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Apple TV |OT|

jts

...hate me...
I can't believe they didn't change the remote after all of the shit you hear about it.
They changed it in a way that helps fixing the one problem that it has. You can now tell better which way is up with a quick glance.



So no word on Amazon Prime Video?
 

Sean

Banned
Well, I was going to get a 32 GB version but since it's just 20 bucks more, I guess I'll get the 64 and hopefully future prove it a bit.

I own a 64GB Apple TV and don't think going with that size is worth it at all. Even though it's only 20 bucks more I doubt you'll ever come close to using that space. When I get the 4K model I'll go down to 32GB.

Almost all of the media apps are only around 25MB or less (HBO Go, Showtime, Plex, Netflix, FOX, AMC, ESPN, etc... the YouTube app is even less than 1MB.) Pretty much everything is streamed over the web rather than being stored on your device.

And the games are incredibly tiny too, almost all under 200mb, the biggest one I could find was Asphalt 8 at 1.12GB. The base 32GB model should be perfectly fine.
 

dallow_bg

nods at old men
I own a 64GB Apple TV and don't think going with that size is worth it at all. Even though it's only 20 bucks more I doubt you'll ever come close to using that space. When I get the 4K model I'll go down to 32GB.

Almost all of the media apps are only around 25MB or less (HBO Go, Showtime, Plex, Netflix, FOX, AMC, ESPN, etc... the YouTube app is even less than 1MB.) Pretty much everything is streamed over the web rather than being stored on your device.

And the games are incredibly tiny too, almost all under 200mb, the biggest one I could find was Asphalt 8 at 1.12GB. The base 32GB model should be perfectly fine.

Using the extra $20 for a 4K movie.
 
I own a 64GB Apple TV and don't think going with that size is worth it at all. Even though it's only 20 bucks more I doubt you'll ever come close to using that space. When I get the 4K model I'll go down to 32GB.

Almost all of the media apps are only around 25MB or less (HBO Go, Showtime, Plex, Netflix, FOX, AMC, ESPN, etc... the YouTube app is even less than 1MB.) Pretty much everything is streamed over the web rather than being stored on your device.

And the games are incredibly tiny too, almost all under 200mb, the biggest one I could find was Asphalt 8 at 1.12GB. The base 32GB model should be perfectly fine.

The 64GB model would only become advantageous to be if they let you download media ahead of time instead of forcing you to stream it. That’s some feedback I’ve submitted but it is indeed streaming only for the time being
 
Do we know how AirPods are going to sync, either by the new tvOS or new hardware? I thought I read once that you needed to initiate the AirPods into a bluetooth connection via the case and you couldn't do the typical fast switching afforded by macOS and iOS devices.
 
Do we know how AirPods are going to sync, either by the new tvOS or new hardware? I thought I read once that you needed to initiate the AirPods into a bluetooth connection via the case and you couldn't do the typical fast switching afforded by macOS and iOS devices.

You can! If you're watching media you can swipe down and go over to the audio tab and the AirPods (or any W1 receiver) should be there, AND if you're on the main tvOS menu you can hold down the play/pause button and an audio selector will come up
 
You can! If you're watching media you can swipe down and go over to the audio tab and the AirPods (or any W1 receiver) should be there, AND if you're on the main tvOS menu you can hold down the play/pause button and an audio selector will come up
Used the swipe down for subtitles and dynamic range when watching at night, but now gotta try this with my Beats X.
 
Used the swipe down for subtitles and dynamic range when watching at night, but now gotta try this with my Beats X.

You'll have to sync it like normal first, but after that it should work. Also fast switching isn't *really* supported by tvOS, it's kind of a hack. So it might take longer to switch than from say an iPhone to an iPad
 
You'll have to sync it like normal first, but after that it should work. Also fast switching isn't *really* supported by tvOS, it's kind of a hack. So it might take longer to switch than from say an iPhone to an iPad
Testing it now. Fast switch doesn't work without going back to Bluetooth menu. Hopped from AppleTV to my Apple Watch. Then tried to go back to tv and had to go back to Bluetooth to use again.
 
Testing it now. Fast switch doesn't work without going back to Bluetooth menu. Hopped from AppleTV to my Apple Watch. Then tried to go back to tv and had to go back to Bluetooth to use again.

I have far more reliability holding down play/pause on the home screen versus trying to do it with media already playing, fwiw

Edit: I should also note these only work on tvOS11
 

Sean

Banned
On 10.2 or something. Will see how it goes when 11 is publicly available. Thanks!

If you want it now it's pretty easy and painless to get into the public beta, whole process takes like two minutes. The GM build is available right now so you're really getting the final version a week early.

Just sign in to http://beta.apple.com/ with your Apple ID and enroll.

Then when you go to Settings -> System -> Software Updates on your Apple TV you'll see a "Get Public Beta Updates" option.

Edit: Here's two screenshots of what the fast switching looks like in tvOS 11 (using my Beats Solo 3's):
Play/Pause button on home screen lets you change audio source:
teuN9Qz.jpg

Swiping down while playing video:
EPYBmk5.jpg
 

Quasar

Member
The file sizes would probably take a huge jump though, which might be why they didn't use them.

I guess thats the thing with Apple, if they arent going to use it in tunes they can't be assed to support it. Unlike say Nvidia, who has done plenty of work to support stuff where they can.

Means I still need both a shield and a appletv rather than there being one device to rule them all.
 
If you want it now it's pretty easy and painless to get into the public beta, whole process takes like two minutes. The GM build is available right now so you're really getting the final version a week early.

Just sign in to http://beta.apple.com/ with your Apple ID and enroll.

Then when you go to Settings -> System -> Software Updates on your Apple TV you'll see a "Get Public Beta Updates" option.

Edit: Here's two screenshots of what the fast switching looks like in tvOS 11 (using my Beats Solo 3's):
That is messing with me since my name is Sean as well...
 
Sorry for the double post. How can I switch to AirPods after a video is playing? I know on the home screen if I hold down the play button I get an option, but that doesn’t seem to work once a video is playing.
 
Sorry for the double post. How can I switch to AirPods after a video is playing? I know on the home screen if I hold down the play button I get an option, but that doesn’t seem to work once a video is playing.

Swipe down to get the overlay menu, move to Audio, it should be an option under audio output
 

Quasar

Member
Well....I'm seeing a lot of negative feedback on the ATV4k. As surprising as it sounds, it does sounds like it was rushed to market / not tested enough.
 
Yeah, pairing Bluetooth headphones has been great once my wife goes to bed.
Yeah, I’ve been doing that too.

Speaking of Apple TV and Bluetooth, one thing I’d love to see going forward is the ability to play on multiple devices at once. AFAIK it’s a Bluetooth limitation but I guess Airplay 2 could change things. At least the use case is there. Hell, I’d love to see that on iPhone and iPad too.
 
Yeah, I’ve been doing that too.

Speaking of Apple TV and Bluetooth, one thing I’d love to see going forward is the ability to play on multiple devices at once. AFAIK it’s a Bluetooth limitation but I guess Airplay 2 could change things. At least the use case is there. Hell, I’d love to see that on iPhone and iPad too.

The ATV4K has Bluetooth 5.0, which allows for multiple outputs at once. I have to imagine that’s coming
 
Resumed a movie from double tapping AirPods and it started again, but it didn’t stop the screenplayer so i only got audio. Had to tap the touch screen on the remote to stop the screensaver. Bug sent!
Also, range of AirPods is worse than iPhone and iPad in same room.
 
Range seemed decent on my Beats X. And nice to pause with the in line remote.
If you pause and resume from the in-line remote and the screen saver has already activated, does it still display the screen saver and continue the audio from your movie? That was the issue I’m having. When I resume a movie and the screen saver has already activated, the screen saver stays on screen and the audio of the movie that starts the play.
 

Quasar

Member
The ATV4K has Bluetooth 5.0, which allows for multiple outputs at once. I have to imagine that's coming

Do AirPods support Bluetooth 5?

Now that you mention that I wonder about the new Bose headphones with Google Assistant. Will have to look into that before I buy.
 
I don’t believe the audio targets have to support 5.0, just the source
You’re right. I was already discouraged by the prospect of having to change headphones, but looking it up, Galaxy S8 allows you to do exactly that, so it would make sense that it’s only on the source side.

I guess/hope they’ll roll out that feature with Airplay 2 (which promises that). I guess not. Airplay 2 is already here...
 
If you pause and resume from the in-line remote and the screen saver has already activated, does it still display the screen saver and continue the audio from your movie? That was the issue I'm having. When I resume a movie and the screen saver has already activated, the screen saver stays on screen and the audio of the movie that starts the play.
Will test that today and let you know.

EDIT: Yup. Same problem. And then when I press a button on the remote to get the picture back it backs out of the movie. Weird damn glitch.
 
That's a lotta cooling. I wonder how high A10X can clock in here. They should really aggressively pursue game developers for this!

It's not really a lot of cooling except in comparison to phones/tablets where active cooling is rarely an option. The active cooling here is to ensure that it can run full speed most/all of the time, instead of throttling as the A series will on mobile.

CPU perf will be well above Switch but GPU and overall hardware is a much bigger questionmark. The A10X solution is severely memory constrained (3GB total, but the gaming cut is much less) and storage/memory can be gutted at any time by the OS. I question comparable GPU performance too, although Tegra vs A10X in a full gaming executable would be extremely difficult to ever see. Apple also still has their weird constraints on gaming controllers, doesn't it?

There's nothing to stop Apple from changing tvOS and their own procedures to get more developers, but the AppleTV experience still has far too much in common with iOS compared to current consoles. Asking, say, Bethesda to ship Skyrim, for example, would be nearly impossible due to demands on virtually all of those points.
 

Animator

Member
Picked up a 4k today (my first apple tv) and it is awesome. Youtube search with siri works way faster than my android tv's google now search due to apple tv processor being a shitton faster.

I am not a huge fan of the remote but getting used to that slowly.
 
No more restrictions on the controllers if you mean games have to use the Siri remote. They do have to use a Made for iPhone (MFi) controller though.

Gaming will have issues with app size though, I think there’s a limit of 4GB. I think the Apple TV will always only have some casual gaming on th side and focus mostly on video.
 
I'm really disappointed in the 4K coming from my 1st or 2nd gen device.

AirPods rarely show up on the swipe down menu when media is already playing. I have to exit to the main menu, hold play/pause, and then select them there. It's inconsistent whether or not they will show up.

Plex is much worse than the one built into my television. Streaming from channels always buffer when they don't on my TV, and I don't like how it orders my channels (seemingly at random)

I can't figure out the remote. How do I scroll faster? It's either 10 second chunks or maybe 2x. I want to quickly scrub through a video but it doesn't seem to work?

Games and apps really are anemic. And, without being able to use iMazing, transferring over games to Provenance is a hassle and I can't really move my game saves. Also, I wish there was a ScummVM for it.

The TV App is kind of neat, but am I missing a way to flag shows that I watch so I know when new episodes are available like Broad City? Or, what I can watch without having to pay for a subscription to AMC or whatever?

Also, I get stuttering in menus at times as if my input is being lagged or delayed. As a result, I usually over-click a menu action.
 
I'm really disappointed in the 4K coming from my 1st or 2nd gen device.

AirPods rarely show up on the swipe down menu when media is already playing. I have to exit to the main menu, hold play/pause, and then select them there. It's inconsistent whether or not they will show up.

Plex is much worse than the one built into my television. Streaming from channels always buffer when they don't on my TV, and I don't like how it orders my channels (seemingly at random)

I can't figure out the remote. How do I scroll faster? It's either 10 second chunks or maybe 2x. I want to quickly scrub through a video but it doesn't seem to work?

Games and apps really are anemic. And, without being able to use iMazing, transferring over games to Provenance is a hassle and I can't really move my game saves. Also, I wish there was a ScummVM for it.

The TV App is kind of neat, but am I missing a way to flag shows that I watch so I know when new episodes are available like Broad City? Or, what I can watch without having to pay for a subscription to AMC or whatever?

Also, I get stuttering in menus at times as if my input is being lagged or delayed. As a result, I usually over-click a menu action.

Shows that you watch should be appearing in the Up Next section within Watch Now. Once more episodes come out they get bumped to the front of that list. You can also just manually add stuff to up next by holding down on their icon if you don’t want to lose track of that show or movie.

As for the channels you don’t want if you go to Settings-Apps-TV you can customize what channels are feeding into your TV app. That way you’ll only get recommended stuff you can watch. Things you search will still have it (like I don’t have FX Now but if I search for a show that is on it it’ll be listed as a viewing option) but in general Watch Now will only be filled with stuff with channels you have connected
 
Just realized that the new OS finally lets you search videos on your local computer library. Before it was just odd sorting options then combing through the list to find what you wanted. They finally added it, thank god.

Now to just let your local library show up in siri search or the TV app.
 
Shows that you watch should be appearing in the Up Next section within Watch Now. Once more episodes come out they get bumped to the front of that list. You can also just manually add stuff to up next by holding down on their icon if you don’t want to lose track of that show or movie.

As for the channels you don’t want if you go to Settings-Apps-TV you can customize what channels are feeding into your TV app. That way you’ll only get recommended stuff you can watch. Things you search will still have it (like I don’t have FX Now but if I search for a show that is on it it’ll be listed as a viewing option) but in general Watch Now will only be filled with stuff with channels you have connected

Thanks! I just added all my shows and marked all episodes as watched so hopefully it does what I expect in the future. Is it possible to see a list somewhere of all the shows I have marked as shows I'm currently have added to "Up Next"?
 
Thanks! I just added all my shows and marked all episodes as watched so hopefully it does what I expect in the future. Is it possible to see a list somewhere of all the shows I have marked as shows I'm currently have added to "Up Next"?

Unfortunately not, Up Next is the collection for that, so yes, if you’re caught up it disappears from that list
 
My Apple TV stopped streaming movies in 4K and I literally can't make it start again. I enabled developer mode and the playback HUD, so I can see it playing 4K HDR movies in regular HD SDR, and no matter how much I let them load it never switches over.

I checked all the settings as well, it's outputting 4K DV to my TV, and iTunes m,ovie settings are set to "best available." This is very annoying

Edit: Netflix streams just fine so I know it's not my internet connection or HDMI connection or anything. C'mon Apple I just got The Lego Movie, let me see this shit
 
I’ve had my AppleTV stop outputting a surround sound (the A/V receiver would see a stereo PCM signal) and the only fix I found was restarting the AppleTV, which would instantly fix it. This has happened to me twice in 2 weeks, so I kind of suspect the OS update, although HDMI handshakes are perfectly capable of sucking on their own.
 
I’ve had my AppleTV stop outputting a surround sound (the A/V receiver would see a stereo PCM signal) and the only fix I found was restarting the AppleTV, which would instantly fix it. This has happened to me twice in 2 weeks, so I kind of suspect the OS update, although HDMI handshakes are perfectly capable of sucking on their own.
I thought it was just my receiver. Thanks.
 
Every time this thread is bumped I hope to see some Amazon news. To avoid anyone else further heartache, I checked the AppleTV subreddit, and a guy there says it’s coming on the 26th, in just two weeks.

I thought it was just my receiver. Thanks.
I was the same at first, thinking I had somehow forced the Direct mode (2ch PCM) so I fiddled a bit with the receiver, checked another device wasn’t having CEC issues, etc. but none of it worked, while rebooting the AppleTV from the settings instantly fixed it. So yeah, it seems pretty clear cut.
 
For the record, my 4K streaming problem fixed itself. Don't know what that was about. Lasted for a while and through several reboots

Also interesting to note, the Lego Movies (regular and Batman), despite advertising 4K, don't actually run near a 4K resolution. It has a vertical height of like 900 something. And yes, that's where the stream caps out

Edit: they're both specifically 2228x928

If I cap it to HD it's even worse, it's around 1400x600. Yeesh. I don't even want to think the SD resolution is.

The ”4K" resolution has less pixels than a 1080p stream, what the hell WB

For comparison John Wick's 4K stream is a nice cool 3824x1584

Edit 2: I downloaded some videos and compared resolutions

Forgetting Sarah Marshall SD (I wanted to use The Lego Movie but when you own the HD version there's no way to download the SD version to iTunes to examine the file): 856x462
The Lego Movie 720p HD: 1280x532
The Lego Movie 1080p HD: 1920x800
The Lego Movie "4K": 2228x928

I'm still hoping that there's some bottle neck preventing my Apple TV from streaming the highest quality of that movie, because damn that is bad for the highest resolution available. I paid nothing for that movie damn it, I demand the best! I mean hell going by the other patterns it should be 3840x1600

What does all this prove? Well, nothing, really, other than I have too much time on my hands.
 
Every time this thread is bumped I hope to see some Amazon news. To avoid anyone else further heartache, I checked the AppleTV subreddit, and a guy there says it’s coming on the 26th, in just two weeks.


I was the same at first, thinking I had somehow forced the Direct mode (2ch PCM) so I fiddled a bit with the receiver, checked another device wasn’t having CEC issues, etc. but none of it worked, while rebooting the AppleTV from the settings instantly fixed it. So yeah, it seems pretty clear cut.

Funny thing is that it was my SNES mini not working right with the sound that made me look at the receiver. Then the AppleTV was all wonky, like it wouldn't play center channel sounds unless I used Direct Mode. Was freaky.
 
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