Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Apple TV 4K (64GB, Previous Model)

Excellent System but still a little confusing for the non iOS

Reviewed in the United States on May 7, 2019

I have had the Apple TV 4k for a little over a week now and am very satisfied with it. A few comments based on reviews I read before I purchased:

The Remote - Not as awful as everyone said. Yes, it's easy to select something or press the touchpad accidentally but I have had few issues overall. I don't think it's any worse than dropping my universal remote or hitting a wrong button on another remote. My only complaints about the Apple TV remote is that there is no mute button and it is quite small, so don't misplace it!

UI - I'm not very familiar with the iOS environment. I have an iPhone but have only had it a couple of years so I'm still behind the function curve. Overall the system was mostly intuitive but I did make sure to familiarize myself with some online hints and tricks before it arrived so I knew how to navigate.

App and menu interface - Someone mentioned in a review that all app menus were universally similar on the Apple TV. I found this to not be the case. As with any other device, Hulu, Netflix, Amazon and HBO all have their unique functionality.

Up Next Feature - does not really work as advertised. I find it to be intermittent. Not all shows update like it said they would and not all appear on the home screen. Netflix specifically doesn't seem to play well with this feature, but overall each of the apps has failed to display the next episode of a show I have watched on the device.

Quality and functionality - Quality and functionality is awesome. Content looks great and I have had few issues. Make sure you have an HDMI cable rated for 4k content or you will receive a warning (evidently I had an older one connected). The Apple TV connects easily to my iPhone for typing, filling in account fields and setting up. You can also download the Remote app from iTunes (to your phone) in order to use your phone as a remote, but I don't actually find this very convenient or helpful as I am perfectly happy with the remote.

Biggest Con - Users of Bose Cinemate 130 beware. Evidently this system will not work with the Apple TV 4k. While I am able to connect sound from my Apple TV to the Bose system via direct input into the TV, I was not able to connect through the Bose Receiver. This is apparently a known issue to Bose, but they have no intention of fixing the issue leaving those of us that spent a significant amount of money to fend for ourselves. This was nearly devastating when I was trying to setup but thankfully I found a forum that directed me to a workaround.

Summary - Overall I am quite happy with my purchase. I'm hoping after more updates the up next field is more accurate as it is pretty great to not need to jump into individual apps when your watching a series. I am also hopeful that eventually Spotify will be available via the Apple TV, but so far it isn't an option for download. Otherwise this is a great device that's easy to use and so much more reliable than the apps loaded into my Samsung Smart TV. Oh, and almost forgot to mention the screensaver. The photos (especially the aerial images) really are mesmerizing as another reviewer mentioned. My friends almost always comment about the cool images on the TV when they walk in, so just a minor added bonus if you needed one .

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M. Fargo

What not to do...but DO immediately manually look for updates.

Reviewed in the United States on April 27, 2020

Size: 64GBVerified Purchase

If you're used to the old Apple TV, take it slow setting this up. It's very different both in the use of the remote as well as the layout of the graphics. Took me FOREVER to find the the top of the menu. But it works great. Beautiful image if a somewhat messy layout. Trying to find how to turn on subtitles, for instance, was extremely frustrating. I did. And in struggling through it found out I the first image opened way down the tree, and getting back to the top where "settings" is located was a challenge. As well, you'll be tempted to sign up to Apple TV+. It's a good deal, but it made things much more complicated for learning how to work through the menus. The touch feature on the remote is nice, but you have to press harder than you'd think to make the selection, and for some reason my fingers didn't always activate the touch feature of the screen. But the wide choice of apps and many (many) other features is nice. It's no longer just a tool for bringing your iTunes to the screen. It's a genuine decoder for all of your cable choices. I'm not sure I needed that since I'm a dedicated TiVo user, but that will be a choice I have to make down the road. Be sure and have your HD HDMI 2.0 cable ready before your Apple TV device arrives. Otherwise, you'll be frustrated that you can't hook it up. A normal HDMI cord won't cut it.

After almost a week of frustraing freeze ups, rendering watching anything impossible, I was perusing the set-up screen wondering if it was me and not the device making me hugely disappointed in this product. "Updates" had been checked as automatic, so I felt secure the problem wasn't that. Nevertheless, I clicked "check for updates" anyway. But I was still getting, "check your internet connection" messages and freeze ups. I wondered if the location of the box might be an issue, so I moved it to a perch away from other devices. Suddenly, a message "Downloading updates" appeared. It was a BIG update. Once that was done (about 15 long, long minutes), B-I-N-G-O! The damned thing worked perfectly. Beautifully! Now whether it was the location of the device or the fact I shouldn't have relied on "Update Automatically" to catch this, I don't know. But do...DO immediately check for updates.

The issue of the remote is still a mystery on it's use. After 10 tens, I still can't confidently locate any content. It's hit-or-miss and the thumb pad just plain sucks. But the screen display is beautiful in quality, and things--once I find them--play reliably.

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Theo Gravity

Better than Android TV

Reviewed in the United States on June 10, 2019

Size: 64GBVerified Purchase

I migrated to the Apple TV 4k from the Android Shield TV because it had the processing power necessary to decode my lossless mkvs, and the Infuse app is the only app out there that I know of that will read the full metadata encoded into the mkvs from the MetaX tagger.

I have to say, I am beyond impressed with the Apple TV. Here's what I like about it:

- The remote: The touchpad controller allows for really fast navigation through the UI, whereas the Shield TV controller requires a ton of presses
- Keyboard input: On the Android TV, if you have long passwords, you will have to connect a keyboard unless you want to painstakingly navigate the on-screen keyboard and input each character via the remote. On the Apple TV, it will allow my iPhone to do password input and send it to the device, allowing me to use 1Password for filling in.
- Apps: The quality of the same apps on Apple TV vs Android TV is just better. Ever try running Crunchyroll on Android TV? Yea, it doesn't work most of the time because the app thinks there's no internet and dies. Not only does Crunchyroll on Apple TV has no problems launching, but the UI is just *better*. It's a completely revamped UI compared to Android TV and works very well.
- I completely recommend spending the $50 on the Infuse app on Apple TV if you have non-streaming high-quality video content. My mkvs play seamlessly and everything is properly categorized after telling Infuse to use the mkv metadata instead of fetching for metadata. I have NOT been able to find any kind of app on Android TV (VLC, Archos, etc) that can do this. The Infuse UI is just a joy to use.
- Configuring audio and video support: With Android TV, you'll have go to in the weeds to configure specific settings for your display, speaker configuration, etc. Apple TV can do an analysis of your HDMI connection and determine what your system supports. Compared to Android TV, Apple TV required significantly less configuration to get it working with my home theater setup
- Siri vs Google Assistant: While Google assistant is superior to Siri in many ways, GA only works on my Shield TV when I use the Shield game controller, which is just bulky as hell. I also have a Google Home Mini, but for whatever reason, 1/3 of the time, it only works with certain actions on Shield TV. There's no probs interacting with Siri directly on Apple TV.
- It. Just. Works: I felt I got off the ground running quickly with Apple TV compared to Android TV.

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Ray K

Nine Reasons to Future-Proof with Apple TV 4K. Its top-of-the-line!

Reviewed in the United States on July 3, 2018

Size: 64GBVerified Purchase

WOW! I could not believe how much better this version of Apple TV is. I have used the first two versions...merely OK. This one is well-thoughout and works great. Here are the reasons why I like it:
1) I can get all of my favorite apps, which right now are Amazon Prime, Hulu, and GAIA. All the rest are available too.
2) This version is 4K and works well with my new LG OLED 4K set and the Apple TV supports Dolby Vision, the top end of video quality. I'm getting great resolution so that I can go up to the set and find NO pixels when the video is 4K.
3) I have a lot of Apple devices and I can show what is on my iPhone or iPad directly on the set at full resolution and do it easily with built-in apps.
4) This version of the Apple TV can handle a lot of apps and it remembers all of the log-ins, so I don't have to remember them. I can just fire it up and go straight to the content.
5) The remote doesn't navigate with up and down buttons, it uses a touchpad top. You swipe up or down and push in to select. Its faster and intuitive after you get used to it.
6) There is a voice button that you can push and get stuff done. I have used it to turn closed captioning off and on and find apps. I haven't tried to use it to get content, but that might be possible.
7) The remote pairs with your TV or my A/V receiver and I can turn the volume up or down.
8) I like the setting where you can prevent the sound from booming when you change the channels. There is a setting to tick to clip loud sound, which is good always. We don't like to be "blown away" with loud sound, which our system is capable of and old steamers would allow.
9) I feel future-proofed. It will be a while before all video is in Dolby-Vision!

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Bruce Frye

Apple 4K receiver

Reviewed in the United States on December 1, 2023

Size: 64GBVerified Purchase

Apple + 4K receiver. Easy to install and operate. I had an older model that even when I had an account I was unable to receive my local baseball games televised on Apple. This upgrade works great. Now I’m getting full used of my 4K television.

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BMO

Premium streaming box, Only recommended for Apple centric people

Reviewed in the United States on February 5, 2021

Size: 64GBVerified Purchase

This Apple TV is a beatifully engineered piece of hardware, it is a premium product at $199 for an over the top streaming box. Like all Apple hardware, the more of it you own, the more exponentially useful it will be to you. On the surface, someone could be hard pressed to find the value in this Apple TV. It's 3x-4x the price of similar products from Amazon and Roku, and at the end of the day it doesn't do much more besides playing games a lot better than any streaming box besides the Nvidia Shield TV (which has Nintendo Switch internals). But there is more to this device than that in my opinion.

The A10X is an aging chip, but it's still leagues beyond what you would find inside Amazon or Roku's highest end devices. This allows you to play any games that support TVOS and primarily Apple Arcade which has something for everyone. You will need a controller for this, but Playstation and Xbox controllers are now supported. They look great on the big screen and the performance is really snappy. The Apple TV 4K actually has active cooling, this is not at all common for devices like this to have a fan.

The other chief difference in this product is how it handles your data. Most TV streaming hardware is sold at a loss or for no profit and they make it up with the Ad revenue that they earn from tracking everything you watch and displaying ads to you. This Apple TV 4K has zero 3rd party ads of any kind and it collects as little data as possible, especially compared to Roku, Google, and Amazon. And Apple has only been increasing their protection of their users for privacy violating trackers. The App store on here has the same nutrition label privacy cards as what you see on iOS/MacOS for every app. In short, if you value you your online/digital privacy, this is the only streaming device that is worth owning.

This also ties into a lot of Apple services like Photos, Podcasts, Music, Arcade. And it syncs it all up through iCloud. You can use your photos as a screen saver if you want, but the other ones are much better. There are some that are aerial views from the ISS, updated all the time. The screensavers are actually quite amazing on here.

As a final note, I would like to point out that this device is now 3 years old, it will probably be refreshed with a new product in the coming months. If you don't care about playing games on your Apple TV and you need a new one now, then I think it's fine to still buy this model. The next one will probably have an A14 or A12Z chip on board, but this model is plenty capable for streaming 4K HDR content.

If you are not deep into the Apple hardware ecosystem, you might not get the full $179-199 value from this product. If you are though, this product will not disappoint you.

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David V.

Great performance. Smooth interface.

Reviewed in the United States on July 2, 2018

Size: 64GBVerified Purchase

I have one of these hooked up to an LG OLED55B7P and it's a great pairing. I'm currently running tvOS 12 beta, which enables Dolby Atmos support (in addition to Dolby Vision, which is already supported in the stock tvOS 11 version).

Image and sound are excellent. Arguably that's largely a credit to the attached components, but Apple's box is capable of providing the content to match. The iTunes content is often a little ahead, but other content is not far behind (e.g., I also regularly use the Amazon Prime Video app on Apple's box and that work really well also).

Where I find that the Apple TV experience really shines, however, is the grace and fluidity of the user interface. Somehow, alternatives I've tried (a) often stutter (performance problems), (b) have an unintuitive navigation system, and/or (c) are unattractive. I'm talking about the on-screen interface here, but also about the remote: The remote is easy to grip, the buttons are human-sized (so many remotes have these tiny buttons that require some focus to actually operate), and the touchpad (the upper area of the remote) makes navigation intuitive and very fluid. I own the previous-generation model of this too, whose remote was frequently criticized for being too symmetric. I didn't really find it a problem because if I gripped it upside down my thumb would fall on the volume button instead of the menu button, and the former has a different shape (it's oblong). However, Apple did respond to that criticism in two ways: visually (by adding a bright white ring around the menu button) and physically (by adding a raised edge to the menu button, giving it a very distinctive tactile feel). The remote may still not be perfect, but it's my favorite among all the many remotes in the house. Thanks to HDMI CEC (which allows Apple TV to wake/sleep the screen, and control volume), it's the only remote I need to operate our TV (we get all of our content through Apple TV; e.g., we don't have a cable subscription).

Recent tvOS versions also enable AirPlay 2, which allows us to use the TV as an additional audio source in a whole-house audio solution. If you're invested in Apple's overall ecosystem, it's a nice little perk too.

3 people found this helpful

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Geo

Simply the Best out there especially if you use PS vue and you want the best picture & sound.

Reviewed in the United States on March 25, 2019

Size: 64GBVerified Purchase

I've used most of the streaming boxes out there, too bad for me I bought this one last. Apple 4k TV is actually as good as it gets. If you're cord cutting I would suggest you go with this even if your not cutting the cord you should still get this, Cable TV can't even compete with the user experience you get with this. I was using the other popular streaming boxes out there, they are slow and lack features and just don't seem to work like they should. The Interface is simple to use but at the same time looks terrific. It loads apps fast like in 2 seconds your up and watching Ps Vue. 4 simultaneous streams wow the other streaming boxes struggle with one stream and take forever to load. The Picture and sound quality is awesome. This thing actually works even with Dolby Atmos I have it hooked to my Surround System and it controls it perfectly turns it on and controls the volume all that stuff that you would think they all should do really easily but they don't. I actually like the remote works great for me not even going to hook another remote up to it. I can actually put all the other remotes away now. Only bad thing is now I have to buy more for my other TV's. Apple really got this product right it's really close to perfect. It actually makes looking for things to watch on TV enjoyable. I really wish I would have tried this one first would have saved me lots of frustration. I'm no Apple fan boy either I'm a fan of whoever makes the best products that work for me. Only other Apple products I own are their Tablet's. Maybe I should be looking at apple products first in the future.

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RBJ

Matching Dynamic Range and Frame Rate

Reviewed in the United States on May 2, 2021

Size: 64GBVerified Purchase

I've had Apple TVs since 2017. They are the best streamer I have experienced so far. I already have my order in for Apple TV 4K 2nd Generation (2021 model). I have so much hope in that new one. . . !

Nevertheless, I feel compelled to write this review when thousands and thousands have already reviewed this device due to a personal and profound revelation I realized when I least expected it. I have a 2020 Marantz SR6015 AVR and a 2020 LG OLED 65CX HDTV. Both these devices have advanced high audio resolution, and high picture definition, and high dynamic range capabilities. The new Apple TV in 2021 will (finally) be commensurate with the abilities of those 2020 devices.

Since 2017, I have always set my Apple TVs to the highest dynamic range available as a default. Except the Dolby Vision setting, which was too “sepia toned” and inappropriate for anything that wasn’t filmed in Dolby Vision. To me, this mindset provided the best HDR viewing experience that I was desiring and paying for. Even when colors would sometimes be “out-of-this-world” super saturated, I thought this was the way it should be. Moreover, there is a lot of source content produced in the 1920s and since then that Dolby Vision would make look totally wrong.

OLD MINDSET:

* 4K HDR 60Hz
* Match Dynamic Range
* Match Frame Rate

In time, after a lot of reading and analyzing my own system, I decided to try 4K SDR 60Hz, when I realized that most movies were filmed in 24fps, but you never know what you’re getting, so one-size does not fit all. By applying HDR or 60Hz to everything, Apple TV was making everything super saturated and interfering in the upscale function of the LG OLED, if the source wasn’t being passed through as 4K and needed upscaling to 4K. Years past, filmmakers didn’t have Dolby Vision or HDR10+, but they knew how to make a picture beautiful with 35mm or 70mm, when they wanted to. Applying the automatic 4K HDR 60Hz filters as a default is not really making things better. I found that applying 4K SDR 60Hz (as default) without applying “artificial” filters to everything, whether classic films or contemporary, the Apple software and LG software worked more cooperatively to render “what the director intended” in just about everything I’ve seen since my new mindset. I intend to continue this mindset to the 2021 Apple TV 4K as well. I believe there will be faster processing and the addition of the Apple Neural Engine to output the “best” entertainment. Dolby Vision, HDR10+, high resolution audio—all these—are part of the dynamic range concept in current films and video. It’s better to match dynamic range than to automatically apply a fixed dynamic range.

NEW MINDSET:

* 4K SDR 60Hz
* Match Dynamic Range
* Match Frame Rate

Whatever system you have for your audio/video processing, you have to find the best mechanical, electrical, and acoustical synergy, such that not any one component voids the best work of the other.

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Trent

Better than I thought

Reviewed in the United States on October 27, 2018

Size: 64GBVerified Purchase

I really love this little thing for what it does, it takes a little getting used to but I'm gonna highlight the things I love the most and found to be the greatest parts of this piece of tech below this first paragraph. Overall I absolutely loved what this has allowed me to be able to do, I have used Netflix and the like for years via a gaming platform and currently I've been using an Xbox One X for my daily needs and my TV is a Samsung Curved 55 inches 4K Smart LED TV. Now I can seamlessly watch literally anything on my TV while incorporating 5.1 surround sound and that's what it's all about.

-Setup was hilariously easy, you're just plugging in three cables (power, internet, HDMI) then you can breeze through setup with your Iphone or just the remote. If you're an Apple nerd and have the phones too you'll be able to use that to help speed setup, and to use as a keyboard.

-Then there's the remote!!!! Saw there was some argument on the merits of the remote but it feels great, it is rechargeable via the same cable as the iphone (cable included with apple tv.) But the best feature though? As I was going through the settings I realized it would control the volume of the AMP I have for the surround sound!! This is a minor thing in the grand scheme but having that built into one controller without having to locate my brand of AMP and do a setup or really anything I just checked a box and boom!

-I bought this to be able to watch movies from my laptop to my TV easier because when I upgraded my TV it no longer smoothly input movies via the HDMI cable through the TV or through the AMP so I thought the Apple TV might be the answer. After playing around with different ways to do this I figured out it's 100% the answer and there is multiple ways to do it! You can add movies to itunes and then access them through the Apple TV or you can airplay your macbook or iphone (if applicable) to your apple tv and thus to your TV.

-For those looking for a solution to their Smart TV's internal operating systems and are considering this and something like a firestick, it really comes down to what you need it for and how much you're willing to spend. If you want something with a host of uses and lots of functionality i'd go Apple TV but if you just need something simple to add one and take with you I'd go firestick

-Like most if not all Apple products this one works the best if you have one or more in the suite to help aid in the setup and controls. The Macbook will talk to it via Itunes and anything you play via Airplay which is helpful when you're trying to play videos or music through your TV. The iphone is by far the most helpful for day to day use as it can double as a remote to pause and acesss menus, as well as double as a keyboard while performing any sort of search or typing input (like entering emails for Netflix account signup etc)

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