‘Cause people who have been waiting for the limited new TVOS4 features have long ago moved on to Plex, Infuse etc..
Probably not. People with small libraries and totally embedded in Apple media probably find it handy.
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Apple Seeds First Beta of tvOS 11.1 to Developers
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It's better. When I click the Homeshare icon all my movie and tv content now has the slick iTunes interface and I can even access siri from there, related items - that goes through my library and it even includes my purchased iTunes content. It's very nice and user friendly now. A lot better than Plex now, imho.
Looking for
Siri (in New Zealand, IOS/OSX have had it for years).
"Unwatched" as an option for Movies/TV series that are hosted on an iTunes server
List view, the current "tiles" view is just bloat on the screen reducing the amount of information you can actually see.
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Nope its complete rubbish
"Unwatched: as an option has gone from Movies and TV Shows
The List View is gone, only tiles which end up showing less information is the only option
Recents is restricted to 10 items, no ability to change this.
TV series seems to go to the last Series even if you have unwatched episodes in an earlier series. Seeing what you have watched its total crapola , you have to select downward to hit the episodes and then scroll sideways looking for the small tick" on the preview.
No way to see which series has unwatched episodes, you have to go down and scroll though
No indication as to which movies you have watched
Left had 1/3 is used for other options for TV Shows, Movies, Podcasts, Music is the right side 1/3...WHY????????????
Everything requires MORE scrolling with the remote to get to, the interface is much slower to use.
TVOs 10.2.2 was far more functional for Home Sharing and I will be forcing my ATV4 back to 10.2.2 t get all that missing functionality back.
If Looking Pretty is what you are after, sure upgrade
If Actual usability is what you are after, avoid it at all costs.
Its not that things are different, significant functionality I used all the time is actually removed from TVOs11
TVOs 11 will be the first Apple software upgrade I have ever installed that I have removed and gone back to the previous version on ANY Apple product ever (and I have been using them since the Mac 512KE).
I use homesharing sometimes if I have something on my iTunes I want to play through my ATV. I like the new design. It’s definitely better to navigate with vs my old ATV 3
I was playing with this last night. Is remarkable it’s not been reported anywhere. My 1250+ movies I’ve added myself are displayed perfectly like iTunes Store content. Other films in my library are recocmeded at the bottom and I can even use Siri to search for stuff. It’s the biggest feature in the tvOS and it’s not mentioned anywhere.
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I get this also.
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If you lived in the unwatched menu I can see it being annoying, but for me the new recent tab does the exact same thing. Also i find it easier to use Siri to search for something then i do to scroll down a list of unwatched TV shows to find the one I want to see.
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So, let me get confirmation on this... You're saying if I'm on an ATV with tvOS 11 installed, and I'm in my home shared library, I CAN use Siri search to search for results exclusively from my Home Share? Follow-up question: Do the results include movies in my home shared iTunes library that were not purchased through iTunes, that I ripped and tagged myself?
If both of these things are true, that is huge. Very unfortunate it comes at he cost of list view and the loss of unwatched filter, but still, huge.
Yes, thats correct. You CAN use Siri to search any content in your Home Share but you have to use the menu at the top to go across to search and you're essentially using Siri to fill in that search bar. Not perfect but still pretty cool. Hopefully - 'Search for *name* in Computer - will be a command in a future update to make it perfect.
The Home Share results and recommended movies listed at the bottom come from anything you've ripped, tagged and added to your iTunes library yourself. The details are as accurate as your tagging (so glad I've been anal about tagging movies since 2007) and list everything in your computer iTunes library. I believe that includes any iTunes purchases that are downloaded to your computer. At least it lists available movies I've bought with a US iTunes account that are in the library on my UK account and fully downloaded - if that makes sense.
This does seperate your libraries somewhat into using 'Movies' to stream anything you've purchased from iTunes and 'Computer' for everything you've ripped and tagged. But I'm actually quite happy to have that distinction between them.
I'll attach some pics to illustrate. The related films listed at the bottom is all pulled from my home library.
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Highly limits you on video/audio/container formats though. Plex/Infuse lets you play anything. And plex lets you play anything, anywhere.
None of my content will work in it. Nothing. And of course because I need HD audio passthrough it's completely useless to me.
All of my content will work in it. All of it. I've been using iTunes to organise and store content for a decade. Everything is an MP4. It doesn't matter what it doesn't play. If you have all kinda of media from all sorts of places, thats cool, use Plex. If you're more organised with your media and live in iTunes then new Home Sharing revamp is a revelation.
I don't care about "specs" and the ability to play a million different video and audio formats. After I realized iTunes wouldn't play my first ripped movie, I standardized and organized my entire BR collection on uncompressed 1080p, with uncompressed audio onto nice .MP4 files on a 16TB External HD (which I need to back up and put into storage soon). iTunes HomeShare now handles it flawless and is so much better now that I don't need Plex.
Standardizing a media library shouldn't be that big a deal, as long as it's on a format that everyone supports.
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As I said before I agree with the others here about the positive UI changes to home sharing, to add....
List view: if you go to Playlists, your playlists are in list view, and there are lists for all Home Videos, Movies, TV shows, and recently played. (Yes, with iTunes on your computer you can make movie, home video or tv playlists). The best part is fast
scrolling! So, instead of grumbling, try it out more before you completely rag on it.Yeah recently added is limited to 10, unwatched is missing, and, my only beef is, while paid iTunes content you play via home sharing and then pause shows up in the TV app, if you continue from the TV app, it will stream from Apple cloud instead of the computer, (it switches to the iTunes Movies or tv shows app). (yes I have play purchases from iCloud turned off.)
I haven’t tested out Siri yet.
It's not about support a million different formats. It's about not limiting you on one device. The apple tv doesn't support hd audio so that limits you. And while I have an ATV I also don't want to lock myself into a single format. So encode for the best and have it work on everything. I only encode in one way. Everything the bluray has available on every device.
You certainly can't use the uncompressed HD audio as the ATV doesn’t support it. And with plex you don't have to tag anything. Just drop it in a folder and plex does the rest.
Add sonarr for automatic downloading of tv shows like a DVR. Which are then auto added to plex.
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I used this amazing app from the App store called Film Tag. I don't think its supported anymore, but at the time it was brilliant. As long as you titled your file correctly say SeinfeldS1Ep1 or movie bladerunner. You just drag it into the app and it would automatically tag the episode with the full metadata and add the appropriate box art. It's formatted for iTunes but Plex read the meta data perfectly fine as well.
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Why would you need to see more than 10 unwatched things? Really, just finish watching something. Sheesh.
I don’t feel limited to one device at all. I start watching a movie on my tv.. pause it and pick up where I left off in another room on my iPad... pick up from there out of the house on my phone later in the day. Simple. And it just works.
I think I used to work similar to you. I would rip DVDs and do 20 different encodes of each one to figure out best profile and bit rate ect ect. That’s cools if you have time or work with sonarr? you mentioned to auto pirate intense amounts of stuff. Not judging. But these days i don’t have the time or the inclination. I’m slowly updating my rips with iTunes where possible. The majority of the latest tv shows are on in the U.K. within 24hrs via Netflix or Sky. It’s just way easier to live in the streaming bubble.
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Not aware of that bug. Can you explain more?
Once a profile is found I save it. Then I never have to figure it out again. I batch encode and the movies then end up in the folders they need to be in with no intervention from me.
Sonarr is completely automated. I sit down in front of plex and shows are just there. So it takes no time.
And by not being limited I also mean I can use the built in tv apps, xboxes, rokus, Chromecasts, Amazon fire, htpcs, apple tv and primarily Nvidia shield for hd audio. So I encode once and it works everywhere and I still get hd audio when I want to watch a movie.
Plex also has the added benefit of streaming to friends and family outside the home. And with an antenna I can use it as a dvr too. And there’s no need to tag anything.
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I don’t know if it’s a big but since I updated to 11.1 I get a cannot connect to device message on both my Apple TVs with Xcode. Wireless debugging no longer works but cable debugging does even though it’s telling me it cannot enable developer mode. I tried pushing a few apps and debugging and they all worked. Long story short, wireless debugging doesn’t work and it says it won’t connect properly to the Apple TV in Xcode yet all functions work with Xcode. Mildly frustrating when I go so use to debugging apps from another room.
Bring back "unwatched" categories in TV and Movies? Fix the sorting so it ignores "the" and "a" at the start of titles again? Fix the thumbnails and episode preview images that are missing from 30% of content?
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That would be WONDERFUL
The DirecTV Now app is absolutely terrible but you can install HBO GO and use it directly instead. That said, it is taking them FAR too long to support SSO given they are supposedly the technically advanced sibling to DirecTV (which has it already) and gave away Apple TVs with their service. Get with the program people.
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I like the new UI a lot but they also broke a lot in the process. The "unwatched" category was removed from both TV and Movies. Sorting is wrong for anything starting with "the" or "a". Cover art is missing all over the place unless you use the "Get Info" menu item inside of iTunes on the host machine. I like where they are going but they need to do a lot of cleanup.
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I have a large library of my old DVD and Bluray collection (a couple thousand movies and shows) and I use home sharing. I tried Plex and didn't like it.
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That would be WONDERFUL
The DirecTV Now app is absolutely terrible but you can install HBO GO and use it directly instead. That said, it is taking them FAR too long to support SSO given they are supposedly the technically advanced sibling to DirecTV (which has it already) and gave away Apple TVs with their service. Get with the program people.
[doublepost=1506572836][/doublepost]
I like the new UI a lot but they also broke a lot in the process. The "unwatched" category was removed from both TV and Movies. Sorting is wrong for anything starting with "the" or "a". Cover art is missing all over the place unless you use the "Get Info" menu item inside of iTunes on the host machine. I like where they are going but they need to do a lot of cleanup.
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I have a large library of my old DVD and Bluray collection (a couple thousand movies and shows) and I use home sharing. I tried Plex and didn't like it.
After about five minutes the sound gain peaks and the upper frequencies of sounds start to clip. Most noticeably in the UI sounds. Changing the sound output from auto to 16-bit or vice versa fixes it for a few minutes before you either do it again or live with it.
Resetting hdmi cable or restart has the same effect. No combination of audio or video settings makes a difference.
Haven't experienced that. My old Apple TV 4th Gen used to lose sound in the UI occasionally but a restart fixed.
For what it’s worth I have 1250 movies and every one has cover art. I use subler to embed them.
My ATV4 has an annoying bug that the volume sometimes get louder when you resume a video from a pause.
It happens so often that I first attempt to turn of the volume of the video I am watching by pausing then playing it. Afterwards, I use the volume button if I need further adjustments.
That's good news. Thanks for the in-depth explanation and examples. Maybe it IS time to upgrade my atv 3s.
Like you, I have around 1200 movies, about 2/3 of which I ripped from purchased DVDs and Blu-Rays and meticulously tagged with Subler. I'm actually OK with having to go to the "Search" tab for Siri to work. Hell, I'm just thrilled there's a search tab at all in the home share. As others have posted, it appears it's not perfect, but this is certainly a hopeful direction. Maybe I won't have to eventually Requiem or TunesKit my purchases and switch to Plex after all!
This truely is the biggest feature of tvOS 11, IMO and I don't know why it's not in any reviews I've read so far. 4k... meh, whatever.
Now, for a few more from my ATV wish list:
- A built in "Visualizer" to display on the TV for when you're playing music (and not just AM). The processors in the new ATVs are certainly powerful enough.
- A way to parse the Genre field for multiple comma/semi-colon delimited Genre. A single Genre is just far too limiting for most movies (and music, for that matter). I shouldn't have to decide if Blazing Saddles is a Comedy, Western, or Parody. It's all three (and more)! As it stands now, the built-in Genre list is useless to me so I have created Genre smart playlists and parse the genre field, which I populate with multiple comma delimited genre, myself. :/