QUESTION · SATURDAY Q&A

Is anyone interested that the new Apple TV has AV1 built in? And what would you want it for?

ASKED BY · Craig Kodoke · TORONTO · 17 OCT 2026 · ▶ 00:39:57

THE PANEL'S ANSWER
Guy

Apple TV still lacks HDMI pass-through (available on Mac and cheaper competitors like NVIDIA Shield), overpriced at $300 USD/$429 CAD due to expensive six-microphone array for Siri AI features most users don't want; AV1 codec support is the least interesting feature compared to these hardware and price issues.

Summarised by AI from what the panel said. Watch the moment for the full answer.

IN THEIR OWN WORDS

From the transcript.

Machine-transcribed, so it may contain errors. Every timestamp opens the episode at that second.

39:32I'm probably going to regret it because there's always something better around the corner. Yeah, well, there's always something getting released. So sometimes you just need a product and you got to get it when you need it. All right, let's move on to the next question. Can't hear you, Mark. Sorry. Craig Kodoke from Toronto. Is anyone interested that the new Apple TV has AV1 built in?

39:57And what would you want it for? I could not be the least interested. The problem, okay, here's the thing with the Apple TV. I love the Apple TV. I think it's the best media playback device on the market for a home theater. in terms of the responsiveness, in terms of the user experience. There's one issue. Well, there's several issues. I'm going to get to the price in just a second.

40:25As someone who has built a home theater with discrete speakers that has an Atmos setup, I've got an AVR in my setup here. The Apple TV in 2026 still has no HDMI pass-through, which means that when stuff is getting through the Apple TV, it is reprocessing stuff, which I don't want it to do, which can affect sound quality. This is not something that requires a hardware update.

40:51Apple absolutely could do it via software. And I don't understand. In fact, recently I just put tvOS 27.2 beta to see if they added it. Nope, still not there. So I don't understand that. The NVIDIA Shield has that. Lots of other devices, cheaper devices on the market have that. for some reason Apple hasn't done that now interestingly the Mac has HDMI pass-through so Mac OS has had that for a while now it's the Apple TV that needs

41:20it so please Apple if you're watching this please add pass-through the other problem this price hike is absolutely ridiculous on this device they and it wouldn't be so bad if they had other flavors of the Apple TV but they decided it as usual. The device is over-engineered with a very expensive processor, has very expensive RAM. Why? Because they decided to put a six microphone array in this thing to have the latest Siri AI

41:51functionality. So it can do onboard processing, stuff that I just do not care about. And that's fine. Maybe if you're interested in that and you want to be able to talk to your Apple TV, but they need another version of this Apple TV at a lower price point that doesn't have that kind of functionality because there are a lot of people that are just not going to be interested

42:12in that and at $300 US by the way in Canada I looked it up yesterday $429 Canadian dollars for this Apple TV that is just I'm sorry I'm not buying it I'm not buying it I have the previous version it does everything it you know other than the new Siri AI stuff with the latest tvOS it does everything that this device has and it feels just as

42:37fast as it did when I got it several years ago so for me I have no interest in upgrading it I don't know how what kind of impact AV one will have as a codec for playback on this on this device so that I really can't comment but I think that's the least interesting thing of it for me right now all right

42:55All right, let's go to the next question. Next question's from Zach Stallsmith in Chautauqua, New York. I have quite a bit of gear I haul around in my car for gigs, and it's pretty safe when transporting it, but I'd like to have better cases that protect and are easier to move. Is Pelican the way to go? Stuff like an ATEM, 27-inch screens, by 32-rack cables, all that stuff.

READ THE FULL TRANSCRIPT →
MENTIONED IN THE ANSWER
Apple TV→AV1→HDMI→NVIDIA Shield→tvOS 27.2→Siri→Atmos→
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