Still hate for this ATV2

I agree that Apple has been slacking and spreading their self very thin for QA as of late...but what problems are you having with the Apple TV?

I can see where you are coming from, having had the original and comparing the two. Apple went a different direction with the new one and there were things lost.

I never had the Original, waited a few week to get the new one read all of the reviews and forums, so I knew what it could and could not do. I have to say I love it, we have two now and it has allowed us to drop cable.

Leaving my iMac on all the time to run iTunes is not an issue we leave it on all the time anyway. We currently do not use the itunes rental or purchase. All we bought it for was to stream Netflix and to play my collection of DVD’s. The podcast (which my wife now loves) and YouTube is just icing on the cake.

720p is more then enough for us (all we have are SD DVD’S) and the OTA HD recordings (from eyeTV) look great to also.

So for $99 I have a great HTPC type of set up that meets all of our needs and more really.

BlackMangoTree said:

When are Apple going to release an update for this bug ridden device.

Apple should have stated on their web site all the missing functionality.

This unit is really piss poor compared to the original.

I started this thread of everyone who hates the device to vent some steam.

Apples QA has gone up **** creek. With all the issues they been having of late why are we paying a premium for their hardware ?

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You do not mention your issues in your post...this is just a negative rant. What are you expecting from this device? I am an owner of the original aTV and honestly I feel that this was a smart, simple move from Apple with the release of the new one. You have to think of a release like this from Apple's point of view: 99.9% of consumers (or possible buyers) out there are clueless about technology like this. Apple made a product in the new aTV that simplifies entering the world of streaming media for people like that.

As for myself, I would consider myself much more technologically inclined than the average consumer. However, I still look at the new aTV and think it's a huge success.

The positives greatly outweigh the negatives.

BlackMangoTree said:

I expect it to have the same functionality as the original.

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We knew from the initial announcement that this was not going to be the case. Apple is not a small company like Roku or most of the other players in this space... they can't simply push a release out as quickly as possible because some users demand it.

All I have to say about the ATV2 is you get what you pay for. There aren't many Internet TV devices for under 100 bucks.

BlackMangoTree said:

lol a device that can't play HD video properly and display subtitles.

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A few dropped frames never bothered me too much, and I'm certain the issue will be addressed in the next update, which may come out sooner than you think -- I imagine Apple would love to get all of the iOS devices (iPod Touch, iPhone, iPad, AppleTV) to the same codebase, and that could happen with v4.2.

I'm hoping that they fix the issues with the new apple tv.

The menu navigation and handling of Itunes metadata was great in the first generation. It's clearly a step backwards with this version.

Would love non jittery playback of HD material and the ability to handle subtitles like the original.

Interesting that Nightstorm has chimed in with the 'dropped frames.'

Nightstorm, could you elaborate? Under what circumstances do you see this?

(Itunes store material or handbrake encoded or both?)

Slowness to Netflix?

Has anyone else seen Netflix as being slow? I have a ATV2 in my bedroom and Netflix on my Wii in the living room. The Wii seems to interact with Netflix much faster. Both are running off of my Airport Extreme Network.

jajohns8 said:

I'm hoping that they fix the issues with the new apple tv.

The menu navigation and handling of Itunes metadata was great in the first generation. It's clearly a step backwards with this version.

Would love non jittery playback of HD material and the ability to handle subtitles like the original.

Interesting that Nightstorm has chimed in with the 'dropped frames.'

Nightstorm, could you elaborate? Under what circumstances do you see this?

(Itunes store material or handbrake encoded or both?)

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I've experienced the same symptoms as others... a few dropped frames after the video has finished buffering. Didn't seem to matter much if it was something I encoded (HDDVD/Bluray through Handbrake) or an iTunes purchase or rental. While not desirable, it had very little impact on my overall enjoyment of watching the movie.

The fact that similar hardware (iPad, iPhone 4) can play the file with no issue leads me to believe its a software bug that will be fixed when Apple releases 4.2 for the AppleTV.

not quite hating...

I am not quite hating the new ATV, but I am disappointed with a few things. While, I'm sure they will be fixed in an upcoming firmware update, i would be happier if it didn't have the issues to begin with or even if Apple would just acknowledge the issues. My issues are:
1. I have to turn Homesharing off and on most everytime I want to use it after a period of inactivity. I have both the ATV and my iMac set to not sleep and have everything on ethernet. Still, sometimes I can't connect to my computer.
2. Not all photos in the designated album seem to cycle through the screen saver. I only see maybe 50-100 of the 500+ photos.
3. I've experienced cases where I've started a movie (handbraked DVD streamed from my iMac) and had it stop and back out to the menu for no apparent reason. These play fine the next time I start them and play fine on my 1st gen ATV.
4. I do miss the way the 1st gen ATV used metadata
5.I don't think I like the new arrangement of the local content under computers, but that something I'll probably get used to.

Again, I don't hate it and I'm sure it will be fixed, but not the best experience and a bit of a let down from the smooth state of my 1st gen ATV. To put it in perspective, I have friends with PopcornHour boxes and homebuilt HTPCs that had many more issues they just ive with. I guess I just expect better from Apple.

BlackMangoTree said:

The new Apple TV the way it handles music Meta Data is a joke.

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You know of another media streamer that handles music metadata better? WD TV Live? Google TV? Boxee? Roku? PS3? I didn't think so. While it may have a few things here and there that I wish it would handle differently regarding metadata, let's keep things in perspective. Most other media center devices' metadata support is almost nonexistent... including smart playlist support, play counts, genres, watched/unwatched support, or any of the relatively small things you keep harping on about concerning organization and metadata in various threads. Try using some other devices and see how they compare and you would be singing a different tune.

It's true that some of the organization and metadata does not work the same as the old ATV (yet) but have you considered that many of those things were added over time to the old ATV? This new version of the UI had to be rewritten for iOS. It may look similar but the old ATV was written for Intel based OS X Tiger so it's obvious that they had to rewrite the software and recreate the functionality and UI for the ARM based iOS. I'm sure there are things they planned to make work like the old ATV but could not get it finished in time to ship in the first version of the software.

In iTunes 10.1 that came out yesterday, they just added the ability to stream your videos in iPhoto to your ATV2 so clearly they are working to add functionality to the new device. For a 1st version of the software you seem to be very picky. Have some patience.

Agree 100% with the OP. The modified functionality (ie streaming rather than syncing) most people accept, but the software is just so bug-ridden its incredible they allowed something like that to get out onto thge open market.

Saying its the first version of software is no excuse. You don't buy a car and have to take it back to the garage half a dozen times before it works as it should, it should just work first time.

They rushed this out before it was ready in an amateuristic attempt to steal headlines from Google TV.

I'm with the OP. I ordered a refurb 160 gig ATV earlier this week, and then as the week wore on I went to the Apple store and bought a new ATV. I found that you could simply play from your computer using the remote speakers from the iPad remote app. Overall that part works around the fact that the new ATV doesn't pass play information back to the computer. Though now I can't play music videos mixed in with music and have the video on the TV. Today I realized, like others have been saying, that it's only displaying a small number of the pictures in the folders I've selected for the screen saver. This is THE most used part of my ATV. I play music and watch my pictures in the floating screen saver. So there are 2 things it lacks versus the old unit. I couldn't care less about Netflix; my Bluray player has that.

I'm sure these things will get fixed, but now that I have a second "old" ATV sitting here in the box, it's hard not to take this thing back rather than wait for firmware that may or may not fix the issues we are having or bring back the functionality the old one already has. I would be happy with the old software in the new hardware. I don't need local storage, and I like the lower power usage of the new box and that it can't fry eggs in standby. But functionality comes first and the old box is the winner in this category.

Has anyone thought about not buying an item - they 'hate'. I hear this is now an option in the free world.

Shoesy said:

Has anyone thought about not buying an item - they 'hate'. I hear this is now an option in the free world.

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Mine is going back. I think we are just disappointed that this product feels like a step forward in several ways, but backwards in many other ways. Give me the old software on this new hardware and im happy. I'm not waiting though, so this one goes back.

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My ATV2 has worked fine with handbrake movies and streaming Netflix. I never realized subtitles were so important for people, especially in a home theater type device.

For $99 I think it was a great buy with the only thing better being a mini but they cost too much for just using as a HTPC.