ATV4 and bluetooth keyboard

[davemchine]

I installed the TVos update and paired my Apple bluetooth keyboard to the ATV4 with no problem at all. That was the end of the good news. If I am in my Artist list I try typing the first few letters of an artist name and...nothing. Same thing in movies and tv shows. I tried using the Artist Search feature and while I could type in the artist name nothing happened after that. I would love to hear that I'm missing something. As it is right now it doesn't seem terribly useful.

On a positive note TV shows are now listed simply by their name rather than having multiple listings for each season. That should make navigating much much easier.

[Winston]

Not much help, but worth a try:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202670
"If your keyboard can't stay connected:

- See if you need to charge your keyboard or replace its batteries.
- Check for nearby sources of interference, like other wireless or Bluetooth devices.
- Unpair your keyboard, then pair it with your Apple TV again"


And also, check the batteries.


Good luck.

- Winston

[davemchine]

Thanks for the link. I did test those things. The arrow keys work very well and when filling in a password it also works fine. Those are of limited use though. Being able to jump to "Norah" by typing "Nor" in the artist list would be much more useful. After reading about bluetooth with the ATV3 that's what I would have expected with the ATV4 but no love.

[Winston]

Have no idea what they changed, but instructions for the "Magic" keyboard say it won't work at all with models before the AppleTV4.

Bluetooth has been around long enough I'd have thought all this was worked out years ago. How hard is it to send a keystroke? (Then again, I use a web browser that often crashes when I click into a forum text entry box like what's used on MRF to reply. Luckily, it doesn't happen here.)

The jump-to would be a tvOS issue, which Apple might fix eventually. Maybe they hurried too much in getting the current version out. Let us know if updates eventually fix it.

Good luck.

- Winston

[davemchine]

I was basing my expectations on this article from 2013. It sounds like the older ATV's can do what I want. I'm pretty tired right now but maybe tomorrow I can pair my keyboard with the kids ATV3 and test.
http://www.macworld.com/article/2039722/...le-tv.html

And did I mention that when you’re scrolling through menus on the Apple TV, you can type the first few letters of any menu item to jump directly to it? In the past, I never listened to my Mac’s iTunes library on my Apple TV because choosing, say, an artist name that starts with T meant holding the Down button and waiting. And waiting. And waiting. With a Bluetooth keyboard, I can simply navigate to the Artists list and then type T-R-A-S to jump right to the Trash Can Sinatras. When I’m done in any menu, I can hold down the Escape key to return to the Apple TV’s home screen. wrote:

[deckeda]

This talks about the latest tvOS and ATV4, maybe something will be helpful: http://arstechnica.com/apple/2016/03/min...-problems/

[davemchine]

I connected the bluetooth keyboard to my ATV3 and it worked as expected. Typing "nor" in the artist list jumps to "Norah Jones". Connected bluetooth keyboard to ATV4 and while it can navigate with the arrows, type in passwords, it does not work in the artist list or any other list. Half baked apparently.