Apple TV (2015 Model)

degsie

OU812 wrote: »

Might have to be in the US next month, would there be any issues (apart from the power cord) about picking up the US model which is €50 cheaper for the top of the range one?

You might bump into Bruce in Dublin airport.

squonk

Finally got mine setup last night. I see huge potential but I'm quite underwhelmed so far. The app store needs categories ASAP. There appear to be plenty of apps already but you'd want to be psychic to figure out what apps you need or should install. I did some random searches and pulled up osme interesting enough apps. A funny novelty one is the fireplace app. No idea what it's called but it's silly and kind of useful.

So far the Plex App is the standout for me. I was using Simplex for a while and, while it was a good standin, it was only OK for playback. Can't fault the developer for seizing the moment and getting in there before the Plex lads and making himself a bit of money. Plex has done a good job of getting direct streaming working well.

The real kicker for me is the lack of format support. I had the assumption on a box like this that DTS passthrough would be offered. It's not. There's also an issue where the Auto selection for Surround seems to not pick up 5.1 streams and defaults to PCM or something lower on my system. I need to explicitly set surround to Dolby 5.1. Hopefully this will change.

It appears also that the Apple TV won't recognize .MKVs out fo the box. That was a failing in Simplex when doing direct streaming and the Plex guys seem to have worked around that in some way. Perhaps they're unwrapping the MKV on the fly at the server and sending the video and audio streams directly to the player. The app might also be doing that unwrapping on the client side. I don't know yet but it works. I know it's Apple we're talking about and none of this is new but they really should have made more of an effort to provide wider audio codec support on this box. For me I think it holds the device back. I'm hoping this will improve in time with third party apps.

The remote is nice and I particularly like the rechargable aspect. Being able to entirely control your system is a good thing but my amp is going crazy. It turns on for a second and then when the TV changes resolution it shuts down again. I'm blaming the amp more than Apple though here.

A new Remote app is needed ASAP also. It's a glaring ommission. You'd forgive the Plex guys for being late to the party because they're third party and seemed to be working as fast as they can to get over the line for launch but for Apple it's no excuse as the box is their product and they controlled the timelines all along. A remote app would make life so much better for us in 'No Siri' land. I haven't had a chance yet to tweak my setup to enable Siri but it's a massive improvement by the looks of it compared to the alternative of using the remote.

More content like BBC or Channel 4 is badly needed our side of the world but that'll come soon I'm sure. Moreover, they should probably have thought about preinstalling all yur compatable apps at setup, or given you a list and allowed you to pick and choose. I know you can get this within the app store after setup but I think a preinstall would be more intuitive for newbie users. I think Amazon should consider updating their app to work with the TV. That to me looks like a killer proposition. There really is great, game changing untapped potential here I think and seeing how that potential is realised will be the fun aspect of owning one from launch.

So, all in all, I'm happy with the upgrade and something has at last been provided that makes the Apple TV a real proposition for folks this side of the pond. Setup is great and easy as pie. It's the easiest Apple product to set up and configure yet. I'd give it a 5/10 and I'd deduct the 5 stars for the lack of 4K support and the poor audio compatability. Apple really need to be more open in this regard. There are also a few rough edges there such as the lack of categorisation on the app store and the remot app. Overall the box is great but kind of half baked right now. I know from being an Apple Watch owner that that will improve over the next year but it would have been nice to have had some of these rough edges smoothed before this initial launch.

sibergoth

Brian017 wrote: »

All my passwords are that length especially accounts that have payment details attached to them.

indeed, i have 50 random characters for most of my stuff.. use a password app to keep track of them.. i don't even know what they are !

load of fun typing those in using the ATV remote !

Creamy Goodness

Apple TV needs 1Password app. have had to simplify so many passwords and actually remember them for the Apple TV and it's apps.

adox

OSI wrote: »

PCM is far better than DTS and Dolby Digital, no? HDMI has full channel PCM support so you should set any devices that support it to use PCM. If a file is in DTS, Dolby Digital etc they'll just be uncompressed and sent over PCM.

Yeah PCM is far better, totally uncompressed. Think it may have been limited to stereo output over an optical link but no such issues with HDMI.

sibergoth

Creamy Goodness wrote: »

Apple TV needs 1Password app. have had to simplify so many passwords and actually remember them for the Apple TV and it's apps.

agreed. maybe it's in the works.

having spent the last 18 months or so getting into iOS App dev, there is some serious amount of work to do just to get a very basic app together, so give the lads a while and hopefully all will equalize soon...

Creamy Goodness

sibergoth wrote: »

agreed. maybe it's in the works.

having spent the last 18 months or so getting into iOS App dev, there is some serious amount of work to do just to get a very basic app together, so give the lads a while and hopefully all will equalize soon...

yup been at app development for 3 years and web development for 4 before that so know what's involved :pac:.

I doubt 1Password or password safe apps will work as there's no concept of copy and paste on tvOS. The iOS Remote app is the better solution here.

akadesign

To anyone who has downloaded the new Plex app, is this now integrated with Siri search, for example can you say from the home screen "Play Gone Girl" or "Show me action movies" and it will present a list of possible playing options such as Netflix / Plex etc.?

squonk

akadesign wrote: »

To anyone who has downloaded the new Plex app, is this now integrated with Siri search, for example can you say from the home screen "Play Gone Girl" or "Show me action movies" and it will present a list of possible playing options such as Netflix / Plex etc.?

I'm not set up with Siri so someone who is might be able to confirm fully however the official word is that Siri search isn't supported right now. Once Apple release the API in the new year though I think it'll make it in there. The roadblock is Apple for now.

sibergoth

Creamy Goodness wrote: »

yup been at app development for 3 years and web development for 4 before that so know what's involved :pac:.

I doubt 1Password or password safe apps will work as there's no concept of copy and paste on tvOS. The iOS Remote app is the better solution here.

really? I've been too busy lately, but need to get back into it. I have a game about 80% complete, but iOS 9 slowed me down a bit.. lots of new bugs

are you working in Swift ?

adox

akadesign wrote: »

To anyone who has downloaded the new Plex app, is this now integrated with Siri search, for example can you say from the home screen "Play Gone Girl" or "Show me action movies" and it will present a list of possible playing options such as Netflix / Plex etc.?

I think I read on the official forums that there is limited support. Will have a check tonight.

adox

I presume the power cords are these are just standard? I.E. you can use a power cord from an older Apple TV on this one if you wanted to?

sibergoth

just a standard cord by the looks of it... nothing special.

sibergoth

by the way - at work people sometimes ask me for special 'power chords' ... I chuckle and reply that i've tried to play guitar, but just never got the hang of it....

adox

Another little tip if using Plex. Add it to the top shelf of apps and you will get the preview window, the same as Netflix, iTunes etc. handy to select a recent film or show without having to open the app first.

cracker

adox wrote: »

Yeah PCM is far better, totally uncompressed. Think it may have been limited to stereo output over an optical link but no such issues with HDMI.

I have a ton of MKV files with DTS MA or Dolby TrueHD. If I output the apple TV to my Onkyo receiver via HDMI and install plex on the ATV will I get these audio tracks played correctly or at all? I really want to replace my WD TV live but I need to be able to play my local files.

adox

cracker wrote: »

I have a ton of MKV files with DTS MA or Dolby TrueHD. If I output the apple TV to my Onkyo receiver via HDMI and install plex on the ATV will I get these audio tracks played correctly or at all? I really want to replace my WD TV live but I need to be able to play my local files.

Im not sure to be honest. Apple TV doesnt support DTS in any format and I dont think it supports Dolby TrueHD either. It supports up to Dolby Digital Plus 7.1

I dont know if Plex can transcode those HD audio tracks on the fly and I dont have any to try out.

The is an offical Plex forums where you may find a definitive answer.

cracker

I have plex running on a Synology DS414 which is not powerful enough to transcode. I can only play things in the source format. I read that the ATV does not support DTS but I was hoping the plex app deals with "passing through" the audio but I don't understand it enough to know if this is possible or makes sense. I will try the Plex forum as you suggest.

Just found the answer to my own question, it doesnt support this

https://blog.plex.tv/2015/11/02/plex-on-the-new-apple-tv/comment-page-2/#comments

adox

adox wrote: »

I think I read on the official forums that there is limited support. Will have a check tonight.

Tried it tonight and it doesn't work. Only thing you can do is open the app with Siri.

adox

"Top charts" category added to the US App Store,which is a help but no sign of it on the Irish or UK one yet.

ibFoxer

Is it a decent step up from the ATV 3? Looks tempting and a solid investment.

Mikey23

Just unboxed mine. A bit tedious in entering email addresses and passwords - who designed the keyboard? Bluetooth keyboard support would have been great.

From David Pogue's review:

adox

Mikey23 wrote: »

Just unboxed mine. A bit tedious in entering email addresses and passwords - who designed the keyboard? Bluetooth keyboard support would have been great.

From David Pogue's review:

Yeah its a pain alright, especially if using multiple accounts, although that box in the picture marked "recent" helps hugely as click on it and it will have all your email address entries previously entered so you only really have to twpe in your password when changing stores.

Sad Professor

Anyone know if iConnect or PC World/Currys is stocking these?

xabi

Im new to Netflix on the ATV, wondering if there is a way to see what resolution im getting for movies etc.. i'm on the HD plan and the quality looks good, how can i confirm im getting HD?

DubDJ

Sad Professor wrote: »

Anyone know if iConnect or PC World/Currys is stocking these?

Somebody picked one up in CompuB so there's a good chance iConnect sell them, stock is probably gonna be the issue if anything.

Brian017

There's now a Categories tab in the App Store (at least on my US account). Theres only two categories at the moment though; Games and Entertainment

DubDJ

Brian017 wrote: »

There's now a Categories tab in the App Store (at least on my US account). Theres only two categories at the moment though; Games and Entertainment

I'm using a pure Irish version and so far the App Store is unchanged. The Top Charts and Categories sections haven't been added as of this morning.

I feel this box will become a lot better once siri is localised here, the App Store is improved and the remote app is updated with support. Siri is understandable but the other two should be sorted by how.

adox

DubDJ wrote: »

Somebody picked one up in CompuB so there's a good chance iConnect sell them, stock is probably gonna be the issue if anything.

Yeah I picked one up in CompuB on Sunday. They had stock of both sizes.

Sad Professor

https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/3r0cgt/new_apple_tv_remote_completely_shattered_from_two/

Seems the remote is very fragile and as mentioned earlier is 90 Euro to replace. Guess we should be factoring a case into the cost.