Apple Updates Apple TV with Up Next and Bluetooth Keyboard, New 'AppleTV3,2' Model Revealed

[Zaqfalcon]

Originally Posted by Zaqfalcon

Can someone please tell me what the point of iTunes in the Cloud (or Match) on an Apple TV is? You can already stream your music to your Apple TV over wifi direct from your computer without having to waste your network download gigabytes. It's not like you can use an Apple TV without a computer and there must be very few people who don't download the music they've purchased onto their computer. Don't get it.

Originally Posted by markm49uk

My parents have just an ipad and an Apple TV - no computer. This way they can just stream music and videos they have purchased from iTunes on the Apple TV - works great and easy to use too.

Interesting; I wasn't aware that you didn't need a computer. Elegant but not having a means of backing stuff up is still too risky a strategy for me.

Originally Posted by adam9c1

I have a scenario:
your library is on your home computer
you are away from home (conference, work, friends house) and want to listen to your content

I see this would be big in schools as an example.

Take your Apple TV with you elsewhere you mean? Yes I suupose but you can also do this by plugging an iPad into a TV with HDMI cable.


These scenarios don't explain the point of iTunes in the Cloud or Match in, what I imagine are, the majority of use cases ie having an Apple TV plugged into your home TV and you own a computer (that's turned on @mrzippy) with your content on it. Not criticising, just seems like a lot of effort on Apple's part to go to with little, if any, advantage, in fact it will cost you in network download. Feel like I'm missing something here, maybe there is something else coming for which this is needed.

[phd]

Originally Posted by Aeolius

"AirPlay audio for videos: Send stereo audio from movies, TV shows, and other videos on Apple TV to AirPlay-enabled speakers and devices (including AirPort Express and other Apple TVs)."

Now Apple needs to isolate center channel and rear channel signals, so one could use Airplay speakers as surround sound speakers.

I've been waiting for the same thing. That would be great. I have airplay enabled speakers all over the place and if I could get the movie sound out everything would be perfect.

[jnpy!$4g3cwk]

Originally Posted by green94

Needs MORE Apps!

What I think it needs is to be bigger and heavier. It is so small that a hanging HDMI cable can drag it off its perch.

[nebo1ss]

Originally Posted by BigDukeSix

Absolutely correct. If the media companies would be willing to work out some deals, I am sure Apple would be all over it.

Sorry, don't buy that argument. Itunes pull media from a NAS without Apple or the Media companies having a hissy fit. The fact that the Apple tv will not pull media from the NAS is purely a marketing decision by Apple. Some of the NAS manufacturers are now introducing airplay which makes it possible but you still have to kick it off with a PC or Idevice.

[bohbot16]

Originally Posted by Zaqfalcon

Interesting; I wasn't aware that you didn't need a computer. Elegant but not having a means of backing stuff up is still too risky a strategy for me.

These scenarios don't explain the point of iTunes in the Cloud or Match in, what I imagine are, the majority of use cases ie having an Apple TV plugged into your home TV and you own a computer (that's turned on @mrzippy) with your content on it. Not criticising, just seems like a lot of effort on Apple's part to go to with little, if any, advantage, in fact it will cost you in network download. Feel like I'm missing something here, maybe there is something else coming for which this is needed.

Apple needs to be able to sell the AppleTV as an iPhone/iPad companion, since its a bigger market that the Mac. Relying on a laptop to serve up a library is problematic as they tend to get the lid closed when someone decides to change rooms and doesn't realize that another family member is streaming content from it.

[nebo1ss]

Originally Posted by MrBudgie

No dice I'm afraid, I have a synology nas and ATV2 - the iTunes server on the nas only serves to iTunes on a computer. Jailbreak and install xbmc; quadruples the value of the ATV2 hands down.

Agreed Itunes server on the NAS is not much use. Better solution for Synology which I am using very successfully is run Plex server on the Nas. My TV's are Samsung Smart TV which runs the Plex client and connects directly to the NAS. No need for computer or apple TV.

To get media to IOS clients Synology have IOS apps DS Audio and DS Video which again connect directly to their own App on the NAS. You can also airplay from any of these two apps to the apple TV.

The initial set up is a pain because scanning the metadata on the NAS is slow process depending on which model you have. This should ideally be run overnight

[Jamie0003]

Originally Posted by blueroom

Has the battery life improved?

More importantly, is Safari snappier?

[ethana]

How long is this update supposed to freaking take? Mines been stuck for 30 minutes it seems.

[ToddJ]

Wasn't "Up Next" already on the Apple TV after the update?

[thleeal]

[QUOTE=tekstud;16742720]But that would cut into Mac mini sales and Mountain Lion Mac sales- ain't never gone to happen. I've been asking for the same for years.[COLOR="#808080"]

interesting.
but do you think people buy a machine as powerful as a mac mini just to browse the net?

surly a ipad would be more cost effective?
it seems a stretch 500£ on something to browse the net.

i guess we will just have to implore all the jailbreakers out there to help us out.

thank you for your comments.

[sexiewasd]

So, still no Samba eh? It kind of sucks having to use my Macbook air as an intermediate just to get content onto my TV. My network consists of four Windows 7 towers, a WD Live, a PS3, a XBox 360, a Nexus 7, Two iPods, the Macbook, and the Apple TV. Only one of these things can't stream content via Samba.

[rdinterman]

Like many others, my ATV3 froze after 90 minutes. Restored from iTunes in about 10 minutes. What a pain.

[2crazy]

Originally Posted by bassanoclapper

I have 2, living room and bedroom

I am using 3 in my house. Very useful! I like starting to watch a movie in the living room and then continue in the bedroom later that night. The 3rd one I have in my basement connected to a 24" I am using while being on the treadmill.

I realize there are a lot of shortcomings especially when you compare ATV to a box with XBMC. I am running a storage server on Fedora and mounted the storage using AFP on a mac mini server. I also automated the conversion process for videos using iFlicks. It's a bit of an insane setup, but I really wanted to get rid of my old noisy XBMC PC and use ATV because it works perfectly with other Apple devices.

The only thing that bothers me is that TV shows are grouped together by seasons and not by shows. But I can live with that. One thing I really appreciate the ATV buffers until the cache is full. Especially being on a wireless network this ensures smooth playback. Once my entire network died on me and I didn't notice before I was done watching the movie.

[RyanR.]

This is wonderful for my living room! NOW BRING BACK FRONTROW!!!! I have a beautiful 27" iMac in my bedroom that I use for Gaming, College Work, and small business. The reason I went with the 27 is so I could watch movies after I finish all of the above.

[cuestakid]

I want to just say that my logitech ipad keyboard paired just fine-so the bluetooth capability is not limited to the apple keyboard

[tekstud]

Originally Posted by RyanR.

This is wonderful for my living room! NOW BRING BACK FRONTROW!!!! I have a beautiful 27" iMac in my bedroom that I use for Gaming, College Work, and small business. The reason I went with the 27 is so I could watch movies after I finish all of the above.

Apple giveth and Apple taketh away.
Buy an ATV for your bedroom says Apple.

[ugahairydawgs]

My ATV seems to have hung up ~3/4 of the way through step 1 of 2 of the update. Says to not unplug, but this thing doesn't seem to be going anywhere. Any suggestions?

[KiwiAdventure]

Cannot get Bluetooth apple key board to work. Apple TV says "Not Paired"

[lk400]

Originally Posted by x13gamer

Do most people have more than one icloud account in their home? If everyone in your house has their own then what? How about some support for those who do. It goes back to the multiple apple ID issue that will not be fixed anytime soon.

This is a major issue for my family. We have several itunes accounts in our household, only 1 with itunes match. We switch between them regularly. Every time we switch out of the 1 with itunes match, we lose the match data, and if we want to stream music from the cloud, we have to enable it again (which takes quite a bit of time). Ive taken to just using ipad/iphone through airplay to stream which is quite easy, but it would be nice to have a single login for music/ itunes match which is seperate from the main itunes store account.

----------

Originally Posted by gmanist1000

The bluetooth keyboard support is sweet, I need to pick up that new Logitech Easy Switch Keyboard now.... that would be a perfect match!

Except that it costs more than the Apple TV itself.

[Iamthinking]

Originally Posted by SteveLV702

Anyone else have this issue? my 3rd gen AppleTV has been at the "Step 1 of 2: Preparing update..." for over 2 hours now...

Yes. Hope my atv doesn't end up bricked as a result of this update. Kinda takes me back to m$ windows 98..... Good times.

[a0me]

Originally Posted by MacBoobsPro

It would be better if they just put a freakin hardrive back in. Stupid move taking out.

I'm one of those that want NAS or external drive support.
It makes perfect sense separating the media receiver (Apple TV) and the storage. It allows consumers to get new functionality for cheap (under $100) and only buy a new storage device when their current one is out of space.

[throAU]

Originally Posted by MacBoobsPro

It would be better if they just put a freakin hardrive back in. Stupid move taking out.

Yes and no. I'd rather store my stuff on a box with fault tolerant RAID in another room, than some small form factor box that is intended to be silent.

[AndyElliott]

Originally Posted by sno1man

well I had success after taking drastic measures. Mine was stuck at about 2/3rds of the way on "step 1 of 2 preparing update"

1. I pulled the plug, crossed my fingers, counted to ten and plugged it back in. The unit came right back up but of course was still not updated.

2. Selected the update software again and it went really quickly at first then stalled again at the 2/3rds point on step 1 of 2

3. Tried the other ATV in the house and it updated without issues and in about 6 minutes total time.

4. Compared what was different between the two the one that was failing was the setting on "Sleep After". The one that was failing was set to "Never". The one that worked was set to "5 hours"

5. Set the failing unit to the 5 hour setting and tried again and it worked without a hitch...

Why that would make a difference is beyond me, but regardless it's working now and hopefully this info might help someone else.

Thanks!!!

[emaja]

Originally Posted by sno1man

well I had success after taking drastic measures. Mine was stuck at about 2/3rds of the way on "step 1 of 2 preparing update"

1. I pulled the plug, crossed my fingers, counted to ten and plugged it back in. The unit came right back up but of course was still not updated.

2. Selected the update software again and it went really quickly at first then stalled again at the 2/3rds point on step 1 of 2

3. Tried the other ATV in the house and it updated without issues and in about 6 minutes total time.

4. Compared what was different between the two the one that was failing was the setting on "Sleep After". The one that was failing was set to "Never". The one that worked was set to "5 hours"

5. Set the failing unit to the 5 hour setting and tried again and it worked without a hitch...

Why that would make a difference is beyond me, but regardless it's working now and hopefully this info might help someone else.

ATV2, wired and was having the same problem. Made these changes and - BAM! - it worked.

Thanks!

[shurcooL]

- iTunes in the Cloud: Browse and play your purchased iTunes music directly from iCloud.

Thank you for that! Now things make more sense.