I know, I know…I saw this launch coming from a mile away. Apple already increased the price on years-old TV hardware so of course the new one was going to be $300. But, come on, how does a streaming box have any business being this expensive?

The primary reason I have an Apple TV is that I avoid the Roku and Amazon data mining and ad extravaganza while also getting pretty much the best streaming quality out there. That’s all I want - no Siri AI, no far-field microphones, no Apple Fitness. Just privacy and excellent picture and sound quality.

$200 is the absolute most I’m willing to spend on a streaming box. $300 is laughable, even with the proverbial Apple tax. Guess I’ll have to pray my current ATV 4K doesn’t die anytime soon.

Previously closed source players such as NativePlayer tried that. But now AetherEngine, which is fully open source, supports the same for both Dolby TrueHD 7.1 and DTS:X. I tested on my Samsung Q990H and it lights up Dolby Atmos badge. Other people even attached a debugger and verified that Atmos is working. The sound is phenomenal and I can easily tell the richness of the sound on my Q990H. I did not bother digging further but I did probe via ChatGPT and ChatGPT claims it is not a "upmixing" or "downmixing" setup. It is literally repackaging height channel and all the other channels into APAC and feeding that using Dolby MAT that preserves full spatial audio.

Project link: https://github.com/superuser404notfound/AetherEngine

Note the corresponding player is AetherPlayer (https://github.com/superuser404notfound/AetherPlayer) but the TrueHD and DTS:X support was not added to AetherPlayer yet (testflight version was not rebuilt since AetherEngine added support for TrueHD and DTS:X). But I assume you can simply checkout the AetherPlayer code and ask claude to produce an ipa. (I have my own vibe coded setup that I tested before posting this).

I think I’ll pass on this one.

I’m almost certain Costco had the Apple TV 4K 3rd gen out of stock last night, but it looks like it’s back in stock, so I just picked one up. They also have a 90-day return policy, and I’ll probably use some cash rewards toward it. I know people seem to be hunting for the 3rd gen now. I also saw that BJ’s has the 64GB Wi-Fi-only model available.

Costco: https://www.costco.com/p/-/apple-tv-4k-128gb-wi-fi-ethernet/4000094111?langId=-1

BJ’s: https://www.bjs.com/product/apple-tv-4k-wifi-64gb/3000000000004257303/

edit: Yes, I probably should’ve paid the extra $50 for the new one, which is why I went with Costco. They have a 90-day return policy, so if I end up wanting the newer gen or they drop it to $250 for the holidays, I can always return this one and grab the new one instead.

I had been waiting ages for the next gen but I finally gave up and took the plunge one week ago (my old google tv was on the fritz).

It arrived yesterday. What timing.

And when I say that, I mean it in the best possible way.

I spent less. All of the new "features" are things that I turn off. I don't need Siri listening to me all the time in my house**, I don't game, I have just the sound from my old tv, and fuck AI in whatever form it takes.

And now it looks like you can't get the old one anymore (at least not from Apple). So I guess I got in just under the wire.

I'll call that a win (though I should have bought before the previous version's price went up).

**(I guess it does on my phone so why am I so particular about this? I dunno. I'm inconsistent. So sue me)

Im curious if there are still going to be a lot of people buying this new $300 apple tv? The previous apple tv was so successful because it was a very good product for a good value(initially). Its obvious now that Apple believes they can increase the costs of their products by a lot and still make a killing on them from their loyal fans. So is anyone buying this one and do you think this one will sell as well as the previous one?

I, like many of you, had held out for the new model only to be disappointed. All day I’ve been looking for a 64gb 3rd gen and it’s sold out everywhere. I finally found a Best Buy listing and placed the order only to receive an email it had been cancelled by them because it’s no longer available. Any tips on tracking down an Apple TV 4K 3rd generation (2022) WiFi 64gb model? And should I consider buying a 2nd gen?

Like a lot of you I missed out on the gen 3 before the price increase and decided to wait to see what apple had for the gen 4. Without going into our collective disappointment no way am I paying £300 for some microphones I don't want and a slightly newer chip. So after a lot of searching for a decent price on a gen 3 ethernet I found this at cex...

https://uk.webuy.com/product-detail/?id=STVAPPTV3RD128GBEEA

£120

It is grade A which is described as "mint/new condition". They use the word "immaculate" and from what I have read it is incredibly hard to achieve this grade.

The only difference is that it comes with an ee remote and comes preinstalled with an ee app. You can uninstall the app and the remote doesn't seem awful. Other than that it is absolutely the same.

Unfortunately it is out of stock right now (it wasn't this morning) but you can sign up for notifications of restocks. I'm confident you won't get a better price on the 3rd gen.

I have a $350 GC to Amazon, and I have two TV's in my house that I'd like to get an Apple TV for.

I'd rather use the GC up if possible. My Bedroom TV is an older 2021 Sony A80CJ (A80J basically but Costco model), and the living room has an LG C2 2022? Both OLED TV's.

I forgot I had a Gen 2 32Gb 4k model in the closest with the remote. Would I be stupid in using this one again? The living room TV will often reboot the app because of low memory.

My room has two Gen 2 HomePods, and I like to buy an Apple TV for it, and use the HomePods as speakers for the TV. But spending $300 on the new one feels wasteful.

I can get two Gen 3's at a Pawn Shop for $150 each (Can probably haggle even lower to like $120 maybe). But then, I can't use my AMZ GC, and I don't know if the upgrade from 2021 to 2022 is even worth it?

What would my best solution be? I'm thinking of buying the new one for my room and buying the new remote for the living room TV?

I don't wanna use the 2021 and have it be unsupported next fall lol, and its points to the Gen 4 model being overpriced for hardly anything new. I know it has more RAM etc... But the older models 2 and 3 are getting Siri AI?

I have used my first-gen ATK 4K almost daily since launch in 2017, just for streaming from major streamers, no gaming, no workouts, nothing fancy. And it still works great, no significant lagging.

But I do have a need for a Matter/Thread hub, so I've been waiting since last spring for the new ATV to be released. I figure if I'm getting a hub, I might as well upgrade my 9-year-old OG ATV 4K. I wasn't even that bothered by the price hike last June, as I assumed they would release something decent. But now that the wait was (almost) for nothing, plus the further price hike... It's been truly disappointing.

What now? Yes, the 4th gen does have lots of upgrades over the 1st gen, but I can't find any that are compelling for my particular usage.

I don't need the storage, I just stream. I have no use for HDR10+, as I have a 2026 LG OLED TV. The speed/performance boost may be nice, but my current ATV is just fine—I've never felt it lagged to any significant degree. If it were just for the Matter/Thread hub, the HomePod mini 2 is half the price—except I have nowhere to put it and no need for the audio (I already have two OG HomePods). Siri AI in an ATV is just not compelling to me; my iPhone is right next to me anyway. WiFi 7, Bluetooth 6, all basically useless to me. Even eARC isn't a huge upgrade, as streamers don't have lossless audio anyway—assuming I would even notice with my mid-range soundbar. Surround sound with HomePods probably sounds great, but that's even more money.

So how exactly would a 4th gen ATV be any different for my usage? Or I could save $50 for a 3rd gen, but the same question remains: how is this significantly different and worth hundreds of dollars?

Am I missing something? How can it be that a $300 piece of Apple hardware almost a decade newer still does not give me any significant upgrades?

I’ve been in the market for an Apple TV for the past couple of months, but I held off buying one because everyone kept saying a new model was coming.

Now that it’s finally out… I’m genuinely struggling to understand why I would buy the new one over the previous-gen Apple TV 4K.

From my understanding:

New Siri AI: I am actually the rare few that find it to be kind of cool. But apparently the new Siri AI is also coming to older Apple TV 4K models, so this doesn’t really seem like a reason to buy the new hardware.

New Find My remote: Again, nice feature, but if I really cared about Precision Finding on the remote, couldn’t I just buy the new remote separately and use it with the older Apple TV?

Faster chip: Does that actually matter for normal Apple TV use? From everything I’ve seen, the previous model already runs extremely smoothly anyway, I don’t get the need to upgrade just for a tv interface

So unless I’m missing something, the only actually new thing I would miss out is the always listening microphone, which I don’t actually want.

Can someone correct me if I missed something or misunderstood anything because I don’t understand who would get this over the previous generation

I see a lot of used Apple TV units going for $15-40 on eBay. Models A1427, A1469, A1625 have all shown up. I want it for a back guest room that’s only got a 19-inch TV (might move my 42-inch bedroom plasma in place at some point).

Is it worth the money to grab one of these units, and will they be compatible with the iPhone remote app if there’s no remote?

Alright welp, now that UHF doesn’t allow downloads, what are we calling the new best alternative? At the very least what’s the most straightforward and reliable for downloading?

So price here in Canada (Onatrio) is crazy with tax, brings it out to $484. I was looking forward to upgrade from my current ATV4K 1st Gen. But with this price I don’t think I will. Probably look forward old 3rd Gen ATV4K or just get the new Remote as I hate the old black one. They literally priced it like a gaming consol.

Posted this almost 4 years ago and while I’m not a fan of the Fire TV interface, it has features the Apple TV doesn’t. And Amazon is currently selling it refurbished/like new for $80.

I noticed there's no longer a search feature in the TvOS 27 Photos app. I can't believe they removed this very important feature. Is there any way to search photos in TvOS 27?

It looks like the new Apple TV will come with a built-in microphone and support for Siri voice activation. I'm considering buying one.

I'm hoping it can always respond when called, like a HomePod mini, and control my smart home devices (the HomePod mini hasn't been released in my country(korea)).

Will the new Apple TV respond to voice commands even while it's in sleep mode? Or will I have to wait for real-world user reviews to find out?

One can only hope.

Been struggling to find one (new or refurbished) at a decent price for months. Always scammers here or Kleinanzeigen.

Would appreciate the help in getting one in Germany or Europe.

I mean… if the ai and new remote mean anything to anyone… then you are getting ai on older models AND you can buy the new remote..

So what’s the point? How is there any value in the 4th gen? I see some saying the increased ram helped keep more apps open to switch but.. how many are actually doing that?

I’m just scratching my head at how horrible this pricing is and what you get from it.

Super proud of the push back tho. For people who waited years for this… I’m sorry for your loss.

May the 3rd gen live for the next decade 🥳