Why the Apple TV has a frustrating USB port problem

Most times, I don’t mind the lack of a USB port, but I recently ran into a specific situation where one would’ve come in handy on my Apple TV 4K. I wanted to watch the de-specialized Star Wars for its anniversary, so I finally went through the trouble of getting it saved to my hard drive, but I found out that I couldn’t use my Apple TV 4K to watch it. I had to use my TV’s USB port instead, which worked perfectly fine. However, I like the Apple TV 4K’s interface far more than my TV’s, and if I could use the Apple TV all the time, I would. My TV is wall-mounted, so it was more trouble to plug in my portable hard drive than it would be to just use my Apple TV, but it worked out in the end.

This just opened my eyes to a greater problem, and it’s that the Apple TV 4K is the most expensive streamer, but it can’t do what the cheaper ones do. Yes, it’s a very niche situation I’m talking about, but it’s still odd to see a cheaper product do more than a more expensive one.

Brand: Apple
Bluetooth codecs: 5.0
Wi-Fi: 6
Ethernet: Gigabit (128GB model only)
Storage and RAM: 64GB, 128GB

The Apple TV 4K is too expensive to be missing basic things

It shouldn’t be this way

If Apple is going to continue positioning the Apple TV 4K as the marquee streaming box, then it should be as feature-rich as its competitors. I bought my Apple TV 4K used, so $150 didn’t come out of my wallet, but if it had, I can’t help but think I’d be disappointed. It’s tough to look around at the competition and see that something that costs less than the product I have is capable of more. I’m not saying the Roku Ultra is better than my Apple TV 4K, because if it was, I’d have my Apple TV in the bedroom and Roku in the living room, but I am saying it would’ve been better to have them swapped in this specific scenario with the USB port.

Another glaring weakness of the Apple TV 4K is the lack of audio passthrough. I have a Dolby Atmos sound system in my living room, and the Apple TV 4K can handle that audio format just fine. The only problem is that Atmos isn’t the only format that exists, and a lot of what I watch doesn’t have an Atmos mix. That’s been increasingly the case as I downgrade my streaming services and don’t pay for the most expensive tiers. While the Apple TV supports Dolby formats just fine, it doesn’t have support for DTS formats at all. This isn’t typically an issue since my audio receiver can handle the audio, but the Apple TV doesn’t let it. The Apple TV 4K routes all audio through it and handles it itself. This means if it comes across an audio format it doesn’t recognize, it tries its best and calls it a day.

Looking at the Roku Ultra again, we can see that this isn’t a problem at all. The Roku Ultra supports audio passthrough, so if you have a soundbar or receiver that you want to control your audio, you’re able to do that with ease. This is actually the most frustrating aspect of my Apple TV 4K because I use my receiver each time I watch something, while I just use a USB port a handful of times a year. Fortunately, I do most of my movie viewing on 4K discs via my Blu-ray player, which supports passthrough. This has always been the case with Apple, and it’s just frustrating to see people complain about it so often for nothing to be done.

I don’t have high hopes

Apple gonna Apple

Considering that audio passthrough and a USB port have skipped generations of the Apple TV 4K, I don’t see things changing even if a 4th-gen device comes out. Audio passthrough in particular has been a hot topic, and there was a lot of excitement when people noticed it showed up in the patch notes of a recent tvOS update. That time has since come and gone, and there’s nothing to indicate it’s coming.

I can live without a USB port since my TV has one, but I’d still like to see a new model include it, since I can find it on other, cheaper devices. Ultimately, Apple must have some type of in-house stats that show people don’t value these things, or else they would add them. I mean, look at me. I complain about audio passthrough and the lack of a USB port, but I still use the Apple TV 4K as my main device. If I watched more streaming services outside of the regular stereo setup more often, I’d consider making the change. As it stands right now, it’s just an annoyance I have to put up with for a few hours a week, and I’m happy with my streamer otherwise. I love how fast it is, and I love that there are no ads bogging down the experience, something other streamers can’t say. I just wish Apple did a little bit more to make the Apple TV 4K feel more premium than its competition.

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