Apple TV

casspir

casspir

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Totally unknown to me.

How does it work? What do you need to use it effectively?
 
casspir said:
Totally unknown to me.

How does it work? What do you need to use it effectively?
Click to expand...

It is a tiny box that connects to a power socket and to your TV and uses WiFi to connect to your network/internet.
It does 4 things.

1) It allows you to rent or purchase TV Shows or Movies from iTunes with a simple click or two from the remote
2) It connects to 1 or more computers with iTunes, from which it can stream any TV Shows, Movies, Music, Podcasts, etc that you might have already in iTunes (Which you acquired from some *other* means)
3) It has allows access to Netflix, MLB and other specific apps
4) You can push any video/audio from your iOS devices (iPhone/iPad and in beta form from your Mac) to your TV via the AppleTV and AirPlay

http://www.apple.com/appletv/what-is/
 
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Unless you have 10Mb/s Uncapped, Unshaped. Forget it. Its useless in this country. I don't think the service is even available here anyway.
 
ChocolateBadger said:
Unless you have 10Mb/s Uncapped, Unshaped. Forget it. Its useless in this country. I don't think the service is even available here anyway.
Click to expand...

That's a lie.
I have 4Mb Mweb Uncapped, and it works like a dream.
As for being available, that is true. But a US iTunes account is easy to set up
 
ChocolateBadger said:
Unless you have 10Mb/s Uncapped, Unshaped. Forget it. Its useless in this country. I don't think the service is even available here anyway.
Click to expand...

The service isn't officially supported in SA, which is why you cant even officially buy the Apple TV here BUT as many iPad / iPhone owners know its relatively easy to get a US iTunes account. I agree that the faster the internet connection is the better. I found I could get away with 4Mb/s for SD content.

The majority of use I get from mine is local streaming i.e. streaming my iTunes library to my TV and Airplay from my iPad. For only $99 its well worth the money just for that!
 
As a new Apple TV owner I am very impressed with it especially the Airplay/mirroring functionality.If you have a US iTunes account there is a wealth of content to watch although somewhat pricey.For this purpose a speedy 4mb line should be sufficient.With most of the scene now uploading .mp4 files this makes the Apple TV an even more viable option than ever before.
I would be interested to hear what users have as their back-end config as I am still not sure what is right option.Seems like the HP Proliant Microserver is a very popular route.
 
ajules said:
As a new Apple TV owner I am very impressed with it especially the Airplay/mirroring functionality.If you have a US iTunes account there is a wealth of content to watch although somewhat pricey.For this purpose a speedy 4mb line should be sufficient.With most of the scene now uploading .mp4 files this makes the Apple TV an even more viable option than ever before.
I would be interested to hear what users have as their back-end config as I am still not sure what is right option.Seems like the HP Proliant Microserver is a very popular route.
Click to expand...

Why do you say pricy?

It is cheaper than going to Mr Video or Blockbuster. Or competing online services.
As for the backend? My main desktop (an iMac) acts as the backend
 
Myself and a friend almost got one the other day - but I backed out and got a Blu Ray player and loaded Plex. He went ahead with his order and bought it.

He says for the price it isn't bad - but it seemed to lag behind Plex in certain aspects. I loaded my 1,000 movies and when I went to sleep, all were tagged and cataloged neatly. He's still manually tagging ....

I sit down and search via genre, year, decade, actors, directors, unwatched or anything else in the tag. He's got four (once he's done tagging).

I have a myriad of codecs and containers - I point Plex to the directory and don't even know or bother with the formatting. After he's tagged, he's going to convert which is probably a few more weeks.

Moral of the story?

My Plex has more functionality, better interface and best of all, I've been using it for about a month. He'll be ready to start using his ATV in about June/July
 
Dolby said:
Myself and a friend almost got one the other day - but I backed out and got a Blu Ray player and loaded Plex. He went ahead with his order and bought it.

He says for the price it isn't bad - but it seemed to lag behind Plex in certain aspects. I loaded my 1,000 movies and when I went to sleep, all were tagged and cataloged neatly. He's still manually tagging ....

I sit down and search via genre, year, decade, actors, directors, unwatched or anything else in the tag. He's got four (once he's done tagging).

I have a myriad of codecs and containers - I point Plex to the directory and don't even know or bother with the formatting. After he's tagged, he's going to convert which is probably a few more weeks.

Moral of the story?

My Plex has more functionality, better interface and best of all, I've been using it for about a month. He'll be ready to start using his ATV in about June/July
Click to expand...

Plex is nice, I've used it before.
But it fails quite badly at 2 of the 4 reasons you would buy an Apple TV.
-Renting or purchasing TV Shows and Movies
-AirPlay

Plex is a piece of software comparable to xbmc or boxee and isn't a competitor to the AppleTV.
The main competitor is the Roku box
 
/sigh

It's been pointed out countless times before, to get serious value out if your ATV you have to jailbreak and install XBMC.

Then it becomes an almost perfect little front-end for a large media collection, rivaling Plex - and in some instances better.
 
JStrike said:
Plex is a piece of software comparable to xbmc or boxee and isn't a competitor to the AppleTV.
The main competitor is the Roku box
Click to expand...

Agreed plus there is software for your Mac which can automate the tagging and (if required) conversion process. I have an Apple TV for both of the TV's in my house. A lot cheaper than buying a separate blu-ray player for each TV!
 
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JStrike said:
Plex is nice, I've used it before.
But it fails quite badly at 2 of the 4 reasons you would buy an Apple TV.
-Renting or purchasing TV Shows and Movies
-AirPlay

Plex is a piece of software comparable to xbmc or boxee and isn't a competitor to the AppleTV.
The main competitor is the Roku box
Click to expand...

I'd think any media solution is a competitor?
I mean - I bought Plex instead of the ATV ...
 
JStrike said:
It is a tiny box that connects to a power socket and to your TV and uses WiFi to connect to your network/internet.
It does 4 things.

1) It allows you to rent or purchase TV Shows or Movies from iTunes with a simple click or two from the remote
2) It connects to 1 or more computers with iTunes, from which it can stream any TV Shows, Movies, Music, Podcasts, etc that you might have already in iTunes (Which you acquired from some *other* means)
3) It has allows access to Netflix, MLB and other specific apps
4) You can push any video/audio from your iOS devices (iPhone/iPad and in beta form from your Mac) to your TV via the AppleTV and AirPlay

http://www.apple.com/appletv/what-is/
Click to expand...

So basically it's a media player with the usual Apple restrictions.
 
Dolby said:
Myself and a friend almost got one the other day - but I backed out and got a Blu Ray player and loaded Plex. He went ahead with his order and bought it.

He says for the price it isn't bad - but it seemed to lag behind Plex in certain aspects. I loaded my 1,000 movies and when I went to sleep, all were tagged and cataloged neatly. He's still manually tagging ....

I sit down and search via genre, year, decade, actors, directors, unwatched or anything else in the tag. He's got four (once he's done tagging).

I have a myriad of codecs and containers - I point Plex to the directory and don't even know or bother with the formatting. After he's tagged, he's going to convert which is probably a few more weeks.

Moral of the story?

My Plex has more functionality, better interface and best of all, I've been using it for about a month. He'll be ready to start using his ATV in about June/July
Click to expand...


ATV isnt all that it's cracked up to be, if you got a phat lot of dosh to throw away yea, go for it! :p

I've got an 1st gen i5 running as my media server with Win 7 / XBMC / PC Gaming with wireless XBOX 360 controllers - XBMC has loads of plugins to watch streaming US channels, handles all my local media, I can skin it / mod it and make it my own. I can AirPlay from my iPhone, iPad, iMac

If you really wanna keep it all Apple. Then get a Mac Mini and load XBMC or Plex ! ;)

There's way better options out there compared to ATV.
 
Dolby said:
I'd think any media solution is a competitor?
I mean - I bought Plex instead of the ATV ...
Click to expand...

Kinda....for certain use-cases.
But Plex+some device (You can install plex on the AppleTV as well if you JB it) falls short in the AppleTV and Roku's main use-case. Renting or Purchasing TV Shows and Movies
 
SiriS said:
You bought a Bluray player. ;-)
Click to expand...

Sorry - that's what I meant ;)

Main aim was something to handle media and since I learned of the BR, I bought it over the ATV
 
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