So there are some rumors that Apple might release a new hardware update for Apple TV along with new iPads. What possible changes could they make? New design? A7 Processor? 802.11ac Wifi? I want to buy an Apple TV but not sure if I should wait until the October event.
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Possible New Apple TVs
- Thread starter gmbaker44
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Buy now and upgrade in October if necessary. You can never have too many Apple TV's in your home IMO. They are the best home entertainment systems around.
Airplay is huge nothing else compares to it. And Apple TV is connected to the world's largest store of digital content and has iCloud playback functionality. Incredible.
I love my Macbook pro, will never get an iPhone or iPod. I hate Itunes. I do have an apple tv,but I use the roku much more.
Each box has its own use. Roku would collect lots of dust in my household. AirPlay/HBO Go/Watch ESPN are the only reasons why the apple tv get a ton of use. WD TV live is everything else. As a college student siphoning parents cable tv subscription, Slingplayer for connected devices is awesome
Agreed.
I recently upgraded the telly, bought a samsung smart TV simply because it was the best value for money.
Samsung's smart hub has come VERY FAR, wow I'm actually impressed.
I've used my Apple TV once since getting this new TV and that was for airplay.
My sammy plays DLNA stream movies from my NAS box without the need for a hack. My ATV2 is a JB but still doesn't come close to the smart hub.
Time for Apple to step up, Airplay isn't enough to justify buying an ATV these days.
yeah I like the smart hub, I wonder if the APPLE TV will be as good as the samsung
Smart TVs are great, but few manufacturers will stay on top of updates. More often you're stuck with whatever it ships with. Far better to get a STB from a vendor that will maintain the software for a reasonable amount of time, then replace it when necessary.
I have a feeling we will see an app store for Apple TV sooner rather than later. Bluetooth game controllers were quietly advertised at WWDC but there has been no mention since. Nothing at the iPhone event and they must be getting held back for a reason. ATV supports Bluetooth and I suspect we will see game controller support for the ATV at some point. This would obviously point to games being available and judging by the quality of some of the iPad retina games, a game running at 1080p on ATV would be of a very high standard. Add in the game controller and you have a very capable games console with an already highly established developer base and games already available that could be converted for the ATV relatively quickly.
The talk of Amazon also releasing a set top box with third party apps means Apple need to do this to remain competitive in this area.
The talk of Amazon also releasing a set top box with third party apps means Apple need to do this to remain competitive in this area.
It's the actions that define someone as a troll, not the products they own. There are plenty of trolls on this forum who own Apple products.
If the Apple TV is a joke then I'm someone who finds utility in a joke that is so great that it's one of the top devices I own and use on a daily basis in my home and have for the past 6+ years, a device that is such a joke that it allowed me to cut the cable cord 6 years ago. There's a lot of laughing going on in my household, but it's directed at those cable company extortionists who haven't received one penny from me in all those years.
I'm not expecting an update to the AppleTV quite yet, but if they do, the one feature I want is an AppStore.
I have an Apple TV3. Here in the UK I can pretty much SFA with it. Airplay doesn't support 5.1 sound. The choice of channels in the UK is really poor. Netflix is the only one that I could imagine people wanting.
I did have an XBMC box alongside the AppleTV. I used that for playback of my media from my homeserver. When PlexConnect became available I was happy enough with it to get rid of the XBMC box. Since Apple forced a firmware change I haven't been able to get Plex working.
Yesterday my wife wanted to watch something while I was gaming in Bootcamp on my iMac. She couldn't access my iTunes library unless I booted back into OSX. Getting iTunes working on a windows server is just unbearable.
Today I ordered an ACER Revo which I will install OpenELEC on. Apple TV is getting sold. I have just had enough of it. Unless you buy your content from Apple it really isn't worth a damn.
I don't buy any video content from Apple because (a) the prices are too high and (b) the quality is too low.
I did have an XBMC box alongside the AppleTV. I used that for playback of my media from my homeserver. When PlexConnect became available I was happy enough with it to get rid of the XBMC box. Since Apple forced a firmware change I haven't been able to get Plex working.
Yesterday my wife wanted to watch something while I was gaming in Bootcamp on my iMac. She couldn't access my iTunes library unless I booted back into OSX. Getting iTunes working on a windows server is just unbearable.
Today I ordered an ACER Revo which I will install OpenELEC on. Apple TV is getting sold. I have just had enough of it. Unless you buy your content from Apple it really isn't worth a damn.
I don't buy any video content from Apple because (a) the prices are too high and (b) the quality is too low.
How come? All my movies play with DD5.1 sound. Or from which source do you want to get the surround sound?
How come? I use it daily to listen to my ripped CD-s and watch my ripped DVD/BD-s. Occasionally I use it as my 2nd screen for the laptop, if I'm to demo something.
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Anything I play with Airplay only gives me stereo.
It won't play any video from a network share. Any media has to be in iTunes. That means having to reencode the media I have. Also, the iTunes interface on the Apple TV3 sucks for large media collections. I have about 600 movies ripped on my home server along with loads of TV shows. As I mentioned earlier you also need to have your computer turned on to play stuff in the iTunes library.
Really? I love my Roku 3's . It does so much more than an Apple TV. BTW, I've had 2 Apple TV's so I'm not talking out my butt...
All the streaming tools out there have their good points and bad--I use my ATV the most but also use streaming on my blu ray and my earlier version of Roku--nothing wrong with Roku. Would be nice if one tool had all the apps necessary--but since two of the most popular (Amazon and iTunes) are in direct competition with each other, I don't see that happening anytime soon. But I have a lot of Apple infrastructure in my home and use iTunes (my music and video library, the store, Match, and Radio) as well as AirPlay for entertainment, so ATV is still my best bet.
I wonder what media and in what way do you play?
From below I reckon, your media lib has to be mkv? In that case, you need to try Beamer, which will stream AC3 directly and re-encode DTS into AC3 on the fly. AirPlay most def supports surround sound, but just in AC3/DD5.1 streams.
Netshare -True. iTunes - True.
I use Beamer (for non-m4v clips I don't care to convert and keep) or iTunes server to play from NAS share. I keep my server turned on anyway (WWW, VPN serving etc), so it's no additional load to serve media up from the same machine.
MKV and MP4 are quite on par features-wise, but I really prefer the rich metadata in MP4 that makes the media so much more accessible and organisable in iTunes (true, MKV has the same capabilities, but show me a good MKV-librarian?). And iTunes per se is a good handler of a large media library. I have 160GB worth of music, 1200GB movies and 90GB TV Shows. No problem to maintain this library. Navigating it on aTV screen is another story, but there are ways to get things organised (smart playlists, search function, filters like genre/unwatched etc).
Regarding need to reencode - this really depends. As long as your stuff is in HD, it is most prob also in AVC/H.264 already (except for occasional BD rips which have VC-1). Those don't need to be reencoded, just repackaged into MP4 container, which takes not more time than file copying.
For the rest (SD avi files, divx, xvid and other by now not relevant formats), there really are only 2 options: reencode or use Beamer (or the like).
Satellite rips in m2ts format are a PITA in itself, but Beamer can stream them as well.
I would buy one tomorrow if it was also a PVR. I think it'd be great if it could record off-air and also sync those shows to an iPad/iPhone.
Yes, most of it is in MKVs with multiple audio streams and subtitles. Great to have stuff ripped along with commentaries etc. I have tried Beamer but to be honest it is a clumsy option. It involves having to be in OSX to use. (So if I am gaming in Bootcamp someone else can't watch something). You also can't use it to browse your media from the sofa.
Both Plex and XBMC are fantastic ways to manage a large media collection. Using either of them will show just how poor the Apple TV is in comparison.
Using either you just point them at your media library and they will organise it for you. They will play anything you have without having to do anything. They will download cover art and fan art making everything look fantastic. You can browse everything from the sofa. Beamer does a job but having to go into another room to select what you want to watch really isn't ideal. And again it requires you to have another computer running OSX at the time.
As you say navigating large media collections on the Apple TV really isn't a satisfactory experience. I am not saying that the Apple TV isn't without any benefits at all. It is just so unsatisfactory compared to other options.
So would anyone get an Apple TV now? Bearing in mind I already can stream my photos, music and movies etc. from my iMac, iPhone and iPad, is it really worth waiting for a new one considering I can get a refurbished model on the Online Store for £75?
Very true, I've got a 2 year old Samsung D7000 and whilst updates were plentiful at first, they dried up after a year or so and I haven't seen one since February.