The Apple TV 4K with the new Siri Remote is Apple’s latest top of the line TV streaming device
that I’ve been using for the past 6 months and I'm going to take you through what it's been like to
use, the top features, any downsides, and who I recommend this device for and why it's become
my personal favorite streaming device. So why would you go with an Apple TV 4K? The first reason
I think you would go for this device is you want to be confident with whatever your streaming that
it's going to be in the highest quality possible. The Apple TV 4K supports HDR, Dolby Vision, Dolby
Atmos and High Frame Rate HDR which is 60 fps HDR content, and over the past six months of using
this device, I've had zero problems with the Apple TV 4K being able to pass over Dolby Vision, 4K
HDR, and Dolby Atmos content through to my Onkyo receiver and Sony OLED television, and Apple's own
shows from their Apple TV Plus service like Ted Lasso and Foundation look especially good since
Apple tends to release their shows in Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos. And if your TV doesn’t support 4K
Dolby Vision, Apple added a color calibration feature you can use to make sure you’re still
getting the best picture quality possible from the content you stream on your Apple TV,
Lastly, unlike cheaper streaming sticks from competitors, the Apple TV includes an ethernet
port for a faster and more stable internet connection which means the content you’re watching
is less likely to buffer or downgrade in quality compared to streaming over WiFi.
The next thing I like about the Apple TV 4K is TV OS, which is the operating system that runs on it.
With TVOS on the Apple TV 4k, everything runs extremely smooth, and I’ve never run into any lag
or hang ups thanks to the A12 bionic chip that runs on the device. The UI is very simple,
it’s a grid of app icons like any iOS or iPad OS device One of my favorite parts of TVOS is a very
handy control center which you get by holding down the TV button and from there you can switch users,
connect to airpods or HomePod Minis or even connect to a Share Play sessions with a friend.
Another thing I like is the default playback menu. It's very well designed, and as simple to use tap
the touchpad on the remote once to bring it up while watching something, and if you tap again,
it’ll give you an estimated time for when whatever you’re watching will finish and you can swipe up
to the quick control icons for captions, audio settings, or to enable picture in picture.
TVOS also makes it easy to see all of the apps I have open. You just double
click the TV button and swipe through them just like you do on any iOS device.
There is also support for multiple user profiles which is handy if you want to
keep your recommendations and watchlist history separate from others in your home.
Though app did add a feature where you can have a row in the Apple TV app that’ll show content
suggestions for everyone in your family as well which I think would be really useful for families.
When not in use, you can set your TV to turn on these beautiful screensavers that
update every month and really show off the 4K HDR capabilities of your TV if it supports it.
Now the main way you watch something on the Apple TV is through an app. TVOS gives you the ability
to download major apps from streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max, Disney+ etc, through
Apple’s app store on the Apple TV. There are also a lot of other types of apps you can find on there
as well such as music apps like Spotify, Apple Music, or Amazon Music, sports apps like ESPN,
meditation and fitness apps like calm and Apple Fitness Plus, games, social media apps and more.
The main app you’ll interact with on the Apple TV is the Apple TV app,
which tries to act as a one stop shop for all of your tv shows and movies on the device with a
universal watch list called Up Next, though like with the Chromecast with Google TV and others,
Netflix shows and movies will not appear in this aggregated view.
Still I found up next on the Apple TV to be very useful. You can easily mark something as watched
or remove it from your Up Next queue when you press and hold the center button on the remote.
And content is automatically added to your Up Next queue when you start watching something,
so if you pause or stop watching for the night, its easy to get back to.
Now, once you've finished a season of a show, and let's say a year goes by,
and then the second season of that show comes out,
that second season will actually pop back up into your Up Next queue which I really dig.
You can also use Up Next for sports as well, in certain sports apps you can add your team to Up
Next and anytime your team is playing a game, the game will appear in your Up Next queue.
The Apple TV app is also the place to go to discover shows, movies, and sports to watch.
It’ll take into account your viewing history for recommendations and if you see a movie you’ve
already watched, you can manually mark it watched, which should help improve your recommendations
though I do wish there was a thumbs up or down ratings system like you get with Google TV.
Lastly, the Apple TV app also is where you’ll find all the movies or TV show episodes you’ve
purchased through iTunes or connected to your iTunes account like from MoviesAnywhere. Now,
one cool thing that Apple does here is, anytime you've purchased anything through iTunes like a
movie or a TV show episode and there's a version of that episode or movie available
in a 4K HDR format, Apple will actually upgrade your purchase to that format free of charge
and they even have a tab in your library so you can see all the movies you own that are available
in 4K HDR, though weirdly, some of my movies that are in 4K HDR didn’t show up here like Home Alone.
Also, in the library view, there’s no actual way to know what quality is available because
when you click the movie thumbnail card, it takes you into the DVD like screen to access
the movie or play extras. The only way to see the quality is to back out to the main Apple TV
interface and use Siri to find the movie and then it’ll show you what quality its
available in. Apple could definitely clean this part of the user experience up a lot.
Now when you download a bunch of apps to your Apple TV, often to make the apps actually work,
You're either going to need to use a cable provider login,
or some username, and password that you created. Apple has a feature that helps
solve some of this frustration by allowing you to store your TV provider information
and share that information with specific apps which hopefully will save you.
Some time logging into multiple apps that still require a TV cable subscription, Perhaps that
require an email address and password. You can choose to store email addresses, you frequently
use. Another thing that can help with text input on the Apple TV is if you have an iPhone nearby,
anytime you need to input text like passwords for services, your iPhone will automatically
buzz with a notification to open the Apple TV remote app allowing you to type in the password
from your phone. And overall, for me, using the phone has a much better experience.
Now another feature that's very useful on the Apple TV is Siri.
You’ll use it a lot when you want to search for content and you can
use it to narrow down your searches as well, so if you ask for holiday movies,
but only want to watch critically acclaimed holiday movies, you can just say “only the good
ones” and it’ll filter out it’s suggestions to show you only critically acclaimed holiday movies.
While watching content you can also ask Siri “Who’s in this” to bring
up the cast information for whatever you’re watching with apps that support this feature.
And you know those situations where you're watching something but you
miss a piece of dialogue and you want to go back to see what someone said.
Well you can just ask Siri, “what did they say?” And it'll automatically rewind about 15 seconds
and temporarily turn on closed captions so you can hear as well as read the dialogue that you missed.
Siri can help you turn off your TV as well, from devices like an iPhone or a HomePod Mini. Just ask
Siri to turn off the TV and as long as all your devices support HDMI CEC in your TV setup which
most recent devices should, Siri will turn off the entire system through the Apple TV.
Now, the next major benefit I found with using an Apple TV
is when you combine it with another Apple device in the Apple Ecosystem. The more Apple devices
you typically have the greater benefit you get, and the more features you have access
to. And the first one of those features with the Apple TV for me has been AirPlay.
AirPlay allows you to stream anything you’re currently viewing on another Apple device like
your iPhone, Mac or iPad, on the Apple TV wirelessly with a tap of a button.
You can also use AirPlay to expand where the sound is playing from your Apple TV,
to multiple AirPlay-enabled speakers.
And this feature, this feature is really cool. It's great for
scenarios like let's say there's a sports game on, you got a bunch of people over and
someone needs to walk from where the TV is to a different room,
or you need to go to the kitchen, but you still want to hear what's going on in the game.
Well, with this feature, you can do that. you simply go to control center on the Apple TV,
select AirPlay, and then select all the speakers I want to AirPlay the Apple TV’s audio to.
And Apple also has a wireless sync feature in settings you’ll want to go through to make sure
your AirPlay speakers will stay in sync with the sound coming out of your TV or sound system.
SharePlay is the next Apple Ecosystem feature that I think really helps differentiate the Apple
TV from its competition. It allows you to watch certain content from supported services at the
same exact time with friends and family virtually. All you have to do is start a FaceTime call with
who you want to watch with and then start playing something on your TV from an app you
both have access to, and then bring up control center to start the share play. Or if you’ve
already started watching content on your iPhone or iPad, you can send it to the Apple TV as well.
Next up, let's talk about spatial audio and AirPods with the Apple TV. Spatial
Audio is a proprietary feature for Apple devices that decodes Dolby Atmos and other
surround sound signals and combines it with head tracking to emulate the
effect of surround sound when wearing a pair of compatible AirPods or Beats
earbuds, or my favorite device to use with this feature, the AirPods Max over the ear headphones.
You can easily switch audio from your TV to your AirPods from control center in TVOs,
which has been perfect for watching a blockbuster movie without wanting to wake up your neighbors
or family and this works with a variety of apps and content from services like HBO Max,
Disney Plus, Netflix and of course Apple TV+, Apple’s in-house subscription service.
I recently rewatched Dune through the Apple TV with my AirPods Max on and spatial audio enabled,
and this setup is going to sound better than the majority of sound
setups people have with their televisions because frankly,
most people do not invest enough in audio equipment for their televisions.
So this is especially going to sound way better if all you do is rely on your TV speakers
for sound output. Now you can also pair 3rd party bluetooth headphones and earbuds with the Apple
TV, but in my experience they don’t sound nearly as good as the ones that support spatial audio.
The next Apple ecosystem benefit with the Apple TV 4K is actually the setup process.
The setup process with this device is much easier if you already have an iPhone. All
you have to do is bring your iPhone close to the Apple TV and import settings like Wi-Fi,
your Apple ID and if you had a previous Apple TV, it'll automatically import your
home screen from your previous one, which saves a lot of time setting this device up.
Now, the last two Apple ecosystem features I want to call out with the Apple TV. 4K
our HomeKit and Apple Fitness. HomeKit is Apple's smart home platform and by
having a dedicated device as a HomeKit hub, like the Apple TV,
other devices like my August Smart Lock can directly connect to my Apple TV to be controlled.
Apple Fitness Plus is also integrated with the Apple TV and works with your Apple Watch
to easily track your movement and heart rate as you work out.
Next up, another recent addition to the Apple TV’s experience is the ability to use two
stereo paired HomePod Minis as your Apple TV’s speakers. Now after trying this out,
to me it just doesn't give you enough bass. and honestly, I’m not sure for $200 if you’re better
off going with two HomePod Minis vs. spending a bit more for a sound bar and subwoofer setup.
But if you're really serious about your television experience,
it's still worth it in my book to get an Atmos capable receiver and speaker system or
sound bar like the one from Sonos to take full advantage of your Apple TV 4K has to offer.
Another improvement Apple made to the Apple TV experience this year,
is the new Siri remote. First they made it thicker, so it’s less likely to easily
slip in between your couch cushions which I can confirm hasn’t happened to me with this
remote nearly as much as the old one, like maybe once compared to almost every week with the old
remote. There is now a dedicated back button, mute button and off button for your TV. The
power button allows you to turn on and off your entire system, not just the Apple TV itself,
as long as your TV and other system devices like a soundbar or receiver support HDMI CEC.
The mic button is now on the side of the remote for using Siri and speech dictation on the TV
and Apple removed touchpad and replaced it with a circle at the top with 4 clickable buttons on
the outside ring for navigation and also a center button that is clickable. However,
they also cleverly made this circle touch responsive as well.
You can still use all the button controls and swipe gestures on the new Siri remote
as you did on the old one. and if you want to disable the touch functionality
of the remote and just use clicks, you can do that in remote settings.
Like the previous generation, this remote is rechargeable through it’s lightning port on
the bottom and you can see it’s battery level in settings. For me, it's lasted me about six months
on a full charge and the Apple TV will remind you to charge it when the battery starts to get low.
You also have the ability to control the Apple TV through the Apple TV Remote app on the iPhone
as well. And if you’re really in a jam and need to pause the TV,
you can just use Siri on a HomePod Mini to play or pause media on your Apple TV
or even to play a specific show like from a supported app on the TV.
Alright, so that's everything I like about using the Apple TV. Now, let's talk,
downsides. The first downside I've encountered while using the Apple TV, 4K is with Speech
Dictation in certain apps. For me. For me I’ve found it to be a bit too slow to trigger Siri from
when you press the mic button or, especially in the YouTube app, speech dictation will take what
you said and blank out the text input, almost as if it lost the text you just said. I'm not
sure how widespread this is, but regardless, if it happens, it's not a great experience.
Now the last thing I want to talk about before my recommendation is price. Originally I was going
to say that the price of the Apple TV 4K at $179 US dollars for the 32 gig model, which is priced
much higher than its competition, was a downside. But after thinking about this a lot,
I'm finding a hard time saying the price of this device is a huge downside
when you consider all of the things that it can do.
I actually think the experience is worth a bit of a premium and I'm happy to pay it to get a
solid performing TV streaming device. And one that comes with Apple ecosystem benefits like spatial
audio with my AirPods Max. So yes, I do recommend the Apple TV 4K. I'd recommend it to anyone who
wants a TV streaming device that just works. It has all of the apps you’d want to stream from,
has excellent performance in it’s UI and streaming performance, and is perfect if
you have other Apple devices or services, and it's the device I grab the remote for over my
other streaming devices time and time again. . Now, if you don't care about having a fast and
smooth experience with a TV streaming device that supports 4K HDR content,
or you just have an HD television, in that case, this device might not
be for you and you might want to look at some of the other competing devices.
However, I'd still recommend getting an Apple TV, either the HD version or the previous 4K version,
if you can find one, if you have an iPhone or other Apple devices. Because when you pair an
Apple TV with other Apple devices, the benefits you get to me, still outweigh the additional cost.
Lastly, if you have the previous generation Apple TV 4K already and are wondering if
you should upgrade, I don’t think you should. But you might want to consider
getting the new Siri remote that Apple sells separately. It’s $60 but less likely to get
caught in my couch cushions and easier to use, so it might be worth it to you.
If you have any further questions about the Apple TV 4K or you want
to share your experience with this device or a previous Apple TV, leave a comment below,
hit that thumbs up button if you liked this video and found it helpful and subscribe to
the channel to see more 6 Months Later Review videos on Apple and other tech products.
For 6 Months Later, I'm Josh Teder. Thanks for watching.