the Apple TV is one of the most capable streaming boxes you can buy in fact I'm
willing to bet it can do things you didn't even know it could do
welcome back everyone I'm Caleb Denison and while Apple makes it very easy to just pull the Apple
TV out of its box and get to streaming movies and TV shows right away it is capable of so much more
and not just for Apple users though let's be frank there are several features available only to those
who own other Apple devices but I mean I know so many people who bought their Apple TVs and got so
used to how they work right out of the box that they kind of forgot they could customize the look
and the feel of the Apple TV or add individual profiles or even use it for watch parties so
today I'm not only going to run you through a list of cool stuff you can do with your Apple TV
I'm going to show you how to do it step by step so you can get the most out of that powerful little
black box trust me when I say that just a little bit of time invested in learning about this stuff
pays off big as you use your Apple TV day after day by the time we're done you'll be an Apple TV
power user and probably able to show your friends a thing or two as well now if you're new to this
channel well then welcome glad to see you here and please say hi down in the comments section
I'd love to actually meet you also if you know of any Apple TV tips or tricks I don't cover in
this video tell us all about them in the comments this is a great place to help each other out and
hey if you like the video and want to see more there are buttons for that too I appreciate your
support now let's go so I want to start with some stuff that will have the maximum amount of benefit
for the maximum amount of users these are simple tweaks that can make the Apple TV experience even
better than it already is so let's start with customizing the look of the Apple TV so first
off if you're a fan of dark modes the Apple TV can do that click the settings icon then click General
then appearance then you can select light dark or automatic selecting dark will keep the Apple TV in
dark mode all the time while selecting Auto will shift from light during the day to dark during the
night just like the iPhone now let's play around with customizing how your home screen looks I like
to arrange my apps in the order of most used up top also you might want to delete some apps or
tuck some apps into folders to move apps simply highlight the app you want to move press and hold
the select button until the app starts to jiggle and then use directional buttons or the swipe pad
to move the app where you like then click select again to put it in its place now this is pretty
important be select effective about which apps you put in the very top row because the Apple TV
uses the top row of apps when it starts suggesting content you might want to watch but not all apps
work equally so that's why I tend to put Netflix Amazon Prime and Hulu up at the very top Paramount
plus also seems to work well too now deleting apps or creating folders starts the same way highlight
the app press and hold until it Jiggles and then you want to press the play pause button this will
give you more options and at that point you can delete an app or if you want to start a folder
or move an app to a folder you can do that here as well next up for the home screen if you want
you can add the up next feature that you see in the Apple TV app to the very top of the home
screen without having to go all the way into the Apple TV app to see it this way you get back to
something you've been watching even faster to do this first make sure the Apple TV app has a
spot in the top row of apps using the process I showed you just a second ago then go to settings
click apps then TV and now click top shelf so it says up next now when I go back to the home screen
and highlight the TV app boom there's up next you can also influence what goes into the up next
section it doesn't have to be stuff you've already started watching it could be something that you
want to watch really soon so to do this just long press the select button on the show or movie that
you plan to watch and click add to up next okay now let's talk about getting around the Apple TV
more easily we'll start with stuff you can do to make using the remote easier first you've probably
noticed that getting back to the home screen can be kind of a hassle if you're several clicks deep
into the system there are two ways to get back to the home screen faster one is to Simply press and
hold the menu button that zips you straight to the home screen the other way is to change the
TV button on the remote so that instead of taking you to the up next section of Apple TV it takes
you straight to the home screen do do this by clicking settings click remotes and devices
select TV button and then click home screen and obviously you could undo this later if you want
now let's adjust how the Siri remote actually works you may notice that the touchpad is a
little touchy or maybe for you it isn't sensitive enough you can adjust this by clicking settings
remotes and devices then touch surface tracking and you can find The Sweet Spot from there on
the other hand if you find you don't really like using the touchpad at all and would rather disable
it entirely do that by clicking settings then remotes and devices then click pad and select
click only and now the touchpad is just turned off last thing on using the remote if you want
to switch between apps quickly just double tap the home button you get a row of the most recent stuff
that you watch and you can just swipe and select the next thing over so that's manual control cover
now let's talk about voice control and I think we're all used to using digital assistants for
help finding things or executing Basics like show me movies with Charlize Theron or what's
the weather like today or open Netflix but you can use Siri for more specific jobs and often
it's easier than clicking around on the remote for instance let's say you want a backup or advance in
a movie or TV show just ask Siri to go back 15 seconds or skip ahead 20 minutes this can come
in really handy when the scrubbing interface of an app is bad like it is on Disney plus you can
also save several clicks by asking Siri to pull up specific shows in apps or specific channels in
live TV apps for example you can say open stranger things season 3 in Netflix or open ESPN on fubo
now Siri doesn't cover every single app but more often than not you're going to get right to where
you want to be faster by using voice than clicking around next let's talk about connecting Bluetooth
devices you can connect headphones keyboards and game controllers all via Bluetooth obviously with
Apple's airpods and beats products the process is streamlined but you you can connect any set
of bluetooth headphones and they'll work for private listening and you might want to connect
a Playstation or Xbox controller for playing games or basic navigation and keyboards can come
in handy for typing in text if you want to save some time your pathway for all of this stuff is
settings then remotes and devices then Bluetooth and you can see that there's a section here for
game controllers but for headphones and keyboards it'll just look for a device in pairing mode and
then you can select it from here now if there's a four digit code go ahead and enter it if you
know of one and if there isn't one zero zero zero zero almost always works now I want to talk about
a few settings and security options on the Apple TV I think one of the most important ones is to
set a security code for AirPlay AirPlay is what lets you stream video or music to the Apple TV
from another iOS device and it can be done by anyone within range of your Apple TV unless you
lock it down behind a code code so to do this go to settings then security then AirPlay then turn
on device verification once a device is granted access a code won't be required again so if
you grant your friend or roommate access once they'll continue to have it unless you remove
their device from the approved list okay so for you Apple users out there I'm about to get into
some stuff that you can only do with an iPhone iPad Mac or Apple watch but before I do I want
to talk about some audio and video settings stuff real quick so I had to make a decision here either
do a deep dive on the Apple TVs video and audio capabilities and all the settings related to them
thus making this a much longer video or save that for a dedicated video and I've chosen the latter
so stay tuned for that video coming soon for now though I did want to touch on just a couple things
worth looking at by default your Apple TV 4K is going to communicate with your TV and determine
what the best video settings will be or at least it should it may ask you if you want to turn on
HDR and you can go ahead and say yes if you have an HDR TV if you do that though your Apple TV will
always be in some kind of HDR mode be it Dolby Vision HDR 10 plus or HDR depending on your TV's
capabilities this means that if you watch content that wasn't made in HDR you'll be getting kind of
fake HDR and you may not want that especially with really dark content Game of Thrones anyway
there are two options I encourage you to explore click settings video and audio and then click
match content here you can select match dynamic range which means that the Apple TV will go to SDR
mode when you're watching content made in SDR and then help your TV kick into HDR mode when
you watch HDR content the same idea with match frame rate rather than show all content at the
same frame rate you can have the Apple TV deliver the content as it was made and this is especially
important if you like watching movies and 24fps as they were actually made otherwise they can look a
little artificially smoothed out on the audio side of things there really isn't much you need to mess
around with almost everything should be automated go ahead and thumb through this though like you
can turn on reduce loud sounds for instance and that'll apply dynamic range compression which is
great when you're just using TV speakers and you don't want really loud stuff to suddenly blow you
out of the room but this will also really put a limit on your sound bar or home theater system
if you're using one okay Apple Fans this next section is for you this is all stuff you can do
if you're invested in the Apple ecosystem Beyond just the Apple TV let's start with AirPlay which
is Apple's protocol for sharing audio and video whether you use apple music Spotify or Another
music service you can click the airplay button on your Apple device and select the Apple TV to
play music through the Apple TV or by extension a sound bar or AV receiver same goes for video
if I'm watching a YouTube video for example I can move it it from watching on my phone to watching
on the Apple TV the Apple TV will also let you screen mirror though which is great for Zoom calls
on iOS devices you have to swipe to open control center then select screen mirroring then select
your Apple TV on a Mac you click control center from the menu bar then click screen mirroring
and then click the Apple TV but AirPlay can also be used for picture in picture which I think is a
super slick tip now you can already engage picture in picture on the Apple TV itself but the list of
apps that support it is kind of small I mean to get to it you have to swipe or click up to find
this icon then you click it and then it moves what you're watching to the small picture in
picture the way I like to use picture in picture is with AirPlay this way you can send something
from your phone or iPad say this live TV feed from sling click the airplay icon and then send
it to the Apple TV then you can move that to the small picture window so you can go about finding
something else else you want to watch this is a great way to keep an eye on a game while watching
something else entirely next up for iPhone owners is a way to optimize everything you watch on your
Apple TV this is kind of a picture calibration process that bypasses your TV's picture settings
or I should say kind of works along with them so you might not want to do this if you've spent
time getting your picture settings the way you want them but if you want to optimize your Apple
TV just click settings then video and audio and scroll all the way down to calibration then select
color balance then take an iPhone with face ID and iOS 14.5 or later and just bring it near the Apple
TV box the TV will walk you through the process from there super simple next up is a feature I
don't think people use enough but it's great for watch parties Apple calls it share play and it
requires that the people that you're watching with also have an iPhone or iPad what you do is start
a FaceTime call add as many people as you want to the FaceTime call and once you have them on
the call go to your Apple TV make sure that your user is selected you can do that by pressing and
holding the TV button on the remote then go to play a movie or TV show and Apple TV will ask you
if you want to use share play you say yes and then you'll be asked to confirm that you want to do
that on your iPhone or iPad once you agree you and your friends can watch the movie together in sync
through FaceTime and on the TV now since we're talking about iPhone and iPad don't forget the
day along with your watch can be used as an Apple TV remote this is especially helpful when you need
to type something in on your watch you can choose the remote app that's pretty simple on your iPhone
or iPad go to control center by swiping down from the right hand corner and then click the
icon that looks like an Apple TV remote anytime you need to enter text a keyboard will just pop
up right on your phone but this is also great for just controlling your TV if you don't want to go
find your Siri remote finally and I may have saved my favorite for last I want to highlight
using spatial audio with head tracking this is in my opinion the best at-home surround experience
that doesn't involve a massively elaborate home entertainment system to really take advantage
you'll need airpods pro airpods pro 2 newer Beats headphones or my favorite for this the airpods max
now you can do this one of two ways either click settings then remotes and devices then Bluetooth
then click on the headphones that you're using at that moment or while you're playing content movies
TV shows or music press and hold the home button and select the headphones from there then you can
choose spatial audio or spatialized stereo for two channel content but to get the best experience I
suggest using head tracking this changes the Sound Stage depending on where you turn your head so if
you turn your head to the left as you're facing the TV the audio will seem to come from the TV
but if you don't want this you can also turn it off either way to access it click settings
then access accessibility then air pods then turn Center audio on TV either on or off depending on
whether you want to use it that was a lot thanks as always for watching everyone let me know which
of your favorite Apple TV tips or tricks I may have missed don't forget to like And subscribe
I'll see you on the next one and until then here's two other videos I think you might like