New incoming 4K Apple TV - game changer ?

[psurquhart]

First of all - wasn't sure where to post this but to me Apple TV has always been primarily home cinema to me due to how many films I have via iTunes.

Please feel free to move it but I can't see a dedicated Apple TV section ?

Anyways,

Does anyone else not think Apple have pulled off a genius move here ? I know it won't appeal to all and I confess I am locked in to everything with an "I" in it - phones x2, iPads x 3 and an existing soon to be old Apple TV 4th generation black box.

This, as an Appleholic, is pure heaven for me.

Yes it's expensive but the carrot dangling is going to make it a game changer surely ?

I have an OLED LG tv so can now look forward to 4K films which has been a long time coming but fair enough it's finally literally just round the corner - 22nd Sept.

The game changing part for me is not only the inclusion of future proofing 4K by offering both HDR and Dolby Vision formats, which ticks the boxes for my LG display. But for me the killer blow and icing on the cake is selling future 4K films for the price of HD films. Then, to top it all off Apple are going to convert, where possible all past HD purchases to 4K.

Surely this now makes the previously expensive iTunes movie section positively cheap ?

This is brilliant news and love em or hate them - Apple have pulled off a cracking move here. 4K films for HD prices. What's not to like ?

And they have done deals with both Amazon Prime and Netflix to get their content too.

Be interested to know your thoughts ?

I know I will be buying one asap.

 

[davidf]

What will be the audio codec? There's too many movie streaming services that are stereo or old school 5.1, with non of them offering anything above Dolby Digital Plus. The latter sounds pretty good, but I've watched a few streamed films recently, and the audio side of things really needs to be improved to match the picture that some are offering. While I was away, I watched Kong with the missus via Amazon Prime (£1.99 deal for HD), and half the sound was missing - all the low thuds and rumbles were non existent. That might partly be to do with the relatively budget system, but even so.

Having said that, these streaming services need to look at video too - too many films with dark scenes look awful because of heavily compressed dark scenes (which need a high bit rate), leaving way too many artefacts. I still buy the films I know I'll watch regularly on Bluray because at least I'm guaranteed full fat audio and video. I think it's pointless to add higher resolution streaming services only to compress them - 1080p from some services looks marginally better than DVD. Now TV was pretty bad - I tested out watching John Carpenter's The Thing (which I know very well) on a free trial and it was so soft it looked out of focus - cancelled immediately. And it was only in stereo.

 

[abacus]

Hardware wise, apart from Dolby Vision there is nothing new compared to what’s already out there at less prices. (Unless you have locked yourself into the Apple rip off culture)

Film pricing is a slick move; however, one of the film streaming services would have done it eventually, but Kudos to Apple for doing it first.

As to a game changer, not even close.

Bill

 

[Blacksabbath25]

just looked £200 for the 4k version

 

[daveh75]

Not only is it not a game changer, but it's what the Apple TV 4 should've of been.

Oh, and it only supports upto DD+. No Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD, Dolby Atmos or DTS:X...

https://www.apple.com/uk/apple-tv-4k/

The NVidia Shield TV blows the ATV out the water (both models, and the first gen has been available 2+ years now) and it already offers 4K/HDR Netflix and Amazon Prime too (not some unspecified date in the future)

 

[psurquhart]

Not only is it not a game changer, but it's what the Apple TV 4 should've of been.

Oh, and it only supports upto DD+. No Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD, Dolby Atmos or DTS:X...

https://www.apple.com/uk/apple-tv-4k/

The NVidia Shield TV blows the ATV out the water (both models, and the first gen has been available 2+ years now) and it already offers 4K/HDR Netflix and Amazon Prime too (not some unspecified date in the future)

I guess you are right about the sound output - never really understood why it can't go to Dolby True HD, DTS HD etc guessing its unable to deal with the big files to output it. However, as a streaming service new films are Dolby 7.1 and as far as I know none of the other streaming services offer anything greater than that and most are only 5.1.

Apple have been slow too, the old one should have at least offered 4K.

However, when I refer to it being a game changer I am referring to 4K streams at HD prices. For me, this is a game changer as Apple have stolen a March price wise on it's competitors (not to mention the upgrade previously owned HD purchases to 4K, again another first).

I appreciate you are not a fan of Apple Dave but even you must give a hats off to Apple for going down this route.

As consumers of any streamed service, this must be a positive step in the right direction from a pricing perspective. Will be interesting to see what others do and in my mind that is a game changer.

Not everyone likes Apple TV but as an all round ticks a lot of boxes black box, it is a very neat thing even if it is still not quite up to speed on all fronts.

 

[daveh75]

I appreciate you are not a fan of Apple Dave but even you must give a hats off to Apple for going down this route.

As consumers of any streamed service, this must be a positive step in the right direction from a pricing perspective. Will be interesting to see what others do and in my mind that is a game changer.

No, because buying movies in such a manner is beyond imbecilic as far as I'm concerned.

Why would anyone buy media that not only locks them into a platform, but also leaves them beholden to the platform having a continued relationship with studios/distributors.

I'll buy my movies on disc (which is admittedly few and far between these days, since there's little I'd watch more than once) and rip them, that why I 'own' it and nobody can take it away, and not to mention play it on any H/W I damn well please...