# Apple TV 4K

93 Hacker News commenters recommended Apple TV 4K and 113 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 9 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 6 years (14 owners).

**Verdict:** Recommended for smooth, simple streaming, fast hardware, long software support and a privacy-friendly business model, though critics cite missing audio passthrough and a higher price than before.

## Why people recommend it

- Privacy-focused business model (6 comments): "Apple's the only major purveyor of these kinds of devices whose existential business model is not predicated on privacy violations." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50077459)) "The entire reason I bought an Apple TV was to reduce the amount of data skimming happening in the background" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50077365)) "it's more reasonable to place faith in Apple than basically anyone else in "Big Tech" in this regard" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50077933))
- Long lifespan with updates (6 comments): "my 1st gen 4k AppleTV (6-ish years old?) is chugging away perfectly and runs every single 3rd party streaming platform I need" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46272989)) "I use mine for average of ~7 years, so that helps justify just biting the bullet and paying for whatever is best at the time." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50075670)) "the original Apple TV 4K which was released in 2017 is still quite serviceable and continues to receive updates even now" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46371039))
- Smooth, easy to use (6 comments): "It will just work . You will maybe get an ad or two from Apple, rarely, about Apple services, but it's very rare and easy to ignore." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46372073)) "Any Airpods connect directly to the AppleTV. You don't need the remote, phone or an app at all." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50074170)) "the Apple TV Just WorksTM and we can put our weekly Facetime with Grandma and Grandpa on there" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50073438))
- Small, fast, efficient hardware (3 comments): "AppleTV is just so much better than any other option out there and I especially like the AV1 hardware decoding here." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50072767)) "the old Apple TV blows the doors off every single Google TV hardware product in performance" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48678362)) "The Apple TV is an almost perfect small and efficient device to stream to" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46280705))

## What people warn about

- No audio passthrough (4 comments): "The previous model doesn’t support 6-channel 48kHz bitstream audio, which prevents it from advertising full Atmos support over eARC." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50075725)) "The one thing I feel like I'm missing (and would be missing even if I upgraded) is audio passthrough" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50072804)) "It does decode AV1 now, so if it had the passthrough, I might have actually upgraded." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50074792))
- Higher price than before (4 comments): "Otherwise, there's not a thing that this offers, that's worth shelling out another 300 bucks." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50073697)) "they announce the product with US features and keep the EU price the same, but disable features that cost them money" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50075232)) "If I'm not willing to spend $299 on a device with the same spec, audio/visual wise, as the previous $149 generation" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50077809))
- Ads and data collection (2 comments): "Apple TV, Apple Maps & Apple News all perform data mining largely akin to how their competitors do it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50076391)) "ads that launch before you get to see the content of a show with no way to automatically disable them" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49114696))
- Always-listening microphone concerns (2 comments): "now they want me to hook up two or four HomePods with microphones up to an Apple TV with a microphone" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50074894)) "I do not want ANY internet connected devices in my machine with far field microphones just listening" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50072678))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Apple TV 4K](https://hackerapproved.com/p/apple-tv.md): 323 recommend
- [Nvidia Shield TV](https://hackerapproved.com/p/nvidia-shield-tv.md): 113 recommend
- [Roku streaming player](https://hackerapproved.com/p/roku.md): 20 recommend
- [Amazon Fire TV Stick](https://hackerapproved.com/p/amazon-fire-tv-stick.md): 19 recommend
- [Roku streaming device](https://hackerapproved.com/p/roku-streaming-device.md): 14 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Apple+TV+4K+streaming+media+player&tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)
- [Official site](https://www.apple.com/apple-tv-4k/)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Apple TV 4K", https://hackerapproved.com/p/apple-tv-4k/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).