Staples is clutch , I went tonight after seeing recent post saying check your local staples and they were super cool about price matching their stock. Makes sense since I never go to staples for anything but looks like they had plenty in stock as well, I don’t think anyone really goes there for this type of stuff. Anyways if you are looking to get one in person check out a staples store and ask them to price match Walmart.

After no luck searching, I walked in today and they had at least 1 Gen 3 128gb 4K (I didn’t ask about total inventory) They also price matched Walmarts $149.

My lil app Infinite Art Gallery just landed on Apple TV. It's an art gallery that never ends: you walk room after room, and every wall is hung with a photo, picked from millions of free Pexels photos by whatever subject you like (underwater, cities, abstract, anything). Each one is credited to its photographer.

I built it for the living room with Apple Tv specifically in mind as much as the phone. Put it on the big screen and it's ambient art that never repeats. There are four moods that change the whole building: Modern, Classic, Noir and Liminal.

It's free. There's an optional IAP unlock to hang your own photos instead, and one purchase covers iPhone and Apple TV.

https://apps.apple.com/app/id6813254202

Hi everyone,

about two months ago we released Native Player v1, the first player to deliver the height channels of Dolby TrueHD Atmos (and later DTS:X) on Apple TV. Before that, your only option was a lossless 7.1 downmix with the height channels thrown away. Our Atmos path kept the heights, but it was lossy, even at 4 Mbps.

Today we are super excited to release Native Player 2.0, and it fixes exactly that. TrueHD Atmos and DTS:X are now LOSSLESS, heights included! Once again, Native Player is the first and only player to do it on Apple TV.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

You can play Blu-ray remuxes with TrueHD Atmos or DTS:X without losing sound quality and without losing the height channels. The track is decoded losslessly with no re-compression, and the objects are rendered to your speaker layout.

Here is a simple way to put it. Infuse and other players strip the height channels and deliver TrueHD Atmos and DTS:X as lossless 7.1.
Native Player renders it to the layout of your setup (5.1.2, 7.1.4, 9.1.6 and so on), and it stays lossless.

IS THIS AUDIO PASSTHROUGH?

No. Apple TV does not support bitstream passthrough, because tvOS wants to stay in control of the audio (volume leveling, dialogue enhancement and so on). Everything related with Atmos leaves the Apple TV over Dolby MAT.

AUDIO BITRATE

The bitrate depends on the number of channels and the TrueHD/DTS:X format. For example, with a 24-bit, 48 kHz TrueHD track, Infuse delivers lossless 7.1 at around 9.2 Mbps.

In Native Player, 7.1.4 gives you 13.8 Mbps, and 9.1.6 gives you a massive 18.4 Mbps.

HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?

This is our own proprietary technology. We developed it over several years for our other app, Sound Test for Dolby Atmos, which has become the gold standard for testing Dolby Atmos on tvOS. The same technology now powers Native Player. TrueHD Atmos is rendered to the speaker layout you select in the settings, while DTS:X is always rendered in 7.1.4.

AV1 AND DOLBY VISION PROFILE 10

Version 2.0 adds AV1 playback on every Apple TV 4K. The Dolby Vision metadata is carried over untouched, so Profile 10 (10.0, 10.1 and 10.4) plays as real Dolby Vision.

As far as we know, this is the first tvOS app to do that. That means we now support Dolby Vision Profiles 5, 7, 8 and 10 with full Dolby Vision metadata. The only exception is Profile 7 FEL titles, where the enhancement layer is dropped, so the Dolby Vision is not complete. In those cases the app asks whether you want to watch in Dolby Vision or HDR10.

SMB AND WEBDAV

You can now browse and play directly from SMB shares and WebDAV servers. WebDAV self-signed certificates are supported too.

OTHER NEWS

• Sorting for network files and folders

• Search inside network folders

• Multichannel FLAC music files supported

• Major stability and performance improvements

• Fixes for seeking, buffering and resuming from the background

WHAT'S NEXT?

ISO and BDMV files and Plex integration! Plex is already working, and we are working on UI to make it as good as possible. We expect to launch in two weeks. We are also working on Atmos for HomePod and AirPods. After that, we plan to support Jellyfin and Emby.

PRICING

Everything above is free to try. Full-length playback of TrueHD Atmos, DTS:X and Dolby Vision Profile 7 titles is part of Native Player Pro, which costs $5 per year or $25 lifetime at the current early adopter price.

We also want to be transparent. When Plex support launches, the early adopter offer ends and the price goes up for both the yearly and lifetime plans. Existing subscribers keep the early adopter price forever.

SPECIAL THANKS

• The Reddit community. You guys are awesome! A huge thank you for every message, comment and movie report you've shared with us. Your feedback and support have helped us push Native Player forward and make it better with every update.

• Apple Developer Technical Support for helping us achieve full bandwidth over Dolby MAT.

MORE INFO

You can find more information about this project on our subreddit: r/NativePlayer

Find Native Player on App Store

Hey everyone,

Strimr is a free, open source Plex and Jellyfin client for Apple TV, iPhone, iPad and Mac.

I started it about a year ago as the client I wanted for myself. The first version went up on the App Store in January, but honestly it was still rough. It's changed a lot since, and this is the first version I'm actually comfortable showing around.

When I started, the official Plex app kept pushing everything except my own library, and most of the good options on Apple TV were paid (like Infuse). Now there's a new one every week, and yes, I'm aware this post doesn't help.

I watch something on it pretty much every night, so I'm usually the first one to hit a bug, and the first one annoyed enough to fix it. A lot of the app exists because I needed it myself.

It started as Plex only, but Jellyfin support landed recently. If you run one, the other or both, you can add Plex and Jellyfin servers side by side and browse everything from a single home screen.

Short version of what it handles (full list on GitHub): most Dolby Vision profiles, HDR10/HDR10+ and Atmos, direct play or server transcoding, and Live TV and DVR on both Plex and Jellyfin. There's still plenty on my list, but the basics are solid now.

Strimr is completely free, with no subscriptions, in-app purchases or paid features.

If you're looking for a good Plex or Jellyfin client for your Apple TV, give it a try, and if something breaks or feels off, let me know here or open an issue on GitHub.

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/strimr/id6757491271

TestFlight: https://testflight.apple.com/join/nayaffkP

GitHub: https://github.com/wunax/strimr

My wife and I have an Apple TV 4K and for years we've each connected to the Apple TV and used the Share Audio feature with our separate AirPods to watch and listen together and that all works fine. The annoying thing is that if one of us wants to independently increase or decrease their AirPods volume, you have to use the remote, press the TV/Control Center button, tap over to the AirPods icons, tap down to the AirPods in question, and then change the volume slider. It's distracting while you're in the middle of a show or movie.

So, I was thinking about getting each of us new AirPods Pro 2, Pro 3, or AirPods 5 that have the volume control on the stem. But I'm trying to confirm whether that volume stem control functionality extends to when two sets of these particular AirPods are connected to an Apple TV using shared audio?

Any experiences with this use case would be appreciated.

Hi,

After updating to OS 27, I can't find how to change Apple TV's audio output from HomePods to TV speakers or vice versa with the Home app.

European Apple Support couldn't help, hopefully Reddit can :)

Thanks!

The color animations in the Now Playing view in Apple Music are now a lot faster and more aggressive than the previous tvOS version. Anyone else notice this change?

I have a 3G AppleTV and lately it doesn’t respond to the remote control options. I’ve done everything including re-pairing the control, rebooting the control, rebooting the AppleTV, even a factory reset for the AppleTV.

Not only does the control not work, but even the remote options on our iPhones don’t work. What happens is it gets stuck on an app and doesn’t respond if you want to move the cursor around. It acts like it wants to respond and just blinks on the same app and doesn’t respond if you want to go up or down to pick a different app. It’s responding but not responding to how I want to move the cursor so essentially I can’t pick an app or any streaming option to watch. Sometimes it’ll take 10 minutes to get it to move to where I want.

So basically, am I SOL? Apps work when I finally get it to the app I want, it’s the remote options that I can’t get it to do what I want.

Has this happened to anyone else? Any options?

We're big fans of using the Apple TV screen saver to show our shared family album.

Since tvOS 27, that experience has been a real bummer. Every few weeks, I find we've been demoted to Aerial because my photo's are stuck "Syncing".

To get it working again, I have to remove my account completely, reenable my connection to iCloud photos and setup the screen saver again. Even then, it only downloads enough photos to run two pages of the Reflections screen saver. Gigabytes free and it can't even show a fraction of what a Temu picture frame would.

Cut to AppleTV 27.2, and there's a new setup flow that requires that 27.2 be installed on a phone/.iPad to continue. Fine. I did that, set it all back up again, and it's right back to being stuck syncing. It's been hours but the screen saver settings won't let me pick anything other than Arial. I can see photos in the actual Photos AppleTV app. My pictures are coming down, it's just the screen saver that's confused.

Anyone else have this problem? I sure would love to see screen savers get some bug-fixing love.

Prior to the 27.2 update, having the automatic AirPlay option disabled was enough to keep this Live Activity from appearing. Now, it is still disabled but the Live Activity has returned.

Introducing Telly, an unofficial, open-source Apple TV app that brings five UK streaming catalogues into one interface. It builds on Beeb, my earlier BBC-focused project.

The idea is to spend less time switching apps and more time finding something to watch.

Features:

• Five catalogues, one search: BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and U, with shared Browse categories and a mixed-network Featured banner.
• Live TV in familiar order: BBC One, BBC Two, ITV1, Channel 4, Channel 5 and the other supported channels, with ITV and Channel 5 themed channels in their own sections.
• Apple TV Top Shelf: direct-launch live channel cards above the app on the home screen, plus BBC regional feed choices.
• Saved programmes and Continue Watching: bookmark shows, resume where you stopped or start over. Progress stays on your Apple TV.
• Better episode browsing: programme pages open on the latest season, and soaps show their newest episodes first.
• Next-episode autoplay: a 15-second countdown at the end, with Cancel and Play now. Back cancels it too.
• Native playback: Apple's controls, supported subtitles, speed options and programme Info. BBC intro/recap skipping and Red Button streams are included where available.
• BBC UHD: compatible content can play in 4K HLG HDR with optional on-device setup. ITV/U and supported Channel 5 streams have played in FHD during testing.
• Phone-based account linking: QR/code flows where ITV, Channel 5 or U require your own account.

A few limits up front: Channel 4 currently plays in SD through the integrated route, some Channel 5 catch-up assets are also SD, and U is catch-up only. Quality, subtitles and availability depend on the programme/provider.

Telly runs on tvOS 17+. It's GPL open source, with source and a prebuilt unsigned IPA intended for people to sign/install themselves. It isn't on the App Store or TestFlight. After installation, ordinary playback doesn't need a separate server or computer running beside it.

Source and installation instructions: https://github.com/usefulappmaker/Telly-public

Download the public preview (unsigned IPA and source): https://github.com/usefulappmaker/Telly-public/releases/tag/v0.8.0

I'd particularly welcome feedback on the combined Browse categories, channel order and next-episode countdown. If anyone has any suggestions for getting better streams, also get in touch! This is a public preview, and the latest navigation/autoplay changes need testing on more Apple TVs.

Telly is an independent project, not affiliated with or endorsed by the broadcasters. Their normal account and regional availability requirements still apply.

I know everyone is sick of Plex clients. Everyone’s vibe coding them, most of them aren’t great, and none have a great UI. They also don’t solve the biggest problem with Apple TV: there are media types (TrueHD Atmos, DTS:X, DV FEL) that it can’t play correctly. A couple years ago, before AI coding had taken off, I hand-wrote a Plex frontend called Canopy+ that let me browse my library on Apple TV and hand off playback to either the main Plex app or my Shield, via Home Assistant and adb commands to automatically switch inputs and trigger playback. 

It's available on the tvOS App Store (direct link in README): https://github.com/narenh/CanopyPlus-Setup/

I’ve now managed to make the app significantly faster, more stable, and add built-in video playback for Dolby Vision (5, 8, 7 MEL) and Atmos (eAC3) thanks to AetherEngine. I’ve also managed to make setup much easier for both Shield and CoreELEC users, with multiple options for how to make playback handoff happen. Home Assistant is no longer required, although my personal setup needs it because of some CEC weirdness I don’t think others will encounter. When handing off playback Canopy+ will show a message telling you to switch remotes, with a variety of remote control images to choose from. The upshot is your CoreELEC or Shield box becomes playback-only—you literally will never have to interact with the UI ever again.

The final piece is a lightweight backend that lets you integrate other services into Canopy+. Specifically, it piggybacks off of Seerr for authentication, then lets you configure it with your Prowlarr API key (Sonarr and Radarr work through Seerr, so you don’t need to configure anything if you use them), allowing you to grant direct download/streaming privileges to whichever users you’d like (without ever giving them access directly). I mainly built this for my parents, so they can search for any movie in Canopy+ and start watching it immediately, even if I don’t have it in my Plex library. It’s designed to be zero-setup for users: you set the backend URL inside the description field of any Plex collection your users have access to, and when they sign in using Plex, the app automatically finds your backend and binds to the instance using Seerr’s authentication. Canopy+ sends playback events (including chapter transitions!) to the backend, where you can forward them to webhook handlers of your choosing. Full disclosure, the backend is vibe-coded—I’m an iOS engineer and building server stuff isn’t my wheelhouse. 

The main app, though, is almost completely handwritten in native SwiftUI—I obviously used Claude to help track down bugs and write some of the Plex API code since handwriting that stuff is a pain and also pretty error-prone. The UI is all designed by me (a human) specifically to be a delight to look at and use. There are a lot of… opinionated decisions that not everyone’s going to like, and that’s okay. 

I mainly wrote this for myself, but I’ve put a ton of work into it and I really hope that others find it useful. I do think the “play on another device” problem is a big gap that no one has really filled yet. If you do try it out, please leave feedback and issues on GitHub! 

https://github.com/narenh/CanopyPlus-Setup/

Cross posting from /r/HomePod

I’m experiencing a persistent issue where Siri refuses to initiate music playback from my iTunes Match library on HomePods configured as the default audio output for an Apple TV. Instead, Siri responds: “Sorry, there was a problem with Apple Music.”

I have an active iTunes Match subscription, but NOT an Apple Music subscription. My music library works perfectly fine otherwise.

The issue is reproducible across two completely different setups:

- Master bedroom: 1st-gen HomePod (single) + Apple TV 4K (1st gen)
- Living room: Two 2nd-gen HomePods (stereo pair) + Apple TV 4K (3rd gen)

Both setups exhibit the exact same problem, which persists on HomePod/tvOS 27.2.

What I’ve established

- Siri plays music from my iTunes Match library perfectly on other, standalone HomePods.
- If I temporarily change the Apple TV’s default audio output to TV Speakers, Siri immediately works on the previously affected HomePods.
- Reassigning the HomePods as default speakers causes the problem to return.
- Playing music directly through the Apple TV’s Music app works.
- AirPlaying music from my iPhone to the affected HomePods works.
- Siri can pause, skip, and otherwise control music that’s already playing.
- Siri cannot initiate playback, whether invoked directly on the HomePod or from my iPhone with the HomePod specified as the destination.

Troubleshooting I’ve already tried without success

- Restarting Apple TVs and HomePods.
- Confirming Apple Accounts and iTunes Match access.
- Changing HomePod Primary User between HomePod Account and my personal profile.
- Disabling Recognize My Voice.
- Enabling Apple Music’s “Use in Home” setting.
- Signing out and back into the Apple TV’s Store account.
- Explicitly telling Siri to play from Apple Music and requesting specific songs/artists.

The common denominator appears to be using HomePods as Apple TV default speakers, regardless of hardware generation or stereo pairing.

I’ve found a few older Reddit and MacRumors threads describing similar behavior, including reports from other iTunes Match subscribers, but haven’t found a reliable solution.

Has anyone with iTunes Match (without an Apple Music subscription) encountered this and actually resolved it? I’m particularly interested in whether there’s a known bug involving Siri initiating playback through Apple TV home-theater audio, or a workaround that preserves the HomePods as default speakers.

I’d rather not factory-reset multiple devices without some evidence that it will help. Any suggestions appreciated!

Updated my Apple TV, homekit cams take a while to load with a loading circle, whereas before it was snappier. Streaming gets cut, which i never had such an issue with before. Did reboot all devices and networks, no difference. Anyone same ? Overall layout feels snappier which is odd that the cam is not. Also, like the slight smaller popup for homekit cam.

I have two different Apple TVs. Both are still running TVOS 26.6. Both are on automatic updates.

Why might they not be receiving TVOS 27?

So I have the 3rd gen 128gb and the device keeps blinking the white led light it updated and I tried to restore it factory reset with send reports ¿any ideas? and I have tried unplugging it leaving it unplugged for couple mines and nothing changed… any other solutions besides talking or taking the device to Apple or best buy

Just a heads up - with the 27.2 update every time I hit play, or pause, or skip intro on content I’m watching this horrible pop up in the upper right corner of the tv displays what content is playing and takes forever to fade away.

Honestly can’t believe this was left as standard behavior. There’s no way to turn it off other than putting Do Not Disturb on every time you turn the tv on. It’s horrible UI intrusiveness and you may want to hold off on updating if this is going to bother you. (It certainly bothers me).

Cool grouping just noticed in 27.2 suite of updates.

Those still using Apple TV HD (A1625) and Apple TV 4K 1st-gen (A1842) should update their own devices' OSes to tvOS 26.6.1, which officially came out today! Unlike Apple TV 4K, the Apple TV HD has a USB-C service port.

Well, not much is known yet about tvOS 26.6.1, but please check for latest, up-to-date versions.

Basically want to get a new streamer for my current tv and was thinking of trying Apple TV. Not wanting to drop $289+ for a new one, so was wondering if getting a 1st generation 4K model for around $30 would be a good start and last me for a while? I know it won’t have the newest updates but does the 1st gen still pack a punch?

Was uodating the homepod minis i have and OS 27.2 says below..

“The two front speakers must be the same model, and the two rear speakers must be the same model. Original 1st-generation HomePods and original HomePod mini speakers are not compatible.”

So ive got to get at least 2 new minis to do the 4 speaker setup. Got me thinking what the minimum cost would be for newest ATV and 4 minis - $895…

$1295 if you do 2 homepods and 2 minis with the new ATV

Will i still probably do it, yes… but only cause the ease of use and setup.

Just noticed something after updating my Apple TV to tvOS 27.2 and was wondering if anyone else has experienced this.

On tvOS 27.0, whenever I had Proton VPN enabled on my Apple TV, my Aqara doorbell notifications would only show a still image in the little pop-up window instead of the actual live video. If I turned the VPN off, the live feed worked normally.

Now on tvOS 27.2, I’m getting the live video in the pop-up even with Proton VPN connected.

I haven’t seen anything mentioned about this in the release notes, so I’m wondering if Apple quietly fixed something or if it’s just something with my setup.

Anyone else using a VPN on their Apple TV with a HomeKit doorbell notice the same thing?