topic Re: EETV Apple TV 4K Review in TV

EETV Apple TV 4K Review

NK20026 — Mon, 22 Jun 2026 20:39:46 GMT

Hi, thinking of taking the plunge to EETV with the Apple TV 4K box setup, but wanted to see what others thought of it first. Does it work well, ease of use, picture quality etc? I know we don’t have Now TV Ultraboost available just yet but general thoughts would be very helpful while thinking about making the change from Sky Stream over to EE TV Full Works package. Thanks.

Re: EETV Apple TV 4K Review

jonathanteague — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 05:08:37 GMT

Hi,

I have EE TV for Sky Sports to watch the F1 but I found their restrictions on having only 1 customised Apple TV not ideal for my needs. I have non EE Apple TV's at home so I went for the EE TV Box Pro as that allows me to record the F1 and watch it later. If you wait for catch up on Now (as you would if you went for EE's version of Apple TV) you could be waiting days for a replay.

This setup works for me and i've been happy with it for nearly 2 years now. Only drawback is the EE TV app on non EE Apple TV's doesn't have all the channels, just a small subset so it's pretty useless at the moment. I use an app called TV Launcher as a replacement which provides a TV guide and opens live streams in the usual catchup apps.

Re: EETV Apple TV 4K Review

Richardr66 — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 07:16:21 GMT

I find that the Apple TV box with EETV works very well and is in general of high quality.

A couple of things to check:

does it include the channels you want - see internet mode on https://ee.co.uk/help/tv-sport/ee-tv-channel-guide It doesn't include the free to air U& channels for example and their app has a lot of commercials
It is in my opinion the best of the streaming boxes, but is far from perfect - some of the UK catch up services aren't at their best, especially the BBC iPlayer which is an ancient version and doesn't have UHD, or indeed 1080 HD. Channel 4's app isn't as good as elsewhere either, but content wise picture is fine. If that is an issue you may find using a TV with iPlayer on it gives better picture quality, at the expense of a different remote control.

Apart from that:

framerate switching is much better than the other streaming boxes I've used which to me gives a better picture quality on some of the US based apps.
Ease of use is [to me] great. You will have a remote with no number key, but once used to it will be preferable

If Sky UHD is important, you can subscribe to NowTV separately from EE at the expense of using the NowTV app rather than the EETV app and channel list.

Re: EETV Apple TV 4K Review

NK20026 — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 20:37:47 GMT

Appreciate the responses, thank you. Just wish EE would get their act together and sort out Now TV Ultra Boost. The ongoing delay is ridiculous and the only thing holding me back.

Re: EETV Apple TV 4K Review

scgf — Sun, 05 Jul 2026 07:28:41 GMT

Three things keep me from moving to EETV from Sky:

BBC iPlayer is a maximum of 720p on AppleTV - no 1080p, let alone UHD.
No ad skipping at all - unless you subscribe separately to ITVX, Channel 4+ and other streaming platforms.
Channel 5 catch-up is standard definition. It is only HD on Sky and Virgin Media platforms.

They are enough to keep me with Sky.

Re: EETV Apple TV 4K Review

NK20026 — Sun, 05 Jul 2026 15:53:39 GMT

Thank you. Does the Apple TV box do a decent job of upscaling so that BBC iPlayer looks decent quality? Or is that bad? You’d think that would be sorted out by someone!

Re: EETV Apple TV 4K Review

scgf — Sun, 05 Jul 2026 16:05:18 GMT

Yes, the picture is good enough, but I'm not happy knowing it's better on Sky and I can also view the BBC UHD programming which looks excellent. I'm not good at dealing with second best when it comes to tech.

It's all to do with the codecs - iPlayer uses HLG with DASH where Apple TV supports HLG but not DASH. Neither company cares because it has little effect on their bottom line. The BBC says most other devices and apps support its codecs, but Apple won't budge. Apple, of course, points the finger at the BBC and says it won't provide a suitable stream for AppleTV. They've been criticising each other for years and getting nowhere. Meanwhile the viewers lose out.

Re: EETV Apple TV 4K Review

Richardr66 — Sun, 05 Jul 2026 21:05:44 GMT

I tend to think that the perception of picture quality depends on a few things, including:

size of the display
type of content. I am more forgiving of drama, less so of sport.
individual preferences - many people won't notice.

It's actually MPEG DASH that the BBC uses for its 1080 and UHD content. HLS is an "invented by Apple" protocol that they insist on for apps on their platform, and the BBC only use that for their lower quality iPlayer streams. The EETV live streams are fine.

I have iPlayer in full quality on my TV, and I find it easy to switch to and from that as needed - the TV remote controls the Apple TV box so I use that and do not need the EE / Apple remote, even though as above I would prefer that.

Re: EETV Apple TV 4K Review

scgf — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 10:11:58 GMT

@Richardr66 wrote:
It's actually MPEG DASH that the BBC uses for its 1080 and UHD content. HLS is an "invented by Apple" protocol that they insist on for apps on their platform, and the BBC only use that for their lower quality iPlayer streams. The EETV live streams are fine.

Isn't that basically what I said some 10 hours before you posted your comment?

Re: EETV Apple TV 4K Review

Richardr66 — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 10:21:09 GMT

You were talking about HLG which is an HDR standard not used on the Apple box, as opposed to HLS which is the issue and is a streaming protocol mandated on the Apple box. 😉

Re: EETV Apple TV 4K Review

NK20026 — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 11:03:40 GMT

Appreciate everybody’s input here. I find the picture quality excellent on Sky Stream but sick to death of dealing with problems after every upgrade with the Stream box. It’s driven me mad since the day I got it and the thought of using the Apple TV box with EE is appealing I must say.

Re: EETV Apple TV 4K Review

scgf — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 11:13:56 GMT

AppleTV supports HLG in the 4K model:

Video formats: HEVC Dolby Vision (Profile 5)/HDR10 (Main 10 profile)/HLG up to 2160p, 60 fps

The problem is that it doesn't support MPEG-DASH which iPlayer requires for anything higher that 720p.

Re: EETV Apple TV 4K Review

scgf — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 11:23:59 GMT

This is why I have Sky rather than EE:

I can skip adverts across the board on non-live content for a small monthly fee. I hate watching adverts and it's especially bad with catch-up where regulations are more lax and where other services make it obligatory to play the ads.
The picture quality of the Sky IPTV service is the best I've seen on any device - it is noticeably better than TV from satellite or aerial.
I can view Channel 5 catch-up in HD - it is SD only on all other devices like EE (AppleTV), but HD with Sky and Virgin Media.
I can watch iPlayer in 1080p and UHD where available. On Apple TV all iPlayer content is a maximum of 720p.
Sky has a Playlist feature which works really well and allows me to keep tabs on the various series I am following.
The basic Netflix package is included in the Sky subscription so I just pay the extra to bump it up to Netflix Premium.
Other devices often lack certain features - like Freely doesn't do Dolby Vision.

Before I had Sky I would be watching most services on my Apple TV but had to use my LG smart TV for iPlayer content to get the best quality. I see posts from many who use various devices to watch TV to cover all bases. For me everything works at the highest quality available on the one Sky Stream puck. If you use different devices for different services you lose an overall playlist feature.

My package (Sky Essentials) costs me around £15 a month on a rolling monthly contract, factoring out the Netflix Premium service which I'd be paying anyway. This includes ad-skipping. So I'm paying the equivalent of less than three pints of beer a month for a comprehensive, curated TV service. I'm more than happy with that. I could pay the same for the next package up but with a 24 month contract - and given how fast technology changes I'm not willing to do that.

The disadvantages? The only thing I can think of is that the Sky puck is underpowered. To have it running on hardware like AppleTV would be the icing on the cake. However, I first tried Sky Stream in the early days and it was dreadful. Very janky, very slow and full of bugs. I was impressed when I tried it more recently. Sky has honed the software so it works pretty fluidly on the same hardware. I now find it completely acceptable.