Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Apple TV 4K Gets A12 Bionic

apple.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 349 posts

Re: Apple TV 4K Gets A12 Bionic

#91

Post by tootie »

defaultname wrote: post #48
goodcjw2 wrote: post #18

Honestly speaking, the problem with Apple TV is that chips like A12 are such a overkill for TV box use cases. I recently purchased a $30 Roku and find it has almost 99% of the features that an Apple TV would have (including airplay2). Yes, Apple TV would have better color, visual quality, etc, but that's way into the realm of dismissed return for the investment IMHO.

I recently moved my Apple TV to another room (for Fitness+ use) so we started relying upon a Chromecast with Google TV. What a downgrade. It made me remember how horrid AV components often were, where multi-second delays, slow loading, horrid transitions, etc, were just normal. The Chromecast Google TV device has a 4 core, 1.9Ghz device, yet it seems extremely underpowered. Having a beefy processor in an AV device is…

My experience with streaming sticks or other micro devices is that they get super hot and degrade over time pretty quickly. A small brick like Roku Ultra is much more durable. Bonus points for having an ethernet port. I'm also a fan of the Roku remote with the headphone jack built in and TV volume controls.

Re: Apple TV 4K Gets A12 Bionic

#93

Post by tshaddox »

goodcjw2 wrote: post #36
conception wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s insane they don’t package a first party controller and just take the video console space over with it.

Yeah, sounds like natural next step. But building a game console ecosystem turns out to be 10x harder than building the hardware itself.

That's true, but Apple already has a rich and successful game ecosystem on iPhones which are roughly the same hardware as the Apple TV. They have all the ingredients, and they've even made a visible attempt by offering Apple Arcade on the Apple TV. Wireless console controllers also work on Apple TV. It's just clear that the resources and effort haven't been made to get their Arcade developers to do the extra work to really make their titles work well on big TVs with console controllers.

Re: Apple TV 4K Gets A12 Bionic

#94

Post by _ph_ »

crazygringo wrote: post #9

And still no support for spatial audio with AirPods Pro? I continue to be mystified why spatial audio only works for watching movies on iOS devices. I know the official explanation is that the host device needs an accelerometer and gyroscope... but Apple TV's tend to stay still, you know. It baffles me why you can get amazing spatial audio watching a movie on a tiny screen... or regular stereo audio watching a movie…

I had hoped for spatial audio in an updated AppleTV, as I finally want to be able to use that great feature of the Airpods Max. It is strange that Apple creates devices like the Airpods Max and then not support them with their hardware.

Re: Apple TV 4K Gets A12 Bionic

#95

Post by vlovich123 »

hathym wrote: post #70
ping_pong wrote: post #22

As a current AppleTV 4K owner, I have no idea how any of this is different from the previous version. I don't any any discernible difference. I already have HDR, Dolby Atmos, etc. What I really want is the ability to make my remote control beep so I can find it. That's literally the only feature that I want at this point.

maybe this can help: https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2021/04/apple-introduces-airt...

Hopefully at some point AirTag will be embedded into all the first-party devices/peripherals.

Re: Apple TV 4K Gets A12 Bionic

#96

Post by paulpan »

The chip/SOC choice is perplexing: why only the A12 and not the more powerful A12X/A12Z? It would seem more future proof for graphics intensive workloads.

For comparison, the A12 is ~30% better in CPU tasks but also ~30% worse in GPU tasks. https://www.anandtech.com/show/13661/the-2018-apple-ipad-pro...

Re: Apple TV 4K Gets A12 Bionic

#98

Post by kalleboo »

meepmorp wrote: post #31
ping_pong wrote: post #22

As a current AppleTV 4K owner, I have no idea how any of this is different from the previous version. I don't any any discernible difference. I already have HDR, Dolby Atmos, etc. What I really want is the ability to make my remote control beep so I can find it. That's literally the only feature that I want at this point.

They also redesigned the remote so that it's not a gigantic pain in the ass.

I just use our TV remote. Our TV is 10 years old but the arrow/back/play control keys still work fine to control the Apple TV over CEC. I don't even know where our Apple TV remote is. For anything more fancy (text input) I use the remote on my phone (which automatically pops up on the Lock Screen)

Re: Apple TV 4K Gets A12 Bionic

#99

Post by ectospheno »

minikites wrote: post #37
ectospheno wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their routers ran NetBSD. You can still do that if you want. As for Apple TVs, I own five.

You thoroughly missed my point. Apple could be innovating in so many ways if they had control of the router (home VPN, control nexus for smart home devices), an area which they have an advantage (trust in updates, security, privacy). I think ceding that ground to less trustworthy companies in TP-Link, Eero, and Ubiquiti is dumb. >As for Apple TVs, I own five. Then you have a greater incentive to defend a substandard…

A TP-Link EAP225v3 is a solid access point. It cost $60. Apple left the space because there is no money in it.
Post reply on HN