Apple TV update kills ability to view Apple content...

[Spinnetti]

The Mrs. wanted to watch some dumb movie on itunes
> Fired up the tv, and apple TV (gen2) said it wanted to update, so we said ok and waited the 10 minutes to update and reboot. (#1 waste of time - should do updates in the background)

> Everything worked EXCEPT, I could not pick any movie content or menus. Spent 30 min trying to reboot and get it to work (#2 waste of time).

> Gets better. Bought the movie on the iPad, then tried to use airplay... had to dig for settings to get it to work at all, and when we did, it only streamed audio and back and forth, either mirrored to the tv, but video only for .1 sec at a time or just audio only, or it said "protected content not allowed to be mirrored" WTF?

So after 40min of frustration, me and the wife are sitting in our Theater room with a dark 65" plasma while we watch some stupid movie on the ipad.......

Apple: It just don't work. I had the same issue before trying to mirror my imac video to my TV.

They make it such a hassle to watch the stuff you buy from them, that its just easier to "download it" and skip the whole applesphere and use airparrot or similar to stream it if I need to. I've got a house full of Apple products, but they do drive me nuts, and the bugs are getting more frequent with each release. They should stop delivering new, and focus on improving integration and bug fixes.

[mic j]

Originally Posted by Spinnetti

The Mrs. wanted to watch some dumb movie on itunes
> Fired up the tv, and apple TV (gen2) said it wanted to update, so we said ok and waited the 10 minutes to update and reboot. (#1 waste of time - should do updates in the background)

> Everything worked EXCEPT, I could not pick any movie content or menus. Spent 30 min trying to reboot and get it to work (#2 waste of time).

> Gets better. Bought the movie on the iPad, then tried to use airplay... had to dig for settings to get it to work at all, and when we did, it only streamed audio and back and forth, either mirrored to the tv, but video only for .1 sec at a time or just audio only, or it said "protected content not allowed to be mirrored" WTF?

So after 40min of frustration, me and the wife are sitting in our Theater room with a dark 65" plasma while we watch some stupid movie on the ipad.......

Apple: It just don't work. I had the same issue before trying to mirror my imac video to my TV.

They make it such a hassle to watch the stuff you buy from them, that its just easier to "download it" and skip the whole applesphere and use airparrot or similar to stream it if I need to. I've got a house full of Apple products, but they do drive me nuts, and the bugs are getting more frequent with each release. They should stop delivering new, and focus on improving integration and bug fixes.

Airparrot as an alternative to Airplay...your frustration is fogging your reason.

[kokako]

They make it such a hassle to watch the stuff you buy from them, that its just easier to "download it" and skip the whole applesphere and use airparrot or similar to stream it if I need to. I've got a house full of Apple products, but they do drive me nuts, and the bugs are getting more frequent with each release. They should stop delivering new, and focus on improving integration and bug fixes.


Works for me

[GarrettL1979]

I gotta say... i'm very hesitant to install updates on my ATV these days. There are always issues.

[MFL2012]

After an update, always unplug your ATV, wait 30 seconds or so and plug it back in. It's ridiculous but it works more often than not. Restarting doesn't seem to do much.

[paulrbeers]

I upgraded 4 this weekend with no issues. I recommend you pull the power cord, let it set for awhile (30 seconds) and plug it back in. Always solves any problems I've ever had with an AppleTV.

[Blue Fox]

Updated mine. Have none of the issues mentioned here. Haven't really ever had an issue when updating both of my Apple TV's (ATV 2 and 3).

[Spinnetti]

I reset the atv, reapplied the updates then did the unplug/plug dance and its working again... rest of the problems still stand....

[NMF]

Originally Posted by Spinnetti

I reset the atv, reapplied the updates then did the unplug/plug dance and its working again... rest of the problems still stand....

I made a thread about this earlier. The bottom line is that you either have to rent the movie you want to watch on the device you want to watch it on, or rent it from a computer using iTunes. If you rent using iTunes (PC or Mac) you download the video file and can then either stream to the Apple TV using home sharing, or simply copy the file to a different device (one at a time). If you rent something directly from an iPad you can only watch it on the iPad, but if you rent from a computer you can copy it to the iPad, then copy it back to the computer later on. I couldn't believe it either.

The good news is that from now on I know to either rent from the computer or the Apple TV itself. I prefer to just rent on the Apple TV so I can simply stream the content and skip the download step altogether. It's stupid that I need to remember to use the correct device when renting a movie, but at least now I know.

[Spinnetti]

Originally Posted by NMF

I made a thread about this earlier. The bottom line is that you either have to rent the movie you want to watch on the device you want to watch it on, or rent it from a computer using iTunes. If you rent using iTunes (PC or Mac) you download the video file and can then either stream to the Apple TV using home sharing, or simply copy the file to a different device (one at a time). If you rent something directly from an iPad you can only watch it on the iPad, but if you rent from a computer you can copy it to the iPad, then copy it back to the computer later on. I couldn't believe it either.

The good news is that from now on I know to either rent from the computer or the Apple TV itself. I prefer to just rent on the Apple TV so I can simply stream the content and skip the download step altogether. It's stupid that I need to remember to use the correct device when renting a movie, but at least now I know.

This all started because I had an itunes credit and couldn't figure out how to redeem it on my atv, so did on my computer, then couldn't stream it..... Apple makes great stuff, but they need to think a lot more deeply about how to manage all their devices in one home with itunes, multiple macs, phones and pads... its a mess now, with data duplicated all over, or if you put it in one place over wireless, its slow to access.