Apple TV……. tell me about it

For some reason I seem to think that Apple TV is a good idea. The thing is I don’t really know what it can do 😳
I’m sure it can do more in the US than the UK, so could someone explain why they’re good and the pro’s and cons of both versions please?

It can wirelessly stream content from your mac to your tv. So if you have a lot of content on your mac that your’d prefer to see on your tv it’s great, if not then it’s pointless.

I think that sums it up. 🙂

You can watch youtube videos through it and if you have a large selection of photos on flickr you can view them on your tv.

We have one and it seams to serve a number of purposes. You don’t need a mac by the way it works with a PC too.

The main bit is it streams anything you have on itunes (computer must be switched on) to your TV. Music, Movies, TV programmes etc. up to 720p High Def. It also streams your photos to the TV as well. The device it’s self can be used without the computer being on and allows you to rent 720p HD quality movies from the itunes store directly to your TV. they range from £2.99 to £5.49 ish dependant on age age and quality of the movie. You also have youtube, flickr and a few other services. Some of which require an additional subscription like a baseball channel for some reason.

I bought ours as a toy for myself but it now gets used instead of the DVD shop when the kids are ill or we want to watch a movie in an evening. It is aslo quite good for baffling friends when they come round

We’ve been loaned one by Apple for evaluation. Should be sorting it out tonight, so drop me a line if you want a summary. Ideally, I’d like to stream from a NAS in our house, rather than having to switch on one of the MacBooks, but I’ll let you know how we go.

It currently doesn’t play iplayer or C4OD

Shame about iplayer, but I guess I could stream that from my iPad.
Let us know how you get on BU, they’re pretty cheap so quite tempting. I was going to get an airport express for streaming music from my iPad/iPhone to our surround sound in the living room, but I think I can do this through ATV cant I?

I was going to get an airport express for streaming music from my iPad/iPhone to our surround sound in the living room, but I think I can do this through ATV cant I?

Yes. although there is a small difference in how they connect.

ATV = Optical out and HDMI
AE = Combined optical and analog output via 3.5mm jack.

We have one and it seams to serve a number of purposes. You don’t need a mac by the way it works with a PC too.

This isn’t as easy as it sounds though. Most PC protection software won’t allow it access to iTunes. I had to delete windows defender for mine to work. I think that you can hack them to allow them access to play anything from your PC (downloads etc)

Probably a dumb question,but…

can you stream films etc from an external hardrive via a macbook to the TV using appleTV???

We’ve been loaned one by Apple for evaluation. Should be sorting it out tonight, so drop me a line if you want a summary. Ideally, I’d like to stream from a NAS in our house, rather than having to switch on one of the MacBooks, but I’ll let you know how we go

Can’t see it looking at your NAS unless its jailbroken. in conventional form it will only look at what is in your itunes library through your computer.

but there are lots of NAS boxes (Netgear readyNAS for one) which have iTunes server software, so the ATV would be able to interact with that.

Dave

can you stream films etc from an external hardrive via a macbook to the TV using appleTV???

Yes.

My itunes library is stored on a external drive and i have streamed music and movies. There were some issues with connectivity when the atv first came out but after a couple of updates I’ve not had any issues for a few months.

but there are lots of NAS boxes (Netgear readyNAS for one) which have iTunes server software, so the ATV would be able to interact with that.

in that case… cool!

I use my XBox 360 and Vuze to stream from my Mac to the TV

Don’t forget Airplay. Stream music & videos from the browser and apps on you iPad to the TV. Much easier than navigating Youtube on the Apple TV itself, plus Vimeo and Pinkbike support it. Just waiting for the BBC iPlayer App to support it too.

You can also Jailbreak AppleTV’s, to run custom software and plugins (iplayer,4od, etc). Something I will be looking at buying/modding after summer, as it’s probably a lot better than the xbox I’m using with XBMC.

i reckon its exactly the same as an xbox with xbmc, at least when i jailbroke mine i used xbmc to play torrented stuff.

Ditto RS.

I run the Xbox with TVersity and will play just about anything, no restrictions on file formats, source or licensing. Can watch Sky TV, rent movies, and play games on it …

I do have an Apple TV but purely for music, so I can wirelessly stream music through to a surround sound system, and was the smallest form factor available (and was cheap enough). Didn’t have any issues setting up a home share with a Win7 machine running Norton. The remote is pure Apple class. I am sure they will extend the system further, but given its restricted to 720p without a hardware upgrade it is behind the Xbox and other sling systems.

The cheaper option is a simple HDMI > Port converter for your macbook with the apple remote.

but there are lots of NAS boxes (Netgear readyNAS for one) which have iTunes server software, so the ATV would be able to interact with that.

No – not the case. The iTunes server on NAS boxes allows iTunes software to see your NAS. AppleTV requires iTunes software to be running on a real Mac or PC.

It’s really annoying, and is the only thing stopping me from buying one.

I use my XBox 360 and Vuze to stream from my Mac to the TV

Aye, I use the playstation and a pc, with ps3 media server.. but same concept! ps3 defo worth the investment rather than appletv if you are looking for a steaming/games machine/blueray player/interweb tv browser…

I can even get the hooky streams from project free tv to work on it(well mostly.)

How do you go about jailbreaking it to play the iplayer?

I gave my mum one for christmas and i think it has been used once to watch a couple of videos on youtube and it hasnt been used since/ If however i could get the iplayer to work on it then it might serve some purpose other than another box to collect dust at the tv!

I have a Mac mini connected via HDMI straight into the TV and running a media server app called Plex[/url]. It’s also connected to a large external drive which stores music/films/tv/photos etc. Plex provides a nice front end to all of that and also has plugins to iTunes, iPhoto, etc as well as iPlayer, 4OD.

Once I get my study back the mini will go in there and I’ll buy one of the new (little) ATVs to connect to the TV, plex can be installed on that (think it needs to be jailbroken) and it’ll stream everything via the mini. You can have multiple ATVs around the house if you want, all accessing media from the one system.

IMO plex provides a much nicer and easier to use interface than frontrow, iTunes, etc. My missus can work it no bother so it must be easy!

HungryHungryHippo – Member
No – not the case. The iTunes server on NAS boxes allows iTunes software to see your NAS. AppleTV requires iTunes software to be running on a real Mac or PC.

it would appear you are correct… arse
http://www.readynas.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=9770

Dave

Just an update on this. Currently sat watching the F1 second practice on iPlayer via my Apple TV 🙂

Jail broke the ATV with Seas0npass which was pretty simple (and reversible) and installed XBMC and the iPlayer add-on.
Slick, pretty slick. I paid £69 for the ATV and it’s money well spent now.

Sharkbait. I’m not familiar with jail breaking the appleTV. What functionaility do you add and do you lose anything?

I tried streaming from my iMac to my TV via xbox, but it wouldn’t play content DL’d from iTunes – is there a way around this? Or is Apple TV the only option?

No you don’t lose any functionality at all and by jail breaking you just add the ability to add extra add-ons such as XBMC (X Box Media Centre).
XBMC allows you to access media on a NAS and install things like iPlayer.

The new AppleTV is HDMI/optical only and the old one has component/composite out, isn’t that rihgt?

i reckon its exactly the same as an xbox with xbmc, at least when i jailbroke mine i used xbmc to play torrented stuff

I bought an xbox with the intention of installing XBMC but it was too complicated for me, no matter how many Gizmodo guides I read.

The new AppleTV is HDMI/optical only and the old one has component/composite out, isn’t that rihgt?

Yep, thats right. V1 also had a hard drive and was powered by a version of OSX while V2 has no hard drive and is powered by a version of iOS (and uses almost no power whatsoever!)

As a further update I have just installed the IceFilms addon and checked it by streaming the first 5 mins of The A Team. This little box is now seriously impressive 🙂

Um, we returned ours early. 🙁
Unless you are willing to jailbreak (I am, but Mrs Udder is not so keen on me tinkering with kit on eval) then it’s a little pointless. We have a couple of Macbooks, and need to have one of those awake in order to stream anything. As we already have iPlayer via our Virgin Media STB, there’s little incentive to spend a couple of hours jailbreaking. The older versions had a built-in HD, which would probably suit our needs better. I’m thinking there are likely to be a bunch of STBs coming out at some point soonish that support Project Canvas (open API catch-up TV) and have HDs for you to store your music, films and pics on, as well as good hooks to attach to a NAS. Might go for one of those. the ATV doesn’t really do what I want it to out of the box.

No I admit out of the box it’s not stunning unless you want to rent stuff off Apple – which I don’t.
The jailbreak literally takes 10 mins (most of that time is downloading the latest firmware from Apple) and involves 3 mouse click. If you don’t like the jailbreak you just plug it into iTunes and click on restore and it’s put back to factory settings.
Although it’s not for you BU, for those that don’t know, once jailbroken you can install XBMC and play files off local NAS, watch iPlayer and stream from many sites.
I agree that there might be some new stuff out next year (especially listening to Alan Sugar the other day) and I think that’s a great thing. The Apple TV may not be required then but for now it ticks a number of boxes, especially as iOS5 will allow us to mirror everything from our ipad to the ATV.