I have been looking forward to this for a long time!! I hope Plex develops a gorgeous looking app for Apple TV and am hoping the hardware can support lots of Direct Play.
H.264 video up to 1080p, 60 frames per second, High or Main Profile level 4.2 or lower
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 file formats
MPEG-4 video up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats
Audio:
HE-AAC (V1), AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), protected AAC (from iTunes Store), MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, and 4), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV; Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Digital Plus 7.1
AppleTV will not support 4K video, per their spec sheet:
The 4K playback missing does suck, but not a downer for me. Personally my 70" 1080p is very sharp still. No need to replace unless it breaks which won’t be for a while. And the HDMI 1.4 spec can send 4k video playback…so maybe it’ll be a firmware upgrade away?
@rgritt said:
slampman. there is an app store on this new apple tv, so at the very least we’ll get a port of the current iOS app for plex. The question is weather or not we’ll get deeper integration.
I’m not so sure about that. “An app store” is not the same as access to “THE app store.” I expect the tvOS app store will be both a tiny subset of vetted existing or ported iOS apps and a number of Apple TV-specific apps and games. I’m sure Apple sees Plex as a competing technology, not a complement to their offerings, and as such Plex is probably not on the table.
To be clear, I want to be wrong. Gimme Plex on this device and I’ll buy on launch day. My Fire TV is fine, but I miss my Apple TV and its native capabilities in my Apple ecosystem.
@brandon.moner said:
The 4K playback missing does suck, but not a downer for me. Personally my 70" 1080p is very sharp still. No need to replace unless it breaks which won’t be for a while. And the HDMI 1.4 spec can send 4k video playback…so maybe it’ll be a firmware upgrade away?
I agree with your post in general, but I just wanted to point out that Apple would never, ever enable core functionality that way. Ever. It has never been done and it never will be. Apple’s upgrade cycles utilise planned obsolescence in both the software and hardware domains - the upgrade from 1080p to 4k in that cycle is too valuable.
@slampman. I just logged into my apple developer portal and I can confirm I have full access to tvOS sdks and our team was able to register for an tvOS developer kit…we specialize in corporate SaaS monitoring systems so I’m gonna guess we weren’t singled out to dev for tvOS. Cook also mentioned today that existing apps would be able to offer “Universal versions” for iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV. I wouldn’t worry about having an app of some sort, I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw it quickly after ATV4 starts shipping. I’m sure @elan. is chomping at the bit to get his hands dirty with this new platform.
Apple also understands that selling movies on something like an apple tv is not going to be their primary revenue stream, its going to be hardware sales and app sales. They also know if they stand a chance of winning in the living room they need 3rd party content to flourish on their platform.
@rgritt said:
slampman. I just logged into my apple developer portal and I can confirm I have full access to tvOS sdks and our team was able to register for an tvOS developer kit…we specialize in corporate SaaS monitoring systems so I’m gonna guess we weren’t singled out to dev for tvOS. Cook also mentioned today that existing apps would be able to offer “Universal versions” for iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV. I wouldn’t worry about having an app of some sort, I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw it quickly after ATV4 starts shipping. I’m sure elan. is chomping at the bit to get his hands dirty with this new platform.
I so want you to be right, brother.
@C&H Cloud said:
The specsH.264 video up to 1080p, 60 frames per second, High or Main Profile level 4.2 or lower
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 file formats
MPEG-4 video up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats
Audio:
HE-AAC (V1), AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), protected AAC (from iTunes Store), MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, and 4), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV; Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Digital Plus 7.1
Sad that it doesn’t support Dolby TrueHD or DTS-MA. I wonder if it’d be possible to transcode lossless formats to Apple Lossless? Does it even support more than two channels?
@cleverdevil said:
Sad that it doesn’t support Dolby TrueHD or DTS-MA. I wonder if it’d be possible to transcode lossless formats to Apple Lossless? Does it even support more than two channels?
Answer is yes: ALAC supports up to 8 channels. So… maybe it is possible to transcode?
I have been waiting for this day for years. I can’t wait for elan to get a Plex app on the appstore so I can get an AppleTV. I like my Roku 3 but interface is just so ugly along with the remote.
Come on plex developers , go the full way and get the siri voice command integrated too. I hope your reading…
@maximus83. at first look the SDK doesn’t seem to have any siri universal search api…looks like something apple will have to curate…I’m willing to bet plex isn’t on the top of apples list.
Sorry 
@cleverdevil said:
Sad that it doesn’t support Dolby TrueHD or DTS-MA. I wonder if it’d be possible to transcode lossless formats to Apple Lossless? Does it even support more than two channels?
You can transcode the audio, but it won’t be lossless. It’s important to realize that every iteration of this device has a been a means to deliver Apple-supplied content to its customers. Unless Apple starts releasing iTunes movies with DTS audio we’ll never see that on the spec sheet, let alone the lossless HD codecs.
It’s a similar story for 24p video output. Even though Apple does release their movies on iTunes with the correct 23.976 frame rate, the Apple TV has never supported that frame rate (with the exception of the original ATV which ran on a modified OS X 10.4, not iOS).
In all likelihood there will be a Plex app for the new ATV and it will be fantastic for casual viewing; however, film aficionados will need to look elsewhere for a superlative viewing/listening experience.
@OmegaRed1723 said:
You can transcode the audio, but it won’t be lossless. It’s important to realize that every iteration of this device has a been a means to deliver Apple-supplied content to its customers. Unless Apple starts releasing iTunes movies with DTS audio we’ll never see that on the spec sheet, let alone the lossless HD codecs.
Why wouldn’t it be lossless? Going from one lossless format to another would just be a remux, no?
It’s a similar story for 24p video output. Even though Apple does release their movies on iTunes with the correct 23.976 frame rate, the Apple TV has never supported that frame rate (with the exception of the original ATV which ran on a modified OS X 10.4, not iOS).
Right, and I am willing to live with that.
In all likelihood there will be a Plex app for the new ATV and it will be fantastic for casual viewing; however, film aficionados will need to look elsewhere for a superlative viewing/listening experience.
My issue is that I’ve tried many other approaches to getting Plex content onto my home theater, and have had piss poor luck getting any of them to work consistently. I currently have an expensive Intel NUC running OpenELEC+Plex, and it consistently has issues with stuttering video.
On the other hand, AirPlaying content to my existing Apple TV works great, but I want a full Plex user experience, and would like the best video and audio quality.
I’d happily pay Plex for a pre-built, pre-configured, supported Plex Home Theater box, but that’s not an option.
still can’t see this thing being better than my Roku 3.
Looks like I know what I’ll be getting for Cristmas.
@cleverdevil said:
My issue is that I’ve tried many other approaches to getting Plex content onto my home theater, and have had piss poor luck getting any of them to work consistently. I currently have an expensive Intel NUC running OpenELEC+Plex, and it consistently has issues with stuttering video.
Interesting—I have a NUC5i5RYH running OpenELEC (v. 6.0 Beta4) with PleXBMC (not PHT) and haven’t encountered those playback issues. I play full Blu-Ray rips with DTS-HD MA and no stuttering whatsoever. I was even able to play a 2160p documentary (h.264 not h.265) on my 4k TV without a single dropped frame.
Does FireTV or Roku support 24p and truehd audio?
