Did you get the new remote one or the old remote version? The new remote is better.
I never type in passwords, I use the microphone and that works really well most of the time. Or I use the Apple remote app on my phone. Also, I think if you use Apple Keychain, it will fill stuff in automatically, or you pick up your phone when the keyboard is up and your phone will offer to fill things in. I am not sure how that actually works because I rarely have to enter passwords at this point.
I think the UI is fine, but I am used to it at this point.
Oooh. I like the idea of using my iPhone as the remote. That should end many of my problems with the remote. No idea if it’s newer or older one. It’s the 4K Apple TV so I assume it’s the newer one.
My issue with the UI is that the Apple TV streaming app screen looks just like the overall screen for choosing other apps until you scroll way down. That and sometimes I get stuck in a weird view where all the apps are kind of on top of each other like a deck of cards. And getting out is hard. I’m sure it will come to me eventually, especially if I use my phone as remote.
I thought they still sold a version with the old remote, but I just looked it up, and apparently not, so you do have the new one. You think it’s bad now, the old remote was stupid. Again, I got used to it, but some things, like scrubbing a movie was maddening.
You can tell Apple doesn’t put a lot of effort into the Apple TV because the UI is confusing at first and not user friendly. Like for Zwift I have to kill the app after every use or it loses sound, but there is no obvious way to do that (double click the TV icon button and then swipe up like you would on a phone). Or to delete apps (Press and hold on an app then press the play button for options). How would a new user know to do either?
I think the deck of cards thing you are describing is the app killer thing. Try double pressing the TV button, or hit back? I kind of just press back automatically out of habit if I don’t know where I am in the UI.
Another issue is most apps really aren’t supported anymore. The big guys like Google do, but a lot of the stuff I had loaded just doesn’t work anymore. Apple really hasn’t done enough to make it anything more than a streaming box. Although controller support is good, and Apple Arcade has some fun games.
Double tapping the TV icon is the same as swiping up to close apps on an iPhone. Press it again to get rid of it. Also not obvious, holding TV for a second brings up a pop up that lets you change audio outputs (to airpods for example), sleep mode, and a few other things.
If you think of tvOS like a slightly different iOS you will probably be more comfortable. Click and hold to move icons, etc.
Yeah, the only reason to use the Apple TV UI (the one in the app) is to watch Apple TV specific shows as far as I am concerned. That is the only time I use that app.
We just came from a week vacation where all the TVs in the rental house had Apple TV, a mix of older and newer. I fucking hated it. Jesus it was piss poor design compared to Roku.
Apple (and everybody else including Amazon, Google, and Roku) tried to consolidate everything in a single spot to offer a superior experience, that is the TV app. Unfortunately the various content owners wanted to force people to use their apps so this failed across the board leaving everybody poorer for it. But that’s certainly not Apple’s fault, it’s Netflix’s (and HBO and the rest).
Amazon had the most coherent strategy to make this work by offering subscriptions themselves, but that failed too. HBO just left it.
To be fair, that’s the beauty of Roku, who, until only the last couple of years, were always about OTHER provider, “channel” apps. They still are, there is just also a Roku offered content of late in addition to the rest.
You can search for content through a bunch of apps on Roku which I agree is an advantage to the platform, but you don’t have a consolidated “Now Playing” list of stuff you want to watch across all those apps. That’s the gold ring, and it isn’t possible because the apps won’t play ball.
I don’t think I’ve ever used the keyboard on an AppleTV. Between using voice commands or entering stuff via my iPhone, there really isn’t a need to use a keyboard.
The key thing here is that the Apple TV is for people in the Apple ecosystem. If you are not an Apple user the TV will seem horrible, but when you use their services and everything syncs up to your TV, it works well. There is a learning curve, but I quite like my TV, even with the flaws.
I don’t use the Apple TV app at all, and never liked the fact that Apple made it the default setting for the Home button. Here’s how to switch the home button back to the familiar grid of app icons:
Apple’s “Now Playing” list works across all major apps except for Netflix. When using all Apple devices, Watch Now will list any movie that you’ve added to your watchlist which is available on any of the major apps you have installed (works for Disney+, Hulu, HBO, Prime Video, Starz, Paramount+, … however, does not work for Netflix). Not only does it track which movies you’ve said you wanted to watch, it also tracks how far you’ve gotten in that movie and any TV shows you’ve told it you’re watching will pop to the top of the list when a new episode shows up.
Things do get wonky if you are only partly in the Apple ecosystem. If you watch HBO movie for example on an Xbox using the Xbox app and then go back to Apple Watch Now, it doesn’t know what you did on the Xbox and will still show the movie as unmatched.
You can also change the way the circle thingy works on the remote. I turned off the slidey and make it click on the 4 corners instead and definitely easier to use. It’s in the settings somewhere.
I’m probably an outlier, but it’s far more important to me to be able to search across apps than to have a home screen with specific shows on it. Once I’ve found a show/movie, I can remember where it is.
Every time I’ve seen someone streaming from some random device, it’s been laggy, stuttery garbage compared to the Apple TV. The streaming itself is fine, but the UI is usually crap. I have actually gifted Apple TVs just so we don’t have to use whatever alternative exists while traveling.
I’m slowing coming to terms with the UI and its…oddities. The sound seems really off. I can control it via the remote, but I have to turn it up to say 60 where I used to leave it at around 20 when using my Roku. Each increment seems to be a much smaller difference than on Roku. I can turn off my TV with the remote, but I can’t turn it on…wtf?
But the streaming is generally much better than Roku so that almost makes it worth dealing with the ui.
There is some other issue going on. The Apple TV remote will just control the TV/receiver if it is set up that way. It should use your regular source’s increments. The Apple TV can’t adjust volume itself, it’s just being a smart remote.
It also will turn on and off your TV, but that’s an HDMI thing, and it goes haywire a lot. (Not just on Apple stuff in my experience.)
I would try digging into settings if you haven’t already,
