My smart TV killed any interest I had in the next Apple TV

• My smart TV is gaining ground on my Apple TV
• Apple needs to release another Apple TV

When I first got my Apple TV 4K, I was in love. It did everything faster than my TV, and I was able to navigate between apps very quickly without having to deal with sluggish speeds or anything of the sort. I was a happy camper, and for many years, things stayed that way. As you might know, I’m still using a first-gen Apple TV 4K, and while it’s still snappy, it has its share of problems. Apps crash frequently, and there are some slowdowns that don’t fix themselves until I force-close the app or restart my device.

This is stuff I can still work around, but there’s one thing my Apple TV 4K can’t do that my TV can. For whatever reason, Apple won’t add audio passthrough. On the surface, it’s not a huge deal since the Apple TV 4K can already handle Dolby Atmos for you. What’s the issue if the best audio format is already covered? Well, the problem is that there are plenty of other formats out there other than Atmos. I don’t pay for the most expensive tier for all my streaming services, so I only get to experience Atmos for a handful of things.

My smart TV, on the other hand, can pass along DTS:X, Dolby Digital, and any of the common formats I come across directly to my receiver. One of the big reasons I have a receiver in the first place is for things like this, so it’s very annoying that my Apple TV 4K can’t do it. Sadly, it’s led me to use my smart TV for more things, something I didn’t want to do.

My smart TV is gaining ground on my Apple TV

Not an ideal situation

I don’t like using my smart TV for anything, and a big reason for that is the fact that I need to have a remote for my Apple TV, my actual TV, and my receiver to do anything. It’s just annoying to have all of that around, but that problem has since been solved by a universal remote.

My remote lets me control all of my devices with ease, and that means it’s not much of an issue for me to use my TV’s Netflix over my Apple TV’s app, for example. What I’ve been doing more and more lately is noticing that my receiver is reading the audio as Multi In, which means it’s not recognizing the audio format, and switching to my TV’s app. By doing this, my receiver will automatically read the audio format and give me the best sound that I can have.

It’s very strange to find myself in this situation, considering how much I loved using the Apple TV 4K, but I’ve sort of been forced into this. It feels like an easy fix on Apple’s end to just allow audio passthrough. What’s worse is that the sound still sounds good even if it’s not the correct format, but with just a few button presses, I can make sure everything matches up, so there’s no reason for me not to do it.

I’m left feeling like this is just an outright backwards decision from Apple, because I went out of my way to buy something to replace my smart TV UI, only to find myself begrudgingly using it more and more. This can’t be what Apple intended when the Apple TV was first released, but sadly, it’s what I find myself doing.

Apple needs to release another Apple TV

But the wait continues

What could fix this issue is the release of a new Apple TV 4K that comes with audio passthrough. There was a brief moment of hope that the feature would be coming in a future tvOS update, but that hope has since come and gone. Rumors have also been flying about a new Apple TV 4K, but that never happened either. We’re now well outside the window that Apple typically released a new generation of hardware, so there’s no telling if it’ll ever happen. It’s also hard to be interested if Apple doesn’t add audio passtrhough and other basic features.

To be fair, even the first-gen Apple TV 4K is a strong performer in 2026, as evidenced by my still using it, but I’d like to see a hardware refresh nevertheless. It’s strange that there were so many rumors swirling, only for there to never be an announcement. There are quite a few changes that justify an upgrade, including Apple Intelligence. The tvOS updates have essentially put the writing on the wall for the first-gen since the major changes don’t come to the device.

I don’t have Liquid Glass, and while that’s not a giant problem, it shows that my device is old enough to miss out on just about everything. Even the second-gen model doesn’t get everything, so the third-gen is your best bet to keep your Apple TV 4K completely up to date. That’s why a fourth-gen makes a lot of sense, but it’s anybody’s guess as to when that will happen.