Apple TV 4K

If I got a dollar for every person suckered into buying Samsung products… But to stay on topic: never! [...] Since then, I run everything via an Apple TV 4K which works way better than LGs own software does anyway.

[...] Fortunately, my Samsung S95D doesn't (lovely matte OLED screen), and is perfectly usable without a network connection or even setting up the Smart TV features. [...] Like you, I use two AppleTV 4Ks as sources, one tied to my US Apple ID, one for the UK one. [...]

I value my time, learned the lesson some time ago. [...] For this case I still have my 7-8 year old AppleTV 4k (1st gen). [...] It threatened to install an AI update a while ago so took it offline. [...] No lag, no slowness, every major streaming provider has an app for it - no-one wants to ignore one of the largest set-top box markets. [...]

I've been running Plex on my AppleTV 4k for years with few issues. [...]

To add to this, the first-gen Apple TV 4K I use, which was first released back in 2017, still runs the latest tvOS and works great. [...] They're not the cheapest thing out there, but you get a lot of muscle (and longevity) for your money.

[...] Great picture with excellent color, contrast, and uniformity that has stayed as good as it was on day one for the past 6 years through probably thousands of hours of usage. (As it turns out, LCD TVs can experience picture degradation as bad or worse than OLED burnin[0]) It’s been perfectly happy to remain totally offline too and is built as if it’s expected to be connected to a streaming box and/or receiver, as opposed to some TVs where the manufacturer really pushes the onboard “smarts” over external sources. Works wonderfully with an Apple TV 4K, PC, and PS5 and can have its firmware updated offline with a thumb drive. [...]

[...] Apple TV has a few things one may consider “ads”, but they’re limited to promotion of Apple’s own shows (no third parties) and can be done away with by simply ignoring the stock TV app and moving it off the top row of the home screen where it’ll never get highlighted. They haven’t bothered me personally, and my Apple TV 4K working flawlessly since buying it in 2017 is worth that tiny tradeoff.

Gonna keep sounding like a broken record on this, but the Apple TV 4K puck that I got checks almost a decade ago has not degraded in quality or functionality one bit since I bought it. I wish more people would think about this stuff than just use whatever bad thing is built into the TV.

I have the HD model and I love how slick everything is even though it is definitely a few years old now it’s still feels way smoother than my modern Sony smart TV but I just got under a year ago

I’ve been using Apple TV for like 10 years. Nothing else is even close to its performance. [...]

I'm now on my THIRD Siri remote. [...] for the Apple TV 4k that I bought in 2018. [...]

The Apple TV is well-worth it. [...]

Yup love my Apple TV I was able to dl all my streaming apps all in one place and watch everything in 4k ... I can't believe it took my 3 years before I took advantage of it and just relied on the the TV remotes app for Netflix, Prime Video which was NOT in 4k!!! And I had to Chromecast the other apps that was not programmed with my TV like Hulu, Peacock, etc.. So I am so happy I just thought to DL all the streaming apps onto my Apple TV ;-)

I had bought apple TV device few years ago but was laying in store unused. [...]

[...] Never got stuck or slow.. [...]

Why it’s always worth it to buy a good set top box. Apple TV 4K I bought seven years ago still zippy as ever. And outlasted the first TV it was plugged in to.

Performance was so-so, some minor degradations on my Studio. No change comparing today to half a year ago. But my Apple TV 4K 2nd Generation turned into a 15 fps mess until I turned off the worst parts of transparency effects.

[...] For example, I have an iPhone, an Apple Watch, a Macbook Pro (M2 Max, main workstation), an iPad, 2 Apple TV 4Ks, and a Mac Mini (M1, used as a secondary machine in my workshop). [...] Next year I anticipate replacing my iPad, the following year is the Mac Mini, and a couple years after that would be the MBP (which will be a $4300? [...]

[...] Usually within the first three minutes of watching a show, the screen will go black and then pop back on. [...] I do enjoy being able to share from my iPad or my iPhone but that's really the only feature I want.

I have an 2017 apple tv 4k, the only apple device I have. will agree that this is the best streaming device, its just clean, powerful, smooth and no ads, even when some aps shows ads on my android phone, the same app with same login on apple tv does not. No streaming device comes closer, only regret I have is it does not support DTS, Shield does..

i used one for years & still have it now but i also bought a shield pro for stremio. i rarely use it anymore but with the ecosystem & homepods i’ve got it works with all the other hdmi ports. in terms of the interface apple tv it’s unbeatable tho.

[...] Serves my needs for now, and also use Infuse like a lot of people here on my Apple TV 4K. [...]

I recently got an Apple TV 4K and have been really enjoying the ad free experience. Worth every penny. Our smart tv had turned into a Christmas tree of ads.

Exactly this. And with an Apple TV 4K Ethernet, you've got a bonus Thread border router for smart home devices. I actually didn't even realize that initially, but was very pleased when I found IKEAs latest round of Matter over Thread devices paired nicely with it and my existing Home Assistant + Hue setup.

[...] I point Infuse on Apple TV 4K's at it. [...] Downsides: you have to pay for Infuse Pro to play some formats and deal with some audio codecs. [...] Your non-technical friends and family can't do the initial setup themselves (it's shared over Tailscale, they can all use the same limited account on your plan), but anyone I'm going to let do this can ship me their Apple TV 4K and let me set it up for them.

As someone with a 4k tv and an Apple TV 4K, I thought that all of my streamed content was in 4k. [...]

I've recently bought a used Apple TV (4K). Fantastic device, highly recommend this one.

[...] When going back to the main screen, it can take upwards of 30 seconds, maybe more (it feels like an eternity), for the “watch next” to update. If I don’t wait for it to update, it will start playing an old episode the next time I try to launch it. This lag also persists over app switching. [...] Sometimes I try to switch back and forth to force and update and it feels like I’m back on 56K. [...] I have an Apple TV 4K in the house as well, which I’ve been meaning to migrate to, to see if it’s any better. [...] Peacock as a service seems to have an extreme amount of lag.

The best (in terms of image quality) consumer displays on the market right now are OLED TVs from LG and Samsung. But they’re also “Smart” TVs. I keep mine disconnected and use an external media box (AppleTV 4K).

[...] I still find it perplexing that Apple TV[1] the service and Apple TV[2] the device -- technically now Apple TV 4K -- have the same name. [...] I've used Fire Sticks, Rokus, built-in TV software, and more, and the Apple TV is the first device I've used that really feels good to use. [...]

Apple TV 4k has an idle power draw of 0.49W and a 4k streaming power draw of 2.31W. [...] Plus keyboard and mouse are generally terrible couch devices. [...]

For similar reasons many years back when I broke the bank for a G2, I decided to disconnect it forever. Besides the always-on spyware, every update broke something, which is incredibly frustrating considering the amount I spent. For instance, I got a GX soundbar for free with the TV which worked fine for 1–2 months until some update borked it and made it glitch out randomly. To date, none of their updates seem to have fixed it. I now only connect it back to the web — if needed — once a year or so but even this needs plenty of careful research across the web to see if the update package breaks something else I take for granted. Hooking up an Apple TV 4K to this thing was the best decision I ever made and the sheer performance of this thing puts every TV vendor to shame. [...]

[...] These days I’ve settled on AppleTV 4K with Infuse. [...] And decisions like how it handles the BACK button while playing is just so odd to me.

[...] I've used Walmart's "Onn" Google/Android TV boxes on both 1080p and 4K televisions. [...] Projectivity Launcher set to default and advert-buttons on the remote control overridden in software. [...] It's honestly better than my experience with Apple TV 4K. And if Google continues to close down and wall off AOSP, there's already at least one community build of Lineage OS with Android TV for the Raspberry Pi.

[...] My son’s school laptop is my old 8gb 2020 M1 Air, which continues to have stellar performance and battery life and could run Tahoe if I was crazy enough to want to upgrade it. My work machine is a 2021 M1 Pro that runs just as great as the day I bought it (thanks, Al Dente!). My 3 Apple TV 4Ks are I-have-no-idea-how-old but they are still being updated and just get out of the way like a TV box should. [...]

My AppleTV 4K’s “reduce loud sounds” and “enhance dialogue” features have made watching TV at night bearable again.

[...] I use Apple TV 4K and I can use my iPhone as a remote, use it for color calibration, use it as a dedicated camera for FaceTime on TV 5. I use Apple Watch to receive important calls/ notifications when my phone is not around. [...] Photo sync and iCloud are pretty easy to replace with Google Photos/G drive, so I’m not worried about that part. [...]

[...] Apple TV 4K boxes also stream TV+ at a much higher bit rate than any other service but that’s a bit enthusiast.

I have two Apple TV 4Ks and both started dropping Bluetooth connections every minute or so after a recent upgrade. [...] My Apple Watch regularly has a glitched Home Screen too. [...]

[...] It works fine connected to an AppleTV 4k and and appleTV is the only smart TV software I'll use. [...]

I have a QN90A that operates as a "dumb" panel via a HDMI-CEC through a combination of receiver and Apple TV 4K. Rarely/never need the TV remote and there's zero point to giving the TV internet access. The receiver has internet access so it can play Tidal.

[...] If I got a phone call I often wanted a quick way to pause my media but chromecast made this super inconvenient, slow and stressful when the phone is blurting out it's ringtone. [...] In the end I realized that since I've already chosen between a rock and a hard place (went with the Apple ecosystem), I could just screenshare using an old Apple TV. [...] I have an Apple TV 4K and just mostly use the native apps from various services. [...]

[...] Apple TV 4K does a paltry 20-40...

What are you watching on? I have an Apple TV 4k and it's the best experience I've ever seen. I had Roku's for a long time and just got tired of them (bad performance, glitches).

The client I use is Apple TV 4k and Plex does not have reliable playback for that device. It’s pathetic this has been broken for so long. [...]

I got an Apple TV 4K a while back to replace my Roku. [...] On top of that, it let me recalibrate the colors using my iPhone camera. Anyway, I bought it to reduce ad tracking, and was pleasantly surprised that it was roughly equivalent to buying a new TV.

After over 25 years of building various HTPCs (with various assortments of timeshiftimg PVRs like Windows Media, XBMC, Kodi, SageTV, SnapStream, MythTV, TVheadend etc, and futzing with MPEG video-in cards on Windows, RSS feeds, etc), various other TV boxes like Popcorn Hour, and nasty Android TV boxes, I finally settled on the AppleTV 4K paired with Plex server running on Debian on an old HP EliteBook laptop. Life is too short for messing around with these sort of sub-optimal workarounds in 2024, when there are now finally great affordable fuss-free tech out there.

[...] The charts you link to show game sales that lag way behind the xbox. [...] I only say this because I got my ps3 for free with the purchase of a Sony television at a Sony store (remember those?) in late 2009 and never purchased more than a bare handful of games which I almost never played. [...] Skyrim was one the games I bought and it was so buggy, even for Bethesda, on the ps3 due to ram limitations (I've read) that I purchased it again for pc. [...] My ps3 was, and based on those yearly charts a lot of other peoples' ps3s were also, extremely powerful streaming boxes and I only retired mine when I upgraded to a 4k tv and got an appletv 4k.

On this I will say they are far more snappy than they used to be, battery life is great if you ask me. [...] Between that app and the Apple TV 4K I’ve had since just before they moved the remote to usb c it’s been great. [...]

At least with my setup I prefer Amcrest over Reolink (based on compatibility and setup and plugins with the software I use). An open source option that just requires cameras, a computer, and a network is Scrypted + Frigate (+optional Google coral). [...] If you have Google coral frigate can also do AI object detection (it can do it without but slower). Since Scrypted is the rebroadcast point I also have it hooked up to Apple home kit since I have an Apple TV 4K. [...]