Apple Confirms No Software Update for Original Apple TV

[ChazUK]

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I personally wouldn't have expected the old aTV to get the update due to the differences in architecture.

I don't see this as a macicious decision at all.

Edit: I do doubt the new aTV is for us tho as we get free BT Vision (streaming on demand shows and movies) free after we phoned up to cancel and change to another telephone provider! that coupled with the PS3 and we have all the streaming entertainment we could wish for.

 

[djpaetkau]

I could care less about renting TV shows, and Netflix adds nothing for me, as a Canadian consumer, but what I'd really like to see would be Airplay. They already have the streaming architecture in place on the Intel chip in order to stream from a computer, so I have to wonder what's so different about streaming from an iPad or iPhone? Considering how often I'm watching a video on my phone on the bus home from work, it'd be great if I could just come home and keep playing it on the TV exactly where I left off on the phone without having to sync up manually.

And to those wondering why it was mentioned that Apple still sells the old Apple TV, they don't as of yesterday, but they did up until the store went down for the media event. As it has also been pointed out, I'm sure there's still stock left in stores that is being sold as well. I already have an Apple TV, but I'm tempted to grab another one (as a backup) before they're completely gone... I just don't think I could deal with having to leave my laptop on all the time just to watch movies on my TV in another room (especially if it does indeed require being set up from the laptop every time).

 

[Peace]

As far as renting on your Mac and watching it on the NEW Apple TV.

This :

 

[locust76]

As far as renting on your Mac and watching it on the NEW Apple TV.

This :

And those are pretty much the only three shows you can watch on the new ATV2 without a PC turned on to stream data

 

[Matthew Yohe]

Nope, it's just greed. Any Intel processor manufactured in the last 5-8 years is much more powerful than A4 so it's not a valid excuse. Desire to maximize profits by leaving customers out there without support is the only reason.

Old appleTVs aren't losing support, they just aren't getting new features. If you're just going to look at this from the "aww, the poor customer" position, then no one will change your mind.

How come? Slower processor, smaller RAM, no hard drive. Smaller factor has some advantages but it definitely does not have better hardware.

Not necessarily. It's most likely because the software is written for an entirely different instruction architecture.

 

[Shanpdx]

the new interface UI is it similar to old Apple TV or current front row?

i am confused when people say they wanted new UI; is it not will affect how you use the new device?

 

[pixelcruncher]

How much of your money are you willing to hand over to cover the costs of developing software for your outdated Apple TV? I bet you would complain, too, if they offered an upgrade, but charged for it. Who's being greedy?

Outdated? Last week it was the latest and greatest model. Apple's got a helluva short timetable for obsolescence.

 

[HLdan]

"hatred ", "spew", "venom", "hate" - that's quite a vocabulary you've got there Have your learned it from Apple or what?



.

Nope, I just read the other posts from many forum members who feel mutually not fond of your Apple hating posts.

 

[3282868]

Here's my beef with the new Apple TV:
* Power consumption - Everyone complained about the lack of effective sleep mode on the original ATV. Now, the power consumption of the ATV may be lower, but you'll have to leave your desktop computer on and out of sleep mode in order to use it. Fail.
* No 1080p - my Blu-Ray player has this, why not the Apple TV?
* Streaming only - given network congestion, I would want a buffer of at least 500 MB in order to rely on a streaming connection all the time. I'm not aware of any device with a dedicated buffer that large.

Plus you can hack the current AppleTV to run Netflix and Hulu, purchase and rent, HDMI AND component out, and have a dedicated HDD, why would any one want to "upgrade" to the new one?

 

[Shanpdx]

Not necessarily. It's most likely because the software is written for an entirely different instruction architecture.

+1 and eventually iStuff moves to A5 processor, you will see more and more hardware advancement - i assume

Apple did not delivered new ARM based CPU from their own yet; it is still rebranded ARM processor. so when they design and deliver new CPUs based on ARM it *might* deliver better (and cheaper) solution than the competitior

i think $99 is still expensive to make (we gotta wait for iFixit teardown)

 

[igxqrrl]

Nope, it's just greed. Any Intel processor manufactured in the last 5-8 years is much more powerful than A4 so it's not a valid excuse.

That statement is incorrect. It also assumes (again incorrectly) that CPU power is the only limiter. By unifying the AppleTV and iP*d architectures, Apple is presumably able to port software to the new AppleTV architecture very easily. Porting it back to an older architecture would likely be a substantial undertaking.

Desire to maximize profits by leaving customers out there without support is the only reason.

That is an unfounded assertion.

 

[Solinus]

For existing owners upgrading from the original AppleTV to version 2 hardware is like upgrading from a Nano to a Shuffle. The advantage of the new hardware is it is much cheaper. That is very important for new customers, but for existing AppleTV users it is irrelevant. There is very little new functionality.

• Netflix is good if you have a Netflix account.
• Airplay is cool - I do like this.
• TV rentals - you can already rent movies on the original AppleTV so I see no reason why this won't be made available.

Until there is a software upgrade to add Apps, I see no compelling reason for existing users to upgrade.

 

[GQB]

Outdated? Last week it was the latest and greatest model. Apple's got a helluva short timetable for obsolescence.

My ATV works exactly as well today as it did before 10:00 AM yesterday.
Not sure what you mean by obsolescence. Apple did release a new device with different capabilities yesterday. Perhaps they really should have named it iTV to avoid confusing the slower amongst us.

 

[lilo777]

Nope, I just read the other posts from many forum members who feel mutually not fond of your Apple hating posts.

This forum is not about loving or not loving someone's posts. It's about discussing the technical merits (and related stuff). Do you really expect everybody to love Apple?

 

[ovrlrd]

Plus you can hack the current AppleTV to run Netflix and Hulu, purchase and rent, HDMI AND component out, and have a dedicated HDD, why would any one want to "upgrade" to the new one?

AirPlay is the only reason I am upgrading. I have friends who come over with their iPhones and iPads and want to share their photos/videos/music all the time but it's essentially "look at this on this small screen (especially on the iPhone)" and this will be so much better.

 

[GQB]

Plus you can hack the current AppleTV to run Netflix and Hulu, purchase and rent, HDMI AND component out, and have a dedicated HDD, why would any one want to "upgrade" to the new one?

Um, then don't?
But some people have better things to do with their lives than to hack appliances.

 

[pixelcruncher]

OK, I can understand no upgrade to provide the features of the newer model. It stinks, but I can live with it.

But, how about a point release for the old model to kill off the remaining bugs? Just finally fix the old one for good!!

Can we get at least that?

From the desk of Steve Jobs:

@CyberBob859

No.

[Ouch, pretty much saw that coming though, didn't we?]

 

[jersey10]

The big question is whether Apple will continue to support the old AppleTV in future versions of iTunes. For those of us that are happy with the old AppleTV because of the increased functionality it has over the new model, we don't want to lose the ability to sync everything we have in iTunes (including our ripped movies and TV shows) to the Apple TV itself or the external hard drives we have hooked up to the Apple TV. And we don't want to lose the ability to continue to buy movies and TV shows directly from the AppleTV itself, without having to go to the computer and open iTunes.

 

[3282868]

For existing owners upgrading from the original AppleTV to version 2 hardware is like upgrading from a Nano to a Shuffle. The advantage of the new hardware is it is much cheaper. That is very important for new customers, but for existing AppleTV users it is irrelevant. There is very little new functionality.

• Netflix is good if you have a Netflix account.
• Airplay is cool - I do like this.
• TV rentals - you can already rent movies on the original AppleTV so I see no reason why this won't be made available.

Until there is a software upgrade to add Apps, I see no compelling reason for existing users to upgrade.

You can hack current models for Netflix/Hulu, you can already stream music/tv/movies to your AppleTV from iTunes (you can have as many computers STREAM to one AppleTV and ONE dedicated to copying to its HDD), plus having component HD with HDMI, HDD, just give it time, I'm certain hackers will find a way to get App's on older AppleTV's.

Um, then don't?
But some people have better things to do with their lives than to hack appliances.

Some people have better things to do than write negative, condescending comments to others
If you read up on hacking, it's EASY, only requires a USB stick and installing downloaded software. I've done it in 5 minutes, most of it waiting for software to install. Not much time wasted as the hackers have done the work for me.

Um, then don't?
But some people have better things to do with their lives than to hack appliances.

Again, this functionality is available with the hack. Instead of mocking, try it, it'll save you $100, give your current model more features than the new models, and take about 5 minutes. Applications on the older models will surely be available just as soon as the hackers get to it.

 

[GQB]

AirPlay is the only reason I am upgrading. I have friends who come over with their iPhones and iPads and want to share their photos/videos/music all the time but it's essentially "look at this on this small screen (especially on the iPhone)" and this will be so much better.

Bingo.

 

[HLdan]

This forum is not about loving or not loving someone's posts. It's about discussing the technical merits (and related stuff). Do you really expect everybody to love Apple?

No, but I do expect people to get their facts straight so we can have a fair discussion rather than making crap up like you do to make sure Apple fails within the conversation. More than twice so far you put out incorrect info which myself and others have had to correct you on. You refuse to acknowledge that. What benefit do you have being on this forum if you hate Apple so much? It doesn't make for a fair conversation if you're putting people on the defense. Again, get your facts straight and stop making stuff up.

 

[-hh]

You can still buy movies or TV shows on your iMac or Macbook and then stream to ATV. Some programs are good enough to want to own!

We have to disagree on this one. The only differences (or downgrades, in my opinion) are as follows:

NEW: NO STORAGE+STREAMING / OLD: FIXED STORAGE+STREAMING;
NEW: RENTALS ONLY / OLD: PURCHASED SHOWS AND MOVIES.

It does appear that the concession that Apple had to make was to get rid of the 'own' part of the media, which is why the aTV's hard drive had to go. Once you took this step, then it all makes more sense to convert to the iOS architecture.

(continuing)
The new ATV is probably Apple's most underwhelming "update" in at least the last 10 years; apart from those making extensive use of US-only streamed content, there is absolutely NO reason to prefer it over the old model. And the advantages of AirPlay are relative, to say the least...if the ATV's premise is "streaming", there is little reason to play something on your iDevice and THEN stream it to ATV.

I think what the Studios missed ... and for which Apple's original aTV wasn't able to compete with so as to deliver profits for the Studios ... was the market of consumers who were (by one means or another) getting their digital video media content without necessarily getting charged for it.

Ideally, the Studios want to get paid for each eyeball on each viewing, and you can see these fingerprints here. The huge question for Apple is if the new aTV will be successful or not...afterall if we compare their 99 cent streaming model to a $60/month cable TV bill, the break-even crossover point is at a mere two (2) shows per day.

Here's my beef ...
* Streaming only - given network congestion, I would want a buffer of at least 500 MB in order to rely on a streaming connection all the time....

Agreed; I see this as another likely example of Apple's apparent blindness to the reality of just how poor (slow) the average home user's bandwidth connection is today in the USA. The consumer who differentiates personal purchases between a 99 cent versus $1.29 ... is also going to be similarly price-sensitive to his utility bills, and he's simply not going to be forking over $150/month for a zippy connection unless it also includes a lot of bells, whistles, and other relevant services. Particularly in this current economy.


-hh

 

[pixelcruncher]

My ATV works exactly as well today as it did before 10:00 AM yesterday.
Not sure what you mean by obsolescence.

Try using a dictionary.

obsolete |ˌäbsəˈlēt|
adjective
1 no longer produced or used; out of date

By "obsolescence" I mean it will never do anything more, or work any better than it did before 10:00 AM yesterday.

 

[gugy]

I wish Apple could create something in between AppleTV and MacMini.
a HTPC box costing around $300 or $400 max.

$700 for a MacMini is overkill with you only want to use as media center.

 

[rgarjr]

facepalm