alt Hacker NewsNew Apple TV 4K
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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.
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.
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...
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_.
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.
> 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.
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.
$299, up from $129 of the last gen. I am not sure how many people would still buy this?
Raising the price of your product from $130 to $300 in a span of 3 months while not adding any new useful features is crazy even for Apple.
300 bucks seems a lot.
Nowadays with ~100 bucks you can an amd64 box and a CEC adapter, which allows to use the default remote of your tv. Then you can install on it whatever you want, customize it however you prefer and have all the privacy you decide. No lock-in. As much AI as you like, zero is a valid option.
A lot of hardware and not much to do with it.
A different company could turn this hardware into a pretty serious gaming machine or a zero config NAS or something but Apple is not that company.
They couldn't think of any compelling Siri AI use cases to put in the advertising and neither can I.
Every other vendor has injected so many obtrusive ads and spyware Apple has won this product area by default.
Anecdotally, the AppleTV app on smartTVs won't remember what I was watching. Not the show, the episode or the timestamp into the episode.
This has led me to passionately start my own media server again.
Anywhere between $100-$200 will get you a mini PC that you can use to host movies, series, music, audiobooks and ebooks. If you don't transcode the content then there's no need to worry about a GPU. Set it up headless in a closet.
From there you can use a mobile app to connect your phone/tv/any device to it and enjoy an ad free experience without streaming data over the internet.
My TV is a 15in CRT that I connect with a laptop. My phone is a 1st gen iphone se, with apps to stream.
I've found this setup less frustrating (and wildly cheaper) than spotify, appleTV/netflix/hulu, kindle and etc.
The current state of computing is such that I can't justify buying hardware that requires an app to use. If I want cameras, I buy the camera and connect then to my backend. If I want a thermostat, I do the same.
Steve Jobs would have ripped the face off whoever approved that top banner photo:
https://www.apple.com/newsroom/images/2026/10/apple-unveils-...
It's so un-Apple to be stretched and in weird perspective that way
For context, Best Buy US currently lists 184 TV models that cost less than then new Apple TV.
$300 for a streaming box is insane price.
Oh no, I just bought the older version ..
> .. new Apple TV 4K, supercharged by Siri AI
> With built-in far-field microphones, Apple TV 4K also lets users talk to Siri completely hands-free
Oh, okay, never mind
$300 is absurd. I’ve been waiting for this for a while, but it looks like I’ll have to settle for the older model at a lower price. I wonder if the high price is due to storage costs.
I really like my 2022 Apple TV, I just use it for Plex and YouTube and it works great. People complain about the remote but I don't mind it, works fine. I bought it to replace having to use the slow and clunky Plex/Youtube apps on my LG TV and it's more than fulfilled that purpose.
Great little device, I think I paid £130 for it a few years ago.
There is no reason for me to upgrade to this device, but that £299 price tag really stinks, there is no way I'd buy it at that price if I didn't have the older model already.
anyone else been trying the new Siri AI intelligence on their phone and been underwhelmed? It's really slow, no longer gets adding grocery items to the right lists, etc. Did I mention how slow it is to inject an LLM turn on everything? Hopefully they'll fix all that by the time it's out of beta... But it's so rough to me that it's really ruined the experience of the device. Apples voice-to-text still isn't good compared the what I used to have on my Android phone pre-2024, when I switched to Apple ecosystem....
Any note on specs? Do we still have ethernet? Which ethernet we get (is it 2.5GBps?)? How much storage? And what about RAM? I couldn’t easily grasp this information after skimming the text.
Also, any change to the output ports, or are we still restricted to one hdmi as the single output?
Spec bump and AI stuff that nobody needs or wants. All for a higher price. Total yawn, I'll keep my current ATV 4K as it's everything I need.
I guess I'll be using my shield till it dies. It works for the most part and has 4K/DV/Atmos for Jellyfin. Was just hoping to upgrade into an apple device to line up with phones/tablet etc for convenience but not at $429CDN+tax!
What I want to know is how good is it for moonlight streaming? The prev versions had odd latency issues.
EDIT: Brutal! Apparently it doesn’t support VRR or 120 hz at 4K. Surprising miss to not support HDMI 2.1 properly.
Further EDIT: Basically we are entering 2027 with no way to get a tv add on box that can stream 4K apps (Disney+ etc. need Widevine L1), 4K at 120hz (i.e. support HDMI 2.1 properly) and decode AV1. Just a bizarre gap in the market.
The last thing I want is a TV powered by Siri..
Man "Even more Siri" is not the headline feature I was hoping for.
Supporting 4 HomePods surround only in the new model is a classic dick move by Apple.
Also not supporting the original, completely fine and working HomePod for this is another.
Though first place here is dropping raw photo support for the $2k iPhone duo.
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(All these are software features which hardware supports.)
I don't see the appeal unless you're already balls deep into the subscription ecosystem. $300 minipc will get you much further than this thing will. There used to be an argument at $130, but now I just don't see a reason on why one would want to be subject to paying so much across so many services that don't even benefit the original creators most of the time. There's some exceptions where netflix, etc bankrolls entire shows, but they've plumetted in quality and I haven't watched one since two years ago.
That remote still sucks. I would've bought it if there was a new remote.
New Apple TV seems to make sense if you're installing a lot of new sound equipment, and love Siri.
If neither of those are true, not sure what's on offer.
I only wanted an Apple TV with a better chip and full HDMI audio passthrough.
Instead we got a ton of useless stuff.
Old chips cost Apple more money now not less. The A15 and 64GB NAND probably have low volumes and cost Apple more money going forward. So apple likely just upgraded to what the supply chain can reliably do for a while. Prices might go up even in six months to a year. So instead of buying a 200$ bumped to 250$ A15 Apple TV in six months they are probably upgrading it to make sure future price bumps remain relatively low and justifiable for upgraded hardware.
Very interested to know what TV manufacturers are doing who have heavily advertised their Android UIs which are bread and butter of collecting data. TV panels themselves have no reason to have price increases in memory shortage.
I have the last gen Apple TV 4K and I just don't see enough reason to upgrade.
It doesn't even look like this supports 120hz, which would've been nice since my OLED TV does.
yea, this is a non-starter for me, and that is not even considering the price bump which is too much. I do not want ANY internet connected devices in my machine with far field microphones just listening. There needs to be a hardware switch disabling them. I would settle for software settings that completely disables them though as I almost trust Apple. almost... I likely will just look for yesterdays version.
Does anyone else force their Apple TV into 1080p mode because they don’t like soap opera mode? I hope this unit lets me do that. I have no need to upgrade but eventually my current Apple TV will die and I’d hate to lose the ability to downgrade.
Roku 4K with HDR10 and Dolby Vision is going for $53 on Amazon. A tough sell for Apple, to say the least. I use Roku for Apple TV (the streaming service) and works great.
Can this new Siri handle TV-specific questions?
Play the next unwatched episode of X. What is new this week? (across all the services I'm subscribed to) What service is show X on? (localized to my country) When will the next season of X be released?
I'd pay for that (grudgingly, given the big hike). Otherwise don't see much reason to replace my 2021 model.
The existing Apple TV was already way overpowered for a media device. Who was complaining about their Apple TV being slow?
"Apple TV 4K is more than just a way to watch — it’s a home essential that transforms the living room to reflect what users want in the moment"
I wonder what model wrote that lol
The previous model doesn’t support 6-channel 48kHz bitstream audio, which prevents it from advertising full Atmos support over eARC. It also is clearly hitting CPU limits given occasional hiccups in audio processing, that are worst in the N-2 edition but still present in N-1.
If the new one fixes this, $300 for an eArc-to-HomePod HDMI receiver that can run streaming apps and set up room-measured Atmos is rather cheap.
Maybe if the Apple TV was a soundbar, I'd pay $350 without being upset about my choice.
I would 100% buy one of these if it were $200 or maybe even $250. $300 is outrageous.
In Canada this is nearly $500 with sales tax. A total non-starter for me, personally.
I thought this was a physical new TV. Misleading when it's just a device to plug into one's TV.
I used to love my apple tv, but now I have a tv and a projector at home that both come with a good enough TV OS that has all the streaming apps I need (Netflix, HBO, etc), so I no longer find myself using my apple tv. My LGTV even supports airplay from my mac/iphone, which was maybe the only feature I thought would be unique to the apple tv.
The fact that you cannot easily listen on headphones through you phone is a dealbreaker. With Roku you can connect your headphones to you phone, and then just start streaming the audio directly to your headphones. With Apple TV it sounds like you need to use the remote to connect headphones directly to the Apple TV. That's such a pain. Why can't they just make an app.
Does anyone wink wink know when SiriAi (this improved version) hits iPhones? I currently have a laptop acting as an always listening personal assistant but it would be nice to have my iPhone be able to tell me anything but, “I’ve found this on the web for you - check it out”.
I just bought a 2015 Apple TV for $20 on ebay. I have a 4k one from somewhere around 2020. I really see no reason to upgrade anytime soon.
Mind you AI also coming to the previous gens as well
>Access to Siri AI is also available on Apple TV 4K (2nd generation) or later.
Yeh the 4k Roku Ultra I got for $50 on sale will go till end of life. $300 for a movie streamer is absurd.
Did they add TrueHD support, or any additional codecs? The Nvidia Shield is more capable of a player last I checked.
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.