Why I purchased this aging Apple device

I really wanted an Apple TV after being introduced to it from various product reviews, as I was astounded of how great an experience it was to use one. It was consistently recommended as the top of the line streaming device, with the same hardware as an iPhone which makes it generally pretty fast for most TV focused applications and I just love the idea of the Apple TV. Of course, as with many others, another reason was because it integrated with the services I already used. It can be a FaceTime or Photos app viewer, a Home Hub for outside access to your smart home and many more other useful features, except, I wasn’t trying to use the top of the line offering.

Instead, after browsing options, I determined to purchase the outdated, discontinued, Apple TV HD. Why? Well, a couple of reasons. Namely, that it’s still up-to-date, but this is a given for the average consumer. No, the Apple TV HD was bought because it just made the most sense.

Starting with the basics, my TV, being a regular 1080p 60hz TV, does not need any 4k support. So, the HD was a perfectly fine device in this regard, as unless I suddenly gain a great 4K OLED panel tomorrow, I simply have no reason to care for the device to have a higher resolution. For me, I do not need future-proofing. Even though the Apple TV HD could be discontinued in a week for all I know, it has lasted for a significant amount of time due it being sold with the normal 4K options. I assume Apple concluded that few people still used 1080p televisions and quietly retired the model (excluding age related reasons). However, you may be surprised that it was not discontinued maybe a decade ago or anything crazy like that, it was actually only delisted from the store in 2022.

With the limitations it has, like missing liquid glass support, Apple simply has not gotten rid of this device just yet, and general developer support will last for a long time. This means to me that maybe Apple understands the context in which this device was previously purchased. Like for example, around the same time maybe the next year, the iPhone 12 was delisted from the Apple website, but there is no way that Apple means “This device will stop receiving updates” as the 12 lineup can go all the way up to 26. No, because they sold this device so recently, as to not upset these users and to give people a nice experience as they continue to improve the tvOS experience, they decided to keep it going, and I hope they continue to.

What is interesting about its history, from what I can gather, is that Apple did not skimp out on the remotes by providing some sort of midrange solution or something. No, people who acquired an HD at whatever time they did, would receive the same remote the TV 4K received. So, on eBay, you’ll get a variety of listings for the HD, some are selling with the ancient extremely simple Apple TV remote and some with a variant of the new Siri remotes, or in between with the first generation “touchpad” black Siri remote.

When trying to obtain one, the endeavor proved far more momentous than I had anticipated, as I scoured auctions and Buy It Now listings from sellers across eBay. To my delight, I uncovered no shortage of promising offers, yet I repeatedly became the architect of my own misfortune. Though I was constantly searching and frequently resolved to place a bid, I had an unfortunate tendency to lose track of auctions or allow favorable listings to slip through my grasp before I could act.

This vexed me for some time until I finally stumbled upon a private offer, which I accepted without hesitation and promptly arranged to have shipped post-haste. Not long afterward, however, a bout of buyer’s remorse set in as I reflected upon the many excellent listings that had escaped me over the preceding months. As the days passed and the device’s arrival drew nearer, those doubts gradually dissipated. Looking back, many of the supposedly superior listings were not nearly so attractive as I had imagined. This one at least came with an HDMI cable (of which I have many), an Ethernet cable (of which I have few), and, most importantly, the proper power cord (of which I had none). And although I was missing a remote, I didn’t want to deal with a very old one.

Beyond that, this particular model possessed a distinction that I found genuinely fascinating: it was one of the rare units equipped with double the standard storage capacity. Why should this matter? The 64-gigabyte variant had been discontinued long before the HD itself met its demise, leaving the 32-gigabyte model as the sole option for a time. The additional storage is not merely a historical curiosity. It places the device on par with the storage capacity offered by the base Apple TV nearly a decade before the current generation emerged. Applications such as VLC allow videos to be kept directly on the device’s internal storage rather than relying exclusively upon streaming. For a machine of its age, that is no small convenience. However, in practice, the point of this was lost, as many apps just aren’t that big, and the Apple TV does not formally have a way to check the full capacity used.

Speaking of apps, there are some of the standard applications which you come to expect on an Apple device, like Music, Podcasts, Fitness and more, but it goes even deeper. I enjoyed some of the exclusive apps on the platform. This mostly includes Infuse, Trakt, Yattee and Eter. Infuse is a cross-platform media player, rivaling VLC for being the “Apple version” of it, with iCloud syncing and media library support. Trakt is a smaller application, made to track your movie and TV habits, make lists of them and rate them. It’s a fun “gimmick” that I often find myself coming back to every once in a while. Yattee is a great app that works with Piped or Invidious, making an Apple device exclusive way to stream from them without having to visit their respective frontends. It recently made a new version, with a specialty server, although, I personally get problems upon using it on the device. Finally, Eter is an internet radio app. For a small one-time fee, you get a nice app that is available on every major Apple device. I know that I use it less than I should, but is an otherwise excellent showcase of the exact reason I wanted to get this device and could serve as a reason for you too, if you nerd out about the same stuff.

The combination of apps, the UI, general design, and the overall amazing performance really only solidifies the Apple TV HD’s position as not just the best option for just one user but rather everyone. Personally, even if the device is old or slow, I would gladly take it over anything else for these reasons as I contentedly compose my thoughts over what was otherwise a $40 purchase.