Apple Seeds tvOS 14.6 Release Candidate to Developers

Apple today seeded a release candidate version of an upcoming tvOS 14.6 update to developers for testing purposes, with the new beta coming one week after Apple seeded the third beta.

apple tv 4k design clue
Designed for the fourth and fifth-generation Apple TV models, the tvOS 14.5 developer beta can be downloaded onto the ‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌Apple TV‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌ via a profile that's installed using Xcode.

Other than new releases, tvOS updates are often minor in scale, focusing on under-the-hood bug fixes and improvements rather than major outward-facing changes. The tvOS 14.6 update adds support for new Apple Music features, including Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos and Lossless Audio.

Spatial Audio offers an immersive audio experience that makes it sound like music is coming from all around you, while Lossless Audio will provide higher-quality songs that sound exactly like they do when artists record them in the studio.

At launch in June, thousands of tracks will feature Spatial Audio support, and more than 20,000 songs will support Lossless Audio. By the end of the year, 75 million songs will support it.

Related Roundup: Apple TV
Buyer's Guide: Apple TV (Caution)

Top Rated Comments

Realityck Avatar
38 months ago

Thank you. That does help me understand the difference.

Though, isn’t Apple advertising that the Apple TV will play (Dolby atmos) Apple Music w/ Spatial Audio through AirPods? And the same isn’t true of Dolby atmos movies (on Apple TV thru AirPods)… so it still feels like a discrepancy exists. No?
With their press release ('https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2021/05/apple-music-announces-spatial-audio-and-lossless-audio/') they are not associating it with Apple TV, the only mention is at the bottom of the PR with about Apple Music which is represented on all five of Apple's software platforms.

I made a comment earlier I thought that tvOS could support lossless audio from Apple Music, as it a digital streaming receiver outputting audio over HDMI to a AVR for example. But the comment about comparing Apple’ Spatial Audio to Microsoft Windows/Xbox 3D gaming audio environment Dolby Atmos for Headphones suggests that its possible you might see it more utilized for Apple Arcade rather then Apple Music. Now that Apple has removed the ATV4K control with accelerometer and gyroscope, is there another gaming control in the works for gaming or just use third party controllers?

Apple fans that are hoping that film/TV content that offer Dolby Atmos audio tracks that are outputted as only stereo for headphones, have hope that Apple Spatial Audio could be used with ATV4K, but then that is not related to Apple Music and so far no beta is encompassing that yet. So yes you have a continuing discrepancy. :)
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
srbNYC Avatar
38 months ago

The tvOS 14.6 update adds support for new Apple Music features ('https://www.macrumors.com/2021/05/17/apple-music-spatial-audio-announced/'), including Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos and Lossless Audio.
...but not for any TV offerings?
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
JSL1 Avatar
38 months ago

Every time I see that new remote... :p
Can't wait 'til Friday!
Just posted News, FAQs, User Guides and Tips & Tricks for the new Siri remote on AVSforum.
Includes video of the new Siri remote.
https://www.avsforum.com/threads/new-apple-siri-remote-2021-owner’s-thread-faq-posts-1-6.3196795/#post-60722298 ('https://www.avsforum.com/threads/new-apple-siri-remote-2021-owner%E2%80%99s-thread-faq-posts-1-6.3196795/#post-60722298')

Attachment Image
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
EricNau Avatar
38 months ago

Weird, right? Boo.
Weird indeed. And terribly confusing.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
BWhaler Avatar
38 months ago
I’m afraid to look. Did they finally fix the Library?
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
EricNau Avatar
38 months ago

Apple’ Spatial Audio is the company’s answer to Dolby Atmos for Headphones, designed for the AirPods Pro true wireless earbuds and AirPods Max over-ear headphones. This version of spatial audio is really dynamic EQ which is tied by the movement of your head, making it sound like 2 channel audio is coming from all over your room position. :)
Thank you. That does help me understand the difference.

Though, isn’t Apple advertising that the Apple TV will play (Dolby atmos) Apple Music w/ Spatial Audio through AirPods? And the same isn’t true of Dolby atmos movies (on Apple TV thru AirPods)… so it still feels like a discrepancy exists. No?
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

maxresdefault

Apple Announces 'Let Loose' Event on May 7 Amid Rumors of New iPads

Tuesday April 23, 2024 7:11 am PDT by
Apple has announced it will be holding a special event on Tuesday, May 7 at 7 a.m. Pacific Time (10 a.m. Eastern Time), with a live stream to be available on Apple.com and on YouTube as usual. The event invitation has a tagline of "Let Loose" and shows an artistic render of an Apple Pencil, suggesting that iPads will be a focus of the event. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more ...
Apple Vision Pro Dual Loop Band Orange Feature 2

Apple Cuts Vision Pro Shipments as Demand Falls 'Sharply Beyond Expectations'

Tuesday April 23, 2024 9:44 am PDT by
Apple has dropped the number of Vision Pro units that it plans to ship in 2024, going from an expected 700 to 800k units to just 400k to 450k units, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Orders have been scaled back before the Vision Pro has launched in markets outside of the United States, which Kuo says is a sign that demand in the U.S. has "fallen sharply beyond expectations." As a...
Apple Silicon AI Optimized Feature Siri

Apple Releases Open Source AI Models That Run On-Device

Wednesday April 24, 2024 3:39 pm PDT by
Apple today released several open source large language models (LLMs) that are designed to run on-device rather than through cloud servers. Called OpenELM (Open-source Efficient Language Models), the LLMs are available on the Hugging Face Hub, a community for sharing AI code. As outlined in a white paper [PDF], there are eight total OpenELM models, four of which were pre-trained using the...
iPad And Calculator App Feature

Apple Finally Plans to Release a Calculator App for iPad Later This Year

Tuesday April 23, 2024 9:08 am PDT by
Apple is finally planning a Calculator app for the iPad, over 14 years after launching the device, according to a source familiar with the matter. iPadOS 18 will include a built-in Calculator app for all iPad models that are compatible with the software update, which is expected to be unveiled during the opening keynote of Apple's annual developers conference WWDC on June 10. AppleInsider...
iOS 17 All New Features Thumb

iOS 17.5 Will Add These New Features to Your iPhone

Sunday April 21, 2024 3:00 am PDT by
The upcoming iOS 17.5 update for the iPhone includes only a few new user-facing features, but hidden code changes reveal some additional possibilities. Below, we have recapped everything new in the iOS 17.5 and iPadOS 17.5 beta so far. Web Distribution Starting with the second beta of iOS 17.5, eligible developers are able to distribute their iOS apps to iPhone users located in the EU...