Apple TV 4K

[bitchstewie]

I have an old and intermittently knackered Sky+ HD box and other than movies and stuff that's on Freeview the only thing I really use it for is football for which I pay Sky a stupid amount.

I keep looking for one box that could replace it and I hadn't paid much attention to an Apple TV box.

Part of the problem is my Philips TV in spite of being new enough has a totally dogst interface and needs some navigation through several menus just to change the HDMI input (didn't realise that when I bought it!).

As I understand it Apple TV can do Now TV, Sky, Amazon Prime, and seems to support pretty much all of the UK streaming services.

It also looks like it has a decent interface and doesn't come with 500 US apps that I'll never use but can't hide or delete?

What it can't do is "live" Freeview so I guess I'm stuck with the TV or an additional box for that.

Whilst it won't do a "what's on now" planner where I can "channel surf" presume the My5/ITV/All4/iPlayer apps allow watching "live" TV per the Freeview schedules?

There's a point where maybe a new TV is an option but this one isn't that old it just has an appalling interface and crap built in apps and I presume there's a lot more life in an Apple TV box.

[Jenny Tailor]

Don't think it does Sky.
If it does. - I might be losing a box or three.

[bitchstewie]

Jenny Tailor said:

Don't think it does Sky.
If it does. - I might be losing a box or three.

Ah I should have been clearer

No I don't think it does that but perhaps for me Now TV would do most of what I need for Sky content (movies essentially) - but then it's the stness of switching between multiple boxes on HDMI etc.

[Jenny Tailor]

bhstewie said:

Jenny Tailor said:

Don't think it does Sky.
If it does. - I might be losing a box or three.

Ah I should have been clearer

No I don't think it does that but perhaps for me Now TV would do most of what I need for Sky content (movies essentially) - but then it's the stness of switching between multiple boxes on HDMI etc.

Oh - There is a Now TV app - I'm pretty sure of that.
And yes - I'm thinking back to the old days of Tandy - and HDMI switchers ( for little old lady ) - but it's going to be another ballache.

My LG Telly - does have Now TV as an App - as well as Apple TV.
But no way little old lady - can navigate a magic mouse - to get to those.


Edit: I find nowadays - that other Streaming companies are getting movies before Sky even gets a snifter.

Edited by Jenny Tailor on Sunday 8th May 20:15

[BobToc]

I use Apple TV for NowTV. Does the trick for me, I pay for F1 as a one-off a few times a year.

[Robotron70]

A 4k Firestick works out cheaper than Apple TV and plays Apple content and Now Tv etc.

[Ace Bentley]

I also use 4k Firestick and find it rather practical.

[JimM169]

I've got AppleTV and a FireCube, the Cube is twice the product at half the price!

[Silverage]

I’ve got the 4K Apple TV and I watch virtually everything on it. I only go back to the Sky box for football and for next season I’m planning on doing that via Now TV on the Apple TV.

Everything else, so for me that’s Netflix, Amazon Prime video, Disney +, iPlayer and YouTube Premium is through the Apple TV.

[bitchstewie]

Silverage said:

I’ve got the 4K Apple TV and I watch virtually everything on it. I only go back to the Sky box for football and for next season I’m planning on doing that via Now TV on the Apple TV.

Everything else, so for me that’s Netflix, Amazon Prime video, Disney +, iPlayer and YouTube Premium is through the Apple TV.

Thanks (and everyone else).

Trying to watch some reviews on YouTube but most are US focused where the whole subscription model seems different.

The UI does seem very polished though and as I have a MacBook and iPhone the integration would probably come in handy at some point.

Also looks like the UI can be customised and isn't ramming adverts in your face everywhere you go?

Are there any downsides to the 4K model that you can think of please? Anything it can't do?

[Silverage]

bhstewie said:

Thanks (and everyone else).

Trying to watch some reviews on YouTube but most are US focused where the whole subscription model seems different.

The UI does seem very polished though and as I have a MacBook and iPhone the integration would probably come in handy at some point.

Also looks like the UI can be customised and isn't ramming adverts in your face everywhere you go?

Are there any downsides to the 4K model that you can think of please? Anything it can't do?

I don’t think it’s much use for live tv, although there are some apps for it that stream live channels (Sky News for example). The catch-up services for the commercial channels, like ITV Hub, have unskippable ads at the start, end and during the programme - that’s really annoying, so I don’t bother with those.

[bitchstewie]

Silverage said:

I don’t think it’s much use for live tv, although there are some apps for it that stream live channels (Sky News for example). The catch-up services for the commercial channels, like ITV Hub, have unskippable ads at the start, end and during the programme - that’s really annoying, so I don’t bother with those.

Ugh.

This is what I hate and why I cling on doggedly to Sky despite hating the cost.

These players tick so many boxes (pardon the pun) but there's just nothing other than Freeview and Sky that seem to handle "channel surfing".

[1878]

bhstewie said:

Silverage said:

I don’t think it’s much use for live tv, although there are some apps for it that stream live channels (Sky News for example). The catch-up services for the commercial channels, like ITV Hub, have unskippable ads at the start, end and during the programme - that’s really annoying, so I don’t bother with those.

Ugh.

This is what I hate and why I cling on doggedly to Sky despite hating the cost.

These players tick so many boxes (pardon the pun) but there's just nothing other than Freeview and Sky that seem to handle "channel surfing".

Pretty sure they are skippable ... on payment of a monthly subscription.

[Silverage]

1878 said:

Pretty sure they are skippable ... on payment of a monthly subscription.

That does ring a bell to be fair. I’m paying enough for the other services though - I’m not looking to make the bill any larger. It’s worth bearing in mind though if you would make a lot of use of the commercial channels’ catch up services.

[bitchstewie]

Thanks do you mean a monthly subscription to Apple or multiple subscriptions i.e. to ITV to C4 and each individual app that has ads in it?

This is where I'm not sure how tightly Apple control the Apply TV ecosystem to protect the "experience" v maybe Amazon or other streamers where the apps are a little more of a free-for-all?

[NoTreadLeft]

In case it helps I've been running one of these for the last few years: VBox TV Gateway for Terrestrial – DVB-T/T2. It receives broadcast TV over the air and then streams up to 2 simultaneous channels over your LAN, so you can watch it on your phone, iPad, Apple TV or PC/Mac etc. I wasn't expecting a lot from it but it's actually been pretty solid.

The app you need to run to watch it on your Apple TV is pretty basic but it supports EPG & HD channels and crucially it means you don't need to leave your Apple TV to watch broadcast TV. On PC's & Mac's you can run Kodi to watch it, which is actually a pretty slick user interface, and the box itself can act as a PVR.

Clearly it's another £100 on top of the price of your Apple TV, but if the other functionality it provides is useful it might be worth considering.

[bitchstewie]

NoTreadLeft said:

In case it helps I've been running one of these for the last few years: VBox TV Gateway for Terrestrial – DVB-T/T2. It receives broadcast TV over the air and then streams up to 2 simultaneous channels over your LAN, so you can watch it on your phone, iPad, Apple TV or PC/Mac etc. I wasn't expecting a lot from it but it's actually been pretty solid.

The app you need to run to watch it on your Apple TV is pretty basic but it supports EPG & HD channels and crucially it means you don't need to leave your Apple TV to watch broadcast TV. On PC's & Mac's you can run Kodi to watch it, which is actually a pretty slick user interface, and the box itself can act as a PVR.

Clearly it's another £100 on top of the price of your Apple TV, but if the other functionality it provides is useful it might be worth considering.

Hmm something like that could be useful actually as I use my MacBook to watch quite a bit of TV using the Sky Go app which is shockingly resource hungry.

So that connects like a Freeview box that can be used as a normal Freeview box but it can also stream live TV to either an Apple TV app or to a web browser?

[NoTreadLeft]

bhstewie said:

Hmm something like that could be useful actually as I use my MacBook to watch quite a bit of TV using the Sky Go app which is shockingly resource hungry.

So that connects like a Freeview box that can be used as a normal Freeview box but it can also stream live TV to either an Apple TV app or to a web browser?

I have the cheaper one, which has 2 aerial sockets on the back, a network socket (to plug into your router) and a USB socket (for an optional hard drive). So it doesn't connect directly to the TV like most Freeview boxes - it just sits next to your router and relies on the Apple TV to display on the TV. Haven't tried watching on a web browser - I use Kodi on my Mac, which has a nice interface + full EPG.

I think the more expensive Android version works exactly as you say: it basically turns your TV into an Android TV, but also serves TV streams to anything else in your house that wants them. As it's Android I presume you can get all the other apps you want, so if you bought that one you probably wouldn't need an Apple TV?

[w.parson]

I use Kodi on both my mac and firestick TV. I have an Android TV, however, the build-in apps are not working well, so I had to buy a firestick. Also, after having read the guidelines at https://www.firesticktricks.com/jailbreak-fire-sti... I've decided to jailbreak my firestick. And now I have even more access to different apps and various content.

Edited by w.parson on Thursday 26th May 23:52

[bitchstewie]

Still messing around and haven't done anything about this.

I really want to drop Sky.

I think I'm at the point where the inbuilt Freeview and Freesat on my TV gives me most of what I need and I just need need a box with a good UI for streaming.

Can't say I'm getting on great with a FireStick 4K the interface just feels a bit messy and fragmented.

Am I right that there isn't a Freeview app for Apply TV to give a "on now" type guide but there is an app called TV Launcher?

Anyone got to the point where the TV 4K is their only streaming box?