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Apple Releases Apple TV 2.3 Software Update
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Crash City with Airtunes
The reviews here sounded nice for this update so I immediately updated one of my two AppleTV units to 2.3. The other one upstairs has no video monitor connected to it (I stream to it using my iPod Touch and Airtunes normally in my high-end music only system). I immediately want to try out the direct control AirTunes feature. So I go into AirTunes and select the upstairs AppleTV unit in the music only system from the menu and unselect the home theater AppleTV unit I'm using. I go to My Music and select a song to play. It says "Connecting to ATV2" in the upper corner and the music starts to play upstairs (yay!). About 5 seconds later the music stops and the AppleTV appears to be LOCKED UP.
Oh joy. I just LOVE having to pull the power cord and watch sparks fly when I plug it back in because Apple chose to believe its AppleTV product NEVER needs to be reset ever (I've had to reset it about 2 dozen times in the past year like this). It reboots. I attempt to play a song again (this time a different song) and select only the upstairs room to play again. It says "connecting to atv2" and it cannot connect. I assume this means I'll need to reboot the upstairs AppleTV because it's ALSO crashed. So I go back to the Airtunes menu and unselect that unit and select the home theater unit only that I'm using and go back to My Music (which apparently thinks it's still playing) and try to get to that song to stop/start it. The screen goes black and it LOCKS UP AGAIN.
Lovely Update Apple. Just Lovely.
I may or may not have to update the upstairs unit to get it to respond correctly (it always worked fine from my Mac and PC as an AirTunes device, though so I don't see why it would need it to simply receive the Airtunes from the downstairs one. And I don't know why the downstairs one would crash either. I'll have to play around with it some more. But suffice to say, I'm getting pretty tired of having to pull the plug to make the thing reboot.... Why oh why could they not just include a simple reset button on the front or back of the unit....
The reviews here sounded nice for this update so I immediately updated one of my two AppleTV units to 2.3. The other one upstairs has no video monitor connected to it (I stream to it using my iPod Touch and Airtunes normally in my high-end music only system). I immediately want to try out the direct control AirTunes feature. So I go into AirTunes and select the upstairs AppleTV unit in the music only system from the menu and unselect the home theater AppleTV unit I'm using. I go to My Music and select a song to play. It says "Connecting to ATV2" in the upper corner and the music starts to play upstairs (yay!). About 5 seconds later the music stops and the AppleTV appears to be LOCKED UP.
Oh joy. I just LOVE having to pull the power cord and watch sparks fly when I plug it back in because Apple chose to believe its AppleTV product NEVER needs to be reset ever (I've had to reset it about 2 dozen times in the past year like this). It reboots. I attempt to play a song again (this time a different song) and select only the upstairs room to play again. It says "connecting to atv2" and it cannot connect. I assume this means I'll need to reboot the upstairs AppleTV because it's ALSO crashed. So I go back to the Airtunes menu and unselect that unit and select the home theater unit only that I'm using and go back to My Music (which apparently thinks it's still playing) and try to get to that song to stop/start it. The screen goes black and it LOCKS UP AGAIN.
Lovely Update Apple. Just Lovely.
I may or may not have to update the upstairs unit to get it to respond correctly (it always worked fine from my Mac and PC as an AirTunes device, though so I don't see why it would need it to simply receive the Airtunes from the downstairs one. And I don't know why the downstairs one would crash either. I'll have to play around with it some more. But suffice to say, I'm getting pretty tired of having to pull the plug to make the thing reboot.... Why oh why could they not just include a simple reset button on the front or back of the unit....
Why don't you just terminal in and do a sudo reboot? Most times for me, even if the ATV looks like it's frozen, I can still log in and run the reboot command.
At least they are updating the thing, which should help to dispel the theory that it was reaching eol.
also - a lot of movies and tv shows are using Dolby digital audio - most of mine in fact. The atv can't adjust the volume on ac3, it simply passes it through. So the user experiance would be confusing with some video having volume adjustment and not others.
Cheers Ed
The remote learn feature is awesome! I hated always using that little white remote. Now I can control tv with my normal tv remote and not have to worry about losing the little white one.
I have a crappy old 4:3 TV... I use boxee on OS 2.2. You can adjust the video and set the four corners to match your TV so the display is correct. Do this while playing a video in boxee. I can't remember all the steps, but they're there. I use the main OS for music and boxee for all my video needs. Works great.
Yes it does break the HB encodes. I no longer have 5.1 DD. Interestingly enough, when I play my DTS or DD music files, they only show as being 5.0 not 5.1 like they used to be. Audio on my movies are no longer working. The movies play but it's complete silence.
Anyone else having Apple Remote issues?
When you press and hold the pause/play button to put ATV to sleep it bounces around the menus like crazy. I have changed batteries, unpaired, repaired restarted tryed the suspect remote on my macbook, it's fine. If you hold it down for a couple of seconds ATV may sleep but then bounces back on.
When you press and hold the pause/play button to put ATV to sleep it bounces around the menus like crazy. I have changed batteries, unpaired, repaired restarted tryed the suspect remote on my macbook, it's fine. If you hold it down for a couple of seconds ATV may sleep but then bounces back on.
Why in the world would you ever want to watch something in full screen???
Anyway, I LOVE my Apple TV and am happy that the updates keep coming. Yes I know there are a lot of cool things Apple could do with the Apple TV, but I am very happy with all it does for me now. If anything, id want more movie rentals and for 48 hours on the day of DVD release than features any day! But that's all up to Hollywood
You can't because the iPhone Remote using Wifi (IEEE 802.11), while the the 'little white remote' uses infrared and the iPhone/iPod Touch does not have infrared
I don't think anyone is suggesting that the iPhone would send IR, as it obviously couldn't. However the same functionality could be duplicated via the network and therefore the remote app could use it.
finally video playlists
I have hated apple for not including video playlist-functionality / video-looping on the ATV. This is an essential feature if you would want to use ATV for professional presentations and marketing. Finally, it seems apple has brought full videoplaylist / looping-functionality to ATV and I am all tumbs up! This is the best news since the initial launch!
I have hated apple for not including video playlist-functionality / video-looping on the ATV. This is an essential feature if you would want to use ATV for professional presentations and marketing. Finally, it seems apple has brought full videoplaylist / looping-functionality to ATV and I am all tumbs up! This is the best news since the initial launch!
About time too
Now all I want is to be able to rate tracks using it (and have it sync the rating back to the master iTunes database) but I don't suppose that will happen.
But did they fix the aTV to update the metadata on the tracks to mark it as played? This was unreliable in the past few updates.
What a nice surprise the update's remote learning feature is. Just tried it with the multi-function remote that came with my Samsung TV, and setting the remote to "STB" and following the AppleTV's instructions (found in the Remote menu) worked perfectly. Range and accuracy seem better than Apple's itty bitty remote. And to think I was considering buying a Logitech universal remote for my meager TV setup....
Genius Working Correctly
The Genius menu now works correctly. Prior to the update, when you'd enter Genius, the current song would restart. Now, it just continues playing and switches to the Genius playlist as expected.
The Genius menu now works correctly. Prior to the update, when you'd enter Genius, the current song would restart. Now, it just continues playing and switches to the Genius playlist as expected.
They can add it through software update because the apple tv is a small computer with a hard drive so all you need is software to allow recording of tv and allow tv input via the usb port.