In the panorama of multimedia devices for the living room, the solution offered by Apple and called Apple TV, arrived at the fourth generation at the time of writing this article. This small Apple-branded TV Box promises to be able to watch 4K streaming content on TVs compatible with this resolution and offers all the speed and convenience of Apple even in the living room, where such a small and elegant device will certainly make a good impression.
But how Apple TV performs compared to competitors "> Alternatives to Chromecast to watch web content on TV
1) Apple TV 4K features
The Apple TV 4K has the following technical characteristics:
- A10X Fusion chip with 64-bit architecture
- Internal memory of 32 or 64 GB
- HDMI 2.0a port
- Dual band Wi-Fi 802.11ac (2.4GHz and 5GHz)
- Ethernet port
- Bluetooth 5.0
- IR receiver
Video codecs supported
- H.264 / HEVC SDR video up to 2160p, 60 fps, Main / Main 10 Profile
- HEVC Dolby Vision (Profile 5) / HDR10 (Main 10 Profile) up to 2160p
- H.264 Baseline Profile level 3.0 or lower with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps per channel, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4 and .mov formats
- MPEG-4 video up to 2.5 Mbps, 640x480 pixels, 30 fps, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4 and .mov formats
Audio codecs supported
- HE ‑ AAC (V1), AAC (up to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from the iTunes Store), MP3 (up to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Apple Lossless, FLAC, AIFF and WAV; AC ‑ 3 (Dolby Digital 5.1), E ‑ AC ‑ 3 (Dolby Digital Plus 7.1 surround sound)
- Dolby Atmos
As we can see, nothing is missing: by focusing on Apple TV we will have full support for the latest technologies in terms of video and audio quality, with the addition of total support for DRM content (we can reproduce any legal streaming content at maximum quality) .
Obviously to get the most out of it we will have to connect the Apple TV to a TV with 4K UHD support and with HDR support and use a suitable HDMI cable (not included in the package).
The best HDMI cable that we can use for this TV Box can be purchased from here -> KabelDirekt 2m 4K HDMI cable (7 €).
2) Use apps and voice commands
Compared to other devices we can immediately notice that the integrated ones in the Apple TV operating system (called tvOS) are very few, and the situation does not improve even installing the apps from the integrated Store; Fortunately, Apple has worked to make available all the apps that users use most: in fact we can find Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, integration with iTunes to get music and movies (for purchase and for rent), iCloud (photos and videos) and as a third-party app we report the presence of Plex, VLC and DAZN, plus the Now TV app is coming, so for the Italian market we are practically covered by all the most used apps (obviously we hope they will increase visibly ).
Obviously the interface is designed to push the paid content offered by Apple itself, with all the latest news available on iTunes (movies, TV series and music).
Among the defects we point out the absence of an integrated browser, an app dedicated to Spotify and in general the other music apps that are not those related to iTunes and Apple : reckless choice, but fortunately there is AirPlay to remedy (like we'll see in the next section of the guide).
The voice commands work quite well, given that a simplified version of Siri is used to answer the questions asked by the user: we are not on the levels of Siri for iPhone or of the Google Assistant on Android, but it is doing very well (we will use it very often, also given the inconvenience of the remote control to move around the menus).
3) How to use AirPlay from other devices
The real strength of Apple TV is the support for AirPlay technology, which allows you to interface Apple devices and send audio / video streams without compression within the same home network.
The Apple TV is able to receive the audio and video content from the apps installed on the iPhone and iPad: just connect the Apple TV and the Apple mobile device to the same home network (they must be connected to the same modem).
As soon as we open an app compatible with AirPlay, just click on the specific technology icon (a monitor with a triangle at the bottom) or open the device management menu and select the Apple TV in the house: immediately the playback will switch to the TV Box and reflected on the TV, in the highest possible quality.
One of the apps that can be used with AirPlay is Spotify, which can immediately send to playback on Apple TV via its device management menu.
Obviously we can take advantage of AirPlay on many apps (even in the mobile Safari browser) and actually transform the iPhone into a remote control for the Apple TV, so that we can play any video and any audio track on the Web.
In addition to the iPhone and iPad AirPlay is integrated on MacBook and iMac, so that you can send multimedia content on MacOS systems to the TV at any time (including videos on the web, music apps and the entire desktop).
Compared to other similar solutions (Miracast and Google Cast) the quality of AirPlay is really very high and interference-proof: we will hardly see slow or skip a playback in progress through AirPlay.
4) Where to buy Apple TV
We can buy this little technological jewel from Amazon, with the following prices:
- Apple TV 4K 32 GB : € 199
- Apple TV 4K 64 GB : € 219
Considering that there are very few contents that can actually be downloaded to the internal memory and that most of the contents are available for streaming, the 199 € version is the best to buy.
Apple TV can also be purchased directly on the Apple website, at the same prices.
5) Conclusions
It pays to buy Apple TV despite all the rivals on the market "> Android TV Box (with the Google Play Store).
The only real value that goes beyond the external devices that we use is the support for DRM content, which allows you to see Netflix and other on-demand services at the highest quality available.
We can compare the main rivals of Apple TV in the guide available below.
READ ALSO -> Google Chromecast or Amazon Fire TV Stick? strengths and weaknesses
