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.

Re: EETV Apple TV 4K Review

NK20026 — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 15:28:01 GMT

Appreciate everyone’s input here - I’ll hold on for a little while longer and see if EE ever manage to bring out the Now TV UHD option in their TV packages for use with their Apple TV 4K box. It’s the only thing that is stopping me moving TV immediately from Sky Stream, so frustrating. I wonder if EE ever will?!

Re: EETV Apple TV 4K Review

R-Biohazardx9 — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 15:50:16 GMT

I sadly beg to differ.

The puck introduced a serijous bug that sky even admitted themselves couldn't fix.
For my bravia 2022 50" - the puck would not accept that it was a 4K TV. No matter what I tried. TV was set to enhanced dolby vision for its HDMI port (also tried just enhanced), tried different cables, tried different setups, tried CEC on/off. and nothing would solve it.

sky puck setup then swt to UHD mode. then everything works, as soon as the TV or Box switches off (as in im going out or whatever and I turn the TV off) the handshake gets broken and when powering up the TV, the puck would complain the TV isn't 4K. - I still have said puck and did extra tests...

HDMI port 4 and Port 3 are the only two that accepts enhanced with dolby vision, ports 1,2,3 and 4 all all accept standard and enhanced.

Port 3 is also the only one with eARC to my reciever. so...

if I put puck into receiver it jams up eARC and I egt no sound.
if I put puck into HDMI4 on TV, it now upsets the TV that much, the TV puts the port to 'standard'. after switching it back to enhanced or enhanced dolby vision, then as soon as TV or puck is off, it gets upset and then that port is forced back to standard.

the HDMI cables i have tried with my sony UHD blu ray and no issues, I've factory reset the TV (with gritted teeth), and puck still misbehaves.tried my gen1 puck instead of gen2, misbehaves.

it never did this before so Version 38 or 37 of the software has introduced something. - they let me leave penalty free and seemed to 'know about it'.

so apple tv is a breeze. sure iplayer isn't so good, that apples fault? not really, thats BBC's fault.

I do hope they fix the puck though,

Re: EETV Apple TV 4K Review

scgf — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 16:23:14 GMT

Sounds like there is an incompatibility with your Sony Bravia TV. Sony TVs are not what they were and for years most are manufactured by a Turkish company, TCL, and re-badged as Sony. Same with Panasonic and Toshiba. I have an LG panel and it works faultlessly with my Sky Stream box. The message I get from your post is 'avoid Sony Bravia TVs'. To use your own logic 'is it Sky's fault? Not really it's Sony's fault'.

Handshaking between source and TV can be a problem in many situations with a whole variety of devices. It is wrong to automatically blame the input device.

Re: EETV Apple TV 4K Review

R-Biohazardx9 — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 05:22:43 GMT

It's not the TV when :

It originally worked fine (had it a couple of years)
When software 37 / 38 arrived on the puck the issue appeared (gen 1 and gen 2 pucks)
Sky admitted it and allowed me out of the contract

Otherwise you'd be right.

Tv in question runs fine for everything else. I'm certainly not going to buy a new TV to appease the puck.

If it works then great if it doesn't then you move on.

Re: EETV Apple TV 4K Review

scgf — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 06:25:56 GMT

I'm not suggesting you should buy another TV to appease the puck. I just think your problem with the Sky Stream and your TV is pretty unique and does not warrant an attack on the Sky Stream puck. Maybe a warning to those with Bravia TVs might be more appropriate?

In terms of usability Sky Stream is better than Apple TV by some margin. Apple TV hardware is clearly better, but that does not translate to a superior end user experience. There are too many compromises with the services I use, like iPlayer 720p max, no UHD; no ad-skipping; no HD for Channel 5 catchup - I highlighted all these things in my post on 06/07/25. I know people will come back at me with 'I don't watch iPlayer, I never watch Channel 5; I have no need to skip adverts and so on, but it's the same arguments people use to affirm phone manufacturers when they release a phone with inferior hardware - 'I don't game, I don't use AI, I never process video so it's fine by me.'.

Re: EETV Apple TV 4K Review

R-Biohazardx9 — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 09:55:56 GMT

Never attacked the puck at all, highlighted an experience. Which isn't unique, others have had these issues. Common one is sound dropout (which ironically I had initially but that solved itself). As I say it is not the TV, the software update in the puck broke it. plain and simple. so I will blame the puck, but im not attacking it, those who want it and it works for them is perfectly fine.

"to use your own logic 'is it Sky's fault? Not really it's Sony's fault'." - thats because Apple set out what their system supports, BBC chose not to support it. - vastly different from a software update on a puck breaking a fundamental function. so to use that analogy doesn't work and is suggestive that I should buy another TV.

I do hope whatever bug it is, it is fixed and I don't want to argue, I have nothing against the product, just sharing an experience, which is what these forums are for.

I think EE needs some credit here for having a system on solid hardware. which is working for me. Sky stream now doesn't work which is why I left. Every case is different.

we will leave it at that as I really don't want a flamewar. We live in a world where we all can have coices, voices and opinions. we can make our own descisions and all be happy.

Re: EETV Apple TV 4K Review

scgf — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 10:11:30 GMT

I posted a whole list of reasons why Sky Stream is better than Apple TV and your response was 'I sadly beg to differ.', suggesting you disagreed with my post just because you had a specific problem with your setup.

Pointing the finger of blame is not productive and sometimes you just have to say 'it didn't work for me'.