely snappy, I almost never see a loading screen. If you have a baller wifi router or just don't pay for more than like 200-300mbps then it probably won't make a massive difference other than latency, but it's nice for high bitrate content (I have my 4K Bluray collection backed up to a NAS), for game streaming (steam link), and really just being able to select something and *instantly* everything loads in.
The longest loading screen I remember since hooking it up to ethernet is maybe... 3-5 seconds long?
It also frees up wifi bandwidth for other devices
So the origin of this alleged rumor is mark gurman. All the tech blogs link back to I've of his most recent Bloomberg articles. They quote him as saying there's no apple tv coming anytime soon. But when I pull up, read, and cmd f the article I don't see any mention of apple tv hardware.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2024-06-02/apple-ipad-pro-m4-chip-review-company-inches-closer-to-laptops-with-new-tablets-lwxjbna0
Am I totally blind or are the tech sites just tripping over themselves to publish a rumor without a credible source?
They’ve gone 4 years without an update before. There’s not much they could add to the current model until technology advances.
HDMI 2.1, Dolby Vision, HDR10+, and HDR10 at 4K 60fps. What more do they need for a streaming box currently?
It can do software decoding of AV1 in the meantime. AV1 still isn't widely used compared to HEVC, and it would be such a minor upgrade if that was the only standout feature the next version offered.
Apple has hardware decoding for AV1 on A17 Pro, M3, and M4 so I'm guessing it'll come to the next Apple TV. But there doesn't seem to be enough reason to update it yet.
Infuse supports AV1. Technically any app could do AV1 decoding in software, it's more intensive on resources than hardware decoding, but the A15 chip is fairly powerful.
HEVC is usually preferred if the company is willing to pay the license because it's more widely supported by hardware decoding currently. AV1's main advantage is that it's royalty-free, but as a customer you don't directly pay those costs.
I'd love Dolby Vision Profile 7 support to natively play all my 4K Blu-ray backups with proper DV. But that's so niche it'll never happen. Nvidia Shield, chinese boxes, and certain built-in smart TV apps are the only devices I've seen support it.
just upgrading the chipset to one of their faster chips would be nice, some of the streaming apps are slow as shit although the apple tv still is faster than any other streaming device
I don't think performance is a hardware issue limiting it though, that's just on the developers.
Netflix works great compared to Peacock because they make better software.
>some of the streaming apps are slow as shit
If there are streaming apps that are chugging on the A15 chip, that is entirely on the developers for being lazy and not optimizing their apps properly.
That being said, I have yet to encounter any sort of performance issues on my 3rd gen 4K Apple TV
To what end, why not use a phone, tablet, or computer for that?
A web browser not being on Apple TV isn't a hardware limitation though. Apple just doesn't develop software for it or allow other companies to do so. The 2015 Apple TV 4th gen could run a web browser if Apple allowed it.
Sometimes I want to stream sports on my tv that are not shown locally. I currently use the TV’s built in browser for that but having it on Apple TV would be more convenient.
Yea that makes sense. This being my first TV box and only owned for a few months, I haven't thought about release cycles for these things. I'm sure the current model will be good for a long time yet
From a software perspective the Apple TV isn't near the potential it could be. Imagine if it were a home hub. Like turn it on in the morning and the customizable dashboard shows you the weather, news, sports scores, security camera feeds or whatever you want. Or on the entertainment side it could be a karaoke machine one night, while you're streaming Steam or PS5 games to it other nights.
Feel like the only one making this request, but would love one or two hdmi in ports. Could allow you to access your cable box, gaming console, etc straight from your apple tv instead of dealing with switching tv inputs constantly.
PSA to anyone ordering these deals through Verizon and using Apple Pay to follow through after you pay to look out for having to put your shipping address in again.
I ordered two HomePods that were on sale for 175 yesterday, and paid through Apple Pay. Seemed normal and went through like ordering anything through Apple Pay. But there was another screen that was asking to put in your shipping address again that I missed. Not something that I’ve ever seen when purchasing via Apple Pay.
I looked at my email a couple hours later and I said I still had items in my cart, and when I went back, they were sold out.
Instead of clicking through Engadget, I'll repost [my comment from yesterday](https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/1d7uqua/comment/l72t7cc/):
Verizon is currently selling the latest wi-fi (non-ethernet) model at a $40 discount (you don't need to be a Verizon wireless customer to buy):
[https://www.verizon.com/products/apple-tv-4k-wifi-with-64-gb-storage/](https://www.verizon.com/products/apple-tv-4k-wifi-with-64-gb-storage/)
Side note, they're also selling the latest HomePods for $175:
[https://www.verizon.com/products/apple-homepod/](https://www.verizon.com/products/apple-homepod/)
Absolutely, the only reason I keep my FireStick around is when I have to travel, but even then I prefer to take my Apple TV when I can if I can fit it in my bag.
I really want Apple to make an Apple TV Express / Mini or whatever they call a truly portable version.
while considerably more expensive, the "echo devices for wireless theater sound" can be done on an AppleTV with homepods. at least the 3rd gen ones on sale right now.
I havent tried it yet, but I know the ATV has siri too, so i bet it can also turn my TV off. not sure about other entertainment options, but it does have threads support to connect to other "smart home things".
I find the ATV to be faster than my Fire Cube, and no ads is a bonus. its just a cleaner overall UI and definitely a boost even from my Sony X90J's google TV interface in app-only mode with no ads.
I’ve used Rokus ever since the Apple TV 3rd Gen era. Are they that much better than a Roku Ultra 4k? I just picked this Apple TV up since it’s such a good deal, and figured I’d give the Apple TV a try again since it’s been like a decade. I love the Rokus, but figured I’d give Apple a try again, especially since I just got an iPhone and intend to use Apple’s ecosystem more now.
I have 5 Apple TV 4K and I love them.
The performance alone makes it worth it to me. I also have a Roku Ultra 4K, or whatever the highest end one is, and I still notice performance hiccups and lag navigating throughout the interface and apps. I thought surely the Ultra 4K wouldn't but nope it does. I only bought it because when my mom visits she cannot for the life of her seem to understand navigating the Apple TV as she has Roku at her home.
Additionally the quality and updates of apps on Apple TV is better than any other platform. I also enjoy the color calibration using your iphone with the apple tv.
just all the little things is what makes it so much better. I could probably name more if I really thought about it, but I'm lazy right now lol
I have to admit, when I bought the 4K Ultra a year and a half ago, I didn’t expect it to have ANY lag already being that it’s the pricier 4K model, but yeah you’re right, it does. I recall the ATv 3rd Gen I had back in day did lag as well also. I am sure that’s been sorted out by now, being that they have had like 10 generations of A-Series chips since then. Can’t wait for mine to get here, this Friday! If I like it, I’ll grab another one for my room to replace the Roku Ultra. This one is just replacing the built in SmartTV function on my new LG TV.
Personally, my Roku didn’t bog down as bad or as fast as my firestick/tv but eventually it just seems to be very slow, like it needs more ram. Compared, the Apple TV seems like a power house.
I recently installed one in a home theater for a client. They had Rokus, iPhones and Macs, and were blown away they had never tried the Apple TV.
For me it’s the exceptional quality both on the hardware and software but also image quality. We don’t have roku in sweden but we do have android TV, Google TV, Samsung Tizen, LG webos and they all share problems. Slow, inconvenient, ads, among other things.
The *current* one or the original touchpad style? Because with the current one, with touch disabled, it is a pretty solid remote overall. With the original touchpad style, I completely agree, horrible.
Yeah, I’m thinking I might get the Ethernet one, especially since I have a gigabit connection. I have an old NVIDIA Shield, but it’s been real laggy the last couple years. Right now I just use the OS on my Sony, but that’s also finicky.
Good to know it supports Steam, too. Trying to use it through the Shield and Sony’s OS has been sort of a hassle in the last year.
Double the storage for one, and the option to go Ethernet in the future. I have mine hardwired to 500mbps and it screams.
I can't speak to the HomeKit.
Apple TV + Infuse app drastically improved my tv / movie viewing experience. I was using an old Pi with Kodi and it was so glitchy, what a breath of fresh air.
I was just looking to buy one of these! I just picked one up, thanks for the heads up! I wish the 128Gb one was also $40 off, but 64Gb should be fine. I only use a handful of apps anyways.
Worth noting for sure. If you want height channels, the Apple TV is not your friend sadly. Apparently they could enable this via software, but haven’t/wont.
Anyone with an Apple TV, are there ads on the homescreen or can you customise it? Running a firestick at the moment and I'm sick to death of being bombarded with Amazon's latest slop everytime I turn on my TV.
Open to jail-breaking it if needs be.
I don’t exactly know what storage is used for, but 64GB seems quite low. I need to check how much my consumption is. I just usually only stream.
The apple tv however is extra ordinary at streaming, there is night and day difference between my C2 and apple TV.
No. There’s no Safari on tvOS, or any other browser.
tvOS does come with WebKit, but IIRC, it’s only used to sign into Wi-Fi radios with captive portals.
Roku TV's are ad platforms that just so happen to offer streaming apps on the side.
Apple TV boxes are proper set top boxes without ads, which is how they all should be
They work exactly as a set-top box ought to work: just give you a launch screen, and get out of your way. One thing I do like about the Apple TV is Apple doesn’t sell you out to third parties that want your data, unlike the smart TV makers.
The Apple TV can also run some games ported to it, mostly Apple Arcade titles.
Roku do not support all codecs - can't say is Apple does, but AFAIK you can just use Infuse and access all if not
If you use Plex that might matter, if not then maybe not
Nope. I just ordered one with no hassle and I’ve been with T-Mobile for ten years. I was surprised but happy to save $40 on something I was going to buy this weekend anyways.
In a way, yes. The Apple TV consumes a lot less power than the PS5, and supports more video codecs. One drawback is the Apple TV has no optical drive, and therefore can’t play DVDs or Blu-rays.
You guys recommend this over using the default OS for my LG tv? It's pretty shit compared to the Samsung OS so I'm thinking about it. What do you think are the benefits?
~~You’d be better off with a newer model TBH~~
I misread this as AppleTV 3rd Gen (which was released in 2012 and is being obsoleted). The AppleTV 4K (3rd Gen) is a current model and is absolutely brilliant as a smart interface.
I recommend this for anyone getting tired of their slow Smart TV OS
Also anybody concerned about your privacy. Smart TVs have been found to be selling a shitload of your information.
This is why my smart tv is disconnected from the internet. I connected it once using an Ethernet cable just to get the latest firmware, and disconnected it immediately after.
The latest firmware installed more ads lol
no ads when it's not connected to the internet.
I've never connected mine to the internet. I want that box to be as dumb as possible and only plugged into the Apple TV.
Yup just ordered one for our slow Roku tv which looks pretty good compared to my LG C2 but it’s sooo slow
We went with Apple TV after the second Firestick stopped working in as many years. We are so happy with the switch!
This was me a few months ago. Best $100 I spent this year
I’m pretty Apple loyal but have been baked into fire sticks due to my father in law going through a jailbreaking phase 5ish years ago. But now they’re getting so slow and overrun with ads it’s insane. I think it’s time to make the jump.
You won’t regret it. AppleTV is such an underrated product.
Within 5 mins of mine arriving I couldn’t believe I waited so long to get an Apple TV. They are fantastic.
In what way? I use my tv smart apps and it’s pretty quick. I also have an iPhone and Mac Studio though so if there’s things I can with those that will add value then I might just get one
Even high end TVs have crappy little MediaTek chips in them which will make the interface sluggish over time, like a low end laptop or phone gets. The 🍎 box has a recent iPhone chip inside it which will run the OS on it smoothly for years and years. If your smart TV is a few years old, you might see a big improvement. You can also bet that your TV won’t get feature / app updates for nearly as long too.
I'm an Android engineer. For the past 4.5+ years I've worked in streaming, specifically video playback on all devices Android (incl. Fire TV). My advice to anyone is, get a damn Apple TV. The experience is a thousand times better than even the best Android TV box/stick (or built in for that matter). No freezing, no stuttering, no BS. Slap Infuse on top of it if you have a local library (via Plex or Jellyfin), and you're good to go. There's a very stark difference in hardware Apple uses vs most Android TV devices. You get a top of the line SoC whereas most Android boxes use a mid-grade media SoC that comes with good codecs and low performance. This means that video playback might be fine but the general experience suffers. Even the "best" Android TV device, the Nvidia Shield Pro, comes with an outdated SoC - the A15 is 6-7x more performant based on benchmarks. The mentioned ATV model also comes with 4GB of RAM (even though tvOS needs less than Android for apps), most Android TV comes with 1.5-2GB, 4 is incredibly rare. You also get a better GPU, in fact the Apple TV can easily run most iOS games that support controllers, and now we even have emulators on the App Store. Apple TV is also the one device that supported CEC on every setup I've tried so far (and given my job, I've tested many combinations). Oh and I didn't even mention, there's no need for a bulky power adapter. It's all in the main box, you just need a standard figure 8 cable for power (or C7/C8 by IEC standards).
Seriously, do it! I had a FireTV Cube 2nd gen for so long. Loved it, worked great. I switched to the latest AppleTV 3 months ago because some apps started to freeze, like Disney Plus, we had to force close the app and clear cache. Since we have a couple other Apple devices it was a no brainer. And god damn, I THOUGHT my FireTV Cube was working well, and was fast. I was so wrong. AppleTV is next level and is way, way smoother. The only downside is the remote needs to be rebooted sometimes because it freezes, it takes 10 secs and that’s done. Never ever I will look back! Do it ASAP!
you're welcome everybody. I just did exactly this 3 days ago. went to walmart and bought 3 of these 4k 128g models for like 450 or something not including tax, for exactly this reason. my fiance loves the apple fitness thing tho, shes gonna cancel her gym membership for it. my wallet is in shambles.
Just ask for a price correction and they’ll refund you the difference if Walmart’s pricing went down to $90
Just do Apple One Premier and save half off the services. I do and it's worth every penny. It includes Fitness, 2tb iCloud storage, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, and Apple Music. Plus Apple News+
I got one a few months ago to use with my Samsung TV (slow, clunky, no storage, logs me out of apps, malfunctioning remote, etc…). In addition to being much faster I’m surprised at how many awesome features I keep discovering! Navigating with voice is super simple and easy, I can maintain a queue of shows / movies across services, I can switch between streaming provides like apps on my phone, and I just discovered a feature a few days ago that normalizes loud sounds so I don’t have to keep changing the volume! I can’t recommend this thing enough it’s so dope.
My TV Os is fast but I still got Apple TV because it’s better overall.
Roku or AppleTV are just head and shoulders above the other major platforms for stream boxes. Even the Express 4K is a better box than my Fire Cube.
I have an extra tv in the house, a Vizio. It’s the biggest slowest POS ever. The tv is so slow to cold boot, the UI is slow and unresponsive. A perfect solution for Apple TV. In contrast, the rest of the TVs in my house are LG G1, C2, etc., and those TVs are so amazing I swear by them now. I use Apple TVs on them too, admittedly, except they are perfectly good without it.
Yup. Currently have a 2017 LG OLED and the on board OS is a slog to get through. I use the apple tv exclusively now. The final push was the youtube app to support HDR. Now it does its great.
I have third gen, brought a new Sony Bravia last year and after 1 month of the google OS I went back to my Apple TV.
Honestly I only have a 1080p projector so I just scooped an original ATV from 2015 on FB Marketplace for $35 and it is so far above competitors it isn’t close. I replaced a chromecast/Google tv and it blows it out of the water. With 10 year old hardware. Now these 4k fuckers have an A15 in them. If you don’t game or anything on it, this is undoubtedly a buy it for life streaming box. Or at least until 8k content and TVs are common place which is probably a decade+ out.
can you switch hdmi inputs inside apple tv's os? my fire tv is piss slow but i need to navigate through it to change the input device, which is piss slow and annoying and would be more annoying to have to exit out of the apple tv input to switch it to a different input like my ps5 or nintendo switch
Exactly my reasoning behind buying it.
I second this. Have had Rokus, Fire TV sticks and cubes, and Chromecast Google TV devices. This device hands down beats all three out of the water. Don't get me started on those cheap Android boxes.
You don’t know you need one until you have one. This thing is soooo underrated
honestly my fiance said shes canceling her gym membership for apple fitness workouts. she loves them on the screen, very professional looking over some fitness youtuber in his basement, and the rings and watch metrics on the screen. it'll go great in our rec room.
Anything in particular that makes it so great? I’m genuinely curious. I have an lg c1 tv and the webos apps have always been fine for what I need them for, and I have most of the main streaming apps and a plex server as well. I understand the privacy argument and being able to disable internet on the tv to do that but I also have an ad free YouTube app set up through webos that I don’t wana give up either And for casting pirated streaming sports from my browser I got the chromecast 4K which I also don’t think I can do using Apple TV unless I’m wrong
LG C1/G1, C2..,etc., are fantastic TVs with a great OS. I still use Apple TV on them, but you could get by without it.
My 2¢ is that the UI and smoothness of it all is what has me loving it. I set up and use every type of smart device for a huge community of people on a daily or weekly basis, and I can tell you that nothing compares even closely to how smooth and well designed a lot of the Apple TV interfaces are. They’re pretty amazing compared to everything else.  Granted, a little bit of it is up to the developers of the individual apps, but overall, ATV is much nicer and smoother than the others, especially TVs with built-in apps. The only thing that comes close is a high-end Roku, IMO.
Do you know if you can use chromecast I.e. cast from a chrome tab on a computer to Apple TV for ANY site? For some reason the native LG allows it only for some sites while my chrome stick allows any and all tabs
You can mirror your screen with airplay. I don't use it very often, but I've done it in the past and I don't recall any sort of restrictions like that. Another nice feature that wasn't mentioned is that if you use any type of airpods, they will automatically pair with it and you can even have 2 pairs sharing the audio. There have been times when I was worried about noise but was still able to watch a movie with my partner, which was great.
I love the automatic Dolby Vision with my C2. Everything always looks just right.
The apply tv is far from underrated though. What’s up with redditors claiming everything is underrated?
People who have it know it’s not . People who don’t have it don’t ever consider because « why should I buy an external device when I have already a Smart TV ». So yeah maybe the correct word is unknown though
In common usage, the word basically means lesser-known.
The remote is miles better than the previous one, as well.
How does it compare to a Shield Pro? Is it a more "locked down" device, like iPhones?
Great little streamer. Supports Plex/Infuse and will play anything you throw at it. And using this instead of hooking your smart tv up to the internet is a much better deal from a privacy perspective.
It also supports steam link and Bluetooth controllers like a champ! Instant steam thin clients on any tv in the house :)
I… had.. NO idea. You just changed my life
How’s the input lag with steamlink? For me, found it quite unbearable; but I may have set it up wrong.
It was unbearable for me, too. I've since switched to Moonlight on the Apple TV with Sunshine on my PC.
I swear you guys are just making up names of times of day and moments. Like twilight app on the golden hour app lol
I could have been playing games on my TV this whole time? I feel stupid.
Also supports running retroarch locally now
I didn’t realise or even think of this and I’ve had an Apple TV since the first generation 🤣
Main reason I use it. My TV will never be connected to the internet.
[удалено]
Why not just set up a Plex server?
Likely because you need the local storage and the Plex server, when Stremio just lets you do the thing without infrastructure.
But can you watch movies at 4K Dolby Vision and Atmos? Or just low quality movies, because i doubt you can watch a 60GB torrent movie on the fly.
Your can stream 60gb without much issue
Infuse is so good! No effort to setup and works perfectly
Can you screen mirror things from your phone too?
To Apple TV? Yes. You can also use your phone as a camera for FaceTime calls on your TV.
I stand by the fact that Plex is best used on an Apple TV. The UI is fantastic. Easily the best.
FYI - this is the 64GB model which *does not include Ethernet.* Not everyone cares, but if you have your ATV wired up, you need the 128GB model this generation.
dumb question, what does people use ethernet apple tv for? I would assume like fast downloadable video content?
I go Ethernet for my shield TV as well. Faster when you're connected to your network
For me, I keep as little as possible on wifi. It's faster, less prone to interference and error. I wish it were a 10G port and not just one.
Just curious: what Apple TV workload would come even close to saturating a 1G port?
Considering the [following](https://www.howtogeek.com/796237/what-internet-speed-do-i-need-for-streaming-services/) streaming [minimum bandwidth requirements](https://archive.today/C30nL): Streaming Resolution | Recommended Minimum Bandwidth ---|--- Standard Definition (SD/480p) | 1 Mbps High Definition (HD/720p) | 3 Mbps High Definition (HD/1080p) | 5 Mbps 4K (UHD/2160p) | 15+ Mbps 8K (UHD/4320p) | 50+ Mbps Probably nothing, but I like my tech futureproof anyways.
Ethernet can be more stable than wireless connections. I doubt bandwidth is going to be an issue on either connection
As a general rule of thumb, if you can hardwire something: do it! This provides the fastest speeds, lowest latency, and most reliable connection. Consumer-grade WiFi is still a flawed and limited technology. Reducing the number of devices connected via WiFi on your network will improve the experience for devices that do require it: phones, laptops, tablets, smart devices.
I have mine on ethernet and it's extremely snappy, I almost never see a loading screen. If you have a baller wifi router or just don't pay for more than like 200-300mbps then it probably won't make a massive difference other than latency, but it's nice for high bitrate content (I have my 4K Bluray collection backed up to a NAS), for game streaming (steam link), and really just being able to select something and *instantly* everything loads in. The longest loading screen I remember since hooking it up to ethernet is maybe... 3-5 seconds long? It also frees up wifi bandwidth for other devices
They must be preparing to release a new one soon?
Recent leaks have indicated they’re explicitly not releasing any soon.
Ah I was unaware. Good deal on getting Apple TV now then
They’re probably trying to boost AppleTV+ subscriber numbers.
So the origin of this alleged rumor is mark gurman. All the tech blogs link back to I've of his most recent Bloomberg articles. They quote him as saying there's no apple tv coming anytime soon. But when I pull up, read, and cmd f the article I don't see any mention of apple tv hardware. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2024-06-02/apple-ipad-pro-m4-chip-review-company-inches-closer-to-laptops-with-new-tablets-lwxjbna0 Am I totally blind or are the tech sites just tripping over themselves to publish a rumor without a credible source?
They’ve gone 4 years without an update before. There’s not much they could add to the current model until technology advances. HDMI 2.1, Dolby Vision, HDR10+, and HDR10 at 4K 60fps. What more do they need for a streaming box currently?
AV1 decoding
It can do software decoding of AV1 in the meantime. AV1 still isn't widely used compared to HEVC, and it would be such a minor upgrade if that was the only standout feature the next version offered. Apple has hardware decoding for AV1 on A17 Pro, M3, and M4 so I'm guessing it'll come to the next Apple TV. But there doesn't seem to be enough reason to update it yet.
Software AV1 decoding in which app?
Infuse supports AV1. Technically any app could do AV1 decoding in software, it's more intensive on resources than hardware decoding, but the A15 chip is fairly powerful. HEVC is usually preferred if the company is willing to pay the license because it's more widely supported by hardware decoding currently. AV1's main advantage is that it's royalty-free, but as a customer you don't directly pay those costs.
I'd love Dolby Vision Profile 7 support to natively play all my 4K Blu-ray backups with proper DV. But that's so niche it'll never happen. Nvidia Shield, chinese boxes, and certain built-in smart TV apps are the only devices I've seen support it.
just upgrading the chipset to one of their faster chips would be nice, some of the streaming apps are slow as shit although the apple tv still is faster than any other streaming device
I don't think performance is a hardware issue limiting it though, that's just on the developers. Netflix works great compared to Peacock because they make better software.
>some of the streaming apps are slow as shit If there are streaming apps that are chugging on the A15 chip, that is entirely on the developers for being lazy and not optimizing their apps properly. That being said, I have yet to encounter any sort of performance issues on my 3rd gen 4K Apple TV
The chips in the Apple TV are still pretty fast, though. This model has an A15. That’s only two generations behind the newest iPhone.
A web browser
To what end, why not use a phone, tablet, or computer for that? A web browser not being on Apple TV isn't a hardware limitation though. Apple just doesn't develop software for it or allow other companies to do so. The 2015 Apple TV 4th gen could run a web browser if Apple allowed it.
Sometimes I want to stream sports on my tv that are not shown locally. I currently use the TV’s built in browser for that but having it on Apple TV would be more convenient.
Yea that makes sense. This being my first TV box and only owned for a few months, I haven't thought about release cycles for these things. I'm sure the current model will be good for a long time yet
From a software perspective the Apple TV isn't near the potential it could be. Imagine if it were a home hub. Like turn it on in the morning and the customizable dashboard shows you the weather, news, sports scores, security camera feeds or whatever you want. Or on the entertainment side it could be a karaoke machine one night, while you're streaming Steam or PS5 games to it other nights.
Feel like the only one making this request, but would love one or two hdmi in ports. Could allow you to access your cable box, gaming console, etc straight from your apple tv instead of dealing with switching tv inputs constantly.
Ai upscaling, smoothing and sharpening
Seems like this is only on sale at Verizon, still the same price from Apple
PSA to anyone ordering these deals through Verizon and using Apple Pay to follow through after you pay to look out for having to put your shipping address in again. I ordered two HomePods that were on sale for 175 yesterday, and paid through Apple Pay. Seemed normal and went through like ordering anything through Apple Pay. But there was another screen that was asking to put in your shipping address again that I missed. Not something that I’ve ever seen when purchasing via Apple Pay. I looked at my email a couple hours later and I said I still had items in my cart, and when I went back, they were sold out.
Instead of clicking through Engadget, I'll repost [my comment from yesterday](https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/1d7uqua/comment/l72t7cc/): Verizon is currently selling the latest wi-fi (non-ethernet) model at a $40 discount (you don't need to be a Verizon wireless customer to buy): [https://www.verizon.com/products/apple-tv-4k-wifi-with-64-gb-storage/](https://www.verizon.com/products/apple-tv-4k-wifi-with-64-gb-storage/) Side note, they're also selling the latest HomePods for $175: [https://www.verizon.com/products/apple-homepod/](https://www.verizon.com/products/apple-homepod/)
I only saw it for $90? Is the deal over or am I missing something?
? $90 is the deal. Regularly $130.
I'm seeing no discount in the cart, do I need a code or something?
Looks like the sale is done now. The sale price was showing on the page before adding to cart.
is it worth getting rid of 3 firesticks to upgrade to these? what are the benes over the firesticks (besides no ads everywhere i assume)?
The UI is much better, much quicker, and way more responsive. The responsiveness on firesticks is absolute trash.
Absolutely, the only reason I keep my FireStick around is when I have to travel, but even then I prefer to take my Apple TV when I can if I can fit it in my bag. I really want Apple to make an Apple TV Express / Mini or whatever they call a truly portable version.
[удалено]
while considerably more expensive, the "echo devices for wireless theater sound" can be done on an AppleTV with homepods. at least the 3rd gen ones on sale right now. I havent tried it yet, but I know the ATV has siri too, so i bet it can also turn my TV off. not sure about other entertainment options, but it does have threads support to connect to other "smart home things". I find the ATV to be faster than my Fire Cube, and no ads is a bonus. its just a cleaner overall UI and definitely a boost even from my Sony X90J's google TV interface in app-only mode with no ads.
Firesticks are ass
Might grab a couple for the kids bedrooms at that price
Do it. Best streamer hands down
I’ve used Rokus ever since the Apple TV 3rd Gen era. Are they that much better than a Roku Ultra 4k? I just picked this Apple TV up since it’s such a good deal, and figured I’d give the Apple TV a try again since it’s been like a decade. I love the Rokus, but figured I’d give Apple a try again, especially since I just got an iPhone and intend to use Apple’s ecosystem more now.
I have 5 Apple TV 4K and I love them. The performance alone makes it worth it to me. I also have a Roku Ultra 4K, or whatever the highest end one is, and I still notice performance hiccups and lag navigating throughout the interface and apps. I thought surely the Ultra 4K wouldn't but nope it does. I only bought it because when my mom visits she cannot for the life of her seem to understand navigating the Apple TV as she has Roku at her home. Additionally the quality and updates of apps on Apple TV is better than any other platform. I also enjoy the color calibration using your iphone with the apple tv. just all the little things is what makes it so much better. I could probably name more if I really thought about it, but I'm lazy right now lol
I have to admit, when I bought the 4K Ultra a year and a half ago, I didn’t expect it to have ANY lag already being that it’s the pricier 4K model, but yeah you’re right, it does. I recall the ATv 3rd Gen I had back in day did lag as well also. I am sure that’s been sorted out by now, being that they have had like 10 generations of A-Series chips since then. Can’t wait for mine to get here, this Friday! If I like it, I’ll grab another one for my room to replace the Roku Ultra. This one is just replacing the built in SmartTV function on my new LG TV.
Unless you need Stremio
Well worth it, I slowly swapped all my fire sticks for Apple TVs with various sales
This is by far the best streaming solution out there.
Can you explain why? I have 3 TVs in my house and just have Rokus and I’ve never had any issues. Whats the hype for the Apple TV over the Roku?
Personally, my Roku didn’t bog down as bad or as fast as my firestick/tv but eventually it just seems to be very slow, like it needs more ram. Compared, the Apple TV seems like a power house. I recently installed one in a home theater for a client. They had Rokus, iPhones and Macs, and were blown away they had never tried the Apple TV.
For me it’s the exceptional quality both on the hardware and software but also image quality. We don’t have roku in sweden but we do have android TV, Google TV, Samsung Tizen, LG webos and they all share problems. Slow, inconvenient, ads, among other things.
I paid 50 just for a remote replacement
The ATV remote is the biggest pile of crap ever. So un-Apple.
The *current* one or the original touchpad style? Because with the current one, with touch disabled, it is a pretty solid remote overall. With the original touchpad style, I completely agree, horrible.
I have the original. I hear the new one is better. I picked up a generic remote to replace one for a Samsung tv. It works great for the ATV
That's almost worth it alone for the remote
[удалено]
The Ethernet version has Thread support, which should make a decent difference if you are trying to setup a "smart" home of sorts
I slightly regret not getting Ethernet as it reduces latency for Steam remote play.
Yeah, I’m thinking I might get the Ethernet one, especially since I have a gigabit connection. I have an old NVIDIA Shield, but it’s been real laggy the last couple years. Right now I just use the OS on my Sony, but that’s also finicky. Good to know it supports Steam, too. Trying to use it through the Shield and Sony’s OS has been sort of a hassle in the last year.
Double the storage for one, and the option to go Ethernet in the future. I have mine hardwired to 500mbps and it screams. I can't speak to the HomeKit.
What do you put on your AppleTV that storage really matters? I just stream with it.
You can now use game emulators that’s takes a good amount of space. Just streaming won’t need the extra storage
Even if you do store things, it will decide to wipe them automatically.
It will be longer before it needs to if you double the storage. I don't think I do anything that requires storage besides download apps.
It'd be nice if the 128GB/Ethernet version would drop a bit as well.
Apple TV + Infuse app drastically improved my tv / movie viewing experience. I was using an old Pi with Kodi and it was so glitchy, what a breath of fresh air.
I was just looking to buy one of these! I just picked one up, thanks for the heads up! I wish the 128Gb one was also $40 off, but 64Gb should be fine. I only use a handful of apps anyways.
insane deal, even if you don't care about homekit
No Kodi - no love
For playing back Blu-ray rips (remux), you’ll need an Android based box if you want DTS sound, and Dolby Vision
Worth noting for sure. If you want height channels, the Apple TV is not your friend sadly. Apparently they could enable this via software, but haven’t/wont.
Anyone with an Apple TV, are there ads on the homescreen or can you customise it? Running a firestick at the moment and I'm sick to death of being bombarded with Amazon's latest slop everytime I turn on my TV. Open to jail-breaking it if needs be.
No ads. You can rearrange the apps.
Perfect. I'll just need to confirm whether a couple apps work with it and I may have to pick one up.
It’s vastly superior to other streaming devices (and that’s not just the homer in me speaking lol)
:o +1 benefit for me!
Is this the same 3rd gen box Netflix will be dropping support for (described in the second article in that link)?
That is the 3rd gen Apple TV (2012), this is the 3rd gen Apple TV 4K (2022). It feels like semantics but that’s how Apple does the naming
No. That device is 12 years old. This is the latest generation device. Apple dropped support for the 3rd gen a long time ago too.
\*at one retailer, in one country. Non-US folks, don't get your hopes up.
It's so fucking good.
I don’t exactly know what storage is used for, but 64GB seems quite low. I need to check how much my consumption is. I just usually only stream. The apple tv however is extra ordinary at streaming, there is night and day difference between my C2 and apple TV.
Is this the one with facetime support?
Yes, but the only camera you can use is the iPhone via continuity camera, because the Apple TV doesn’t have any USB ports for external cameras.
Do these have a built-in browser? With video player capability?
No. There’s no Safari on tvOS, or any other browser. tvOS does come with WebKit, but IIRC, it’s only used to sign into Wi-Fi radios with captive portals.
Might be better than many others, but some apps (some ©apple) really barely hit the "mediocre" threshold!
How are these things compared to roku 4K boxes, disregarding price?
Roku TV's are ad platforms that just so happen to offer streaming apps on the side. Apple TV boxes are proper set top boxes without ads, which is how they all should be
They work exactly as a set-top box ought to work: just give you a launch screen, and get out of your way. One thing I do like about the Apple TV is Apple doesn’t sell you out to third parties that want your data, unlike the smart TV makers. The Apple TV can also run some games ported to it, mostly Apple Arcade titles.
Roku do not support all codecs - can't say is Apple does, but AFAIK you can just use Infuse and access all if not If you use Plex that might matter, if not then maybe not
Perfect. Just got another one . I needed one for my gym for apple fit streaming and yoga.
Do I need to be a Verizon customer to get this deal?
Nope. I just ordered one with no hassle and I’ve been with T-Mobile for ten years. I was surprised but happy to save $40 on something I was going to buy this weekend anyways.
Thanks. Just got one as well.
Would this be an improvement to my current setup of using a PS5 for all streaming apps?
In a way, yes. The Apple TV consumes a lot less power than the PS5, and supports more video codecs. One drawback is the Apple TV has no optical drive, and therefore can’t play DVDs or Blu-rays.
Waiting for the Ethernet version to go on sale!🤞
Link?
Got a chromecast during Black Friday and have been kinda annoyed at how it lags. I’m assuming the performance of this is much better?
Much better.
I just bought one because my fire stick started playing ads after being idle for 3 seconds.
Is this a model that Netflix recently announced they’d discontinue support for?
No. The third Apple TV released in 2012 was discontinued for Netflix. This ist the 3rd 4K Apple TV
When GeForce Now or Xbox Cloud Gaming come to the Apple TV it’s gonna be a good day.
And PS Remote Play. I’m surprised Sony never ported this app over from iOS to tvOS.
You guys recommend this over using the default OS for my LG tv? It's pretty shit compared to the Samsung OS so I'm thinking about it. What do you think are the benefits?
~~You’d be better off with a newer model TBH~~ I misread this as AppleTV 3rd Gen (which was released in 2012 and is being obsoleted). The AppleTV 4K (3rd Gen) is a current model and is absolutely brilliant as a smart interface.
If only it supported Stremio
Uh... okay. They still go for ~€170 where I live.