This is Apple TV.
But then, this is also Apple TV.
And, this is Apple TV, but this is Apple TV+, even though this, is better than this.
Confused?
Yeah, I'm not surprised.
That's why, in this video, I'm going to explain the difference between Apple TV, Apple TV,
Apple TV+, and Apple TV.
**Hardware vs Software**
Apple TV started it's life like this, a box that you would connect to your TV, way back
in 2006, although this third generation box was launched in 2012.
Essentially, this is a little black box containing Apple silicon, an A5 processor, and the idea
was that all you needed was a power cable and an HDMI cable, and you could connect this
to your TV and access Apple content libraries.
Now, at the time, Apple content libraries were essentially the content from the iTunes
Store, back when the focus was on people building their own digital library of TV and movie
content, that you would pay to own.
I've not bought anything from the iTunes library in a while now, although I do rent movies
through it quite often, and I've amassed a library of about 50 or so films over the years.
And, although the style and capability of the Apple TV box has improved over the years,
the general functionality of it has remained much the same.
You connect it to your TV and your Wifi, and then use it to access content, in the same
way that you would a Roku box or a Fire Stick.
It can essentially make any dumb TV smart, without you having to pay to upgrade the TV
itself.
But where things began to get complicated, was when Apple decided to launch their own
streaming service, and compete in a space that had been, up to that point, entirely
dominated by Netflix and Amazon.
Apple launched TV+ back in November of 2019, and what had started as a plan to aggregate
content from major studios turned into Apple investing huge sums of money into the development
of original content, on their very own streaming platform.
So, at the most basic level, we can separate Apple TV out like this.
On the one hand, you have hardware, which is called Apple TV, but nowadays is usually
followed by a term like 4K or HD, referring to the resolution that it's capable of operating
at.
Side note, don't buy the HD, the 4K is only £30 more expensive and is a significantly
better value proposition, I honestly don't know why Apple are still selling the HD box.
And when we talk about Apple TV 4K or Apple TV HD, we're referring to a little box like
this, with a remote control, and access to the Apple TV Operating System, TVOS.
TVOS gives you access to the Apple TV App Store, Apple Arcade, and any library that
you might have built up over the years in iTunes.
It also gives you access to the streaming service Apple TV+.
**Why so many apps?**
For a while, you could only access Apple TV+ through Apple devices, either the Apple TV
boxes, or via things like your iPhone, iPad or Mac.
And that was ok, while TV+ was in it's infancy.
But Apple knew that in order to compete with the likes of Netflix, Amazon and now Disney,
they needed to be available on as many devices as possible.
After all, for a streaming service to work, you have to convince people to sign up for
the paid version of your service.
If you then add an additional barrier in the form of hardware, you're making life unnecessarily
difficult for yourself.
And so, Apple began launching apps on various different smart media devices, including TVs,
thanks to striking up deals with the likes of LG and Samsung.
And this lead to Apple TV apps beginning to appear on people's TVs.
But this is where it gets really confusing, so let me try and break it down.
**Understanding the apps**
First of all, the only way to gain access to TVOS is to purchase an Apple TV box, so
if you've seen an Apple TV box in action, and thought to yourself that you'd like to
have access to your iCloud Photo Library, or access Apple Arcade or some of the exclusive
'made for TV OS' apps, you need to buy an Apple TV box, that's the only way that becomes
available to you.
Beyond that, you need to know what version of the third party app is running on your
device, and the easiest way for us to figure that out is to look at some of the different
options I've got available in my house.
I'll start with my 2017 LG TV, you can see that I can access an app called Apple TV+.
It's pretty slow to load, but it does get there eventually, and once it does, I can
access all of the shows included with my Apple TV+ subscription, but don't have access to
my content library of films that I've purchased, or films that I rent through iTunes.
Content looks great, showing in Dolby Vision, and the app seems to run just as smoothly
as it does when connecting an Apple TV to the TV.
Here in the UK, I can even access Apple TV+ via Sky Q, and having just done this on one
of my miniboxes, the experience is pretty much identical to accessing it via the TV
natively.
The only issue is that here, the content is limited to 1080p, non HDR, but that's a restriction
of the Sky Q miniboxes, and not a restriction of Apple TV.
But on the other hand, here on my LG G1 TV, I've got an app called Apple TV.
The G1 was LG's flagship TV last year, and the app experience here is pretty thorough.
I can access the Apple TV+ paid streaming service just like I could on my old LG TV
and on Sky Q, but I can also access my entire iTunes library as well, so all of the movies
I've previously bought are available for me to begin watching here in the Library tab.
I can even make purchases and rentals from here in the Store section.
If I fire up my PS5, and head to the Media section, I can download the Apple TV app,
which is the same as the one included in my LG G1, giving me access to TV+, my content
library and the store.
Although it's worth pointing out that Dolby Vision doesn't appear to be available here.
The output is 4K, but the content doesn't look as good as it does on the LG G1 app,
or the Apple TV app itself.
So, essentially what you need to know is the Apple TV+ app is access to the streaming service
only.
The Apple TV app is access to the streaming service, and your Apple media library.
You can access apps via a number of different methods at present, including Amazon FireSticks
and various brands of Smart TVs.
If you're looking to purchase something, and you've got Apple TV as a requirement, make
sure that firstly, Apple TV is supported on your new device, and secondly, find out whether
it's Apple TV, the broader app, or Apple TV+, the streaming service only.
**The best experience**
The best experience available is via the Apple TV streaming box, without a doubt, but that
does of course come at a cost.
Right now, the Apple TV4K is available for £170 here in the UK, making it really quite
expensive for a streaming box, but if you're bought into the Apple ecosystem, you do get
a lot for your money.
You get access to things like your Photo Library and the TVOS app store, as well as additional
paid Apple content that you could subscribe to, like Music and Fitness.
You don't get things like Fitness anywhere outside of the Apple TV box at the moment,
probably due to the box syncing with your Apple Watch, although I can get Apple Music
right now on my LG G1 as a separate app.
The Apple TV app on the Apple TV4K also acts as a great content aggregator, bringing together
content from other apps like iPlayer, All4 here in the UK, Netflix, Disney, Prime, it
makes finding and viewing content across everything much easier.
You only get that experience by purchasing an Apple TV box.
But, for you, it might not be about the best experience possible, it might simply be about
the best experience available without spending any more money, and that's going to come down
to figuring out which app is available to you right now with the gear that you currently
own, and if that's not suitable, what low cost item you might need to purchase to get
you access to the most suitable app.
As I write this, the latest Fire Sticks do appear to come with Apple TV, rather than
TV+, and do support Dolby Vision, so for less than $50, that could be a pretty good option.
So there you go, hopefully that makes everything a bit easier to understand.
Do you watch any content on Apple TV+?
If yes, what are you watching at the moment?
Or are you not a fan of the Apple streaming service?
Drop me a comment, and let's talk about it.
And as ever, if you found this video useful, do please consider leaving me a like, and
subscribing to my channel for more content like this in the future.
See you on the next video.