Apple TV 4K

Yeah Ive got beta 2. The UI is a bit better. However there is still some dimming in Channels but I don’t think it is as noticeable.

Any benefits to the Apple TV 4K when it comes to the Channels app? I have a 4K TV but all my Plex movies are 1080.

The ATV 4K definitely has a lot more processing power, so everything is a bit faster and smoother. For example, in Channels (and other apps), I’ve noticed that skip forward/backward is instantaneous…zero delay or rebuffering.

Also, there’s a lot more processing power available for things like MPEG2 video. I believe Channels uses quite a significant chunk of the available processing power on the ATV4 when decoding MPEG2, but on the ATV 4K there’s plenty left over. Maybe we’ll see interesting things done with that extra power…picture-in-picture in the EPG or video continuing to play behind the EPG, etc?

Are you using ethernet? Do you have gigabit? I found moving off the 100mbit ethernet to wifi with 802.11 AC sped this up a ton too on the old 4th gen. It was upsetting, lolol. I don’t like using wifi when I don’t really have to. It’s nice they finally put ethernet on the new 4K box.

Had Ethernet on the old and new ATV. I wonder if having gigabit Ethernet makes that much of a difference?

On a possibly related note, I have seen a major slowdown when first playing a live channel. It now buffers at least 5-6 seconds before playing; before it was maybe 1-2 seconds. I think this started in the past week or so with one of the betas, but I’m not 100% sure.

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A post was split to a new topic: Slow tuning of H264 channels

Wow, just wow. Apple TV 4K and Channels App on a Gigabit LAN connection - it is just a pleasure to behold. Instant channel switching, and nary a stutter. We just love it, what’s more - the wife loves it too. :smile:

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In my experience, channels is nearly exactly the same on the Apple TV 4k as it is on the 4th gen Apple TV. In fact, my wife doesn’t even know that the main TV now has an Apple TV 4k. The channel switching is very quick on both (not instant, I time it at about 1 to 2 seconds), and it doesn’t stutter on either. Keep in mind this is streaming HD mpeg2 antenna streams (a larger bitrate/higher quality than cable). The 100mbps NIC in the 4th gen Apple TV handles it perfectly.

That being said, there are plenty of benefits to the new 4k ATV (4K Netflix, for instance, is awesome). But I don’t think this is a worthwhile upgrade for someone who is only using the Channels app.

I do notice that the ATV 4k doesn’t have quite as good bluetooth range for the remote. There are some places where swipes and clicks don’t register quite as perfectly as they did with the older ATV 4th gen. It has caused me to have to slightly alter the placement of the ATV4k in my media cabinet.

Thanks, I am surely missing the insight of an Apple TV 4th Gen user. My frame of comparison is the world I just left - Windows 7 and WMC + HDHomeRun Prime.

Although that setup ‘worked fine’, the amount of work that went into making it ‘work fine’ made the whole experience not worth ditching the cable box. I could go on for hours about how much money I spent on a custom HTPC box, and the hours spent configuring it, and the added stress of having to maintain Windows 7 (now that the support for it is done), and the wrangles with the guide data inaccuracies, etc etc, only to get a dated UI and 2-3 seconds between channel switches. Now comparing that to Channels App… well there’s no comparison. Click, buy, switch on and start watching. :expressionless: Anyway. Sorry, I digress, this isn’t a WMC vs Channels App thread. Just an insight into where I’m coming from.

I am a convert to Apple TV 4K and the Channels App, so much so, that I ended up ordering another one for the bedroom. Knowing how quickly I can get TV configured made the decision a no brainer.

But you are right, it isn’t just about the Channels App. Now that Apple has converted all my purchased HD movies to 4K for free, having the 4K just makes sense. Might as well spend $10 more than the refurb 4th gen and get the 4K version.

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The new ATV 4k looks better in SDR. Significantly better. The whole interface is brighter, more responsive, better colors. And no dimming effect noticed with overlays. Solution: Step 1 - Set the ATV output to 4k SDR. Done. Awesome.

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I noticed something similar. Mine looks fine with 4k HDR but dimmed when i turn on 4k dolby vision. The 4k dolby vision looks good with netflix though.

Agree 100%. It’s ridiculous that the ATV 4K wants to output everything in HDR. Apple need to implement automatic resolution/framerate/HDR switching…I don’t care if it’s ‘inelegant’. I’ve set mine to 1080p SDR, and I manually switch to 4K HDR if I’m going to watch something in that format.

I like the way the UI looks in 4k SDR 60hz, and Channels standard HD content looks great still. I do manually switch output to 24hz when watching movies in other apps though, since this prevents the periodic motion judder that occurs when watching movies at 60hz. Major motion pictures are filmed at 24fps.

An automatic switch to 24hz for movies would be nice.

EDIT: I think the reason that Apple hasn’t implemented auto-switching is that not all TVs are compatible with the best possible output formats for each medium.

They use the EDID from the TV already to know what resolutions the TV supports, so that’s not the reason. Switching resolution always makes the screen go black with a delay, and Apple doesn’t like that, it doesn’t play well with their model of “it just works” when they’re reliant on the tv switching resolutions which can rarely cause issues and the tv won’t accept the input or show static with HDCP 2.2.

They also don’t like that their animations end up happening at 24fps when designed for 60fps. They look like crap.

But hey, let’s trade judder for better animations on the player controls UI.

The new ATV has a 24hz output option, I would guess its there because so many people who watch movies requested it. 120hz would be the best compromise to watch both frame rates without switching the output setting, but I don’t know if the ATV4k does this. I know my TV won’t do 4k at 120hz.
Manually switching is not a huge deal for me though, I don’t watch movies often enough for it to bother me. But having the output frame rate automatically switch to the frame rate of the source content would be a cool feature, even if it takes a second to switch.

Yup me too. I’m exhausted complaining about it at his point. At least we finally have a 24hz option. And I’m in the same boat about movies, I don’t warch enough for it to be a pain to switch so I’m just happy I can at all, heh.

Personally I set mine to 4K SDR. With a 1080p UI or video source the TV or the ATV will just pixel double anyway and I can’t tell the difference whichever does it. With 4K sources then I don’t have to switch. The only time I would have to switch is with a HDR source but my TV is worse in HDR than in SDR so I don’t bother (Samsung 60” Series 6 LCD).

From the tvOS 11.2 beta notes (below). Could this finally be the answer to our requests?! @tmm1 @maddox

Mode Switching

Notes

AVKit uses automatic frame rate and dynamic range switching for fullscreen video playback on Apple TV 4K under most circumstances. tvOS 11.2 adds APIs for these features for apps that don’t use AVKit for video playback. For information, see https:// developer.apple.com/fall17/503.

Still waiting on the documentation for AVDisplayCriteria to be published, but it sounds like this would let us force 50hz in the Channels video player (although perhaps only on the new 4K model).

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