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Do I really need an Apple TV?

J

jayes

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 11, 2011
176
2
We have three tvs in our house that are attached to
1. a Samsung blu ray player with wifi
2. a Sony blu ray player with wifi and
3. a Samsung blu ray with Roku box.
All three get Netflix streaming.

I'm looking for a reason to buy an Apple TV, but not sure one exists other than Airplay. We have iphones, ipads and Macs. I feel like I'm missing out on something without an Apple TV.

So if someone can come up with some compelling reasons, I'm heading to Costco to buy an Apple TV. :rolleyes:
 
Because of Netflix, Airplay it's just awesome!
Showing your pictures to friends and family on your tv.
I've got an AppleTV on every tv in my house no regrets so far..
 
Not sure what you need, but I use my AppleTV 2 a lot for these 3 reasons:

- Netflix. I have this on several devices now, but using the iPad as the remote with Airplay is the nicest option when browsing lots of content. I'm starting to use the PS4 a bit since that has 1080p streaming, but once I buy an AppleTV 3 (or 4..) there's no real reason to use that.

- Airplay. Great to have to view videos on a big screen or just wireless present.

- Music - one of the easiest options for playing my music is via AppleTV; again using the iPad as remote is far better than scrolling through a long list of songs/albums by tapping/holding a button. Either iTunes Match or Home Sharing.
 
whooleytoo said:
Not sure what you need, but I use my AppleTV 2 a lot for these 3 reasons:

- Netflix. I have this on several devices now, but using the iPad as the remote with Airplay is the nicest option when browsing lots of content. I'm starting to use the PS4 a bit since that has 1080p streaming, but once I buy an AppleTV 3 (or 4..) there's no real reason to use that.

- Airplay. Great to have to view videos on a big screen or just wireless present.

- Music - one of the easiest options for playing my music is via AppleTV; again using the iPad as remote is far better than scrolling through a long list of songs/albums by tapping/holding a button. Either iTunes Match or Home Sharing.
Click to expand...

Does netflix with aiplay use your phone to stream it to the box or does it connect to the in-the-Apple-TV-netflix service and stream it through there?
 
iPhone7ate9 said:
Does netflix with aiplay use your phone to stream it to the box or does it connect to the in-the-Apple-TV-netflix service and stream it through there?
Click to expand...

I'm not certain, would like to know that myself.

I do know that the video quality when using Netflix & Airplay used to be very poor (heavily compressed, and lower frame rate), but now it's indistinguishable from the native ATV app. I don't know if that's due to an app update or me updating to a better Wifi N router with 5GHz & MIMO.
 
jayes said:
We have three tvs in our house that are attached to
1. a Samsung blu ray player with wifi
2. a Sony blu ray player with wifi and
3. a Samsung blu ray with Roku box.
All three get Netflix streaming.

I'm looking for a reason to buy an Apple TV, but not sure one exists other than Airplay. We have iphones, ipads and Macs. I feel like I'm missing out on something without an Apple TV.

So if someone can come up with some compelling reasons, I'm heading to Costco to buy an Apple TV. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

I mostly use mine for Netflix, second to that I enjoy renting first run movies from iTunes. Beyond that I occassionally use some of the other content channels or stream content from my own iTunes library.

If you don't know why you need one, then you probably don't. Sounds like your current setup satisfies your needs. If you do decide to get one, buy it from the Apple refurb store on line. They sell as good as new for $75.
 
jayes said:
We have three tvs in our house that are attached to
1. a Samsung blu ray player with wifi
2. a Sony blu ray player with wifi and
3. a Samsung blu ray with Roku box.
All three get Netflix streaming.

I'm looking for a reason to buy an Apple TV, but not sure one exists other than Airplay. We have iphones, ipads and Macs. I feel like I'm missing out on something without an Apple TV.

So if someone can come up with some compelling reasons, I'm heading to Costco to buy an Apple TV. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
Airplay is the main reason to get an AppleTV.

Also, iTunes Match (if you use it), home sharing of your iTunes Library, iTunes movies, podcasts (convenient to start watching on AppleTV and pick up where you left off on an iPhone/iPad). In other words, the main features that distinguish it from others is the Apple ecosystem.
 
I definitely use the Home Sharing feature 60% of the time, Hulu Plus 20% and Netflix the remaining 20%.

I don't think anyone needs an AppleTV, it is definitely just a want item. It does make it nice being able to store all of my media on my home server and having access to that on my TV without having to touch any other devices.
 
I've got one AppleTV on the main TV in the house. These are my uses:

I mostly use it with home-sharing. I have a decent video library in my iTunes on my PC and we watch movies through that. Mainly I've digitized all our kids movies (and a few others) and they watch those. Music also works well like this.

AirPlay. Functions, vacations... all the pictures are easily view-able when the family is over. I've occasionally used it with the mac as well, but not as often as with the iPad or phones.

Content. Again, mostly the kids stuff (Disney Channel), but also ESPN and HBO GO. I find it much easier to get to the "on demand" content from the ATV than the cable providers system. iTunes festival was decent, and I'm looking forward to more content in the future.

iTunes Radio, and Movie rentals are also used, but not as often as the others.

It's a pretty cool little device. Not absolutely necessary, and could use some features like a web browser, or even non iTunes dependency for streaming my own content... but I'm happy with it.
 
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