As Apple’s latest set-top box arrives, gadgets from smart TVs to streaming sticks are battling to be your guide to an ever-expanding world of entertainment.
It's looking like another long winter. We all know that sinking feeling as we scroll aimlessly on a Friday night, stuck at home and searching in vain for something decent to watch. Lost deep in the back catalogue, you start questioning why you pay your money each month.
Service-agnostic streaming devices and apps now give you suggestions and offer search across all your subscriptions.Credit:Tim Biggs
To ensure we don’t stray, the streaming services have honed their home screens to make it easier to find your next favourite show. It’s not just about great search features, it’s about great “content discovery”, which brings new movies and TV shows to your attention.
But these days we’re swamped with streaming services, so you can still spend your Friday night staring at a screen full of apps, once again paralysed by choice and in need of guidance.
Smart TV, set-top box and streaming stick makers realise this is their moment to shine. Little separates them in terms of streaming services and picture quality. Instead, it's a slick user experience which helps them stand out from the crowd. A big part of that is getting you quickly settled on the couch watching something great.
Initially, these gadgets all introduced cross-platform search; ask for a movie like Raiders of the Lost Ark and you instantly see where it’s available. No need to go digging, just press play directly from the search results.
Cross-platform content discovery takes this to the next level, with the home screen on your smart TV, set-top box or streaming stick offering up a mix of great content from all the different streaming services. If you watched Raiders it knows you're probably up for Temple of Doom, even if it's on a rival service.
The new second-gen Apple TV 4K helps you hack your way through the streaming jungle. Its "Up next" feature now displays a better range of new content from a wider range of streaming services. You can also change user profiles so everyone in your home gets personalised recommendations.
As updates to Apple’s tvOS software, these features are also coming to older Apple TV boxes, which isn’t something you can take for granted with some gadgets and TVs. For example, LG’s 2021 smart TVs are also embracing cross-platform content discovery, but frustratingly this won’t come to older LG televisions as a firmware update.
In terms of hardware, the second-gen Apple TV 4K doesn’t improve much on its predecessor. The headline feature is support for high frame rates of 60 frames per second, to smooth out fast-moving action. Unfortunately, streaming content that takes advantage of this is extremely rare and the industry doesn’t seem in a rush to produce and distribute it. High frame rates can also make scenes look fake, as if objects were pasted into the picture.
Of more interest is Apple's new remote control, which adds power and mute buttons for your television. It also reverts to the old-school "click wheel" button design, rather than just relying on a tiny touchpad.
The entire click wheel is also a touchpad, so you can flick to scroll or press when you need more precision. So many people hated the old remote that Apple sells the new one separately to use with an old Apple TV.
At the end of the day, the whole idea with the new Apple TV and its streaming rivals is that you spend less time holding the remote, and more time enjoying the action.
Adam Turner is an award-winning Australian technology journalist and co-host of weekly podcast Vertical Hold: Behind The Tech News.
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