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Apple TV | OT | The new ERA of Television

Quasar

Quasar

Member
Oct 25, 2017
238
qzlIkah.jpg


And on we go to a new place and a new thread.

Anyway, carrying on from prior discussions I noticed recently that Apple is solving so of its major issues with the AppleTV. Such as frame rate and hdr switching as described in this Apple dev video.

https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/fall2017/503/

Video only works on safari and edge though as other browsers don't support the format.

Pretty happy about the framerate switching as someone yet to buy a 4k display yet, unfortunate its only supported by the ATV 4K though.

ATV still lacks the audio support I need to see it move from a secondary device though.
 
Fredo

Fredo

Member
Oct 30, 2017
1,033
Good to see that Apple is listening. The switching causes the screen to go black for a couple of seconds at the start of playback and again at the end. Interface animation is cut and with 24hz content the overlay menus are sluggish. So it's understandable that Apple wanted to avoid this as a default. But for many video nerds this is quickly becoming the ultimate streaming box. Also it seems very certain that Apple would be looking to take advantage of variable refresh rate in a near future.
 
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Quasar

Quasar

Member
Oct 25, 2017
238
The problem of course now is Apples audio decisions. That's one reason I still see it as secondary and my Shield still has my primary home media device.

Anyway the public beta supporting these video features is out. Though I've yet to upgrade so I can't test how it works. I hope Plex supports it soon.
 
Got the Shakes

Got the Shakes

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Oct 25, 2017
1,136
Michigan
Quasar said:
The problem of course now is Apples audio decisions. That's one reason I still see it as secondary and my Shield still has my primary home media device.

Anyway the public beta supporting these video features is out. Though I've yet to upgrade so I can't test how it works. I hope Plex supports it soon.
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So I've had an AppleTV 1, 3, and 4 in the past. I currently have an nVidia Shield. One of my main reasons for buying the Shield is because of their audio codec support. I'm thinking of snagging an AppleTV 4K though. For one, I don't find myself using Kodi much anymore which was a big reason I bought a Shield. Two, Android TV is pretty terrible supporting Comcast as a cable provider (I know this is Comcast's fault and not Android). And three, it seems if I wanted to play something with a DTS track untouched instead of transcoded to DD I could just play it through Infuse.
 
borghe

borghe

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,112
I don't think it's supposed to be any version specifically.. my guess is there's a flag and bits and pieces of it exist in all 11.x versions.

Atmos support... and I hate to be a Debbie Downer.. but I am betting it won't come until 12.0. Apple is already tied (essentially) as the most capable streaming box on the market (as there is no box currently that does HDR10, Dolby Vision, Atmos, 24p, etc all in one. and I said box, not shield). At this point they will probably gain more users by focusing on content providing (securing more app deals) and serving (improving aggregation with sports, live tv, and again more app deals). I have no doubt Atmos is actively being worked on... but for 11x I just have to believe they have higher priorities that will pay off better for them. Besides, then it gives them a big announcement at WWDC next year. It also gives them a year to get encodes on the store with Atmos tracks so they can launch with hundreds of titles instead of the dozens they launched with 4K.

just my 2¢

also after a week, I AM a fan of format switching... but I totally get why they left it out and have it turned off by default. It introduces a lag constantly, especially when going from video to menu in most HDR sources. The screen savers coming up when a movie is paused look awful at 24fps (and the UI in general just performs awful at 24fps) Like everything outside of ACTUALLY playing the video is pretty much a lesser experience.

I'd almost wish now (:P) that they just give us a quick remote control option to switch video to a native format, and leave the box in HDR60 at all other times. Auto switching IS better than we had it before.. but it's not quite the seamless experience everyone was hoping for... which now I understand why Apple resisted.
 
borghe

borghe

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,112
if it comes out in 2017 I'll be shocked. Amazon hates Apple so much, they'll put it off until it starts hitting their bottom line.

losers.
 

Deleted member 14649

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Oct 27, 2017
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borghe said:
I don't think it's supposed to be any version specifically.. my guess is there's a flag and bits and pieces of it exist in all 11.x versions.

Atmos support... and I hate to be a Debbie Downer.. but I am betting it won't come until 12.0. Apple is already tied (essentially) as the most capable streaming box on the market (as there is no box currently that does HDR10, Dolby Vision, Atmos, 24p, etc all in one. and I said box, not shield). At this point they will probably gain more users by focusing on content providing (securing more app deals) and serving (improving aggregation with sports, live tv, and again more app deals). I have no doubt Atmos is actively being worked on... but for 11x I just have to believe they have higher priorities that will pay off better for them. Besides, then it gives them a big announcement at WWDC next year. It also gives them a year to get encodes on the store with Atmos tracks so they can launch with hundreds of titles instead of the dozens they launched with 4K.

just my 2¢

also after a week, I AM a fan of format switching... but I totally get why they left it out and have it turned off by default. It introduces a lag constantly, especially when going from video to menu in most HDR sources. The screen savers coming up when a movie is paused look awful at 24fps (and the UI in general just performs awful at 24fps) Like everything outside of ACTUALLY playing the video is pretty much a lesser experience.

I'd almost wish now (:P) that they just give us a quick remote control option to switch video to a native format, and leave the box in HDR60 at all other times. Auto switching IS better than we had it before.. but it's not quite the seamless experience everyone was hoping for... which now I understand why Apple resisted.
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Your experience is the complete opposite of mine, but as I mentioned, I leave it at a default of 60Hz 4K SDR and let it switch to HDR when needed. The only thing I have noticed is videos in Youtube take about a second longer to start, which is where I guess it is checking frame rate etc. Absolutely rock solid for me.
 
dallow_bg

dallow_bg

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Oct 28, 2017
10,620
texas
holygeesus said:
Your experience is the complete opposite of mine, but as I mentioned, I leave it at a default of 60Hz 4K SDR and let it switch to HDR when needed. The only thing I have noticed is videos in Youtube take about a second longer to start, which is where I guess it is checking frame rate etc. Absolutely rock solid for me.
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You have an LG OLED right holygeesus?
Mine should be seamless as well.

As TVs get better and these features are ubiquitous it should be that way for everyone.
 
Got the Shakes

Got the Shakes

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Oct 25, 2017
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Jumped back on the Apple TV train with a 32gb 4K. I currently have an nVidia Shield, but I'm going to sell it to offset most of the cost. The Shield was great in that it supports all sorts of audio formats, Comcast doesn't seem to like Android TV apps though and quite frankly it was overkill for my setup as I wasn't using a lot of the Shield features like game steaming. Most of my stuff is in Plex so I know that there might be some transcoding that happens, it sounds like Infuse 5 is a solid option if I want to be able to play my files untouched though.
 

Deleted member 14649

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Infuse is fantastic. I host all of my files on a network drive and a USB plugged into my router, and it doesn't skip a beat - plays everything thrown at it. It's a real boon to not need a server running a'la Plex. Best app I've ever bought.
 
Got the Shakes

Got the Shakes

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Oct 25, 2017
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holygeesus said:
Infuse is fantastic. I host all of my files on a network drive and a USB plugged into my router, and it doesn't skip a beat - plays everything thrown at it. It's a real boon to not need a server running a'la Plex. Best app I've ever bought.
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I really like both Plex and the little I've messed around with Infuse. I have a dedicated NAS that runs Plex Media Server and is capable of transcoding multiple 1080p streams if need be. The obvious limitation of Apple TV is that it doesn't natively do DTS which Infuse will. I've seen some rumblings of the Infuse boards that they might be adding the option to has Infuse tap into Plex Media Server which for me would be the ultimate combo on ATV.
 
Peek-a-boo!

Peek-a-boo!

Member
Oct 30, 2017
4,191
Woodbridge
*sighs*

I updated my Apple TV (series 4) yesterday evening before watching Spider-Man: Homecoming (it's a great film BTW!) and something has started to occur that never used to happen prior to this update. I now seemly have to endure entering my flipping password EVERY SINGLE TIME before you start playing a film, or continuing a television programme or even listening to music.

I switched off the password thingummy in the settings however, it still asks me for my iTunes password. I decided to restore it to factory settings, and all was well when I managed to get to the main film/menu screen on Spider-Man annddd... it asked for my password again.

This is incredibly frustrating when you have to type out a password using that flimsy little remote!

Anybody know if there's a way to sort this out? I simply cannot believe that this time yesterday, I could watch or listen to anything on my Apple TV without seeing that password prompt pop-up out of the blue.
 
Lord Brady

Lord Brady

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
8,392
Shame about Amazon. I have a PS4 but most of the video apps run kinda sketchy on it (namely Vue and Amazon). Vue on my Apple TV runs pretty much flawlessly, which makes me really want to see the NFL Thursday games via Amazon on my Apple TV instead of the PS4. Another nice benefit of using the Apple TV is bluetooth headphones work on it really well.
 
SmackCracklenpop

SmackCracklenpop

Member
Oct 25, 2017
811
Orange County
I'm happy this thread continues on over in the new era.

I got an Apple TV 4K for my parents and it's pretty sweet. Looking forward to when there's auto switching. Love 24p when a movie is playing but it's so awful when navigating menus at that refresh rate
 
Palette Swap

Palette Swap

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
11,190
Good to see this thread back. I remember lamenting all twelve of us had lost our thread.

infiniteloop said:
so when is this Amazon Prime Video app coming out? Last guessed date was Oct 27th
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I remember repeating that info from Reddit in another life. I really hope Amazon doesn't somehow renege on this. At least we got Vudu this year (which I've found has some weird audio mixes compared to Apple's).
 
emiliolargo

emiliolargo

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Nov 11, 2017
314
So excited for auto switching. Forced HDR@60Hz basically was my biggest complaint... Does anyone here testing the beta by chance have an LG B6? It would be great if it would switch to Dolby Vision@24Hz with auto switching enabled since the tv doesn't support DV@60Hz...
 
jts

jts

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
3,018
Hello guys. So I'm on the verge of picking up some bluetooth cans, and not Beats with W1, so I'm wondering. If I have them manually paired to my iPhone/Mac/Apple TV, can then I still just switch devices by picking it from each device, i.e., on Apple TV I just press the play button on the menu to bring the audio selection menu up and pick them, then I switch to my iPhone I just pick them from the "airplay" list on mini-player in control center etc?

Or do I have to keep unpairing and re-pairing them?

Knowing that would actually be important in the decision of splurging or not.
 
Got the Shakes

Got the Shakes

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Oct 25, 2017
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jts said:
Hello guys. So I'm on the verge of picking up some bluetooth cans, and not Beats with W1, so I'm wondering. If I have them manually paired to my iPhone/Mac/Apple TV, can then I still just switch devices by picking it from each device, i.e., on Apple TV I just press the play button on the menu to bring the audio selection menu up and pick them, then I switch to my iPhone I just pick them from the "airplay" list on mini-player in control center etc?

Or do I have to keep unpairing and re-pairing them?

Knowing that would actually be important in the decision of splurging or not.
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It will likely depend on the headphones themselves, but any decent Bluetooth headphones nowadays will let you pair to multiple devices. What might happen though with non W1 headphones though is that instead of picking them from the AirPlay menu, you may have to go into the Bluetooth menu in the Settings.app and manually connect to them on you iPhone. Some headphones will let you actually connect to multiple devices at once so you could be connect to you Apple TV and iPhone at the same time, the drawback to that is that you would potentially be hearing audio from both devices at the same time so if you're watching something on Apple TV and an alert pops up on your iPhone then the sound of that alert could get piped into the headphones with the audio from Apple TV.
 
jts

jts

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Oct 26, 2017
3,018
Got the Shakes said:
It will likely depend on the headphones themselves, but any decent Bluetooth headphones nowadays will let you pair to multiple devices. What might happen though with non W1 headphones though is that instead of picking them from the AirPlay menu, you may have to go into the Bluetooth menu in the Settings.app and manually connect to them on you iPhone. Some headphones will let you actually connect to multiple devices at once so you could be connect to you Apple TV and iPhone at the same time, the drawback to that is that you would potentially be hearing audio from both devices at the same time so if you're watching something on Apple TV and an alert pops up on your iPhone then the sound of that alert could get piped into the headphones with the audio from Apple TV.
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I see, thanks. I guess I have to do some research on the headphones, although they are modern and supposedly good. I kinda took for granted that I couldn't pick them up from the AirPlay menu drop shade, but at least from the long press play button in the home screen I had hopes that I could pick them. Going back into the settings app is a pain - I remember having to do it with the AirPods, ugh.

edit: turns out the MDR-1000X seem to be quite shitty at this :(
 
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borghe

borghe

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Oct 27, 2017
3,112
yeah, you come across bugs here and there.. but I would never go without mode switching again.. bugs and all. that most of my content is 1080p24 SDR pretty much seals it.
 
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Quasar

Quasar

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Oct 25, 2017
238
At one time I actually cared about that. Maybe I will need it if the LotR TV show comes out.
 

Deleted member 9330

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I care about it only for the TV integration because when I look for a movie to watch I always forget to check that app because it's totally separate
 

Deleted member 9330

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Quasar said:
On that front I wonder if Apple will ever get netflix on board.
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Netflix has no incentive to join the TV app and share their viewership data with Apple. And they don't want to be displayed next to non-Netflix content as an equally viable option. I would love love love their integration for the same reasons as Amazon Prime, but they have the market power to essentially stay away forever to no detrimental effects
 
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Quasar

Quasar

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Oct 25, 2017
238
Zeyphersan said:
Netflix has no incentive to join the TV app and share their viewership data with Apple. And they don't want to be displayed next to non-Netflix content as an equally viable option. I would love love love their integration for the same reasons as Amazon Prime, but they have the market power to essentially stay away forever to no detrimental effects
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I know. But i think if the dump truck of cash was big enough they'd play ball as Amazon appears to be doing.
 
Book One

Book One

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Oct 25, 2017
4,810
So the best thing to do is to turn on this 'match content' option in the new tvOS, correct?
 
Got the Shakes

Got the Shakes

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Oct 25, 2017
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Just installed it. If you can't find it via search then you can search for the Amazon shopping app, click on it, and scroll all the way to the bottom on the app page and you see more apps by Amazon and Prime Video will be installable from there.
 
jts

jts

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Oct 26, 2017
3,018
Now that it hit, I already have it on the TV itself, and at 4K.

Although I guess it is an incentive to upgrade to Apple TV 4K (I do prefer the controller and OS). If only they took my ATV4 back :/
 
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