With all the time we’ve spent at home of late, we’ve become increasingly reliant on our devices, and therefore increasingly aware of any potential shortcomings they sport. One shortcoming of the popular Apple TV, specifically the 4K capable model, was its long-standing inability to stream content at anything higher than 60Hz. 60Hz is fine, but compared to the offerings of current-gen boxes of tech it lags behind. This is bound to be of particular annoyance to those unable to make full use of their high-end TV’s display capabilities.
Apple TV, so good it Hz
Well, no longer! 9to5Mac reports that there may be a new Apple TV 4K model in the works. There are, apparently, bits and pieces of the code for the tvOS (Apple TV’s operating system) 14.5 beta that point towards support for a 120Hz refresh rate. These hints were fund in the latest beta’s “PineBoard”, which is the system that controls Apple TV’s interface.
Now, the current 4K model doesn’t actually have the hardware to support 120Hz of 4K goodness. It sports an HDMI 2.0 port, which only supports 4K resolution at 60Hz. An HDMI 2.1 port would be needed to support 120Hz. This may indicate that an entirely new version of the Apple TV 4K is under development, though nothing is entirely certain yet.
Admittedly, this is all a bit of moot point if you haven’t got a 120Hz capable TV like this one, and even then we’re not sure when this supposed new box might drop. The prospect is exciting nonetheless. 120Hz is so smooth, after all.