Looking to get one of aforementioned tvs in the very near future. Many claim ‘integration’ with tablets/smart ‘phones and network storage devices etc, but is this actually true?

Looking at a Samsung at the moment; anyone have any experience of these? Any other recommendations?

I can control my Sky HD box through my smartphone, so I don’t see why not!

I “control” my LG telly from my Android phone. Works well – LG charge ~£40 for their “magic remote”, phone does the same thing for free. Seems to work fine with storage devices attached directly, not used any NAS devices or media streamers etc.

I can control my samsung TV using my Android phone and Tablet using the samsung app. I can even watch a channel on the tablet while another is being watched on the TV.
Great for things like Lovefilm/Netflix etc.

Looking to get a wireless ‘dongle’ so that the tv can stream content from the NAS, as well as be controlled by an iPad. just wondering how well this works in reality, rather than in manufacturer’s bumph, as they all seem to be a bit vague on the subject.

TV will be part of a system including Airport Express enabled speakers. Was considering an Apple TV, but seems a smart tv may negate the need for one.

Looking to get a wireless ‘dongle’ so that the tv can stream content from the NAS, as well as be controlled by an iPad. just wondering how well this works in reality, rather than in manufacturer’s bumph, as they all seem to be a bit vague on the subject.

TV will be part of a system including Airport Express enabled speakers. Was considering an Apple TV, but seems a smart tv may negate the need for one.

Yep – I can via my phone and my Samsung telly. Don’t bother though as its a lot slower than using the normal remote IMHO.

I have a samsung. Yes, it works. It’s just a remote though. Nothing clever, or as practical as the remote.

The youtube/iplayer control on the tv is cool. Unreliable though, which is a shame.

Samsung tablets, well at least the Note 10.1, have a IR transmitter and software that will allow you to control TVs, satellite boxes, etc.

Odd double post there.

So will the tv work with a NAS then? That bit’s quite important. Seems the Apple TV thing is basically the ‘smart’ bit of the smart tv, so would be added to a ‘non-smart’ tv. Considering a smart tv is barely more than a standard one, seems a bit silly to splash out on an Apple TV unit. Or is that combo better with an iPad?

I can control my samsung smart tv with an app on my iphone, the app just mimics the functions on the tv remote. But I never use that anyway as I have sky, which I can also control from my iphone, which I don’t really do very much either.

The phone works well if using the tv’s smart functions though.

So will the tv work with a NAS then?

Yes. Samsungs do at least.

Ok; so will a ‘standard’ telly and Apple TV unit work better with an iOS system controlled via an iPad? Doesn’t the Apple TV do the ‘smart’ bit for the telly?

Would prefer a solution that doesn’t involve a lot of swearing and possible destruction of devices that won’t work properly.

thx1138 – Member
Ok; so will a ‘standard’ telly and Apple TV unit work better with an iOS system controlled via an iPad? Doesn’t the Apple TV do the ‘smart’ bit for the telly?

Would prefer a solution that doesn’t involve a lot of swearing and possible destruction of devices that won’t work properly.
Ummm, speaking as someone with Sky, and a Mac Mini, but no AppleTV, I’m pretty sure that’s the case. A close friend of mine wanted access to movies and such, but did not want satellite, and only had a small flat panel telly, bought an AppleTV and hooked it up, and sent everything from her iPad, or media directly from the little box, and is chuffed to bits with it. She doesn’t stream music through it, though; she has an little hifi thing with my old iPod plugged in for music. Work and other commitments mean she has little time for much telly, so it suits her needs.
I honestly don’t know if this helps, I’ve no need for an AppleTV, I don’t need Netflicks or Lovefilm or anything like that, and my Mini serves all my music needs; with over 140Gb of music, 15,150 tracks so far, I’ve got more music than time to listen, so streaming is irrelevant for me.
As you say, the AppleTV does the ‘smart’ bit, the pad gives control, and allows content to be streamed from it to the little box. There could be a lot more than that, but that’s how Sarah uses hers, and she demands simplicity of use!
So do I, for that matter, error messages bring me out in a rash and a cold sweat! Any issues and I go into a flat panic; I’m not that clever with teccy stuff, really, and if there’s a problem I struggle. 😀

Samsung app works ok with my Samsung tv but I find the ‘my Tifi remote’ app works better (it even controls my Toshiba blu ray just like the TV remote does)

ATV (current generation) wont really stream from NAS, though will play stuff if it’s in an iTunes library.

You can mirror stuff to it from your table/phone( with a suitable app if these are Android) but ime it’s not as seamless.

If your smart tv wont handle the nas content, check out WD Media player live, or whatever it’s called, Samsung have a new media streamer on Android due imminently as well.

Right here goes.
We have a (Panasonic) smart tv, an AppleTV and a Mac mini. My mum has a Samsung smart tv in her house by the sea.
The Samsung is pretty good and can stream films from a Dnla media server (like Plex). It also does YouTube pretty well and Netflix I think. As has already been said, you can use you phone/ipad to control it but the proper remote is easier. I’m not a fan of the led picture though.
We’ve had the AppleTV a while and it jail token and running xbmc you can actually store about 7gig of data on it once jailbroken which can be handy.
The beauty of the AppleTV is that you can unplug it and stick it on another tv any time you like. I like it. Although it can also do iplayer the sky box does it better.
If you got an AppleTV and didn’t like it you could always sell it.
The Mac mini used to be taken with us on holiday so my kids would have a computer to use on rainy days. Then I installed plex media server (for the Samsung) but today I plugged it into an old plasma and installed plex media player. All I can say is wow. The mini com ibex with a tv, wireless keyboard and mouse is a brilliant combination. Music (inc streaming from spotty), videos, Netflix and browsing all on a big screen. Fab.

Had a play with iTunes last night, to see if the movies function will actually work. Full HD 1080p Blu-Ray rips stutter in playback in the iTunes app, yet are fine in VLC or Quicktime. Seems to be a common problem. No indication why this happens, or how to fix it. Apparently movies bought via iTunes don’t do this. Apple sabotaging anything other than content bought from them?

The iPad will stream via iTunes, so content must be stored in an iTunes folder on a NAS for it to stream to an iPad. This is a bit annoying if existing content won’t work.

I’m hoping to visit the Apple store later, to have a chat to a ‘genius’ (please, stop being so ****, Apple!) to see what exactly is possible. I will take along a ripped movie on a memory stick to try out there. I’m hoping I can achieve a working solution, or I’ll be looking at a Windows/Android solution. Anyone use such a set-up?

If the TV has DNLA you can link with a NAS and play from there (if they are on the same wireless network). I use this method with these and it works great. Router in hall way with one of the plug and lan cable and then another next to tv with lan to tv and nas, and my tv is a 5 year old LG plasma

Went to an Apple store yesterday, and the very helpful assistant ran through all the things that can be done with the iPad. He demonstrated using an iPad with an Apple TV device, and that seems pretty much what I’m looking for. The Apple TV can stream directly from a NAS, so that’s the photos and movies bit covered. In fact, that almost does away with the need for an iPad altogether!

The next step is a suitable NAS, and a new flat telly…

We have a Samsung TV and it has a app so that an iPad or Iphone etc. can use it as a remote. Works fine although I think my daughter had to update the iOS version on her iPhone for it to work on that.

We also have an Apple TV and that works pretty well. We stream from our various iTunes installs including movies that are on a NAS. iTunes is quite fussy about format though so some movies we stream directly to the TV or blue-ray player as they can use additional file formats.

The Apple TV also feeds into a little DAC and then into a hi-fi amp so it can act as a music streamer – also controlled using Airplay on the iPhone etc.

The Apple TV can stream directly from a NAS

It can’t really though. You still need iTunes running somewhere, then the ATV hooks in to your iTunes library via home sharing.

epicsteve; Do you have a ‘smart’ telly? And if so, is it easier/harder to use with an iPad than the Apple TV combo? Also considering a smart telly instead of an Apple TV combo.

Dies the Apple TV play any video format? Or only ‘Apple approved’ ones?

It can’t really though. You still need iTunes running somewhere, then the ATV hooks in to your iTunes library via home sharing.

apparently the ATV can? It just needs a folder on the NAs which it recognises. Or is this wrong?

Apple: ‘It just works; provided you know exactly what you’re doing…’ 😀

Dies the Apple TV play any video format? Or only ‘Apple approved’ ones?

if you jailbreak the ATV and install XBMC it will play loads of video formats (not found one it can’t do yet).

apparently the ATV can? It just needs a folder on the NAs which it recognises. Or is this wrong?

No, only if it’s jailbroken and has XBMC or Plex installed….. then it does.

Right. There’s an awful lot of misleading info around this. The guy in the Apple shop said it would access media on a network drive. This is true, but with certain caveats. One, and a quite disconcerting one, is that Home Sharing requires an Apple ID, and for the feature to work, I’d need to login to Apple’s iTunes service apparently. Why, when all I want to do is access my own private network, I have no idea. I suspect it’s probably something to do with Apple’s desire to control every aspect of your life…

Apple are playing themselves out of my custom. I’m going to look at alternatives.

No, only if it’s jailbroken and has XBMC or Plex installed….. then it does.

I don’t even know what this means.

It is simply the installation of a slightly modified version of the OS that the ATV uses. This modified version allows you to install apps that Apple would not normally allow.
It’s simple to do and takes about 10 mins with only one click of the mouse required -both cannot be done on the latest ATV at the moment.
XBMC and Plex are both types of media server/player. To access media on a network drive you are generally going to need a media server running somewhere on the network. Some NAS have a media server built into them.
iTunes is also a media sever. The AppleID basically acts a username/password which you would probably also need to access other media servers (i.e. a NAS).

The guy in the Apple shop said it would access media on a network drive.

Yes it will but only with iTunes acting as the media server. So your system would look roughly like this:
NAS —->—- iTunes on Mac/PC —->—- ATV —->—- any TV with hdmi

Other options look like:
NAS running media server software —->—- SmartTV
or
NAS —->—- ATV running XBMC/plex —->—- any TV with hdmi

There’s other options too such as:
Mac Mini running Plex —->—- TV (I’m liking this one quite a lot)
or
Raspberry Pi running XBMC —->—- any TV with hdmi (going to try very soon)

Something like this then?

http://store.apple.com/uk/product/MD032B/A/time-capsule-2-tb?fnode=5f&fs=m.tsConnections%3Dethernet

Actually I forgot to ask….. what do you want to be able to do with the TV?

TV is for, well, telly! But I want to be able to use it to watch movies stored on a NAS, as well as iPlayer etc, controlled via an iPad. It’s not proving quite such a simple idea.

It’s not proving quite such a simple idea.

You’re not wrong there!
We have an old intel Mac Mini (2ghz core 2 duo to be exact) which I have recently connected to our old plasma using VGA (but could do hdmi also). It’s running plex media server/app and frankly it’s great. This system would do all you require. It can..
– be the network storage
– be low power
– be controlled by wireless keyboard/mouse or ipad (using Airmouse app)
– play movies
– play music (connected to surround sound or amp)
– do iPlayer
– do netflix, etc
– even be a computer!

If I were to have just one device, this would be it.

epicsteve; Do you have a ‘smart’ telly?

Yes – it’s one of the Samsung E8000’s.

And if so, is it easier/harder to use with an iPad than the Apple TV combo?

Not much in it I think. Most folks with a smart TV (or a smart Blu-Ray player) probably don’t need Apple TV.

Also considering a smart telly instead of an Apple TV combo.

Dies the Apple TV play any video format? Or only ‘Apple approved’ ones?

Just Apple approved ones. The TV and Blu-Ray support more formats.

Our Apple TV can stream from the NAS but, as someone else mentioned, only via one of our iTunes (not a major issue as one of our machines is always on).

The Samsung TV and Blu-Ray player can both stream direct from the NAS.

Actually…. after having a play a cheap solution would be to buy a Raspberry pi (about £30) and install the free RaspBMC OS on it.
Will stream video from a network drive or attached USB plus you can do airplay for video/music from the iPad/iPhone and install iPlayer/4OD/etc apps.
Seems to work very well, and can be controlled using the TV remote or app on iPad, etc.