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Apple TV Seeing Moderate Success, But No Hardware Update Imminent?
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HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
The problem with these (nearly) require iDevice ideas is for those people that live with anyone more than themselves. If you own that iDevice and take it with you when you leave, those you leave behind can't do all the wonderful things you want done with that iDevice running the show.
iPhones, iPads, iPods are all mobile devices.
TV is mostly a immobile device. If you want to make it universally appealing to more than just singles with iDevices, you have to make it and it's controllers immobile. Else, you end up selling a $99 device that almost requires a $300+ device for use, and the market should mostly be singles living alone to minimize unhappy family members left at home with a black brick and no "good" controller.For me, what has been limiting
iCloud is bringing us a step closer to the model that I prefer: you buy a movie or tv show which gives you the rights to that content. You never have to download the file, just stream it to your AppleTV, Mac or iPhone/iPad/iPod whenever you want to watch it.
Well, Apple's iCloud is a little different from, say, Google's stream-everything approach. Apple's approach still really plays local files. You can copy the down from the cloud at any time, but when you play it is the local file, not a stream from the server.
This may seem like a minor issue, but it's actually a significant architectural detail. It also allows Apple to push for higher-bitrate content, because their bitrate need not be constrained by your connection speed. I know that shows I buy off iTunes look a whole lot nicer than those streamed from Hulu et al.
Or, just use two, or one with a video camera hard-wired to the TV.
In the "two iPhone" solution I assume that the camera preview screen is airplayable in iOS5 (it really should be), so just share that and focus the camera on the screen of the phone playing it.
In the "One iPhone/iPad and one camera" mode, skip the AppleTV and AirPlay all together and replace the second iPhone and AppleTV above with a standard video camera hooked up to your TV's aux in and pointed at the iPad/iPhone.
Analog hole FTW!
Just increase the content and it would be the near-perfect device.
Cheap, easy to use, seamless and small.
Content is dependent on the jerks from the TV and movie studios who purposefully withhold content from new technology to keep their outdated distribution models
Cheap, easy to use, seamless and small.
Content is dependent on the jerks from the TV and movie studios who purposefully withhold content from new technology to keep their outdated distribution models
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Oh boy, don't get THIS group started on that one. If they believe Apple will stick with 720p, you'll get a 1000 arguments why 720p is good enough including bandwidth issues, file storage issues, "the chart", content must be in iTunes before it makes sense to launch a 1080p
TV, I can't tell the difference (so you can't either), etc. And if they believe that Apple is about to embrace 1080p, you'll get 1000 arguments of how great it will be to have maximum quality picture & sound, a true head-to-head competitor for the "bag of hurt", I can finally push my 1080p video from iTunes to my HDTV without downconverting it first, etc.
I'm in the 1080p camp because better hardware can always play lessor software, but it doesn't work the other way. Those that believe "720p is good enough" could still buy a
TV 1080p and enjoy their 720p or even SD options to the max, with no additional bandwidth issues, no storage issues, "the chart", I can't see the difference, etc all still in play. Those that feel differently about such topics could get what they want too. And Apple could sell more units to those that won't buy until this little box can output at the native resolution of their 1080p HDTV.I hope Apple gets with it and finally rolls this out.
It's still a failure no matter what the price. Also, consider that more Logitech Revue boxes were returned than bought in Q1, this says something. If they were bought for the $250 price tag, their customers were expecting them to at least work right. Them returning the Revue wasn't, I doubt, because of the price. Yes?
http://thisismynext.com/2011/07/28/...vue-boxes-returned-sold-q1-price-dropping-99/
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
This argument is completely false. There is absolutely no reason it would have to double in price to have 1080p playback. There are plenty of devices on the market right now that have 1080p chipsets (and some with added hardware functionality NOT included in this box) that retail for less than $99. If anything, I would suggest that in 2011 it may cost more to support 720p graphics hardware when most of the rest of the HD world has moved on to 1080p as standard. Other than closeout deals (to clear out the outdated hardware in increasingly lower demand), I bet hardware buyers can buy 1080p chipsets CHEAPER than 720p chipsets.
In my (similar) situation, I have all my movies on a Drobo (there are a variety of easier-than-RAID multi-disk array devices now, and it seems there's at least one I liked better than Drobo the last time I looked). That allows for a single-drive failure (although newer models allow for two simultaneous drive failures without losing data). Doesn't protect against fire/etc.
My source DVDs are stored remotely, so I have "data loss" protection from fire there. Of course, it's a pain to bring that particular data "back online", so a fire type situation would be painful in this respect. Both because I have more than just DVDs/CDs on that Drobo (photos and other documents), I also want to have a second remote backup of those ~4TB of data. Haven't gotten there yet, but that is the plan in any case. The remote backups obviously lag in time from the local backups, but in a catastrophic event I'd rather lose a week of working data than all my archives. I suppose a "cloud" intermediary backup would make sense for that week-since-the-last-remote-backup interval, but I haven't gotten that far yet.
It's the best 100 bucks you can spend on an Apple product. I use it everyday. For those clamoring over 1080p streaming, you seem to be missing the point that 90% of the people don't have fast enough connections to stream at that data rate.
The visual difference between 720p and 1080p is academic in most situations.
The visual difference between 720p and 1080p is academic in most situations.
1080P from a technical standpoint would be nice.
However it comes with a caveat for now - and that is - the resolution is only part of the mix. All the current cable companies/devices that offer 1080P have managed to convince the public that they are getting HD video. And that's only partly true. Bandwidth is the "enemy" right now. There is NO comparison between blu-ray quality vs streaming. Both video - and definitely audio.
So even when Apple TV has 1080p - if it relies on the internet to stream - it won't be nearly as "sweet" as real HD. Will that matter to some/most - maybe not. But for home theater enthusiasts - it does matter.
However it comes with a caveat for now - and that is - the resolution is only part of the mix. All the current cable companies/devices that offer 1080P have managed to convince the public that they are getting HD video. And that's only partly true. Bandwidth is the "enemy" right now. There is NO comparison between blu-ray quality vs streaming. Both video - and definitely audio.
So even when Apple TV has 1080p - if it relies on the internet to stream - it won't be nearly as "sweet" as real HD. Will that matter to some/most - maybe not. But for home theater enthusiasts - it does matter.
Content? What "content"?
The Netflix streaming content has been a colossal disappointment; combined with their 60% increase in rates for 1 DVD + unlimited streaming (effective Sept. 1st) means I'll probably drop the streaming next month.
MLB.tv has also been a disappointment, mostly due to the fact that six teams are blacked out in my little corner of flyover country (in some cases, two states away!) while only one team is blacked out on MLB Extra Innings on Cox Cable.
The only reason I haven't already ditched my ATV2 on fleabay is for the Airplay functionality, but I can do most of those "stupid pet tricks" now from iTunes and a new mini will almost certainly take its place in the next few weeks...
The problem isn't the ATV2, it's the content deals. IMO, Apple could sell a half million per month, and it still wouldn't qualify as more than a "hobby" until they get some decent content deals in place.
The Netflix streaming content has been a colossal disappointment; combined with their 60% increase in rates for 1 DVD + unlimited streaming (effective Sept. 1st) means I'll probably drop the streaming next month.
MLB.tv has also been a disappointment, mostly due to the fact that six teams are blacked out in my little corner of flyover country (in some cases, two states away!) while only one team is blacked out on MLB Extra Innings on Cox Cable.
The only reason I haven't already ditched my ATV2 on fleabay is for the Airplay functionality, but I can do most of those "stupid pet tricks" now from iTunes and a new mini will almost certainly take its place in the next few weeks...
The problem isn't the ATV2, it's the content deals. IMO, Apple could sell a half million per month, and it still wouldn't qualify as more than a "hobby" until they get some decent content deals in place.
If you are having that kind of "luck" with any consumer electronic device, I'd suspect your power supply / surge protector of not doing a good job of delivering "clean" power to the device. Solid state electronics should not "just break". Most of us with ATV1's have had them for years without incident, and I know a few people with ATV2s who have had them since within a week of introduction who use them daily and have had no issues.
So, again: maybe it's time to invest in a good surge suppressor. Those don't last forever, and do need to be replaced every once in a while, especially if your local power is spotty.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
That's exactly right. Build THAT
TV and they will sell a LOT of them. I bet THAT TV would be a massive success for the holiday season. And again, THAT
TV could be one that works for everyone. Those in the "720p is good enough" camp will still get to see their 720p at it's MAX playback quality on better hardware. Those in the "1080p or bust" camp will now be able to buy the TV they've been waiting for. Those who wish for other sources of media, games, etc could get it from third party developers. Those who want to turn off their computers would simply hook up whatever size storage fits their personal needs (without forcing too much or too little storage and it's cost on anyone that would rather stream everything). Apple would sell these to everyone who wants one... "if it only had _______".win:win:win.
This.
I just bought an ATV2 last night for this reason alone. I built a hackintosh HTPC in my living room which runs SABnzbd+ + Couch Potato + Sick Beard and runs Plex (****ing AMAZING software, btw) as the media server/front end. With the Plex app on my iPhone, I get all of my content anywhere.
Now, I've jailbroken the ATV2 and installed Plex so that I can stream all of my media to the bedroom. I was using my PS3 for this, but because a lot of my content is MKV format...well...I was SOL.
The problem I now have is getting the ATV2 to reliably stream HD content in the bedroom - a floor above, and 2 thick walls + ~75 feet from the WNDR3700 Wireless N router (which is wired to the HTPC). I'm either going to need to buy a cheap wireless N to setup as a repeater, or figure a way to get a wired connection to the ATV2 (not an easy task as the living room has vaulted ceilings and no crawl space above it).
Wow. That was a ****ing digression if I've ever read one. Anyway, I came here to say: Plex owns. And the ATV2 can be jailbroken and run Plex, which makes it worth every penny of the $99.
I think he may be referring to Airplay feature from within Safari or another 3rd party application.
I really want an apple tv. I've been waiting a couple months for a new one to pop up. Idk if I should just get this one now.
It's currently a failure.
Just like, for my purposes, the Apple TV is currently a failure.
These current set-top boxes still don't do what I want them to do. With what I want them to do being to run apps (with these apps running natively on the device itself, not over a glorified VNC client).
I know the new Roku device meets the criterion I usually use as an example "Angry Birds on the big screen," although I suppose I should expand that criterion to "access to a successful application platform, such as the iOS App Store or the Android Market."
I like ATV very much.
Couple hardware changes would be nice:
Ability to free it up from iTunes/Mac on to watch something. Make it accessible to a network hard drive where your content should be.
1080p
Software:
ATV app store.
My feeling on the hardware front is that only next year they will upgrade it.
Couple hardware changes would be nice:
Ability to free it up from iTunes/Mac on to watch something. Make it accessible to a network hard drive where your content should be.
1080p
Software:
ATV app store.
My feeling on the hardware front is that only next year they will upgrade it.
Depends, of course, greatly on the format of "a majority of your videos". Unless you are downloading said videos from nefarious sources, you generally have control over the format in which they are stored. H.264 is a pretty nice encoding standard.
Also, by "spend hours" of course you are talking about just plugging the whole batch into Handbrake or similar, telling it to output to the AppleTV2 profile, clicking the 'Start' button, and then letting the computer do its thing for however many hours are required, right? You shouldn't need to spend "hours" of actual human interaction time to do such a simple batch process.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
That's just one crack at it [googleTV]. There are plenty of Android phones on closeout, as are Apple white MacBooks, and various other hardware. I get an email about iPad (1) closeouts almost every day but I wouldn't judge that product as a failure.
Someone will get this right. Apple has the best shot at it if they will just get on with it. I bet the real market getting this right is much bigger than iDevice & Mac markets. Far more people on this planet have TVs than have iDevices.