Apple TV (32GB, 4th Generation)

For non-Apple folk: we aren’t against other products at all; we prefer Alexa Echo products and have owned pretty much every brand of phone possible at some point. However, having owned a Chromecast and a Fire Stick, and seeing my parents fight with a Fire TV every week while visiting, I can say with complete certainty that Apple TVs are just easier to deal with and offer way fewer complications, even if you aren’t tech people like us. Why unnecessarily complicate our lives? This is our 3rd Apple TV, and obviously we like them if we are buying another, but here’s why we chose the 4th gen 32gb. This new Apple TV went in our master bedroom, where a 32” tv is perfectly sized and where our old 1st gen Apple TV had been relinquished. I couldn’t stand the remote or the inability to update apps anymore, and not being able to add Disney Plus was the final straw haha. That old 1st gen has been with us for so, so long and technically still works fine, but since we are working on making our master more of a getaway, we wanted something nicer. Note: we aren’t huge on watching TV in our room, but occasionally there are shows we can’t watch in front of our kids while they are awake, or we just really have had a rough day & want to binge Star Trek TNG in bed, and sometimes we just want to watch something the other person doesn’t (hello, lazy Saturdays or hello, sick days with the Hallmark Channel LOL). We didn’t get 4K version because our MB tv isn’t 4K (is it even possible for a 32” to be a true 4K tv???) and honestly, it would’ve been a waste for this space - we do have a 4th gen 4K in the living room where our 4K tv lives and it’s fantastic if that’s what you’re looking for; as an example, the new Lion King streamed in 4K UHD and looked like an amazing documentary rather than a CGI movie. We went with 32gb because we don’t download any movies or shows to our Apple TVs - most of the time, streaming doesn’t have any hiccups where we live so there’s no need for anything more than app storage because we just use our cable logins on apps rather than running another cable box, as well as Hulu/Netflix/Amazon/HBO/Disney+. Considering how long we made the 1st gen work, I imagine it will be at least five years before it gets upgraded and could potentially be used much longer than that since a lot of the kinks have been worked out over 4 generations; it will all really come down to processing speeds and the way things are streamed in the future.

I use a Macbook for work, and an iPhone. I hate Apple products. The iPhone 8 Plus that I have..why did I switch from an Android phone? Yeah, it was slow and plump with bloat-ware..but they knew how to make an OS fully customizable and freeing. But this Apple TV?..the one thing they know how to do is to connect them seamlessly and with great speed, clarity, and gusto. The interface and software is user-friendly and incredibly quick and navigation, UX/UI..well thought-out. The remote is smart, simple, track-pad for your finger and button depression, mic to tell it what you want to see/search for..simply flawless. I still hate my iPhone 8 Plus though. You COULDN'T put a friggin' back button in that whole block of space at the bottom. REALLY?? One other thing to note if you stream from AirPlay from your laptop to watch movies (say on Netflix)..there IS a tendency for the stream to jar a little, like the buffer is tripping over itself after a 2 second interval. It's incredibly annoying but isn't from the playback on my laptop (and I have fiber speeds). It's the transmission relay from the laptop to the Apple TV, and not sure how it can be solved other than reconnecting. Albeit a small thing, just be warned it could affect movie watching from your laptop. But there really is no need if you have Netflix, Hulu, Prime, Slime, Gammalocks, CoffeeFlix, QuanzaStream, BetaMax, and all those other streaming services that nobody cares about and pays too much for! I hate you Apple. But this thing..is nice.

Still works great 7 years later ! I hope they become available in the future as I’m sure it will die some day.

I have put off a very long time buying this, but after going to my friends house and using his system, it just convinced me to buy it. The set up was so easy to do and the connectivity to the Internet and the apps that I have for my streaming works Perfectly. I like the response on the remote and how smooth the selections are on the TV when you use the remote and it just feels like it’s just gliding across. It’s really great. Compared to some other ones that you could buy this one by far gives off the best sound quality when you connect and it doesn’t have any distortion when it plays to the TV. Last but not least when it comes to streaming as one of my kids favorite song says it is smooth like butter.

I’ve been using a DVD player with the channels I use (amazon, Hulu, Netflix). Yet I kept buying $4.99 movies on Apple and only some of them would pop up on amazon prime for me to watch! I never figured out why. Though I could watch these movies on my iPad, I don’t want to. Fast forward, finally buying an Apple TV. It’s just so much easier to navigate and better then using the DVD player I had been using. Not to mention being able to watch all those Apple movies I buy! Bonus is streaming my music through the device, it seemed silly to buy this product when really my DVD player could do most, it after buying I am very pleased I did! Only thing that’s a bit eh is how tiny the remote is! Not what I’m used to. I did buy a lovely cover for it so that makes it easier to hold and find.

Easy to use we love it.

The design of the device is nice and modern, the remote itself is of a nice design however this device is plagued by several technical issues i.e. apps sometimes crash, keyboard is dreadfully glitchy and slow to use, streaming apps layout are poor and difficult to use making it difficult to actually find anything you want to watch, Netflix does not work properly (do not see everything on “My List”, Amazon Video is fine but all shows and movies are mixed between what’s available on Prime and titles you have to purchase, App Store is limited to what you can have on it. Despite all of this the home layout screen is nice and if the apps and system software were to be updated more regularly I would have given four possibly five stars but until then I can only give it a two out of five.

Be aware that the HDMI cable must fully engage in the slot so that the cable shoulder sits against the case, otherwise there is no signal. I struggled to find a cable in my box that would fit, including premium cables, despite them connecting to other devices, without problems. (had the same issue with a 4K unit that I returned as I thought it was faulty) However, once I got a cable that would fit, installation was a breeze, using my iPhone. I can confirm that it runs: BBC iPlayer, ITV hub, 4OD, My5, Amazon Prime and NowTV. I can also control it with my Harmony Ultimate remote.

Primarily I bought this box to watch Apple TV+. My four year old Samsung Smart TV offers me Netflix, Prime and BBC iPlayer BUT not the Apple service. In essence it's probably the best streaming tool to have! Additionally it uses Airplay to sync sound to my sound system turning it into a Home Theatre unit! Yes it's pricey but it's very good and as with all Apple products beautifully made! The handset takes a bit of getting used to. But once you've mastered it that too is fairly user friendly.

The main reason for buying an Apple TV was so that I could watch films bought on Apple TV / iTunes on the TV. This is easily done either through the Apple TV App on the TV or through Air Play on my iPad. The picture quality is excellent and all in all I am very happy with this product. The only slight disappointment is that you cannot use Sky Go for catch up on Apple TV. Fantastic Apple product though!