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Apple TV 4K Gets A12 Bionic

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Re: Apple TV 4K Gets A12 Bionic

#151

I'm happy that they ditched the old, confusing 'touch' Siri remote for a traditional four button (up/down/left/right) one. The old Siri remote was pretty frustrating. I know some people love it, but there's so many ways it didn't. work well: 1. You breath on the thing, and it does something. It's extremely sensitive 2. It's really hard to fast fwd/rewind just a little bit. Its good at scrubbing through a whole movie,…

I'm always a little surprised when people talk about the Apple TV remote, since I always just use my phone as the remote, and assume that everyone else would too; you always have your phone and often don't have the remote on-hand.

I use my phone often too, but you cannot control the volume from your phone so you need another remote too. My Samsung TV remote works pretty well as the Apple TV remote though too. The DirecTV remote control was also programmable and worked OK. They both just lack the Home button but you can use the Back button enough times to do without it.

Re: Apple TV 4K Gets A12 Bionic

#152
post #115

I'm happy that they ditched the old, confusing 'touch' Siri remote for a traditional four button (up/down/left/right) one. The old Siri remote was pretty frustrating. I know some people love it, but there's so many ways it didn't. work well: 1. You breath on the thing, and it does something. It's extremely sensitive 2. It's really hard to fast fwd/rewind just a little bit. Its good at scrubbing through a whole movie,…

I use the original TV remote to navigate the AppleTV menus, it works by HDMI-CEC. Its amusing to me that this new appleremote is very similar to a traditional TV remote.

It basically looks the same as the remote from the old AppleTV 2 with a Siri button.

Re: Apple TV 4K Gets A12 Bionic

#153
post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It uses HDMI ARC but it's pretty flaky from the iPhone in my experience. Works more consistently with the remote itself. No idea why.

I'm pretty certain that the ATV remote beams good old fashioned infrared signals to change the volume on your TV/soundbar/receiver directly without involving the ATV itself.

I think this is right, because I had to teach my remote how to talk to my tv. Super odd, since every other box I've had has just been able to do this over HDMI.

Re: Apple TV 4K Gets A12 Bionic

#154

This is by far the least “Apple” product IMO. I hate that I can’t remove stock apps and I hate that I’m being sold to every second I’m in the UI. It’s so blatant. I paid for the box - I just want to use it for AirPlay and a small selection of apps I download, that’s all. Yet Apple treats it as a giant digital billboard in our living rooms.

I use AppleTV exclusively, how do you feel you are being sold to? I am guessing it is in the Apple TV app? That is the only place I can think of where I see something like this but it does not seem drastically different from Netflix promoting shows to watch.

I mainly use other apps and do not feel like I am seeing ads or anything that are coming from AppleTV.

Re: Apple TV 4K Gets A12 Bionic

#155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm always a little surprised when people talk about the Apple TV remote, since I always just use my phone as the remote, and assume that everyone else would too; you always have your phone and often don't have the remote on-hand.

I use my phone often too, but you cannot control the volume from your phone so you need another remote too. My Samsung TV remote works pretty well as the Apple TV remote though too. The DirecTV remote control was also programmable and worked OK. They both just lack the Home button but you can use the Back button enough times to do without it.

My phone controls the volume, when the remote app is up on the phone the volume buttons on the phone actually change my receivers volume through HDMI from the Apple tv.

Re: Apple TV 4K Gets A12 Bionic

#156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm always a little surprised when people talk about the Apple TV remote, since I always just use my phone as the remote, and assume that everyone else would too; you always have your phone and often don't have the remote on-hand.

I use my phone often too, but you cannot control the volume from your phone so you need another remote too. My Samsung TV remote works pretty well as the Apple TV remote though too. The DirecTV remote control was also programmable and worked OK. They both just lack the Home button but you can use the Back button enough times to do without it.

You're the second person to say this, but for what it's worth: the iPhone remote app is literally the only way I control the volume on my AV system.

Re: Apple TV 4K Gets A12 Bionic

#157

Something that might be being overlooked - it looks like this supports pairing Xbox One controllers that use Xbox Wireless! This is a different standard than Bluetooth and should enable everyone who has Xbox controllers to easily use them in Apple Arcade. Impressive!

I'm currently playing Shadow of the Tomb Raider on my M1 Mac using an Xbox One S controller. It fully vibrates and requires no setup at all. Apple introduced this pairing of Xbox and PS4 controllers very recently for all its devices. Its great. Shadow of the Tomb Raider, not so much. I can't get more than a steady 30 FPS.

Re: Apple TV 4K Gets A12 Bionic

#158
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The entire advantage of Apple is supposed to be that they're one company and all of their products work together, but that's becoming less and less true over time. AirPods and HomePods barely work with Macs compared to how they work with iOS devices. Apple has boasted about how you can fit all of their products on a conference room table, yet they don't actually work together well. What else are they doing with their…

I use AirPods just fine with Macs. I also easily switch between Mac and iPhone reliably and easily. What particular annoyances are you talking about?

I recently came over to "Apple"-world after years of listening to all the fanatics/ambassadeurs who proclaims "it just works". I've been using an Apple AIO computer (model Imac 5k) for a couple of years as a web browser, but recently I started the switch from Android eco system and first I bought the "pro" model of their wireless headset just to find out that they worked pretty decently (albeit, overly expensive) as bluetooth headset even to my Sony phone, then I bought the their mobile phone ("12 pro") and also their smartwatch ("series 6").

After I switched from Android I did a reset to my headset and paired it with all my Apple devices. Success rate of switching sound between computer, phone and watch against the headset varies alot. Sometimes it just works but almost half of the times I have to fiddle with sound output in computer to select the "airpods pro" or in the phone to select the bluetooth headset. Not to mention that even directly in the phone I had troubles to answer in Hangouts with sound output/input redirected to the headset, even though it says "Airpods pro" beneath the bluetooth symbol to show it is actively connected to de device. Also in the computer there are several occassions where the "wheel" is spinning, in the attempt to connect to the headset. This thing "it just works" feels like a fraud to me, I can't remember since Android 2.x (I never had the 3.x, only 4.x, 5.x, 6.x, 8.x, 9.x and 10.x) that I had sound/connection issues like this. Although I have not had a bluetooth headset linked between my Linux computers and Android phones, I have shared multipoint bluetooth headsets between two different android phones and switched over without these kind of obstacles I now have.

Re: Apple TV 4K Gets A12 Bionic

#159

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.

The only thing I care about is that it supports 4k at higher refresh rates.

Re: Apple TV 4K Gets A12 Bionic

#160
Surprised/disappointed this didn’t also coincide with stuffing the old hardware into a “stick” form factor and calling it an Apple TV Mini.

I want an Apple TV on every TV I own but it’s just too big in some cases.

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