{"slug": "apple-tv", "name": "Apple TV", "category": "media", "category_name": "Media and creative", "description": "", "recommenders": 5, "commenters": 14, "warners": 6, "score": 0.068, "rising": 1.02, "first": "2025-11-25", "latest": "2026-10-14", "why": "Some apps are great (Netflix, AppleTV) and are smart enough to turn off the iPhone screen.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 5, "neutral": 2, "compare": 1, "warn": 7}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 2, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "Some apps are great (Netflix, AppleTV) and are smart enough to turn off the iPhone screen.", "kind": "", "icon": false, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://www.apple.com/apple-tv-app/", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Apple TV", "Apple TV app"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 794167009, "item_id": 49635438, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49635438", "by": "drewg123", "date": "2026-09-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Some apps are great (Netflix, AppleTV) and are smart enough to turn off the iPhone screen.", "excerpt": "3+ year old XREAL Air AR Glasses. I bought them to code more effectively on my laptop at my then girlfriend (now wife)'s house. The display was too pixely and distracting for me to code on. However, its plenty good enough for videos. For videos I mostly use it with my phone (16 pro). Some apps are great (Netflix, AppleTV) and are smart enough to turn off the iPhone screen. Others (VLC, HBO) leave the screen on and bu", "context": "", "use_case": "watching video with AR glasses", "switched_from": "", "story": "iPhone Duo"}, {"id": 792224560, "item_id": 49514035, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49514035", "by": "reaperducer", "date": "2026-08-31", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It just sits in the cabinet happily running the macOS TV program with the video files on an external hard drive.", "excerpt": "Isn\u2019t a Mac mini annoying to use as an HTPC? You have to deal with a remote, software, and a full OS, compared with an Apple TV, which has a good remote and is optimized for TV use. I've been using one for about a decade as a media server. It just sits in the cabinet happily running the macOS TV program with the video files on an external hard drive. Playback on the TV is handled by the AppleTV's built-in Computer ap", "context": "", "use_case": "home media server playback", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple caught off guard by AI demand for Mac Mini and Mac Studio"}, {"id": 776869600, "item_id": 48554350, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48554350", "by": "ahmdnassir1", "date": "2026-06-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Apple TV on every TV and skip the TV's built-in apps entirely.", "excerpt": "I use Apple TV on every TV and skip the TV's built-in apps entirely. Plex is my main app\u2014reliable and predictable. YouTube is a close second despite having awful UI/UX.", "context": "", "use_case": "streaming", "switched_from": "", "story": "Fox to Buy Roku Streaming Service in $22B Deal"}, {"id": 752548352, "item_id": 47034272, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47034272", "by": "dangus", "date": "2026-02-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Apple TV\u2019s 4K content is given plenty of bandwidth.", "excerpt": "Well, I solve this by using Linux for my computers but I use a commercial streaming box for video. But you can also solve it by just going the piracy route instead of ripping blu-rays. > And besides, who would want to watch new releases these days. Most people. I\u2019m not going to just watch the same content over and over. > Also keep in mind that 4K is not the same as 4K - bandwidth matters a lot and streaming provider", "context": "", "use_case": "Streaming 4K video", "switched_from": "", "story": "Babylon 5 Is Now Free to Watch on YouTube"}, {"id": 750714994, "item_id": 46919687, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46919687", "by": "eek2121", "date": "2026-02-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Apple TV consistently has higher quality content.", "excerpt": "Taste is subjective. I get it. There are Triple A games on Arcade. Things like Civilization 7, for example. I don't know what the current standalone price is because we use Apple One Family, however, it used to cost $5/mo. Apple one is a steal IMO. Apple TV, Fitness+, 2TB, Arcade, and other smaller perks like News+ make it an easy sell. Compared to something like Netflix? Netflix is $25/mo for their top tier streamin", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "I Now Assume That All Ads on Apple News Are Scams"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 801428320, "item_id": 50089270, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50089270", "by": "randm_sequence", "date": "2026-10-14", "stance": "warn", "quote": "They will share it with 3rd parties for advertising.", "excerpt": "If you read Apple TV's legal agreement, it seems that they are not much better than anyone else. https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/data/en/apple-tv-app/ You cannot stop them from collecting what you watch. You cannot delete this data. They will share it with 3rd parties for advertising. It would seem that there is a giant market opportunity for someone to release a device that does not spy on you. Why would anyone ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "New Apple TV 4K"}, {"id": 771248192, "item_id": 48203012, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48203012", "by": "magarnicle", "date": "2026-05-19", "stance": "warn", "quote": "The Apple TV app is terrible.", "excerpt": "The Apple TV app is terrible. I use Infuse instead.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "New Lifetime Plex Pass Pricing"}, {"id": 750603346, "item_id": 46912709, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46912709", "by": "ksec", "date": "2026-02-06", "stance": "warn", "quote": "None of these are of any quality of what Apple used to be.", "excerpt": "Ever since Apple moved to Services Strategy in 2014 it has been like this. Services were not there so they could provide a better experience for its \"customers\". I use the word \"customer\" here which is what Apple / Steve Jobs used to call their loyal fans, and not user. But to further growth their Revenue pie because they foresee iPhone one day will stagnant. You now have Apple Fitness+, Apple TV, News, Music, Arcade", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "I Now Assume That All Ads on Apple News Are Scams"}, {"id": 745753136, "item_id": 46609571, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46609571", "by": "ascagnel_", "date": "2026-01-13", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Apple TV gates them behind a subscription", "excerpt": "I would argue a season or episode of television is a product, and Apple TV gates them behind a subscription. I used to buy the season passes so I could return to shows later; that's not an option for ATV stuff.", "context": "", "use_case": "Watching TV shows", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple Creator Studio"}]}], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["watching video with ar glasses", "home media server playback", "streaming", "streaming 4k video", "watching tv shows"], "compared": [{"slug": "infuse", "name": "Infuse", "co": 1, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "apple-news", "name": "Apple News", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "apple-arcade", "name": "Apple Arcade", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "netflix", "name": "Netflix", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50071310", "title": "New Apple TV 4K", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46911901", "title": "I Now Assume That All Ads on Apple News Are Scams", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49630931", "title": "iPhone Duo", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49508982", "title": "Apple caught off guard by AI demand for Mac Mini and Mac Studio", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48540499", "title": "Fox to Buy Roku Streaming Service in $22B Deal", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48193055", "title": "New Lifetime Plex Pass Pricing", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"compare": 1}, "2025-12": {"warn": 3}, "2026-01": {"warn": 1}, "2026-02": {"warn": 1, "recommend": 2}, "2026-03": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {"warn": 1}, "2026-06": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-09": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-10": {"neutral": 1, "warn": 1}}, "quotes": [{"id": 801428320, "item_id": 50089270, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50089270", "by": "randm_sequence", "date": "2026-10-14", "stance": "warn", "quote": "They will share it with 3rd parties for advertising.", "excerpt": "If you read Apple TV's legal agreement, it seems that they are not much better than anyone else. https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/data/en/apple-tv-app/ You cannot stop them from collecting what you watch. You cannot delete this data. They will share it with 3rd parties for advertising. It would seem that there is a giant market opportunity for someone to release a device that does not spy on you. Why would anyone ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "New Apple TV 4K"}, {"id": 801318608, "item_id": 50082413, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50082413", "by": "smileybarry", "date": "2026-10-14", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Your viewing habits are not mined by Apple TV the same way that a smart TV does it.", "excerpt": "Your viewing habits are not mined by Apple TV the same way that a smart TV does it. If you use the Apple TV app and if you give permission to the app in the modal to link your HBO Max/Paramount+/etc. app, then that app can call a special API to donate your viewing history to the Apple TV app. You can just decline the prompt, or you can just not use the Apple TV app, and then the other streaming services have no recip", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "New Apple TV 4K"}, {"id": 794167009, "item_id": 49635438, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49635438", "by": "drewg123", "date": "2026-09-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Some apps are great (Netflix, AppleTV) and are smart enough to turn off the iPhone screen.", "excerpt": "3+ year old XREAL Air AR Glasses. I bought them to code more effectively on my laptop at my then girlfriend (now wife)'s house. The display was too pixely and distracting for me to code on. However, its plenty good enough for videos. For videos I mostly use it with my phone (16 pro). Some apps are great (Netflix, AppleTV) and are smart enough to turn off the iPhone screen. Others (VLC, HBO) leave the screen on and bu", "context": "", "use_case": "watching video with AR glasses", "switched_from": "", "story": "iPhone Duo"}, {"id": 792224560, "item_id": 49514035, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49514035", "by": "reaperducer", "date": "2026-08-31", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It just sits in the cabinet happily running the macOS TV program with the video files on an external hard drive.", "excerpt": "Isn\u2019t a Mac mini annoying to use as an HTPC? You have to deal with a remote, software, and a full OS, compared with an Apple TV, which has a good remote and is optimized for TV use. I've been using one for about a decade as a media server. It just sits in the cabinet happily running the macOS TV program with the video files on an external hard drive. Playback on the TV is handled by the AppleTV's built-in Computer ap", "context": "", "use_case": "home media server playback", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple caught off guard by AI demand for Mac Mini and Mac Studio"}, {"id": 776869600, "item_id": 48554350, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48554350", "by": "ahmdnassir1", "date": "2026-06-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Apple TV on every TV and skip the TV's built-in apps entirely.", "excerpt": "I use Apple TV on every TV and skip the TV's built-in apps entirely. Plex is my main app\u2014reliable and predictable. YouTube is a close second despite having awful UI/UX.", "context": "", "use_case": "streaming", "switched_from": "", "story": "Fox to Buy Roku Streaming Service in $22B Deal"}, {"id": 771248192, "item_id": 48203012, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48203012", "by": "magarnicle", "date": "2026-05-19", "stance": "warn", "quote": "The Apple TV app is terrible.", "excerpt": "The Apple TV app is terrible. I use Infuse instead.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "New Lifetime Plex Pass Pricing"}, {"id": 760532032, "item_id": 47533252, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47533252", "by": "1234letshaveatw", "date": "2026-03-26", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "", "excerpt": "My google dongle got progressively worse and worse. Frequent disconnects, I found out you had to like orientate it a special way, youtube kept having issues. Dumped it and switched to my built in LG OS (WebOS based I think). Works fine, does basically the same thing as my Google dongle did without the slow degradation march", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Newly purchased Vizio TVs now require Walmart accounts to use smart features"}, {"id": 752548352, "item_id": 47034272, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47034272", "by": "dangus", "date": "2026-02-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Apple TV\u2019s 4K content is given plenty of bandwidth.", "excerpt": "Well, I solve this by using Linux for my computers but I use a commercial streaming box for video. But you can also solve it by just going the piracy route instead of ripping blu-rays. > And besides, who would want to watch new releases these days. Most people. I\u2019m not going to just watch the same content over and over. > Also keep in mind that 4K is not the same as 4K - bandwidth matters a lot and streaming provider", "context": "", "use_case": "Streaming 4K video", "switched_from": "", "story": "Babylon 5 Is Now Free to Watch on YouTube"}, {"id": 750714994, "item_id": 46919687, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46919687", "by": "eek2121", "date": "2026-02-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Apple TV consistently has higher quality content.", "excerpt": "Taste is subjective. I get it. There are Triple A games on Arcade. Things like Civilization 7, for example. I don't know what the current standalone price is because we use Apple One Family, however, it used to cost $5/mo. Apple one is a steal IMO. Apple TV, Fitness+, 2TB, Arcade, and other smaller perks like News+ make it an easy sell. Compared to something like Netflix? Netflix is $25/mo for their top tier streamin", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "I Now Assume That All Ads on Apple News Are Scams"}, {"id": 750603346, "item_id": 46912709, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46912709", "by": "ksec", "date": "2026-02-06", "stance": "warn", "quote": "None of these are of any quality of what Apple used to be.", "excerpt": "Ever since Apple moved to Services Strategy in 2014 it has been like this. Services were not there so they could provide a better experience for its \"customers\". I use the word \"customer\" here which is what Apple / Steve Jobs used to call their loyal fans, and not user. But to further growth their Revenue pie because they foresee iPhone one day will stagnant. You now have Apple Fitness+, Apple TV, News, Music, Arcade", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "I Now Assume That All Ads on Apple News Are Scams"}, {"id": 745753136, "item_id": 46609571, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46609571", "by": "ascagnel_", "date": "2026-01-13", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Apple TV gates them behind a subscription", "excerpt": "I would argue a season or episode of television is a product, and Apple TV gates them behind a subscription. I used to buy the season passes so I could return to shows later; that's not an option for ATV stuff.", "context": "", "use_case": "Watching TV shows", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple Creator Studio"}, {"id": 741167397, "item_id": 46322962, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46322962", "by": "dangus", "date": "2025-12-18", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Apple TV is touted as having no ads, but it really does", "excerpt": "I hate to break it to you, but it's been like this for YEARS now. The frog has been boiled. Line must go up and the market is saturated. I watched an \"Android user switched to iOS\" YouTube video recently and it's interesting how much you don't see when you haven't been removed from an environment. This Android user was shocked at how much iOS advertises to you, which is not intuitively what any of us would think an A", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "2026 Apple introducing more ads to increase opportunity in search results"}, {"id": 740405520, "item_id": 46275345, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46275345", "by": "embedding-shape", "date": "2025-12-15", "stance": "warn", "quote": "The privacy policy literally includes that they do?", "excerpt": "The privacy policy literally includes that they do? > We provide some non-personal data to our advertisers and strategic partners that work with Apple to provide our products and services, help Apple market to customers, and sell ads on Apple\u2019s behalf to display on the App Store and Apple News and Stocks. For example, we may share non-personal data about your transactions, viewing activity, and region, as well as agg", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft Copilot AI Comes to LG TVs, and Can't Be Deleted"}, {"id": 737777953, "item_id": 46111122, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46111122", "by": "Razengan", "date": "2025-12-01", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I was so pissed with the Apple TV player's performance on less-than-lightspeed internet connections", "excerpt": "IINA on Mac, free & open source, has been perfect for everything for years: https://github.com/iina/iina While traveling I was so pissed with the Apple TV player's performance on less-than-lightspeed internet connections, I ragecancelled my subscription and just yo ho ho'ed the last couple episodes of Severance", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Netflix kills casting from its mobile app to most modern TVs"}, {"id": 736842544, "item_id": 46052659, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46052659", "by": "spartanatreyu", "date": "2025-11-25", "stance": "compare", "quote": "Compare the 1.25 video thumbnails shown on the apple tv app", "excerpt": "Compare the 1.25 video thumbnails shown on the apple tv app to the thumbnails on Steam's big picture mode (designed for people sitting on a couch far away from a tv): 1. https://emilio-gomez.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/steamos-vs-bp2.jpg 2. https://preview.redd.it/new-big-picture-mode-is-finally-public-v0-dha7saosqmfa1.png?width=1080&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=7e366f76723de9c9ee1923d88cd3e78c3444fc01", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Someone at YouTube Needs Glasses: The Prophecy Has Been Fulfilled"}]}