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Apple TV 4K Gets A12 Bionic

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Re: Apple TV 4K Gets A12 Bionic

#231

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,…

The Apple TV touch remote is frustrating even if you are tech savvy. It is just bad, period.

Prone to dust getting into the gap between the touchpad and the case so edge presses become even more inconsistent

And the ridiculous use of glass where no one would ever have complained about aluminum or plastic (which I've seen shatter on multiple remotes now)

Good riddance

Re: Apple TV 4K Gets A12 Bionic

#232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Taking a random guess, I think it’s because the location of the AppleTV doesn’t help identify the location of the actual screen. There would need to be some awkward configuration step (redone every time the AppleTV or screen moves) that Apple just wouldn’t ask its customers to do.

You don't really need an awkward configuration step, though, because you can rely on the fact that users are usually looking at the screen. Just take the median orientation of the earbuds over time, and you're configured. You can also rely on the fact that the user is almost certainly looking directly at the screen every time they navigate the UX with the remote.

When I use spatial audio on my 2019 ipad it works like that. If I move my head to the side for a while, it "reorients", and now the audio comes from a point in the air next to the ipad.

Re: Apple TV 4K Gets A12 Bionic

#233

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,…

For scrubbing though if you put your finger on the left or right side of the touchpad you will see a little arrow circle on the progress bar. You can then push the pad to scrub.

Re: Apple TV 4K Gets A12 Bionic

#234
post #59

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.

Apple has really started investing in and pushing for their arcade subscription. The A12 Bionic should be a lot faster which is a major point if you want to use those features.

How much faster? I want to upgrade my 4K because of the performance.

Re: Apple TV 4K Gets A12 Bionic

#235
post #210

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.

I diff'd the technical specs for the old and new ATV 4K! https://gist.github.com/varenc/88f3253764fa7782602de2a812af4... There are more wording tweaks than actual capability differences. The real changes boil down to: - New Siri Remote - Support for 4K HDR content at 60fps vs 30fps - HDMI 2.1 vs 2.0 - 802.11ax Wi‑Fi 6 vs 802.11ac

There's also an A12 Bionic.

Re: Apple TV 4K Gets A12 Bionic

#236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Using a real remote (Apple remotes don’t count) is so much better. There are some things a smartphone is better for, such as entering in passwords. But for regular usage there’s no comparison. Besides, if I just wanted to use my smartphone I would simply stick to my chrome cast devices. If I’m gonna be using the phone to control my entertainment center then the chrome cast provides by far the best interface because y…

I forgot all about text inputs! With the actual remote, You have to fumble with that letter-at-a-time selector. I’m even more surprised anyone bothers with the physical remote.

I use actual remote for normal use, and iphone whenever I have to edit text. Seems like the best of both worlds?

To be clear I use my TVs remote with HDMI CEC, not that insane apple remote.

Re: Apple TV 4K Gets A12 Bionic

#237
post #216

I'm wondering how long it will take to get Mac OS Big Sur running in these new Apple TVs. The Apple Transition kit had an A12Z, Wikipedia says it is a "binned" version of A12 Bionic, therefore both chips have the same ARMv8.3 instruction set. I'm not sure of the performance but theoretically it should be possible to have 200 dollars ARM Macs running with this hardware.

I think the bigger problem would be getting access to the boot chain, I very rarely see anything like jailbreaks for these devices (though, I have seen it).

Sadly there isn't really much that's public for A12 devices.

Re: Apple TV 4K Gets A12 Bionic

#238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Using a real remote (Apple remotes don’t count) is so much better. There are some things a smartphone is better for, such as entering in passwords. But for regular usage there’s no comparison. Besides, if I just wanted to use my smartphone I would simply stick to my chrome cast devices. If I’m gonna be using the phone to control my entertainment center then the chrome cast provides by far the best interface because y…

I forgot all about text inputs! With the actual remote, You have to fumble with that letter-at-a-time selector. I’m even more surprised anyone bothers with the physical remote.

You can use a physical remote without looking at it and that's very hard to do with a smartphone. You also have to constantly unlock it to get back to the remote app if it shuts down. I love the Roku remote, it works so well and the physical buttons are very satisfying.

Re: Apple TV 4K Gets A12 Bionic

#239

So is this getting the exact same CPU that was previously in the iPad Pro (that Apple updated today)? If so, amazing supply chain efficiency to keep this same cpu around but now in a cheaper product.

iPad Pro had A12X/Z, this has just "plain" A12 (although the microarchitecture is the same).

Re: Apple TV 4K Gets A12 Bionic

#240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The Apple TV remote doesn't emit infrared. The Apple TV does that itself! (This means that "learned" remote commands work even if you're controlling the Apple TV with your phone, or with a Bluetooth controller.)

The remote clearly has an IR blaster on the front though.
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