NEWS: Is Apple preparing a new TV set top box?

Would have to do something rather significant to be worthwhile of anyone upgrading their current box or deviating from the newly released TV apps for the more common user...
 
To me the thing the service is crying out for is lossless sound codecs - would then truly compete with 4K discs at the enthusiasts level
 
I would guess it is a combination of removing the need to make any more A10 chips, &, as the article says, to make the Arcade capable of hosting better games.
Apart from the annoying remote, I'm completely happy with how our ATV4K works. Interested to see if they do come up with something unexpected, otherwise an upgrade for me is not worthwhile.
 
Glad I managed to hold fire, the app errrm works but not managed to watch a program without a crash yet so I’m tempted to get an Apple TV as I’m locked into that ecosystem now.
 
There is a possible gap for a HDMI 2.1 box to sell 8K films to customers of 8K TVs but now the one useful purpose the ATV 4K provided - access to iTunes movies in DV/Atmos - can be achieved by a TV app the need for a straight replacement is even less. The idea that a newer CPU is for gaming makes sense for a portable phone/tablet, but another gaming box isnt needed with two new consoles this year and three cloud based gaming systems emerging.
 
We might see more storage options and the ability to download movies and shows for offline viewing.
 
Isn't this likely to be a cheaper (maybe) stick version of the Apple TV?

As for future proofing / offering 8K options, stop it.
Apple never move quickly on these things, there is zero chance they are motivated by 8K.
They understand that the majority of consumers dont give a hoot about 8K, nor will do for another 3 years at least.
 
If they include support for lossless audio through 3rd party apps they will sell by the bucketload.
 
Apple TV boxes already supports lossless codecs, however only music streaming services currently use them, so until film streaming services add that feature to their apps, having all the codecs in the world will make no difference.

Bill
 
Given that Apple took on board Amazon's head of the firestick division a while ago now, it really wouldn't surprise me to find they've finally decided upon releasing a slightly (it is apple) lower cost option stick. Again this isn't so much about iTunes per say, but more about giving themselves extra leverage for apple tv+ subscriptions.
 
The ATV+ free sub (in fact the whole ATV+ service) is a perk for ipad/iphone sales, box sales are not important now. Apple do sometimes show leadership and dont do cheap, the stick market is sewn up by Firestick and Roku, but there is currently nothing to address the emerging 8K market - manufacturers and marketing always want something new even if we consumers think we dont.
 
Would have to do something rather significant to be worthwhile of anyone upgrading their current box or deviating from the newly released TV apps for the more common user...

The problem is that if you want to get the best video player app out there IMHO (and I have used a lot of them) ... you need to get the Apple TV itself. The application is Infuse 6 Pro. It plays absolutely everything I have thrown at it beautifully ... even 100GB 4k files. It has a beautiful interface and the meta data retrieval is fantastic.

I have a new Samsung TV and although it has a nice Tizen interface .... its nowhere near as nice as the Apple TV interface.
 
The ATV+ free sub (in fact the whole ATV+ service) is a perk for ipad/iphone sales, box sales are not important now. Apple do sometimes show leadership and dont do cheap, the stick market is sewn up by Firestick and Roku, but there is currently nothing to address the emerging 8K market - manufacturers and marketing always want something new even if we consumers think we dont.

There is no market worth Apples/Googles/Amazon's involvement in 8k yet at all. Nothing remotely medium term at current rates.

"To date, 8K has struggled to make a dent in the market. Last June, GfK said that fewer than 1,000 sets had been sold in the UK and – with a lack of affordable sets and worthwhile content – that is unlikely to have improved much as 2019 drew to a close.

In fact, IHS Markit even downwardly adjusted its estimations for 2019 8K TV sales from 430,000 units to only 167,000."
 
Apple TV boxes already supports lossless codecs, however only music streaming services currently use them, so until film streaming services add that feature to their apps, having all the codecs in the world will make no difference.

Bill

I wasn't talking about streaming as you can already get Atmos via Netflix etc. in a DD+ container. The problem is they don't allow lossless via infuse for people playing local files.
 
There is no market worth Apples/Googles/Amazon's involvement in 8k yet at all. Nothing remotely medium term at current rates.

"To date, 8K has struggled to make a dent in the market. Last June, GfK said that fewer than 1,000 sets had been sold in the UK and – with a lack of affordable sets and worthwhile content – that is unlikely to have improved much as 2019 drew to a close.

In fact, IHS Markit even downwardly adjusted its estimations for 2019 8K TV sales from 430,000 units to only 167,000."

Ah but the spec junkies.....must....have.....more.....must.....have.....the latest........

But yes agreed, and Apple are seldom of ever first movers with this kind of thing, so why anyone would expect an ATV update to embrace 8K beggars belief......
 
I wasn't talking about streaming as you can already get Atmos via Netflix etc. in a DD+ container. The problem is they don't allow lossless via infuse for people playing local files.

Do you mean Infuse won’t allow you to bitstream lossless audio?
I play my local files losslessly via Infuse and it works fine - I just get “PCM 5.1” on my AVR but it’s 100% lossless 👍

 
Do you mean Infuse won’t allow you to bitstream lossless audio?
I play my local files losslessly via Infuse and it works fine - I just get “PCM 5.1” on my AVR but it’s 100% lossless 👍


Yes I am aware that it is lossless but what if you want Atmos or DTS:X? You cannot get them unless Apple allow infuse (or any other similar app) the ability to bitstream output.
 
Yes I am aware that it is lossless but what if you want Atmos or DTS:X? You cannot get them unless Apple allow infuse (or any other similar app) the ability to bitstream output.

This would be a delight. Hit-of-the-whole-fruit Atmos/DTS-X in Plex is the reason I keep a Shield around. Swapping between them depending on what I want to do is relatively painless, but one unit would be nicer.
 
Don't forget you need the Pro version of Infuse if you want all the lossless features.

Bill
 

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