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orestes1984

macrumors 65816
Jun 10, 2005
1,000
4
Australia
When will Apple add AC Wifi, it's been well over a year and still has not been added to Apple TV:rolleyes:

It can't be magically added if the chispet doesn't support it. You will have to wait for the next Apple TV. It will come when Apple deems it necessary to stream 4K over wifi and not until. There's no point for it yet with 2K movies not exceeding the bandwidth limitations of 802.11N.
 

KiwiAdventure

Suspended
Original poster
Dec 7, 2010
607
304
New Zealand
It can't be magically added if the chispet doesn't support it. You will have to wait for the next Apple TV. It will come when Apple deems it necessary to stream 4K over wifi and not until. There's no point for it yet with 2K movies not exceeding the bandwidth limitations of 802.11N.

You could say the same for my 2013 Macbook Air or all new Mac products, iPad air 2, iPhone 6 they all have AC.
 

mic j

macrumors 68030
Mar 15, 2012
2,663
156
ac will do virtually nothing for the current aTV format. It's really for massive file transfer and the aTV only uses a small fraction of the file to start playing. Also, you have to be really close to the router for ac to be effective in that the speed transfer rapidly drops off with distance, more than n and a lot more than g.

The only place I can see having ac in an aTV being useful is if the unit had a built in HDD (or live USB port) for movie (file storage). You might then get some benefit from ac when moving large movie files to the unit.

But you are not going to see an aTV with built-in storage and probably no live USB port. For these capabilities you are talking a mini which has ac capability.
 

orestes1984

macrumors 65816
Jun 10, 2005
1,000
4
Australia
ac will do virtually nothing for the current aTV format. It's really for massive file transfer and the aTV only uses a small fraction of the file to start playing.

There are times where even with 1080p files and a wireless N network that an Apple TV will take a ridiculous amount of time to prebuffer. If Apple went 4K they would most certainly need something faster than Wireless N, or people would have to start hard wiring their Apple TVs.

If pre-buffer is an issue this can be a consideration, or you can try an alternative such as Ethernet over Power.
 

d21mike

macrumors 68040
Jul 11, 2007
3,320
356
Torrance, CA
I can not believe that some here feel 802.11ac would be useless. You need to update your knowledge on 802.11ac. I think I would get benefit more from AC in my ATV then in my iPhone 6. It is a better Wifi technology all around. I am not an expert on Peer to Peer Airplay but I would assume it would be better with an iPhone 6 AC talking to an ATV AC.

Remember there could be a lot of Wifi devices in the home. Not just 1 ATV connected on Wifi. You could have several streaming at the same time on the same Wifi Network competing with multiple iPhones and iPads. Nice to have the most robust Wifi Network you can have. And in my case I have multiple Access Points since my house is pretty large.

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/produc...ronet-3600-series/white_paper_c11-713103.html
 

orestes1984

macrumors 65816
Jun 10, 2005
1,000
4
Australia
I can not believe that some here feel 802.11ac would be useless. You need to update your knowledge on 802.11ac. I think I would get benefit more from AC in my ATV then in my iPhone 6. It is a better Wifi technology all around. I am not an expert on Peer to Peer Airplay but I would assume it would be better with an iPhone 6 AC talking to an ATV AC.

Remember there could be a lot of Wifi devices in the home. Not just 1 ATV connected on Wifi. You could have several streaming at the same time on the same Wifi Network competing with multiple iPhones and iPads. Nice to have the most robust Wifi Network you can have. And in my case I have multiple Access Points since my house is pretty large.

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/produc...ronet-3600-series/white_paper_c11-713103.html

The benefits are real, I have some 8GB+ 1080p movies with no compression and the buffering sucks. I will be upgrading to wireless ac and a wireless ac router when its available for the Apple TV.
 

d.steve

macrumors 6502
Jan 6, 2012
351
150
I relocated my ac wireless AP so my ATV could be wired to it for faster transfer.

It does reduce initial start time. [edit: sorry, retracting that. I made a different change to do that - moved the storage]

The best part is when doing AirPlay from my iPhone 6+ for videos shot with its camera. it is now pretty decent where wireless-n was plain sucky to the point that it wasn't worth doing.

AC can help for ATV today.
 

mic j

macrumors 68030
Mar 15, 2012
2,663
156
There are times where even with 1080p files and a wireless N network that an Apple TV will take a ridiculous amount of time to prebuffer. If Apple went 4K they would most certainly need something faster than Wireless N, or people would have to start hard wiring their Apple TVs.

If pre-buffer is an issue this can be a consideration, or you can try an alternative such as Ethernet over Power.
I can buy into the 4k need, but no one knows when that will occur and Apple is usually not the first to the table on these things. However, the 1080p files I have are very quick to buffer and start playing. I do have my router in the next room from the aTV and of course the farther you are away the slower things will get. But that's going to be even worse with ac.
 

orestes1984

macrumors 65816
Jun 10, 2005
1,000
4
Australia
I can buy into the 4k need, but no one knows when that will occur and Apple is usually not the first to the table on these things. However, the 1080p files I have are very quick to buffer and start playing. I do have my router in the next room from the aTV and of course the farther you are away the slower things will get. But that's going to be even worse with ac.

I have my router set up in my office with the AppleTV in the living room across from it. I'm thinking I've just got a couple of files I need to reencode. It happens from time time although it wouldn't be so much of an issue if I had just a bit more throughput.
 

mic j

macrumors 68030
Mar 15, 2012
2,663
156
I can not believe that some here feel 802.11ac would be useless. You need to update your knowledge on 802.11ac. I think I would get benefit more from AC in my ATV then in my iPhone 6. It is a better Wifi technology all around. I am not an expert on Peer to Peer Airplay but I would assume it would be better with an iPhone 6 AC talking to an ATV AC.

Remember there could be a lot of Wifi devices in the home. Not just 1 ATV connected on Wifi. You could have several streaming at the same time on the same Wifi Network competing with multiple iPhones and iPads. Nice to have the most robust Wifi Network you can have. And in my case I have multiple Access Points since my house is pretty large.

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/produc...ronet-3600-series/white_paper_c11-713103.html
I never stated ac was useless, so stop being overly dramatic. I did say I think it has little use for the "current" aTV and I will stand by that. The current n standard has more than enough capacity to feed the aTV what it needs. Having ac capability as part of the home wireless system does make sense. As orestes said, and I agree with him, 4k may only be feasible with ac, but thats the future and who knows how far in the future for the aTV.

----------

I relocated my ac wireless AP so my ATV could be wired to it for faster transfer.

It does reduce initial start time. [edit: sorry, retracting that. I made a different change to do that - moved the storage]

The best part is when doing AirPlay from my iPhone 6+ for videos shot with its camera. it is now pretty decent where wireless-n was plain sucky to the point that it wasn't worth doing.

AC can help for ATV today.

ac helped your transfer from your phone to the router. I believe that would count as transferring a large file efficiently...which is what ac is all about.

----------

I have my router set up in my office with the AppleTV in the living room across from it. I'm thinking I've just got a couple of files I need to reencode. It happens from time time although it wouldn't be so much of an issue if I had just a bit more throughput.
Are you using mkv or mp4 files? mkv will take longer. Also, since you mention it is a couple of files, you may want to make sure the files are "optimized" for streaming using Subler. I have found that to make a big difference in how quickly movies start after buffering. But you're pretty knowledgeable and may have already done that.
 

orestes1984

macrumors 65816
Jun 10, 2005
1,000
4
Australia
They're all encoded in MP4 which is one of the best things I've done, although I think I screwed one up when I down converted the audio from AC3 using handbrake. I think I'm gonna have to rip it again. I kinda pieced the audio from one rip to the video of another and it just screwed the play length and the audio/video sync of the movie and it blacks out half way through now :D
 
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marzer

macrumors 65816
Nov 14, 2009
1,398
123
Colorado
When will Apple add AC Wifi, it's been well over a year and still has not been added to Apple TV:rolleyes:

Do you mean adding it to existing Apple TVs? Or releasing a new Apple TV with AC wifi built in?

Existing Apple TV simply lack the hardware to communicate using the new AC standard as it didn't really exist when the ATV3 was originally developed.

As for a new Apple TV model, that's in the works for release in the near future. It will most assuredly be using the new AC standard.
 

KiwiAdventure

Suspended
Original poster
Dec 7, 2010
607
304
New Zealand
Do you mean adding it to existing Apple TVs? Or releasing a new Apple TV with AC wifi built in?

Existing Apple TV simply lack the hardware to communicate using the new AC standard as it didn't really exist when the ATV3 was originally developed.

As for a new Apple TV model, that's in the works for release in the near future. It will most assuredly be using the new AC standard.


Apple TV3 did not have wifi but they built it into the existing box Apple should be able to upgrade the hardware to AC.
I would like a wifi Apple TV but I'm not going to replace my Apple TV 3's until AC is added. Well I may buy one just for my travels around the world.:cool:
 

marzer

macrumors 65816
Nov 14, 2009
1,398
123
Colorado
Apple TV3 did not have wifi but they built it into the existing box Apple should be able to upgrade the hardware to AC.
I would like a wifi Apple TV but I'm not going to replace my Apple TV 3's until AC is added. Well I may buy one just for my travels around the world.:cool:

Sorry if I'm misunderstanding. You said "Apple TV3 did not have wifi but they built it into the existing box". Apple TVs have always had wifi, since the original Apple tv 1. They are upgrading the hardware supposedly (which will no doubt be AC wifi), the yet to be released Apple tv 4 (or whatever it will be called).
 

KiwiAdventure

Suspended
Original poster
Dec 7, 2010
607
304
New Zealand
Sorry if I'm misunderstanding. You said "Apple TV3 did not have wifi but they built it into the existing box". Apple TVs have always had wifi, since the original Apple tv 1. They are upgrading the hardware supposedly (which will no doubt be AC wifi), the yet to be released Apple tv 4 (or whatever it will be called).

Sorry I should have mentioned peer-to-peer.

A faster way for friends to wirelessly connect to your Apple TV.
Peer-to-peer AirPlay lets visitors to your home or office quickly and easily connect their Mac or iOS device to your Apple TV without gaining passwords and connecting to the Wi-Fi network. Apple TV detects their device and makes the connection. So they can show off photos, share documents, stream movies or play music right there on your TV. Simple as that.
 

marzer

macrumors 65816
Nov 14, 2009
1,398
123
Colorado
Sorry I should have mentioned peer-to-peer.

A faster way for friends to wirelessly connect to your Apple TV.
Peer-to-peer AirPlay lets visitors to your home or office quickly and easily connect their Mac or iOS device to your Apple TV without gaining passwords and connecting to the Wi-Fi network. Apple TV detects their device and makes the connection. So they can show off photos, share documents, stream movies or play music right there on your TV. Simple as that.

The Apple TV 3 does peer-to-peer now with the version 7 software update, however, you need the latest Apple TV revision model A1469 to support it. You mention you have some Apple TV 3s. Check the model numbers to see if they are the latest revision.

Edit: I didn't realize one of mine was the latest revision model. To check your model revision follow these intructions, http://support.apple.com/kb/HT200008.
 
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KiwiAdventure

Suspended
Original poster
Dec 7, 2010
607
304
New Zealand
The Apple TV 3 does peer-to-peer now with the version 7 software update, however, you need the latest Apple TV revision model A1469 to support it. You mention you have some Apple TV 3s. Check the model numbers to see if they are the latest revision.

Edit: I didn't realize one of mine was the latest revision model. To check your model revision follow these intructions, http://support.apple.com/kb/HT200008.

Both my Apple TV 3's are the old 3 so will need to buy an updated 3 for my travels.

My understanding you don't need a router just plug the 3 into any TV and away you go for peer-to-peer
 

marzer

macrumors 65816
Nov 14, 2009
1,398
123
Colorado
Both my Apple TV 3's are the old 3 so will need to buy an updated 3 for my travels.

My understanding you don't need a router just plug the 3 into any TV and away you go for peer-to-peer

That's correct. I got peer-to-peer to work. I disconnected my iPad from my home network and the Apple TV 3 still showed up as an AirPlay device.
 

hyune83

macrumors member
Sep 19, 2008
71
0
Won't AC definitely help out if your router is far away given beaming and the extended range?
 
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