The "New Apple TV" (2015) is great.

[Ichinisan]

It really is.

I need a case to protect this $79 remote control. To replace the remote would cost more than half the $150 price of the whole kit!

I love being able to use voice search to see all the content providers offering a particular show or movie.

"I want to watch Silicon Valley."

 

[CZroe]

The Siri Remote alone costs more than the entire Apple TV 3G.

 

[Childs]

I think I'd rather have directional buttons on the remote vs the touchpad. Sometimes it seems too sensitive, other times not enough. But all in all I like the ATV4. Best media box so far, and I don't even use the other ones anymore.

 

[CZroe]

I think I'd rather have directional buttons on the remote vs the touchpad. Sometimes it seems too sensitive, other times not enough. But all in all I like the ATV4. Best media box so far, and I don't even use the other ones anymore.

You can tap on the edges to move one position at a time without having to mind the sensitivity. Touch it like it were a 4-way directional remote.

 

[Ichinisan]

I think I'd rather have directional buttons on the remote vs the touchpad. Sometimes it seems too sensitive, other times not enough. But all in all I like the ATV4. Best media box so far, and I don't even use the other ones anymore.

I wish it had a "get to know your new remote" tutorial or something. Kinda having to figure out things by accident.

You can tap the top, bottom, and sides of the touch area to move one increment at a time. You can also rest your finger on one side or the other while video is playing to see a 10-second skip option (click to skip).

Double-tap the monitor/power button to activate something like iOS multi-tasking, where you can swipe things up and off the screen to kill it.

Without any setup at all, the remote somehow controls my old Sony KDL-52XBR2 (which does not support HDMI-CEC). The remote is actually sending IR commands for volume and discrete power on/off commands (not power-toggle). It somehow knew I had a Sony TV.

 

[Childs]

I didn't think the d-pad thing worked at first because I clicking instead of simply tapping. The touchpad still feels a little skittish, but I notice it less each day. I wonder if they'll add simple gestures like zoom...

 

[slugg]

I'm very disappointed with the new Apple TV. I feel bad that a friend gave me one as a birthday present. The lack of 24p playback really defeats the purpose of having a media player; isn't the primary purpose of the device to play media? It fails to perform its primary purpose correctly. That's like having a phone that rocks at everything, except it sucks at making phone calls.

*sigh*

 

[Childs]

I'm very disappointed with the new Apple TV. I feel bad that a friend gave me one as a birthday present. The lack of 24p playback really defeats the purpose of having a media player; isn't the primary purpose of the device to play media? It fails to perform its primary purpose correctly. That's like having a phone that rocks at everything, except it sucks at making phone calls.

*sigh*

Do any of the other recent streaming boxes support it?

 

[Ichinisan]

I'm very disappointed with the new Apple TV. I feel bad that a friend gave me one as a birthday present. The lack of 24p playback really defeats the purpose of having a media player; isn't the primary purpose of the device to play media? It fails to perform its primary purpose correctly. That's like having a phone that rocks at everything, except it sucks at making phone calls.

*sigh*

Your TV's image processing doesn't reverse 3:2 pull-down?

Anyway, I'm pretty sure you can just select the 120hz output mode and 24fps source material will be correct. Was there some exhaustive review that says otherwise?

For material that has already been converted from 24fps using 3:2 pulldown, it's up to your TV's image processor to detect it and reverse it.

[edit]

With reverse pulldown, a 1080i/60 image can be de-interlaced to 1080p/24. No reason to encode the source as 1080p/24 because it will limit compatibility. My KDL-52XBR2 doesn't support 24fps or 120fps.

[edit]

Checked mine. No 120hz output option. Strange.

 

[sportage]

I too disappointed.
I have the last version with 1080P and this new is exactly the same.
You'd think they'd went to 4K or 3D or something better????

As far as gaming goes, I'd prefer an Xbox or PS4. I don't know why one would do gaming on this Apple TV unless you had no other gaming machines?

If you have an older version Apple TV, this new would be a hard sell.
I mean... why?

 

[Ichinisan]

I too disappointed.
I have the last version with 1080P and this new is exactly the same.
You'd think they'd went to 4K or 3D or something better????

As far as gaming goes, I'd prefer an Xbox or PS4. I don't know why one would do gaming on this Apple TV unless you had no other gaming machines?

If you have an older version Apple TV, this new would be a hard sell.
I mean... why?

I had the Apple TV 3. This is waaaay better.

- Apps.

- RF remote.

- TV power + volume control.

 

[weevilone]

I had the Apple TV 3. This is waaaay better.

- Apps.

- RF remote.

- TV power + volume control.

Not to mention the superb performance with the new one.

 

[slugg]

Not to mention the superb performance with the new one.

All Apple products perform great for the first year. Then they magically get super slow, but the new version performs better. This is a recurring pattern, conveniently.

 

[slugg]

Do any of the other recent streaming boxes support it?

To my knowledge, no. But when Apple is late to offer a feature, it's usually because they're the first to deliver a fully polished product. Out of all the modern media players, I honestly expected Apple's to be the first to correctly implement a painfully obvious image quality mechanism: the freaking refresh rate.

That's why I use a dedicated HTPC for as much as I can. I have fine control over image quality and much more. I was hoping Apple could make things magically work, but they missed the mark on the basics. The rest just doesn't matter. Oh well.

 

[KeithP]

I love being able to use voice search to see all the content providers offering a particular show or movie.

That would be nice too bad the AppleTV doesn't offer that. Voice search doesn't work across the board on all the apps on the device. So all you really see is a selection from a few voice search enabled apps.

Sure, that will change over time (probably) but it is not there yet.

-KeithP

 

[CZroe]

That would be nice too bad the AppleTV doesn't offer that. Voice search doesn't work across the board on all the apps on the device. So all you really see is a selection from a few voice search enabled apps.



Sure, that will change over time (probably) but it is not there yet.



-KeithP

It doesn't work for YouTube but searching across HBO, Amazon, and Netflix is already proving to be very useful.

 

[Ichinisan]

It doesn't work for YouTube but searching across HBO, Amazon, and Netflix is already proving to be very useful.

iTunes too. It shows my digital copies.

 

[Commodus]

All Apple products perform great for the first year. Then they magically get super slow, but the new version performs better. This is a recurring pattern, conveniently.

Hasn't been true for Apple TVs so far. My old Apple TV was still as speedy as when I bought it, despite numerous updates -- it was just limited in what it could do. The new Apple TV could throw a monkey wrench into that pattern, but history suggests that it'll still be usable in 2017.

 

[slugg]

The Apple TV 4 has given me the best Netflix experience I've ever had.

... but I really, really hate this remote control. And the UI is just plain horrible for typing. It's beyond bad. And I almost always have a hard time making a selection; I either scroll past what I want, or try to compensate and not scroll enough. The $79 remote is a colossal turd.

Apple is usually the king in user-friendly-ness. This is very uncharacteristic of them. Unfortunately, Apple is also the king of brainwashing its users, so many will not admit the failures of the product. I'm sharing my opinion with the perspective that I own and use every major media player: Apple TV 4, Fire TV, Roku 3, and XBMC/Kodi. They all have their shortcomings, but the Apple TV 4 most definitely falls dead last in the ergonomics category.

 

[Ichinisan]

The Apple TV 4 has given me the best Netflix experience I've ever had.

... but I really, really hate this remote control. And the UI is just plain horrible for typing. It's beyond bad. And I almost always have a hard time making a selection; I either scroll past what I want, or try to compensate and not scroll enough. The $79 remote is a colossal turd.

Apple is usually the king in user-friendly-ness. This is very uncharacteristic of them. Unfortunately, Apple is also the king of brainwashing its users, so many will not admit the failures of the product. I'm sharing my opinion with the perspective that I own and use every major media player: Apple TV 4, Fire TV, Roku 3, and XBMC/Kodi. They all have their shortcomings, but the Apple TV 4 most definitely falls dead last in the ergonomics category.

You can tap the edges of the touch area to move one increment at a time without swiping.

It really needs a "get to know your new remote" tutorial or something.

Still no support in the iOS "Remote" app. I think they're trying to force us to get a Bluetooth keyboard or learn to use Siri for searches.

 

[Attic]

I was looking very seriously at the new Apple TV so i could cut the cord. But it looks like Apple has it's hands full with getting contracts from local network broadcasters.

So live sports still the bane of existence for cord cutters.

I ended up getting the Tivo bolt with multiple TV Mini's around the house. Absolutely love it but I don't think I need the AppleTV anymore and that was one device I wanted to geek all over.

 

[Artdeco]

HH Greg is giving 11% off with code gobblegobble free shipping, no taxes, I just sprang for a 64GB model.

 

[poopaskoopa]

I was looking very seriously at the new Apple TV so i could cut the cord. But it looks like Apple has it's hands full with getting contracts from local network broadcasters.

So live sports still the bane of existence for cord cutters.

I ended up getting the Tivo bolt with multiple TV Mini's around the house. Absolutely love it but I don't think I need the AppleTV anymore and that was one device I wanted to geek all over.

I'm trying this out:

https://www.silicondust.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=28426&start=150

 

[poopaskoopa]

I'm trying this out:

https://www.silicondust.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=28426&start=150

Between the tuner and the software(Channels), this has so far cost me ~$162 for the tuner, $15 for the app, & ~$80 for Elgato's EyeTV for my mbpr, and the setup between the tuner and EyeTV is pretty sweet. It just works, though the UI, as ugly as TWC's DVR was, it isn't as easy as TV + remote, but that's ok.

The problems with the tuner and the Channels app is minor but there are a few problems. The picture quality is good(though I've lived without cable long enough that I can't really compare between before and now). Stuttering/artifacts is minimal but enough of it exists to the point that if I were watching this and thought I was watching cable/satellite, I would have thought it kinda odd.

If I happen to launch EyeTV while Channels is running, it seems to require a reboot of Apple TV to recover. I haven't really read anything, but this tuner has 2-tuners so I was hoping it could watch a game on TV and record another on Sundays but that may not happen, or I could maybe read the manual and confirm.

Changing channels seem to sometimes lock up the app. Sometimes none of the channels will display. A reboot of Apple TV seems to fix all this and this doesn't seem to affect other apps, but these are the quirks I've found so far.