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  • Wow. The price went from 129 to 199 to 299. That's nuts. Also, I find it pretty hilarious because for a couple years people have been speculating that Apple would release a low cost version to compete with the sticks.

    Anyway, it's now too much money for something that is just going to open Jellyfin.

    by HumblyTossed
  • > With built-in far-field microphones, Apple TV 4K also lets users talk to Siri completely hands-free.

    Is no one concerned about an always-on, internet connected microphone being in their living room or bedroom? This needs a physical shut off switch.

    Funny how when LG does it [1] it’s a privacy nightmare but when Apple does it it’s a cool new feature.

    [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49592375

    by SamuelAdams
  • I have an AppleTV because I never want to plug my TV into the internet. I just need a box that can stream videos. Does it need to have AI? No. It really doesn’t. I wish Apple just dropped all this junk and figured out what they want that TV app to do.
    by goalieca
  • I bought an Apple TV 4K a few months ago (Google TV's ads were too much) and there's nothing here that might even slightly tempt me to upgrade.

    * Siri - no thanks

    * Far field microphones - no thanks

    * Faster performance - unnecessary for me (I watch TV, movies and YouTube - it's never not smooth)

    * Home theatre with homepods - I already have Sonos surround

    * Even smarter home hub - I have a non-Apple smart home

    * Facetime, Fitness+, Apple TV app - just not for me

    The one thing I feel like I'm missing (and would be missing even if I upgraded) is audio passthrough, but DD 5.1 is _fine_.

    by petepete
  • I had been holding off on buying an Apple TV in anticipation of this launch, and am a bit underwhelmed. $300 just seems crazy for what is, or I guess, what it's coming from.

    Does anyone know why having 128GB of storage is useful? Just for installing more apps? I've had Google TV devices in the past, and don't think I ever came close to the 32GB storage limit. Maybe there's a gap I'm missing...

    by crakhamster01
  • Too pricey, as many others have noted. I was waiting for this model to consider upgrading from the previous generation, but I can’t justify it at this price. I guess this is why recently Apple included the Apple TV service within the lowest/basic iCloud+ plan in most countries. There’s no way to justify the cost of this new device plus the high cost of the Apple TV content subscription, which has its own drawbacks (the catalog is too small in comparison to other services, Apple still releases episodes once a week, and adds annoying ads for its shows and movies at the start of an episode or movie).

    I don’t see Siri AI as a big positive differentiator when compared to third generation Apple TV 4K from 2022. Anecdotally, Siri AI has gotten slower and worse from the time the *OS 27.x were released.

    Apple TV is the smoothest way to navigate, run apps, etc., without having to use whatever sluggish tracking crap that comes with Smart TVs. I’ve never connected my TV to the internet and Apple TV is the main input source for it. Combined with a couple of HomePods and eARC, it works fine for the most part. Combine with NextDNS (for DNS and system wide tracker blocking) alongside Tailscale, and you’ve got a nice setup.

    The biggest downside of Apple TV is tvOS, which doesn’t get much developer time within Apple. This hits harder for Apple’s own apps, which tend to be of poor quality and have no attention paid to bug reports for years.

    by newscracker
  • 300$ yikes. I'm amazed. And this thing can't even do 120 fps. :-(

    Did the old one also not have Dolby vision/HDR10/Atmos? What is this cinematic stuff? What are we missing here?

    Why would I need CPU/GPU performance on an Apple TV? I'm genuinely confused. Is it to play video games? If I want to play video games, I can pay a bit more and get a used playstation I suppose. I genuinely don't understand this product anymore.

    by thewonderfulmrp
  • I'm a little surprised at the price (especially when their newly-announced HomeView is the same price, and it has a screen!).

    I love this product: it's the one box I can (reasonably) trust to not be mining my viewing habits for data. I have two older ones and was looking to get something that supported 4K but waited for this to come out.

    $300 might be a decent price if you use it for all of the things that it can do, but if all you're doing is launching streaming apps, $200 was already on the high end for that. $300 seems...a bit much.

    Anything I'm missing here? The silver lining is that this product is almost certainly still in the "pay money then forget about it for a decade" tier, which is nice.

    I'm also wondering if/how the "add up to four homepods" feature compares to "getting a soundbar". In the other thread for this someone noted that the HomePods only work with this box; so if you're running a game console that's no bueno. But apart from that, if $600 on an Apple TV + two HomePods mini delivers something comparable to a ~$500 soundbar, that's a decent value proposition.

    by Brendinooo

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