I was initially excited by the new ATV, but have to dmit so far Airplay is a fizzle since there isn't many apps that are allowed to stream video to it, hopefully that will change, netflix integration ain't great, and the way it displays my content is a step back from the previous model. I picked up a couple of PS3 slims and have to admit I'm pretty jazzed by all thats offered there, Great Netflix integration with 5.1 and 1080p video, Hulu Plus, and Play on adds very many video stream choices. And PS3 Media Server plays anything I throw at it. Then add in great Blu Ray player and Games, I bought them off Amazon with the $75 back special so $225 ea, its a great unit.
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Apple Releases Minor iOS 4.2.1 Software Update for New Apple TV
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Atv2 still takes forever to load Netflix and YouTube content. And if it does load it constantly pauses and buffer.
On the other hand, my PS3 which I don't think even has wirelessN streams Netflix in HD with no problems at all.
I've tried this with the same content on the same day during peak times.
On the other hand, my PS3 which I don't think even has wirelessN streams Netflix in HD with no problems at all.
I've tried this with the same content on the same day during peak times.
Something must be configured wrong with your wireless N network. Do you have any other devices with Wireless N?
Here my ATV2 can buffer and stream content faster wirelessly than my 360 which has a wired ethernet connection to the same router. Also browsing Netflix with its 2 dimensional interface is a lot faster than going through the straight line of titles on the 360.
it's not that uncommon, there are many threads on avsforum and apple itself regarding the hdmi handshake. i do have an advanced set-up that splits the signal to a projector and flat screen. i've found connecting hdmi directly to the television and running toslink to the receiver for audio fixes the handshake issue, but obviously in my setup i can't do that.
the atv is definitely the weak link as the wii (component to hdmi), ps3 (pure hdmi) and even my macbook (mini-dvi to hdmi) all work fine. it's just a bummer considering how i'm so used to apple stuff "just working"
Well now my DVI-only LCD is getting 1024x768 resolution instead of 480p. Much appreciated. Strange though that it's not getting 720p.
An iMac, iPad and 2 iPhones are connected over N. Occasionally my MBP gets connected too. But it's not like they are always on and being used at the same time. Especially not when I'm sitting down to watch netflix.
Btw, they are connected to my D-Link dir-655 router, which handled everything just fine until the past couple of weeks.
Interesting. I have a PS3 and ATV2 as well and both play netflix content quick. Neither is slow but the ATV might actually load a tiny bit faster. No pauses on either.
Since wireless, are they both in the same location in relation to where the router is? My PS3 and ATV are all about 3ft away from the router. If different rooms there could be interference or something.
One strange thing I have noticed is that with this latest update my ATV2 seems to take a few seconds to buffer before it starts playing a movie. I am not sure where this buffer is going, since there isn't any storage, but I get a visible buffer of quite a few seconds before the movie starts playing.
I will still very rarely get a stutter or pause, but I don't think this is ATV2's fault as much as it is my fault for having two other people streaming on the 5 GHz system in peak periods.
We make very heavy use of our Comcast signal here, and I'm not really dissatisfied with what we're getting for the money.
As far as not having any use for streaming content from other devices, all I can say is that when I work at home I will very often stream music from my iTunes library to the better speakers associated with the big screen. Personally, I get a lot of use out of that.
I will still very rarely get a stutter or pause, but I don't think this is ATV2's fault as much as it is my fault for having two other people streaming on the 5 GHz system in peak periods.
We make very heavy use of our Comcast signal here, and I'm not really dissatisfied with what we're getting for the money.
As far as not having any use for streaming content from other devices, all I can say is that when I work at home I will very often stream music from my iTunes library to the better speakers associated with the big screen. Personally, I get a lot of use out of that.
There is 8 GB of storage
I have 3 aTV2's and they all work perfectly. They are all on gigabit- wonder if the wireless chips are bad or picky
The new Apple TV does in fact have 8GB flash storage it uses to download and cache streams and provide a buffer. Unlike most other streaming devices it will buffer the entire movie rather than just a limited number of minutes so you can for instance download the entire movie ahead of time if your connection is not fast enough to stream HD material without pauses at the highest quality available.
There was a bug where the download would be purged too soon so if you left it to download overnight, the next day you would have to download it again even if you hadn't done anything since then. This update was supposed to fix that. It never bothered me because my streams always start in about 5 seconds anyway on my 6mbps DSL but I could understand how frustrating that was for people with slower connections.
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I too have experienced freezes from streaming Netflix content. I have the Premier Cox cable, that *supposedly* gives you up to 20 Mbps!
I have yet to try renting anything from iTunes. I am hooked wirelessly through my Time Capsule 5 GHz 'n' network and get full bars. I have no problems streaming anything from my i7 MBP or my iMac (hardwired to the TC).
I was thinking of running an ethernet cable from the TC to see if that made a difference. I was also thinking of removing WPA protection to see if that made a difference, but haven't tried it yet.
I also have a Samsung Bluray player which has Netflix and I have never experienced any dropouts with either SD or HD content.
I have yet to try renting anything from iTunes. I am hooked wirelessly through my Time Capsule 5 GHz 'n' network and get full bars. I have no problems streaming anything from my i7 MBP or my iMac (hardwired to the TC).
I was thinking of running an ethernet cable from the TC to see if that made a difference. I was also thinking of removing WPA protection to see if that made a difference, but haven't tried it yet.
I also have a Samsung Bluray player which has Netflix and I have never experienced any dropouts with either SD or HD content.
what does DNS have to do with it? it's just a lookup for name to IP translation
Netflix performance will depend on whether your ISP peers with Level 3 Networks or not
Great!!!
Now when will we be able to stream audio/video from our iDevices is another story...
I love my Apple TV. It's worked flawlessly since I got it.
We've mostly watched Netflix on it. I click on a movie, it plays. No pauses, rebuffering, etc.
I also got it jailbroken (and was controlling it remotely just last night via SSH commands). It's a cool, *tiny* computer. I can't wait to see what else comes out for it.
The only complaint I had was no easy shutdown button. It has been turned on accidentally before, I didn't want to power on my TV just to turn them both off. Luckily, going in via SSH and typing "halt" seems to be enough (which requires it be jailbroken).
Maybe the iPhone Remote app lets me turn it off. I haven't really used that yet.
We've mostly watched Netflix on it. I click on a movie, it plays. No pauses, rebuffering, etc.
I also got it jailbroken (and was controlling it remotely just last night via SSH commands). It's a cool, *tiny* computer. I can't wait to see what else comes out for it.
The only complaint I had was no easy shutdown button. It has been turned on accidentally before, I didn't want to power on my TV just to turn them both off. Luckily, going in via SSH and typing "halt" seems to be enough (which requires it be jailbroken).
Maybe the iPhone Remote app lets me turn it off. I haven't really used that yet.
You know, now that I think of it, maybe it's dumb for me to have it connected to the 5 GHz wireless when it's just three feet between the ATV2 and the Time Capsule.
If I'm out today, I'll look for a short cat 6 line.
Netflix [shakes fist]
We also have had the pausing and rebuffering and just stopping entirely problems with Netflix since the previous ATV2 update. It really sucks and my husband keeps saying we should never have gotten it. We don't have any other ATV problems of note, and Netflix streaming works FINE on my MacBook, iMac, and PS3. It's definitely an ATV2 problem and I hope to see it fixed ASAP.
And that's all the acronyms for now, BTW!
We also have had the pausing and rebuffering and just stopping entirely problems with Netflix since the previous ATV2 update. It really sucks and my husband keeps saying we should never have gotten it. We don't have any other ATV problems of note, and Netflix streaming works FINE on my MacBook, iMac, and PS3. It's definitely an ATV2 problem and I hope to see it fixed ASAP.
And that's all the acronyms for now, BTW!
Hold menu for 2 seconds, then play/pause for 5- should put it to sleep (there is no "off")
Although it uses so little power not sure why it matters- just adjust the "sleep" setting so it goes to sleep fast.
I might turn sleep off on all mine so I don't have to wait for them to wake up (10 watts is nothing)
That report as well as others reported at the time were wrong. Netflix definitely does not stream 1080p to the PS3. If you read the Netflix press release, they only mentioned they would now be sending 5.1 audio to the PS3. Netflix didn't mention a single thing about 1080p or even 1080i. Do you really think Netflix wouldn't have mentioned that they are now streaming 1080p as well? Of course not. That's because they are still only sending 720p to all devices including the PS3.
What really happened was a bit of ingenious and somewhat deceptive marketing on the part of Sony on their PS3 Blog. They are not getting 1080p streams from Netflix to the PS3. They are just taking the same 720p streams and upscaling them to 1080p for 1080p capable TVs. But that means nothing really because all 1080p capable HDTVs already upscale all 720p material to 1080p.
You're still getting the same quality and same bitrate streamed from Netflix to the PS3 as you do to the Apple TV and other Netflix devices. People have tried and not been able to find a single 1080p title from Netflix on the PS3. I can't either on my PS3. Can you?
In other words, Sony suckered a whole lot of people.
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i have this problem too! after 11 seconds of HD content will drop to a horribly compressed SD. even on puny 40-minute tv shows!
didnt see this happen in my bluray's netflix implementation.
both devices are jacked into the Airport Extreme router directly via ethernet.
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I tend to agree. I have no problems with HD or slow downloading with netflix. Well, not quite true but when slow download happens is when I have multiple downloads happening on multiple computers in the home. So it is my bandwidth which is the problem. Now I am at 5mbs download speed. I haven't tried netflix on anything under that like 756kbs. Anyone?