Video Apple TV HD 4th Gen - Experiences and taking requests to try things

[raksrules]

I am primarily fire stick user since like 2015 or so right from first fire stick. The best part I like about this nifty device is that it is relatively cheap, we can install all official apps so we don't have to worry about DRM issues at all and we can even sideload apps like Kodi and numerous other 3rd party apps for ahem content. Even the 2 TVs I have at home are Fire TV edition TVs (inbuilt firestick).
But then I am also an Apple user with all other devices so I wanted to try Apple TV once to see how it is and how well it can work for me and whether it can replace my Fire TV for media consumption. In order to not spend the premium apple tv demands and buy brand new, I scoured OLX / Facebook marketplace to find an older model for cheaper price and luckily got Apple TV HD 4th gen just 15min away from my home. Model number A1625.

Link to see specs -> https://support.apple.com/kb/SP724?locale=en_GB

I have the one with black colour siri remote which has the glass top area on top for navigation. Really not to my liking to be honest.

First Impressions:

• Even though this device is like 6+ years old (introduced in 2015), the performance is still great on latest TvOS 16.5. It is even going to get TvOS 17 I believe.
• Navigation is very very smooth and UI is not riddled with ads like fire stick and such.
• Most of the Indian streaming services like Zee, SonyLiv, JioCinema, Disney+Hotstar, Netflix are available.
• For streaming from internal network, VLC player is available (DLNA/uPnP).
• Relevant for me: Swiftfin which is jellyfin client is available but not much polished and has issues.
• Gaming can be done using the remote. I don't game but just to try, downloaded Real Racing 3 and myself and both my kids enjoyed.
• Remote is tiny, charges using lighning cable and seems very very delicate. I am scared for it to be honest. Have ordered a 250 rupees rubber cover for it.
• This Apple TV HD has a usb-c port behind it so it can be physically connected to windows machine or macbook. Else we need macbook to connect to apple tv wirelessly using xcode software to sideload anything.
• Setup using iPhone is breeze and both devices work really well hand in hand. Like whenever I need to search somewhere on apple tv, keyboard will popup on iPhone to type.

Sideloading Apps like Kodi:

• One of the very important things I wanted to try here was to sideload Kodi and other apps on the device. Kodi being most important.
• I manually converted a Kodi .deb file to .ipa using 7zip on windows machine and used latest version of sideloadly on windows machine to load the same to get Kodi on it and was successful. I understand that it will expire in 7 days and I have to reload Kodi again (hoping settings don't get deleted). I do similar thing on my iPad so i am used to it.
• Getting Kodi sideloaded was easier than I expected probably because I didn't need to go through the xcode pairing stuff.
• I had some zip files for addon repositories and getting them inside Kodi was not straightforward like fire stick where i can traverse the file system. I had to resort to creating a new source in kodi to a public ftp server and I copied the repo zip there which I downloaded then. All the addons installed fine.
• My biggest reason of using Kodi on firestick is NOT to use piracy addons, in fact i use addons for JioCinema to watch content at faster speed, I use jio tv addon to see live tv channels, all using my own Jio Number and logged into the addon. I also use Jellyfin/jellycon addon to access my jellyfin server and watch content inside kodi (with trakt scrobbling) and I also have a Netflix addon to watch netflix content at faster playback speed.
• BIGGEST PROBLEM - None of the above work on my Kodi on Apple tv (except Jellyfin). This is because of the DRM of the content of the respective apps cannot be decrypted on apple tv kodi. This issue is also with latest apple tvs so very very important information that if you are using kodi for legit services like Indian streaming apps and such, you cannot and don't even bother. Basically, only piracy or non DRM content will be playable. Btw everything i mentioned above I use on kodi under firestick / onida fire tv without any issues.

Final Notes: Apple TV is a great streaming device if you are in Apple ecosystem and usually use paid streaming services. If you are coming from android based streaming boxes, you will be massively frustrated so don't even bother. If your intention is to use the addons for legit streaming services, it will not work due to DRM issues and overall the device will feel super restricted. Stick with android boxes, firestick, xiaomi box etc stuff.


If you guys want me to try something for you, do let me know and I will attempt to try and post the results.

 

[raksrules]

Update:


Seems the device is totally useless for me. Mainly because of my use case. I watch stuff on jiocinema but thru Kodi which can be made to work but the video won't play due to DRM decryption not available.
Same case with Jio live TV that I watch through kodi addon (as that's the only option on TV anyways) and that too doesn't work due to DRM issues.
My kids like to play real racing using the motion sensor remote for sometime and that's it.

Won't be selling it for now but as a streaming box it is not useful FOR ME. But on it own, it is good device and all streaming apps are available too and work nicely.

Also getting used to that swipe gestures on that black remote is not very convenient. I like tactile feedback. Glad they changed the remote in latest iteration but removes the gyro sensor and all.

Still if anyone wants me to try anything, do let me know. May be I can help you before you buy a new device.