Apple TV 4K experience?

dissel said:
Hello experienced members of ATV and the other two streaming box (FTV4K and MiBox 4K) -

Query as follows ; (This is very noticeable in Netflix App, not sure for Disney+ HT and Prime)

Once connected to any kind of Bluetooth Audio Device Netflix App Downgrade all 4K/4K HDR shows to HD version only in Mi 4K Box as well as FireTV 4K, Is this the same thing with ATV too?

Can anybody check and answer?

PS; If need to know BT device are Mi Airdots | One Plus Neck Band | Fiio BTR 3 & 5 | Fiio Q5s | Topping DX3 Pro
Click to expand...
It probably is the 2.4ghz wifi router and bluetooth interference problem. Apple TV is much better, It is the only device unaffected. Even my laptops and older phones drop but somehow apple tv manages to stay strong and stream without buffering.

My devices were bose qc35/nc700.
 
Kmkaks said:
It probably is the 2.4ghz wifi router and bluetooth interference problem. Apple TV is much better, It is the only device unaffected. Even my laptops and phones drop but somehow apple tv manages to stay strong and stream without buffering.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply - I have the Netgear Mesh Wi-Fi system which is sufficient I belive, Also I have normal 5ghz router too. Tested - Only way to get 4K HDR from NF if I choose the Optical route at Mi 4K to the capable device.

There is no other sound output for the FTV4K.

If needed I can prove my point.
 
raksrules said:
We started doing this for ACs after our local friendly electrician told but growing up, I was always told to shut down everything. I am still confused how shutting off stuff like TV fully vs keeping on standby makes difference.
The amazon fire tv edition tvs I have at home are basically just shutting off screen I feel when I put them on standby as from standby when I press power, screen comes up instantly.
Click to expand...
Switching everything off made sense earlier as the standby power draw used to be pretty high.
Now its negligible on pretty much every device (0.5-2W)

Presuming you have stable power, Keeping devices on standby reduces the charge/discharge stress on caps - and the stress caused on PSU every on/off cycle (this is esp true for high load devices like Amps/AVRs )

With very low load things like fireTV /Apple TV etc, switching them on/off won't make a diff to the lifespan - but its certainly more convenient and there is really no good reason I can think of to switch them off

PS: I have a 16 year old subwoofer .. still works like new
This used to be connected directly to a wall outlet some distance away from the mail setup - and I would switch it off when not in use.
Just around the 2 year mark, the board went poof when switching it on one evening. Local Polk dealer washed his hands off
Luckily I was able to get a replacement board from Polk US under warranty after sending them a note (Polk has a 3 yr warranty). I have always left it in standby ever since
 
Last edited:
Was pleasantly surprised that my Soundtouch was automatically present in the list of audio outputs and I could send sound through one or both audio outputs. Switching audio really is superbly convenient.

IMG_20210607_224256__01.jpg
 
dissel said:
Thanks for the reply - I have the Netgear Mesh Wi-Fi system which is sufficient I belive, Also I have normal 5ghz router too. Tested - Only way to get 4K HDR from NF if I choose the Optical route at Mi 4K to the capable device.

There is no other sound output for the FTV4K.

If needed I can prove my point.
Click to expand...
4K NF HDR works fine with airpods and ATV 4K .
Haven’t tried with other BT headsets though
 
I use a M1 Mac mini as my htpc.

navigation can sometimes be iffy but it is an awesome Plex machine.

Also dolphin emulation with my Xbox controller makes it a nice option to play WII games.

with airplay coming with next OS upgrade, one less reason to get Apple TV.

I use beats flex as wireless headphones.
 
ibose said:
How come ? I thought that it made no difference. Our normal frequency of switching on and off does not stress the components.
Click to expand...
What @superczar said is very true, in fact especially so for hard drives, a topic going on in another thread.

Not an electrical engineer but powering on a device from a completely off stage is definitely more violent in that the initial current surge is more stressful on the transformer and other components. Not so much so in standby. What needs to be weighed in is the power savings gained by completely switching off vs the longevity gained by keeping in standby.
 
NotMyRealName said:
What @superczar said is very true, in fact especially so for hard drives, a topic going on in another thread.

Not an electrical engineer but powering on a device from a completely off stage is definitely more violent in that the initial current surge is more stressful on the transformer and other components. Not so much so in standby. What needs to be weighed in is the power savings gained by completely switching off vs the longevity gained by keeping in standby.
Click to expand...
I can understand this if you are really looking to stress a component eg. powering on and off in rapid succession. If what you say is indeed the case even for normal usage, then it would be more to do with the QC of the components and if it breaks within the lifetime of normal usage then well, you probably have a dud ..
 
Last edited:
ibose said:
I can understand this if you are really looking to stress a component eg. powering on and off in rapid succession. If what you say is indeed the case even for normal usage, then it would be more to do with the QC of the components and if it breaks within the lifetime of normal usage then well, you probably have a dud ..
Click to expand...

It's more like you will get 4.65 years of life instead of 4.95 years. Can't really quantify or predict. Just know that it is bad and avoid if possible.

For example, different scenario though, i've found that switching fan speeds on a stepped regulator (the new types, not the resistance-type old boxes), while it's running can kill the regulator a lot faster and also reduce the fan's capacitor's life. Turning off power from the switch, then rotating the regulator to the new speed, and then turning the switch back on, avoids this problem. It sounds like a PITA but i'm now used to it and it hardly takes me a second more. This used to be a major problem because regulators are quite expensive (250-500) bucks and the fan capacitor is a bit of work to change. There's a whole lot of science about surge and transient spikes but without doing a PhD in all that, if there's a simple solution, why not use it?
 
ibose said:
I can understand this if you are really looking to stress a component eg. powering on and off in rapid succession. If what you say is indeed the case even for normal usage, then it would be more to do with the QC of the components and if it breaks within the lifetime of normal usage then well, you probably have a dud ..
Click to expand...
I am not sure I get the point.

Even if hypothetically using option A does not help with component life, what does option B give - other than inconvenience and TMW?
 
superczar said:
I am not sure I get the point.

Even if hypothetically using option A does not help with component life, what does option B give - other than inconvenience and TMW?
Click to expand...
What I was trying to say is switching something off if its not in use is normal and does not shorten the life. Manufacturers do test the components for such a basic requirement of powering on and off. We have been doing it since the days of even CRT TVs and never faced any issue nor seen in any manufacturer mention in any product manual that you should not switch it off but put it on standby. If something goes wrong then either its a manufacturing defect, faulty power supply or even a lightning strike. If it really makes a difference to the lifespan of the product it should be a standard practice adopted by everyone including the manufacturers.
NotMyRealName said:
For example, different scenario though, i've found that switching fan speeds on a stepped regulator (the new types, not the resistance-type old boxes), while it's running can kill the regulator a lot faster and also reduce the fan's capacitor's life. Turning off power from the switch, then rotating the regulator to the new speed, and then turning the switch back on, avoids this problem. It sounds like a PITA but i'm now used to it and it hardly takes me a second more. This used to be a major problem because regulators are quite expensive (250-500) bucks and the fan capacitor is a bit of work to change. There's a whole lot of science about surge and transient spikes but without doing a PhD in all that, if there's a simple solution, why not use it?
Click to expand...
Not sure what kind of regulators we got but I never faced this issue. I have got Orient fans and Anchor regulators (not sure what kind but they have a continuous knob) in our flat. Nothing required any attention in the last 15 years. Prior to that we moved around a lot but again never faced this. Maybe we were lucky to have good quality stuff or just plain lucky. The only time we had a issue was when our building was hit by a lightning strike which conked off multiple stuff across many flats.
Anyways we are off topic so I am out.
 
Last edited:
Incase it is relevant to anyone, jellyfin is going to come up with a new swift based app for iOS, iPadOS and TvOS which used VLC like player on backend so you can stream almost any file without transcoding from your jellyfin server.
I tried the app on ipad (through test flight) and it works great for x265 files which the main ios app cannot.
 
A few days late but at WWDC Apple announced spatial audio is coming to Tv Os. Having used spatial audio on my phone for a bit, it sounds really nice for Bluetooth headphones. It's a must have feature if you are like me and do most of your TV watching on headphones to not disturb your family.

Got my ATV 4k today and initial impression are the colour balanced feature helped clear up the picture quality a bit but more or less similar to my Firetv stick 4k although my tv is pretty average so I can't expect much in that regard. The things I love: no ads on homescreen, really smooth ui, great ease of use with airpods pro ( I couldn't control volume or connect easily with my Fire tv )
 
My HT setup has 5.1.2 speakers with Yamaha V6A AVR with a projector and a 4K TV will soon be added (mostly MI Q1 75"). I have been using an old HTPC so far which serves well enough, but I need a simpler solution now. I was leaning towards Nvidia Shield before I came across this thread. My must-have requirement is full Atmos support. I have a bunch of Blu-ray rips and Webrips on my NAS with 4K HDR and ATMOS. Which one would be better? Infuse with ATV or Kodi with Nvidia Shield?
 
buzz88 said:
My HT setup has 5.1.2 speakers with Yamaha V6A AVR with a projector and a 4K TV will soon be added (mostly MI Q1 75"). I have been using an old HTPC so far which serves well enough, but I need a simpler solution now. I was leaning towards Nvidia Shield before I came across this thread. My must-have requirement is full Atmos support. I have a bunch of Blu-ray rips and Webrips on my NAS with 4K HDR and ATMOS. Which one would be better? Infuse with ATV or Kodi with Nvidia Shield?
Click to expand...
Infuse will be expensive but offers a very good viewing experience. If you are going that route I would suggest buying the full lifetime subscription which is about $80. Audio details can be found here https://support.firecore.com/hc/en-us/articles/217735707-Audio-Options-tvOS-.

TrueHD is not supported on either Appletv 4k or nvidia shield for local streaming. Those are only available from streaming apps as far as I know.
 
djdgr8 said:
Infuse will be expensive but offers a very good viewing experience. If you are going that route I would suggest buying the full lifetime subscription which is about $80. Audio details can be found here https://support.firecore.com/hc/en-us/articles/217735707-Audio-Options-tvOS-.

TrueHD is not supported on either Appletv 4k or nvidia shield for local streaming. Those are only available from streaming apps as far as I know.
Click to expand...

Damn! That's steep. I've previously used Libreelec Kodi box and it worked flawlessly with Atmos. The only reason I didn't keep it was I had to use a separate Firestick for Netflix, Prime and Hotstar as Kodi solutions for the same are not good enough. I guess Shield is the endgoal then. It will give me both, streaming apps and Kodi for local media.
 
Anyone here who is using HomePod with Apple TV 4K can share there experience of home cinema surround sound function, is it a gimmick or does it really work as Apple says it does.

Can it replicate a decent 5.1 surround setup in a small bedroom?

Use HomePod with Apple TV 4K
 
Nalin said:
Anyone here who is using HomePod with Apple TV 4K can share there experience of home cinema surround sound function, is it a gimmick or does it really work as Apple says it does.

Can it replicate a decent 5.1 surround setup in a small bedroom?

Use HomePod with Apple TV 4K
Click to expand...
Don’t have it but from the multitude of stuff I have read online it sounds good but a dedicated system will sound better. what they will offer is a compact form factor(no cables for audio input) and integration with the apple ecosystem.
 
Back
Top