Why the hell would you buy the Apple TV with the bigger drive?

[Chew Toy McCoy]

You could probably download every app available on the app store on the smaller drive Apple TV and still have room to spare.

AFAIK you still can’t download movies, TV shows, or music to the Apple TV….which pissed off many users, including myself, of the early Apple TVs that had that ability removed in later models. It’s ridiculous you can download video to a tiny screen iPhone with default cellular connection but can’t to a device explicitly made to plug in to a TV and requires you to have a wifi connection. There’s still plenty of areas with spotty or nonexistent internet or you might have limited data you don't want to chew up.

 

[Cmaier]

You could probably download every app available on the app store on the smaller drive Apple TV and still have room to spare.

AFAIK you still can’t download movies, TV shows, or music to the Apple TV….which pissed off many users, including myself, of the early Apple TVs that had that ability removed in later models. It’s ridiculous you can download video to a tiny screen iPhone with default cellular connection but can’t to a device explicitly made to plug in to a TV and requires you to have a wifi connection. There’s still plenty of areas with spotty or nonexistent internet or you might have limited data you don't want to chew up.

I use a mac to stream movies to the Apple TV. Anyway, I think the one with the bigger drive comes with ethernet and the other doesn’t now? Or something? I need ethernet.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

I use a mac to stream movies to the Apple TV. Anyway, I think the one with the bigger drive comes with ethernet and the other doesn’t now? Or something? I need ethernet.

I have the smaller drive Apple TV and I'm pretty sure it has ethernet. Even if it doesn't, what does drive size have to do with an ethernet port? One doesn't require the other.

I'm still waiting for an explanation (not aimed at you) as to why you can't download content to an Apple TV when you can do that to literally every other piece of hardware Apple sells.

 

[Edd]

I have the latest ATV with the bigger drive, but I had a Best Buy gift certificate or something so I just said fuck it. If I was paying $ I wouldn't have gotten the 64GB.

 

[Edd]

I have the smaller drive Apple TV and I'm pretty sure it has ethernet. Even if it doesn't, what does drive size have to do with an ethernet port? One doesn't require the other.

I'm still waiting for an explanation (not aimed at you) as to why you can't download content to an Apple TV when you can do that to literally every other piece of hardware Apple sells.

I thought you could, but it's on the nerdier side of things. You ever go to the Apple TV forum on MR? Could be helpful.

 

[Cmaier]

I have the smaller drive Apple TV and I'm pretty sure it has ethernet. Even if it doesn't, what does drive size have to do with an ethernet port? One doesn't require the other.

I'm still waiting for an explanation (not aimed at you) as to why you can't download content to an Apple TV when you can do that to literally every other piece of hardware Apple sells.

I was referring to the new model. Now they sell one model with ethernet and one without.

I can’t go to MR anymore

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

I thought you could, but it's on the nerdier side of things. You ever go to the Apple TV forum on MR? Could be helpful.

Is this Iike a jailbreak thing? On the early Apple TVs you could download any content from your iTunes library to the hard drive. No internet required after that. I loaded mine up with a bunch of movies and TV shows and put it at our cabin where there wasn’t any internet available. Now we have satellite internet there but good luck watching anything without a constant and random bufferingfest, not to mention expensive data limits.

 

[Pumbaa]

The one with the bigger drive comes with ethernet and Thread support. The latter could come in handy for newcomers to home automation stuff when Matter starts to matter.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

The one with the bigger drive comes with ethernet and Thread support. The latter could come in handy for newcomers to home automation stuff when Matter starts to matter.

Not saying this to be insulting, but what does a bigger drive have to do with any of that?

 

[Pumbaa]

Not saying this to be insulting, but what does a bigger drive have to do with any of that?

Nothing really. Some extra storage could reasonably be required to support Thread but it is not like I can imagine it being noticeable on the 64 model.

As I see it, Apple is differentiating the models. Less features = Slightly less expensive. More features = More expensive.

If you want the new Apple TV and use it with a wired connection, or to use the AppleTV as a Thread Border Router, you need to get the one with a bigger drive.

 

[Edd]

I’m actually kinda big on a wired connection for my main TV, so that may have been part of my decision making process that I forgot.

Edit: I see now you guys are talking about a refreshed ATV . Didn’t know that was coming.

 

[rdrr]

Not saying this to be insulting, but what does a bigger drive have to do with any of that?

"These go to 11." ~Nigel Tufnel

 

[DT]

I was referring to the new model. Now they sell one model with ethernet and one without.

Oh, that's poop. We have a 1st Gen 4K downstairs, I was thinking of eventually moving it to our bedroom, getting a 2nd Gen 4K, but I always get the lowest storage model since up till now, all models came with ethernet <meh>.

 

[Deleted member 215]

Ethernet is my priority as well. I don't care about the size of the storage. I'm not sure why we need so much storage for something that relies mostly on the cloud. In fact, I'm not clear on a lot of the large storage sizes in Apple's products. 1 TB in an iPhone, really? I've had a 1 TB MacBook for years now and still have never even filled half of it.

 

[Cmaier]

Ethernet is my priority as well. I don't care about the size of the storage. I'm not sure why we need so much storage for something that relies mostly on the cloud. In fact, I'm not clear on a lot of the large storage sizes in Apple's products. 1 TB in an iPhone, really? I've had a 1 TB MacBook for years now and still have never even filled half of it.

My kid loads up her iphone with videos and photos and a million message threads. For people who use iphones as their primary computing devices, and there are a lot of them, i can see them filling up memory. Personally, I came close to maxing out one time when preloading videos on there for some long flights, but other than that I am using a fraction of storage.

On the Apple TV, I pretty much just stream, so other than a number of apps, not much storage use.

 

[Pumbaa]

Ethernet is my priority as well. I don't care about the size of the storage. I'm not sure why we need so much storage for something that relies mostly on the cloud.

Who knows, hopefully they have interesting plans for the future.

In fact, I'm not clear on a lot of the large storage sizes in Apple's products. 1 TB in an iPhone, really?

Try spending three weeks in the South African bush with no (or limited) Internet. 1 TB in an iPhone can be extremely useful. RAW photos and 4K videos consume a ton of space. Add a decent music library and some offline movies and shows for entertainment and voila, 512 GB starts getting really tight.

It is not for everyone, sure, most people can get by with the more sane models. Nice option to have for those who need it, though.

I've had a 1 TB MacBook for years now and still have never even filled half of it.

If only it were possible to buy a version with less storage...

 

[rdrr]

Not sure wired is needed anymore. When wifi 6e gets fully adopted in a few years, wired will finally be dead.

 

[Cmaier]

Not sure wired is needed anymore. When wifi 6e gets fully adopted in a few years, wired will finally be dead.

Wired is definitely needed. wifi is too subject to interference. You may get better speed from wifi 6e than from 1G ethernet, but you won’t get better reliability.

 

[fooferdoggie]

I know apple tv sucks as a homekit hub. I bought one for that and it worked for a bit then the last big update it started causing issues with it.

 

[Pumbaa]

I know apple tv sucks as a homekit hub. I bought one for that and it worked for a bit then the last big update it started causing issues with it.

No problems with mine.

Well, except for the times it switched wi-fi on me. Ethernet would actually solve that particular problem.