Filip Brož It's been more than a year since Apple introduced the new generation of Apple TV. Right from the beginning, the Californian company presents it as the main source of multimedia entertainment in every home. According to Eddy Cue, senior vice president of Internet software and services at Apple, the future of television is combined with applications. However, it is surprising that, except for the presentation and the first reviews, practically no one paid attention to the Apple set-top box, as if almost no one even used it...
The App Store for Apple TV is regularly updated, but no revolutionary applications that should keep us in the living room have yet arrived. So the question arises, do we really need Apple TV?
I bought a fourth generation 64GB Apple TV for Christmas last year. At first, I was excited about her, but as time went on, it wore off considerably. Although I use it several times a week, I often ask myself what the main benefit is and why I use it at all. After all, I can play music and movies from any iOS device and stream using the third-generation Apple TV. Even an older Mac mini will do practically the same service, in some cases its connection to the TV is more efficient or more powerful than the entire Apple TV.
Movies and more movies
When I did a survey among users, there were many positive responses that people use the new Apple TV on a daily basis, and in the vast majority of cases it is for the same purposes that I use the set-top box myself. Apple TV often serves as an imaginary cinema and music player in one, often in cooperation with applications such as Plex or data storage from Synology. Then this is often the best way to enjoy a movie in the evening.
Many people also do not allow the application of the news server DVTV or entertainment programs and documentaries on the Stream.cz channel. More proficient English speakers will not disdain Netflix, while fans of Czech HBO GO are unfortunately out of luck on Apple TV and have to receive this content via AirPlay from an iPhone or iPad. However, HBO is preparing big news for next year, and we should finally see a "television" application as well.
If I had to name the service that I use most often on Apple TV, it is definitely Apple Music. I like to play music on the TV, which we have in the apartment as a backdrop, for example while cleaning. Anyone can then simply choose their favorite song and add it to the queue. Since the music library is synchronized via iCloud, I also always have the same playlists in the living room that I just liked on my iPhone.
It is also convenient to watch videos on YouTube on the TV, but only if you connect the iPhone to control the Apple TV. Searching through the software keyboard would soon drive you crazy, and only with the classic iOS keyboard on the iPhone can you search quickly and efficiently. Definitely, but not as much as would be desirable, which brings us to the biggest problem of Apple TV in our country. We are talking about the non-existent Czech Siri, which makes it impossible to use voice control at all. And unfortunately not even on YouTube.
Gaming console?
Gaming is also a big topic. I don't deny that I thoroughly enjoy gaming on the big screen. There are more and more new and supported games in the App Store, and there's definitely plenty to choose from. On the other hand, I got quite tired of playing the same games as on the iPhone, for example, I finished the legendary Modern Combat 5 on iOS a long time ago. Nothing new awaits me on Apple TV and as a result the game loses its charm.
The game experience is different only in that the controls work a little differently. It's more or less similar with the iPhone, and the question is whether the original Remote can bring any significant benefits in gaming, however, the real gaming experience comes with the Nimbus wireless game controller from SteelSeries. But again, it's all about the game offering and whether Apple TV makes sense as a game console for the avid gamer.
In Apple TV's defense, some developers try and develop games specifically for the Apple TV, so we can find some great pieces where a good controller experience is clearly included, but at the price (Apple TV costs 4 or 890 6 crowns), many people prefer to pay a few thousand more and buy an Xbox or PlayStation, which are completely different in terms of games.
In addition, Microsoft and Sony are constantly pushing their consoles forward, the fourth-generation Apple TV has iPhone 6 guts inside, and given the history of Apple's set-top box, the question is when will we see a revival again. To be honest, it's not really needed because of the current Apple TV games.
Watch as a controller
In addition, even Apple does not go against the players very much. The Apple TV could be great for entertaining multiplayer games and being, for example, a replacement for the Nintendo Wii or an alternative to Xbox's Kinect, but if you want to play with friends, everyone has to bring their own remote. I naively hoped that Apple would allow the iPhone or Watch to be used as a controller in certain cases, but some great fun in multiplayer is lost due to the need to own another original controller that costs 2 crowns.
It is a question of how the situation will develop in the future, but now it is a bit unfortunate that iPhones or Watch, even due to their sensors, which could compete with Wii or Kinect, cannot be fully used as controllers. The importance of Apple TV in this area and the possibilities of use could change in the future with the expansion of extensions and virtual reality, but for now Apple is silent on this topic.
Many users use the new Apple TV daily already, but many people also put the black set-top box in a drawer under the TV after a few days and use it only sporadically. In addition, even those who play it regularly have it mainly for playing movies, music and other multimedia content, in which the latest generation is better, but it is not such a leap forward compared to the previous version. Therefore, many still get by with an older Apple TV.
So there is still no big boom in the TV area from Apple yet. For the Californian company, Apple TV remains a rather marginal project, which, although it contains a certain potential, remains unused for the time being. It is often said that, for example, Apple could produce its own series and multimedia content in general, but Eddy Cue recently stated that Apple does not want to compete with services such as Netflix. Moreover, even with this, we still only revolve around the content and not any other and innovative use of the small set-top box.
In addition, in the Czech Republic, the experience of the entire Apple TV is fundamentally reduced by the absence of the Czech Siri, with which the entire product is otherwise simply controlled.
According to Apple, the future of television is in applications, which may be true, but the question is whether it will even succeed in getting users from iPhones and iPads to large televisions. Large screens often function only as an extended screen for mobile devices, and the Apple TV mainly fulfills this role for the time being.
…. oh well, I only have it for streaming fairy tales from iTunes prck,…. I use it maybe once every two weeks when I let him have one. I also bought a Nimbus for it last year, sure, I played a few games last year, but since then I haven't seen any games that interested me... I have a relatively good TV, but I don't have a soundbar, so I stream music via bluetooth on the tower,... I'm waiting for sledovani.tv to make an application for AppleTV, they've been dragging it out for a year now... Streaming TV via mobile somehow didn't feel natural to me, so I was forced to buy an Android TV - I'm already looking forward to throwing the thing away through the window, actually... :( So for me, appleTV is rather useless at this stage, but that will change with the TV application. Among the nice "light" moments, I include, for example, the time when I taped the cell phone to the car on the radio, left to stream it to TV, and I drove through the barracks, well... :D :D :D
I am personally waiting for the sledojani.tv application and HBO Go, then it will make sense to buy a new Apple TV. until then, I'll make do with the previous Apple TV, which I basically only use for YouTube and Airplay (hbo go, ivysilani, prima archive, synology nas). the new one bothers me that it doesn't have GB LAN and that it doesn't support 4K (although I don't have such a TV). So the priority is the two applications (watching and hbo go), then I buy :)
Thanks for the article, very useful for me. I was thinking of buying one for Christmas, but I was still wondering what it was (or wasn't) good for.
ATV4 great, for 3 things:
1) absence of 4K
2) absence of Remote app music control (albums, playlists, artists, etc.)
3) absence of O2TV, UPC, etc. applications.
To be honest, I've been hesitating on the purchase for quite some time. I am still projecting what it will be for and how I will use it. I have stream, youtube and spotify instantly on my TV and it works relatively well. What I would probably really use is the apple music. But I suffer from playlists there again. Somehow they don't appeal to me.
And the price tag? it's not exactly the smallest, so I'd shorten it. I would try it for about a week, if it worked I would buy it, if not I would return it. Unfortunately, there is no one to borrow it from.
How about Alza?
Many people buy things from there with the understanding that they can be conveniently tried on and returned.
Now they even have a promotion that it can be returned as an inappropriate gift under the tree until January 7th, I think. So you can try for almost 2 months.
On the other hand, I cannot praise the new Apple TV enough. Combined with Infuse and an AirPort Time Capsule, Apple TV is used to stream content to my TV. In addition, several times a day I use AirPlay from my iPad, Mac and iPhone. Voice control still feels unnatural to me, so I set my Apple TV to English for a while and frantically spoke to the remote to get it back. I use the Apple TV Remote on my iPhone to enter text, it works great. The price tag is higher, but you get a beautiful piece of hardware that also works perfectly.
Good day. I bought aTV yesterday, plugged it in, satisfaction. Connected to Time Capsule OK but I can't play a single movie in .avi - I'm using the File Browser TV app. Don't know how to get it working? Thank you in advance
Try the aforementioned Infuse. It also plays .avi.
Done. Tested, it works one poem. Thank you very much ?
I have a similar question - besides, the ATV doesn't have 4K, what do you connect it to?
TV with Android? I disagree with that, ,,stupid, TV nowadays doesn't have much in terms of screen quality or large-format display - that's probably a limitation and not much of a choice for a lot of people.
Personally, I would welcome it if Apple introduced its panel - because I don't watch classic TV.
Two ATV4 in the house, Synology NAS, Infuse, gig router, I use it daily to play movies and rock concerts in HD, even though I have a 65″ and 4K TV with some Android that I absolutely do not use, I don't miss the 4K with ATV, from five meters I wouldn't know the difference compared to HD anyway, the human eye is already like that. Everything via wifi, even XNUMX gigabyte bluray rips without a single stutter, I haven't watched a normal broadcast movie anymore and I don't know when. It's not cheap, that's a fact. But the satisfaction on my side is great.
I still think about her too. Mainly for quick joint viewing of content from a Mac or iPhone, as well as Horizon Go, which apparently does not have a native application, only Airplay.
I also regret not using the motion controller instead of the Wii and using the mobile as a controller.
I'm a bit bothered by the slow expansion. In addition, when it was once leaked that Apple would focus on TV, of course the competition reacted and Apple is now the second.
ATV4 doesn't make sense to me yet, I sometimes use ATV3 and I have reservations there too.
I miss the analog audio output when listening to music via AirPlay. I solve it by converting via an MD recorder.
Movie playback is complicated and purposefully limited to content in the Apple Store. If I want to play a movie from my Macbook, I still need a third-party app. I don't like mirroring.
ATV would help if Apple used the same model as Apple Music. Buying a movie for €15 is enough, but renting it for a couple of hours for €10 is too much. Obviously paying for a membership and ATV would be very popular.
I bought an iPad Pro 9,7 at iStyle on Friday. There was a promotion that I could get either a 32GB ATV 4 or a 15 percent discount. I took the ATV. It will come in handy. Nimbus game controller arrived today. So we'll see. Otherwise, through VLC, I connect beautifully to the ASUS router, to which I have a disc with movies connected. I use Spotify for music. It doesn't have the ATV app. But it plays via AirPlay. The photos on the TV are also good. It has some uses. The second thing is the price, but this is generally not a big deal at Apple. Otherwise, a little different is that a lot of games that are free on the iPad are quite expensive on the ATV. I find the offer of movies better than on Google Play. But they are much cheaper there.
The problem with aTV is:
– HW is comparable to the iPhone 6, which is more than 2 years old
– error support for 4K, but mainly HEVC (x265) codec. It can be decoded by software, but HW can't do it with FullHD. If HW = iPhone 6S, it wouldn't be a problem
I have rPI + Kodi and when I couldn't get movies in the HEVC codec (it's starting to spread), I wanted to buy aTV + Infuse (which I have purchased). Otherwise, I believe that in the foreseeable future there will be a more powerful version or HW access to HEVC decoding (it is said that it is there because Apple uses it for facetime calls). Then it's a clear choice for me.
I don't know what I would use the ATV for. Like a game console? Probably not… Playing movies? Here, I'd rather use a Chromecast for a few crowns, which can also play any streaming video from the Internet and can also mirror content from a mobile phone / tablet and laptop, and it doesn't matter what the platform is. Music? I don't need a TV for that. Application? Again, a laptop, tablet or mobile phone is more suitable for me.
Personally, it would make sense to me if the horizon go and hbo go apps were available. HBO is the only conceivable service for streaming series in the Czech Republic, and I wouldn't have to watch Horizon on TV. Furthermore, the lack of 4K support, software limitations, e.g. with controllers and control via other Apple products, which is either very truncated or non-existent, bothers me a lot. If Apple cut these things off atv. I thought about it. But a real plus for me would be if apple or anyone else made a service where all movies and series would be available for playback. Just AM/spotify with movies. Yes, I can burn a disc with movies, but I find such a solution not very pleasant. The procedure to download/rip a movie, drag and drop it onto a disc, etc. seems unnecessarily cumbersome to me.
Sometimes (about 3 or 4 times per movie) the picture cuts off slightly when watching a movie from iTunes on the ATV4. Does anyone have a similar problem please? It's not the internet, I tried a reset, but nothing helps...
Does the image freeze or drop out for a while? Sometimes, even several times during the movie, the image drops out for a while, the screen goes dark, as if there was a dark scene in the movie. Tried replacing the ATV but no improvement :(
It gets stuck, it takes a second, and then it keeps going (as if someone paused it for a moment). She also occasionally gave it to a friend, but much less than me. I have the ATV4 connected to the receiver and then to the TV, so could that have an effect on that? I've thought about changing the hdmi cable.
I thought about it, until I found out that it doesn't have an optical output for music - so I won't connect it to the boxes. And unlike the TV, it won't connect to the NAS anyway. So I don't see any reason to buy her anymore.
To NAS Synology just fine via Infuse. It costs something, as is usual with Apple, but aesthetically and especially functionally it has no competition compared to other media players. Well, for others, I have Popcorn VTEN and despite the better picture and thanks to the super controls, I turn on ATV. Just the fact that I don't have to load the subtitles into the files of my favorite series has taken the thorn out of my heels.
As I wrote, my TV can connect to Bye right away. I use aTV to play music - and instead of one optical cable, I would have to use a new one - I don't even know how. :-(
To process the sound, you would have to buy an amplifier with hdmi ports and a converter, similarly it had to be solved with ATV from version 2, there it was converted from the optical output...
In addition to not supporting HW HEVC or 4K, it also cannot output 1080/24p, which is quite essential for watching movies. Pulldown to 60Hz is not much. An old macmini and Kodi will do a better service. For airplay, the older generation is enough... Apple really failed :(