Big changes are coming to the Apple TV as it is testing a new technology that will be able to support 4K video with more vivid colors and exiting picture quality. Right now, the Apple TV only outputs at 1080p full HD, which is good enough and offers remarkable viewing, but it is not 4K. The Apple TV was last revamped in the later part of 2015 and it came up with beefier hardware, a refreshed tvOS interface and the Siri Remote, Apple's set-top box has basically weakened due to competing set-top boxes like the Amazon Fire TV, Roku Ultra and the new NVIDIA Shield TV run circles around it and making their way to consumers. Things are about to change now and apple will be coming up with something new and exciting for its users that will change the way they watch TV, all with $K video streaming options. according to the reports, apple has recently hired Timothy D.

Twerdhal, the former head of Amazon's Fire TV unit, to lead product marketing for Apple TV and this is sign enough that apple is taking its TV business much more seriously than it took in the past and this will definitely need to something better for the consumers. Twerdhal is highly experienced in the TV video space as he has also worked at Netflix and Roku before he joined Amazon and this makes him the perfect person to fix the Apple TV's shortcomings and make sure it is at par with other technology giants. For those who do not know what it is all about, 4K is a standard also known as ultra HD and in future it will be replacing HD TV. Most of the consumers get new TVs after a year or two to enhance the viewing experience and things have come a long way from that old and boxed television. this ultra-high definition 4K TV has a screen that offers 3,840 wide and 2,160 high pixels and it means that the viewers get to enjoy a picture that is four times better than they get from standard HD.

People who have switched to 4K TV are all praises for it as they get vivid, crisp pictures and outstandingly sharp picture quality. while HD has not been available in the market for some years now and offers users a chance to enjoy cinema like experience at home, it is being estimated that once the 4K TVs make their way to the market and are affordable for the masses, more and more people will turn towards 4K and this will become a household name. Ovum analyst, Oleksiy Danilin says that it will take several years before the majority of TV households will be 4K UHD ready and even by 2020, he has predicted the 4K UHD penetration will reach just 25.5% of global TV households as there are many reasons for it. It is necessary to understand the 4K streaming forward before making any comments as to what it is and why apple needs to go for this technology if it wants to remain ahead in the war of competition.

4K streaming services stream in the H.265 format. The problem with that format is that it is not yet as mature as the H.264 it will be replacing, so the picture quality can be inconsistent and it will not work with consumers. Apple does not want this and it is also necessary that if Apple TV supported 4K it would have to become a 4K content supplier through iTunes and doing this might put a big strain on its content delivery network. While Apple is expanding its CDN (Content Delivery Network) infrastructure with new data centers worldwide, yet the challenge is not only the cost of running content servers, but the additional cost of ensuring consistent high quality content delivery to the consumers and quality of service in content delivery through multiple service providers.

In addition to this, the broadband networks are another challenge as not all broadband service providers implement usage caps, but those that do tend to do so rigorously. This means movie fans who want to stream in 4K know how close they are getting to their bandwidth limits. Not only this, but 4K streaming demands at least 20Mbps speeds, which many Internet users do not have and even if they get the 4K TV, they will not be able to stream channels or movies because they do not have the bandwidth. After the 4K streams have been optimized at the source, they will still require at least two to three times the bandwidth to watch a 1080p HD feed and things will only change when they broadband speed will increase. This is the biggest justification for Apple TV’s lack of 4K support as there is no 4K content for it to support. There is no reason having a big bowl when you have nothing to put in it so why waste time and money on something that is still years apart.

There is very little 4K content on Netflix, Amazon and Sony, and key broadcasters like as the BBC have run some limited experiments, but right now nearly all the movies available to watch are distributed in 1,080p HD, not 4K which does not serve the purpose for this technology. It has yet to go a long way before it can be fully accessible to common man and people have the right devices as well as the broadband width to enjoy it. It will take time for general consumers to understand what 4K TV is all about and how they can amuck the most of it. Apple is taking part in providing people 4K video streaming but the problems mentioned need to be solved for better viewing so that the consumers get a picture that is crisp and high quality along with clear voice and Apple is working hard to achieve this goal as soon as it can.

Albert Barkley is a social critic and working with a dissertation writing services provider firm. He loves to look at the changing social trends closely and criticize accordingly. He is an English Literature lecturer. However due to his interest in writing and sharing thoughts with others, he writes articles for different blogs.