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New Apple TV Has A5X Chip and Single WLAN + Bluetooth Antenna

J

jdag

macrumors 6502a
Jun 15, 2012
837
213
JohnDoe98 said:
People keep saying this, but with Airplay mirroring why would you need Apps on your ATV? Your iPhone, iPad, and OS X apps will display just fine on your TV provided you have a good network setup. What we need is simply better Wifi, with lower latency. Perhaps 802.11 ac would be all that's missing.
Click to expand...

Mirroring is a decent consolation, but having native apps would allow for a much better user experience. It would be a definitive step up.
 
3

3282868

macrumors 603
Jan 8, 2009
5,281
0
jdag said:
Mirroring is a decent consolation, but having native apps would allow for a much better user experience. It would be a definitive step up.
Click to expand...

Agree. My Samsung 88XX 3D LED with Smarthub has some great apps such as Plex, which actually works well with my media server. If it only had a more powerful CPU/GPU to act as a media device, could toss my Mac Mini HTPC.
 
Jetson

Jetson

macrumors 6502a
Oct 5, 2003
596
50
OrangeSVTguy said:
What does the ATV need that much horsepower for? Not like a BT keyboard and netflix needs that much oomph to operate smoothly. Now if Apple will just put the AppStore on the darn thing already would be awesome like VLC streamer? It's nice that I can throw my movies from my Mac to my ATV with VLC streamer through my iPhone/iPad but would like to do it from the ATV itself.
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mo' horsepower = mo' bettuh!
 
AidenShaw

AidenShaw

macrumors P6
Feb 8, 2003
18,667
4,676
The Peninsula
Taz Mangus

Taz Mangus

macrumors 604
Mar 10, 2011
7,815
3,504
HobeSoundDarryl said:
I believe that was in referenced to A5 dual core rejects (only 1 core functional) so they were allocated to :apple:TV.

I wonder if this will be the A5X rejects with only one functional core too. And if so, is there any tangible gain here (if you get an A5X that has extra cores shut down or non-functional, is there more available horses than an A5)?
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What you gain is the integrated GPU which I suspect is faster then the GPU in the current Apple TV. Wonder how many cores of the GPU in the A5X will be active.
 
BigDukeSix

BigDukeSix

macrumors 6502a
Sep 22, 2010
718
1
34.6700N 118.1590W
HobeSoundDarryl said:
Good for you. You are really maximizing the "cut the cable" effort. However, if we all did that, the broadband providers through which so much of what you are doing depends and who also happen to like their cable TV business revenue "as is" will make up the mass exodus losses by raising the broadband rates. They'll just wrap it up in the tiers movement for "heavier users" and we'll find ourselves saving huge money over what cable used to cost but paying the difference plus 10% or 20% in much higher broadband rates.

It only works now because not that many people have made the move. When there's enough pain in the cable company (broadband tollmaster) revenue slip, they'll flex their local monopolies on broadband service and make up the losses. And then everything that has cost-savings benefit because of an Internet connection will have the savings mitigated by a much more expensive toll for that Internet.
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Good point, I do agree. But, I am pretty sure there will always be enough folks that 'have' to have cable that the companies won't feel the impact of us that have bailed out.
 
C

chiefsilverback

macrumors 6502
Jul 25, 2011
458
438
BigDukeSix said:
Good point, I do agree. But, I am pretty sure there will always be enough folks that 'have' to have cable that the companies won't feel the impact of us that have bailed out.
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Not if the revolutionary Apple TV offering hits the market and drives AAPL over the $1000 mark! Again look at cellular providers, all was good until the iPhone then everything changed. If Apple can do the same with TV then the data carriers will need to adjust ASAP.
 
J

jpadhiyar

macrumors regular
Oct 15, 2012
165
23
Ahmedabad, India
I would rather assume that the iPad Mini 2 would have a far better processor than what's “speculated.” iPad Mini 2 needs to, in Apple's terms, leapfrog if it needs to speed up to other iOS devices' standards.
 
L

lukasz74nj

macrumors member
Oct 19, 2012
35
1
What about DLNA support?

I wonder if the new Apple TV will finally support DLNA for streaming or they will continue "want fries with that [iTunes]?" policy?:D
 
B

brsboarder

macrumors 6502a
Feb 16, 2004
763
15
unless its possible to jailbreak, its useless. My apple tv 2, connected to a router and an external hard drive is perfect. Now all I need is 1080p and increased processing power so I don't get lag/buffer issues and I'll be a happy camper
 
M

macsrcool1234

Suspended
Oct 7, 2010
1,551
2,130
AgentElliot007 said:
I know you're not out and out bashing the Apple TV like some do, so don't take most of this as me arguing with you. It's more a story of my experience and early frustrations that eventually faded away as I gave in to simplicity and convenience.

But first of all, I loved the idea of DLNA until I actually used it in other products. Then I hated it. I found it to be slow and rough to navigate with larger libraries and I ended up having plenty of file format issues with videos that supposedly were compatible. I wasn't excited about trying Apple TV and did it mostly on a whim shortly after the ATV2 came out. I figured that it might work better at least for music and the AirPlay functionality looked interesting. I ended up loving it and now I have three ATV3's and they're all I use for media consumption outside of watching hockey and baseball games on cable.

Sure, I have to make sure all of my video media is .mp4 iTunes friendly now, but that's just so easy with apps like iVI for Mac and/or Handbrake on Mac or Windows. iVI is especially great on a Mac as it converts and adds tags and cover art and directly adds it to iTunes. You can also set it to watch folders. But you know what's best about this setup? It always works and it's fast.

Could the Apple TV experience improve? Certainly, and I have no doubt that it will continue to. But I've been around the block and some with the home theater world and Blu-Ray and other media boxes and PS3s and X-Boxes and they're all such a pain in the ass to use compared to how I use the Apple TV at this point. I think sometimes, limits are good. All those apps I thought I wanted, I found I never used them. For streaming, I use Netflix 90% of the time and Hulu Plus for maybe 10%. I could still use DLNA and countless other apps on some of my other boxes that are collecting dust (though many have been retired to a closet), but honestly, the idea sounds painful at this point.

And to add some context, this is all coming from someone who used to build HTPCs, ran many media servers, used to run and (still know how to...) set up CRT projectors with high-end 9" CRTs before transitioning to digital projection, bought a Sony BDP-S1 to have Blu-Ray immediately, had DVD very early on, nerded out over DTS laserdiscs, used to care about having a vertical center speaker to avoid wave interference and imaging issues and even debated about getting a perforated screen so I could put a vertical center channel behind it like a real movie theater...and on and on and on and on. I used to want it all and tried to have it all. It was endlessly frustrating. As I said, I bought the Apple TV originally expecting very little out of it and a couple years later, it's all I use, and I spend a lot more time actually viewing content now too. Sure, Blu-Ray looks and sounds a bit better, but more often than not, the difference is minimal with ATV3 and the convenience and simplicity of ATV3 more than makes up for it.
Click to expand...


This was a very well written post and I agree but I guess my main point I was getting out was it really needs alternative ways of playing media. I think creating an SDK and opening an App Store would honestly put it at the top of HTPC devices.
 
MrXiro

MrXiro

macrumors 68040
Nov 2, 2007
3,850
599
Los Angeles
I've had a 3rd gen Retina iPad. Sold it to my sister last week.

I now have a iPad Mini, I was going to upgrade to the rMini but no A6 is a no buy for me. I'd rather see a Mini with better battery life and faster overall speed than same speed with Retina. It wasn't a huge deal for me to have Retina as the only time I REALLY noticed it was playing retina enabled iPhone games blown up to the iPad screen. It's otherwise not a big jump for me...

I would like more RAM in the next iPad though. I like not having pages and apps reload when I go to do 1 other task.
 
Populus

Populus

macrumors 601
Aug 24, 2012
4,609
6,649
Spain, Europe
ghost187 said:
I don't see the iPad Mini going from A5 to A5X. I think it was stupid that they put the A5 instead of the A6 to begin with. It will be upgraded to A6 at the very least especially with the retina display, maybe even A7. While the Big iPad will remain superior with an A7X chip.
Click to expand...

I don't think so.

First of all, you have to realise the fact that the next iPad mini with retina display will have the same display resolution as the big iPad. And then, you'll see that an iPad mini with retina display will need exactly the same graphic capabilities as the big iPad.

And because of that, the heart of an hypothetical iPad mini with retina display necessarily has to be an A_X chip. Probably an A5X, although i'd prefer an A6X chip.

Regards,

PD: and hello to the guys at GSM :)
 
A

Apollo 13

macrumors 6502a
May 29, 2010
679
16
kokako said:
Apple doesn't need to add anything, the new AppleTV4 will have a built in App Store you'll add those Crackle apps etc, at the moment you can Airplay crackle etc from your mac.
I'm in the UK and don't have HULU and only the UK version of Netflix on AppleTV3 but on my mac I can access the Canadian and US version of Netflix (one account does all) and HULUplus and stream these with Airplay it's flawless and HD.
And blueooth keyboard compatibility as of last nights update is handy, I had no idea ATV3 even had bluetooth.
Click to expand...

dude not everyone owns a Mac OK. As of right now I see the Apple TV as useless and is collecting dust on my TV stand cuz all I can do is watch Netflix. I kind of regret purchasing it and should had went with a Roku box. I thought I was going to be able to cut the cord when I got the Apple TV but can't since I get limited stuff and NBA TV doesn't work correctly. Also not everyone wants to take out their phone or ipad and do airplay. My TV gets used by other ppl besides me...you know kids, wife, friends, ect. People that don't own Apple devices to use airplay. The past AppleTVs can have an app store also so it shouldn't be just for the Apple TV 4, which probably won't get an app store since this has been said about all the Apple TVs before their release date.
 
3

3282868

macrumors 603
Jan 8, 2009
5,281
0
John.B said:
The only thing preventing me from pulling the trigger on a Synology is their refusal to support HPFS+ via the USB port.
Click to expand...

Hmm, I'm using 4.2 beta and have an external HDD connected via USB formatted in HFS+ and it's reading it. I'll check further on the beta site. Thanks for the input.


Have to say, Synology is the only NAS that was and is fully supported with Apple's ventures into new SAMBA and AFP protocols. The soon to be released 4.2 OS is so much faster, copying 10-20 GB file takes ~15 minutes from my Mac Pro over my WLAN.
 
N

nickosbad

macrumors regular
Feb 16, 2009
188
43
So by upgrading to A5X does this mean that the ATV will be able to handle profile 4.1 video and play my BR rips without the need to trans code

Before anyone chirps in with the ATV3 already does that.......try feeding it 25mbps+ content and it struggles as the existing chip could only reliably deal with profile 4.0
 
chrmjenkins

chrmjenkins

macrumors 603
Oct 29, 2007
5,325
158
MD
nickosbad said:
So by upgrading to A5X does this mean that the ATV will be able to handle profile 4.1 video and play my BR rips without the need to trans code

Before anyone chirps in with the ATV3 already does that.......try feeding it 25mbps+ content and it struggles as the existing chip could only reliably deal with profile 4.0
Click to expand...

The extra GPU cores in the A5X are likely laser disabled, so no.
 
F

flux73

macrumors 65816
May 29, 2009
1,019
134
Apollo 13 said:
dude not everyone owns a Mac OK. As of right now I see the Apple TV as useless and is collecting dust on my TV stand cuz all I can do is watch Netflix. I kind of regret purchasing it and should had went with a Roku box. I thought I was going to be able to cut the cord when I got the Apple TV but can't since I get limited stuff and NBA TV doesn't work correctly. Also not everyone wants to take out their phone or ipad and do airplay. My TV gets used by other ppl besides me...you know kids, wife, friends, ect. People that don't own Apple devices to use airplay. The past AppleTVs can have an app store also so it shouldn't be just for the Apple TV 4, which probably won't get an app store since this has been said about all the Apple TVs before their release date.
Click to expand...
I'm using NBA League Pass and it works fine for me.

If you have other iOS devices and don't want to use Airplay, you can't really blame that on Apple. AppleTV is worth it JUST for Airplay alone. I listen/watch Podcasts, watch Amazon Prime videos, stream Plex, and listen to all my music through Airplay.
 
2

2IS

macrumors 68030
Jan 9, 2011
2,938
433
To all of you who criticize apple for incremental updates... What do you have to say for yourself now?

/sarcasm
 
A

Apollo 13

macrumors 6502a
May 29, 2010
679
16
flux73 said:
I'm using NBA League Pass and it works fine for me.

If you have other iOS devices and don't want to use Airplay, you can't really blame that on Apple. AppleTV is worth it JUST for Airplay alone. I listen/watch Podcasts, watch Amazon Prime videos, stream Plex, and listen to all my music through Airplay.
Click to expand...

airplay doesn't work for Amazon Prime. I'm saying my family and friends can't use airplay because they don't have ios devices when i'm not around.
 
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