Overview

In early 2019, I published an article about the hardware and software functionality that I hoped the next version of the Apple TV would include. In May of 2021, Apple finally released the second generation Apple TV 4K.1 We upgraded our seven Apple TVs to this latest model. Below is my review of the new Apple TV 4K’s capabilities, comparing them to my wish list.

My takeaways:

• If you didn’t already own the previous Apple TV 4K and you own a 4K UHD TV set, it is well worth the upgrade for the Dolby Vision HDR video quality. Similarly, if you own a Dolby Atmos home theater system or soundbar, the new model (like the prior 4K model) delivers a great audio experience.
• If you already own the first generation Apple TV 4K, then it comes down to the cost of the remote control:
  • It is possible for existing Apple TV owners to purchase the new Siri remote control for $59.
  • Since this is roughly the cost difference of buying the second generation Apple TV 4K and selling the first generation Apple TV 4K, it may make more sense to buy a new settop box too. We did that because it was also an opportunity to upgrade to the 64GB model from our previous 32GB Apple TVs.
• If you are purchasing an Apple TV for the first time, you should buy the 4K model because the price differential between the 4K and HD version ($20) is too small to justify buying the ancient HD version.

Our Multi-room Video Setup

In an effort to simplify the user experience across all rooms in our home, I replaced all of our existing TVs, settop boxes, Bluray players, Logitech Harmony remote controls, and other legacy equipment with the following:

• LG OLED TV (2020 CX model)
• Apple TV 4K (second gen, 2021 model)
• Sonos Arc soundbar, Ones surround (2nd gen), and SUB (3rd gen)
• for a remote, we exclusively use the Apple TV’s new Siri remote2
• two Sony PS5 Dual Sense wireless game controllers
• both the Apple TV and Sonos Arc are connected using Ultra High Speed HDMI (2.1 compatible, 48 Gbps) cables
• the Sonos Arc is connected to the eARC port of the LG TV

The benefit is that any family member or guest can move from room to room and continue watching videos or listening to music with a seamless user experience. We use our Apple TVs for everything: watching live TV & DVR with Plex, viewing streaming services (including Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, HBO Max, TED, Philo, and PBS), watching stored videos with JellyFin and Infuse, listening to stored and streamed music services (especially Apple Music, now that it supports lossless and spatial audio), viewing our Unifi Protect security cameras, and more. We also regularly use Apple Fitness+ with our Apple Watches to workout.

A Much Improved Siri Remote

Cutting to the chase: this upgrade is almost exclusively defined by the new Siri remote. It is larger and machined out of aluminum. It is asymmetric so you can use it without looking at it. It now includes dedicated buttons for both “power”3 and “mute”. The “menu” button is relabeled “back” and is easier to locate in the dark because it is concave. Functionally, it remains the same. Most importantly, it replaces the old Siri remote’s trackpad with a D-pad that also serves as a scroll wheel (like older iPods) and the track pad. For those tvOS apps that support the new remote, the ability to precisely scroll through the timeline or to click backwards or forwards 10 seconds in a timeline is a huge improvement.

There are still some shortcomings:

• apps don’t universally support scrolling or clicking to rewind or fast forward
• the scrolling process is counterintuitive because you must first pause the content and then hold your finger on the outer ring
• there is no page up/down button, which would be useful for changing channels similar to many cable TV boxes
• the older Siri remote had an accelerometer and gyroscope, both of which are no longer included. Now, users must buy a separate game controller for Apple Arcade
• there is no U1 ultra-wideband (UWB) chip inside the remote4, which would have enabled a “Find My”-style remote locator, similar to Apple’s Airtags, and
• annoyingly, it still requires a Lightning cable to recharge. The MacBook and iPad Pro already made the leap to the USB-C connector for power. It is not clear why Apple persisted with the Lightning port, particularly when the larger Siri remote had the surface area to accommodate a USB-C connector to recharge its remote. This would have made it easier to use a single charging cable for both the Siri remote and Sony Dual Sense controllers

An Anemic Choice of Processors

I expected the second gen Apple TV 4K to include the latest Apple CPU. The old Apple TV included an A10X Fusion chipset, a higher powered version of CPUs that it included in then-current iPhones and iPads. Given that Apple standardized on its powerful M1 CPU across Macbook Pros, Mac Minis, and 24-inch iMac, I would have thought they would have included either the M1 or, at least, the A14 in the second generation Apple TV 4K.

Instead, the new Apple TV includes the A12 Bionic, which now is a several years old CPU design. The A12 dates back to the iPhone XS and XS Max, which were released in 2018. In most benchmarks, the A12 is, at best, a little ahead of the A10 in multicore performance. However, the first generation Apple TV 4K’s A10X actually outperforms the A12 for real world GPU performance.5 Clearly, this is not the gaming console that many Apple TV fans were wishing would be released.

Is It Limited to Only HDMI 2.0b Video?

When it was released, the first generation Apple TV 4K was among the most advanced, supporting 4K resolution, Dolby Vision HDR, and HDR10. Apple markets the new model as supporting “high frame rate HDR” because the second gen Apple TV appears to support 60Hz Dolby Vision whereas the prior version only supported 30Hz Dolby Vision.

The new Apple TV includes an HDMI 2.1 port but it does not currently support the full HDMI 2.1 bandwidth or feature set. With HDMI 2.1 and Fixed Rate Link (FRL) transport, it should be possible to have up to 3x the bandwidth of the older HDMI 2.0 standard. This, in turn, enables higher resolution video, better chroma subsampling, and higher frame rate video. If FRL and other features were supported, it would be valuable not just for gaming or UHD movies but also viewing home movies created in Dolby Vision on the iPhone 12.

First, the Apple TV does not output 4K at 120Hz (120fps).6 The lack of  120Hz output means that judder is still an issue unless you configure your Apple TV to “match frame rate”. For example, when watching movies that were originally filmed at 24 fps, judder is particularly evident on scenes where the camera pans. Ideally, instead of a 3:2 pull-down that is then doubled by the Apple TV to 60fps and then doubled by your TV to 120fps, 24fps movie content would be rendered directly at 120fps either at native frame rate multiplied by five (5:5 pulldown) for a cinematic experience or motion interpolation could be used for smoother, more life-like playback.7 Similarly, television content could be played at either four times its original frame rate or use motion interpolation.8 The downside to using “match frame rate” is that this also introduces screen blanking when your TV switches frame rates.9

In theory, the inclusion of HDMI 2.1 (combined with HDMI 2.1 ports on the LG CX OLED TV and Ultra High Speed HDMI cables should bring a number of other advantages: capabilities like enhanced audio return channel, dynamic HDR, Auto Low-Latency Mode, variable refresh rates and quick frame transport technology. These features would eliminate both screen blanking and screen tearing when changing refresh rates. Additionally, they would eliminate frequent idiosyncrasies associated with HDMI-CEC negotiation.

In practice, it appears that only eARC is supported and that HDMI 2.0’s TMDS signaling method is used exclusively. This means that video bandwidth is capped at 18Gbps and 4:2:2 chroma subsampling rather than 4:4:4. While other reviews hold out hope that full HDMI support can be forthcoming in a future software update, I am not as confident. The iFixit team did a teardown of the new Apple TV 4K, which revealed an Kinetic Technologies MCDP2920A4 DisplayPort 1.4 to HDMI 2.0 converter. Based on the MCDP2900 datasheet, this likely means that the second generation Apple TV 4K is permanently limited to 4096×2160@60Hz and will never support HDMI 2.1’s advanced features.10

Other video capabilities that were on my wish list don’t appear to be currently supported:

• there is no hardware accelerated, AI-enhanced, video upscaling of lower resolution content to 4K resolution and higher frame rates11 like Nvidia’s 2019 Shield TV. This would free CPU/GPU cycles otherwise used for software-based upscaling. And, it could have benefited any application that renders 1080 or lower resolution content
• there is no hardware deinterlacer. This would have been valuable for watching over-the-air TV, especially sports. Networks that broadcast 1080i (interlaced) content include CBS, NBC, CW, and PBS12
• there is no apparent support for AOMedia’s AV1 codec.13 This permits higher quality video at lower bitrates (avg 20% lower bandwidth) than either VP9 or HEVC/H.265.

Fixes:

• Thankfully, one key issue that appears to be resolved is the raised blacks in Dolby Vision videos. On my LG OLED TVs, there is now perfect black uniformity
• For viewers in the UK and Japan especially, the new Apple TV reportedly supports the Hybrid Log-Game (HLG) HDR standard, jointly developed by the BBC and NHK

Dolby Audio

Currently, Apple TV supports either Dolby MAT 2.0 (eight or 7.1 channels of lossless audio including Dolby Atmos objects)14 or Dolby Digital (six or 5.1 channels of lossy audio) formats. If an audio stream originates in another format, it must be transcoded via software to one of these two formats. Additionally, each application developer must separately license desired audio codecs, passing that cost on to consumers.

Ideally, Apple would include either pass-through support or hardware decoding for additional audio codecs including DTS, DTS-HD, DTS-X, and Dolby TrueHD. Of these, lossless audio codecs would significantly improve the audio experience. Native decoding of these codecs by the Apple TV would compensate for soundbars and home theater systems (like Sonos) that lack support for these codecs. With HDMI 2.1, the Apple TV’s hardware decoding to Dolby MAT 2.0 would have enabled home theater systems and soundbars to play lossless audio regardless of whether that systems natively supported the original codec.

Better Wireless Networking with WiFi 6

Although virtually every room in our house is wired with Gigabit Ethernet, most homes do not have Ethernet adjacent to each television. So, most people necessarily connect their settop boxes via WiFi. Thankfully, the new Apple TV includes the latest version of WiFi, WiFi 6 with MIMO and simultaneous dual band (2.4GHz and 5GHz), based on the IEEE 802.11ax standard. If there is anything that stresses a wireless network, it is high resolution video–particularly when multiple TVs are in use. We have one Apple TV connected via WiFi to our Unifi 6 Long Range access points and it works without any buffering.

Storage Remains Unchanged

Apple is notorious for using memory and storage to ladder customers to higher priced iPhones, Macs, and even Apple TV models. I had hoped that Apple would at least increase the amount on onboard storage to 128GB or, alternatively, include support for expandable storage like Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Nvidia Shield TV and Xiaomi Mi Box devices. This would be particularly useful for gaming subscription services–like Apple Arcade–where users sample a number of different games and need storage to cache game assets. Ultimately, we purchased the 64GB version of Apple TV, primarily to stop tvOS from deleting data when it was running low on available storage.

No Hands-Free Microphone

“Hey Siri! No hands!” The new Siri remote includes a button to invoke Apple’s virtual assistant. But there is no support for hands-free use, similar to Alexa and Google-enabled smart speakers and displays. In the absence of a built-in microphone in the Apple TV to enable “Hey Siri” searches, perhaps Apple can expose an API for smart speaker and soundbar manufacturers (like Sonos) to enable “Hey Siri” searches on paired smart speakers, with the results displayed on your TV by Apple TV.

tvOS Software Improvements

SharePlay

tvOS 15 will enable users to watch a movie or TV show on your TV while you are on a FaceTime call on your iPhone, iPad or Mac. This enables everyone to watch the same show simultaneously.

For All of You

tvOS 15 will also include family-oriented content recommendations.

Shared With You

tvOS 15 will include a new content row in Apple TV+ for movies and TV shows that have been shared by your contacts via Messages.

Spatial Audio & Improved AirPods Routing

If you own either the AirPods Pro or AirPods Max, tvOS 15 will enable a surround sound experience with those headphones. Additionally, AirPods routing will enable an onscreen notification to your AirPods.

Display Multiple HomeKit Cameras at Once

With tvOS 14, it was possible to display a single HomeKit enabled camera on your TV, by invoking HomeKit from the Control Panel. tvOS 15, adds the ability to view all of your home security cameras in a multi-pane interface. We currently use this with our Unifi Protect security camera system and Homebridge. This feature is very useful though I wish the tiles were larger/there was less padding between the camera feeds.

Better Game Controller Support

For all Apple TVs, tvOS 14.5 enabled Sony Dual Sense controller support. However, additional enhancements are still needed:

•  Button function mapping is very idiosyncratic, not just within individual games, but across all Apple Arcade games. Buttons are mislabeled. The PS4 button invokes the control panel, not the home screen. The PS4 controller trackpad doesn’t work even when a game supports the Apple TV remote trackpad. We must frequently use the Apple TV remote to exit to the home screen to use other apps or games. There are games in Apple Arcade on tvOS that only work with Apple TV remote or an iPhone or iPad, not controllers. Ideally, each game would automatically know which controller (i.e PS4, Xbox, or legacy Apple TV controllers such as Nimbus SteelSeries) is connected and then map functions and in-game labels to that controller.
• Apple still needs to permit users to upgrade their third party controller firmware within tvOS settings. This would deliver bug fixes for known issues like battery drain and connectivity

Automatic Color Balancing

tvOS 14.6 includes a new feature that permits users to correct the color balance of their video by tuning their Apple TV’s color output. This feature is available for current and older 4K settop boxes. Some videophiles spend significant sums to have technicians properly calibrate their TVs. Apple’s color balance feature leaves the TV settings as is (meaning any other device on another input is uncalibrated), changing the color information fed to the TV. In the real world, you would need a wildly uncalibrated TV to notice a signifcant difference. Most recent UHD TVs have high quality cinema settings that need little additional correction. In our home, we leave our LG OLEDs and Apple TVs in Dolby Vision mode full time. Apple’s Color Balancing feature doesn’t work in Dolby Vision mode, presumably because that is already fully tuned.

Thread & Matter

The new Apple TV now supports the Thread protocol, though Apple’s technical specifications note that Thread support is limited to HomeKit devices only. This is promising because Apple is also a participant in the Connectivity Standards Alliance, a smart home standards body that has defined the Matter protocol. Matter-certified devices support an IP-based communications across other smart home devices, mobile apps and cloud services. My hope is that, in the future, it will be possible to mix and match voice assistants, smart home buses and devices from different manufacturers.

Fixing Saved Passwords

My biggest headache using tvOS is entering and retaining saved passwords. Each application/service provider necessarily has its own password. For some reason, tvOS applications frequently lose their stored credentials and require them to be reentered. This happens across Netflix and TV Everywhere apps, in particular.

Yes, you can re-enter your credentials from a paired iOS device. But only the primary user can do that. This creates headaches both for the primary user to continually reenter credentials and for other family members when the primary user isn’t home to do that. Bottom line: saved credentials shouldn’t be forgotten. And, saved credentials should be centrally managed in the Apple Home app (leveraging Keychain) across all apps (e.g. Netflix) regardless of which Apple device first used that credential.

Fixing Multi-Profile App Installation Across Apple TVs

iOS 13 introduced multiple user profiles. Now, it is easy to switch between family members’ profiles by pressing and holding the TV icon on the Apple remote. But, that feature, combined with auto-installation of apps across all Apple TVs, can result in chaos as each Apple TV in your home requests the login credentials of the family member who installed an app on the first Apple TV. If your spouse first installed an app in Apple Arcade, now you need their credentials to install the app on other Apple TVs. And, you are prompted for each app each time, over and over again.

Context-Aware Siri Search

Why does Siri only search Apple services by default? Why must users first locate a search icon within an app to search within that application’s content library? If I am using an app, Siri should default to (or, at least, supplement) its native search results with app-specific results.

How broken is search? You can’t even use Siri to install an Apple Arcade app because it doesn’t appear in global search.

Support for Multiple Smart Assistants

Ideally, the Apple TV would enable third party voice assistants. Google Assistant, for example, is still far more advanced (intelligent?) than Siri. It would be straightforward technically to permit Google Assistant and Amazon’s Alexa to show results on the Apple TV. Obviously, Apple would default to Siri. But, each service could have its own keyword to invoke the proper smart assistant.

Dolby Atmos (beyond Streaming Services)

The Apple TV 4K supports Dolby Atmos, but only for Dolby Digital Plus enabled streaming services. If you are playing stored video with Dolby TrueHD that includes Dolby Atmos objects, application developers (such as Infuse) cannot passthrough Dolby Atmos via Dolby MAT 2.0.

Tips

• Map the TV button to the Apple Home screen
• Use 4K Dolby Vision, if possible
• Use Match Content > Frame Rate to reduce judder
• In Apple TV+ settings, use Top Shelf > Up Next
• In Apple Music settings, use:
  • Top Shelf > Library + Top Albums
  • Audio
    • Dolby Atmos > Automatic
    • Audio Quality > Lossless
    • SoundCheck > On
    • Use Listening History > On

Resources

• AVS Forum Apple TV Discussion
• Dolby Vision HDR resources from Dolby
• Dolby Atmos resources from Dolby
• Matter protocol on Github
• 2021 Apple TV 4K Teardown

Updated on April 6th, 2023