Although the 4K Apple TV has been generally favourably welcomed, especially for the relatively low cost of UHD content (as long as it’s not from Disney), there are a few grumbles developing.
The main complaint, so far is that the box will not play back local content in UHD resolution, but only when streaming it from iTunes or ‘some third party apps’. UltraHD content cannot be downloaded from iTunes, but must be watched streamed. (See this Apple support document). Some customers that have connections that are good enough to download, but not fast enough to stream have started to complain about this.
One of the complaints is that the box does not support the VP9 codec, used by YouTube for UltraHD resolution videos, so only HD content can be played back from that source and upscaled to the higher resolution. Another is that the box doesn’t support Dolby Atmos audio, although Apple says that it is in ‘on the roadmap’. However, it’s not clear if that means simply a firmware upgrade or means a later version of the hardware.
Others complain that the remote is fiddly and difficult to use.
Finally, some are frustrated that at the time of the launch, there are only two games that take advantage of the higher resolution, a situation that is very different to that at the time of the launch of the previous version.
