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Apple TV Software Update Adds Photo Stream, NHL Games, Wall Street Journal

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AirPlay already works in the background. You can close down the app and even put your phone to sleep and it keeps displaying on your tv.

And why don't people understand the Apple TV is already running iOS5? I swear this is Apple's most misunderstood device.

The betas were iOS5 and the release today is iOS5.
 
im on 60mb line, usually im fine streaming a 10gb 1080p mkv file to my apple tv so i think my wireless is good. pretty much none of the apps go full screen, netflix went 16:9( but not full screen) but was bad quality. cant use hbo go, sky go. i tested out abc app 4:3 bad quality video. i tested 4od and itv player, bad quality and 4:3. even the video from imdb, hd 720p trailer stays 4:3 and is bad quality for me. but when you turn of the mirroring and allow the video to go through normal airplay, since imdb supports it, it go fullscreen and is crystal clear. same problem with youtube.

dgalvan123, tell me how you get on with the airplay mirroring
 
monty77 said:
..might be late to the game with this but have any iOS5 users noticed that you can now airplay BBC iPlayer to the ATV? Or was this there already? It used to be sound only.
Click to expand...

All websites with HTML5 video are now AirPlay video enabled by default -- though you can include a tag that disables them again; hopefully the BBC won't.

The iPlayer app on the iPad still doesn't AirPlay but the website version does.
 
Joe-Diver said:
The NHL thing is great.....but.....I've already paid for Center Ice on DTV. I'm not paying ANOTHER $160.......
Click to expand...

Last year I got a free GameCenter Live account with my NHL Centre Ice subscription through Telus in Canada. This year, I can skip NHL Centre Ice altogether...
 
bladeds said:
im on 60mb line, usually im fine streaming a 10gb 1080p mkv file to my apple tv so i think my wireless is good. pretty much none of the apps go full screen, netflix went 16:9( but not full screen) but was bad quality. cant use hbo go, sky go. i tested out abc app 4:3 bad quality video. i tested 4od and itv player, bad quality and 4:3. even the video from imdb, hd 720p trailer stays 4:3 and is bad quality for me. but when you turn of the mirroring and allow the video to go through normal airplay, since imdb supports it, it go fullscreen and is crystal clear. same problem with youtube.

dgalvan123, tell me how you get on with the airplay mirroring
Click to expand...

The default for AirPlay Mirroring is 4:3 because that's the size of the iPad screen (presumably the 4S will mirror a slightly wider 3:2 image).

If an app has Video Out enabled (traditionally for one of the video adapters), instead of looking at the iPad screen, AirPlay Mirroring will act on the Video Out signal instead. That will be a full 16:9 image. However, many TV type apps don't enable Video Out, precisely because they don't want you to watch shows on a big screen for free. So a 4:3 image is the best you can hope for here.

If they're feeling particularly unhelpful here, the app can enable Video Out but just feed it a blank signal or a message that says "No can do". That way AirPlay Mirroring will send the Video Out signal instead of what's on the screen, and you won't get any image at all.

Bottom line is that AirPlay Mirroring is no help if the app developers don't want you to watch on a big screen, and not always very useful if they don't want to make the effort to give you a good big screen experience.

Video quality is always going to be compromised because the iPad has to encode a real-time H.264 video stream from all the pixels on your screen, which takes a lot of effort to do well. When you try to recompress an already-compressed stream, the results often aren't pretty.

AirPlay Mirroring is best suited for still, simple images, like presentations, Internet browsing etc (I don't know if there's a web browser that does 720p video out -- that would be cool). Games are OK too as their graphics are often more predictable and easier to compress than real-life imagery.
 
tripjammer said:
Disable the PS3 IP address in your router firewall..so you get NAT 1 on it. All lag will be gone. Plus you will be able to get PS3 media server to work properly too.
Click to expand...

To clarify, what do you mean by "disabling" the PS3's IP address? Do you mean to forward its ports so it isn't behind the firewall? I'm using an AirPort Express, and I don't think I've seen a way to put an entire IP into the DMZ in AirPort Utility (which is unfortunate). I've only ever seen the option to forward specific ports.
 
Trailers app US only

I was wondering where this new Trailers app was, and the "In Theatres" menu looks identical. The answer: It's US only. :(

No TV shows -- taken away with AppleTV 2 and never put back. We had it in the first AppleTV, and we can still buy TV Shows in iTunes. I don't get why Apple can't put it back the way it was before.

No NBA -- Not that I cared much because all the sports apps are handicapped because you can't watch your own home team's games.

Now, no Trailers. That makes no sense whatsoever.

EDIT: I'm in Canada
 
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monty77 said:
..might be late to the game with this but have any iOS5 users noticed that you can now airplay BBC iPlayer to the ATV? Or was this there already? It used to be sound only.
Click to expand...

In theory shouldn't you be able to stream anything to aTV, including things like Hulu, ABC, NBC, etc?
 
Wo'nt update for me (UK). Looks like it is going to, downloads fine but says at the end 'the update was not installed'.

Tried 4 times and it says the same when trying to restore also.
 
NHL GameCenter support seals the deal for a purchase at some point... Just a bit nervous about the rumored hardware update.
 
@peterjcat: Thanks for this explanation. Helps to temper my expectations.

peterjcat said:
If an app has Video Out enabled (traditionally for one of the video adapters), instead of looking at the iPad screen, AirPlay Mirroring will act on the Video Out signal instead.
Click to expand...

That's odd. Why would Apple have made this decision? It seems to me that the sensible thing to do would be to retain the iDevice's ability to Airplay the "Video Out" signal using the regular Airplay option, but then override that when the user has toggled the "mirroring" switch. I can understand where certain Game developers would want to have something different on the iPad than is on the TV screen, and those particular games can just use Airplay without the "mirroring" toggle. But when we toggle "mirroring" on, it should literally mean mirroring, not "mirroring unless the app has a video out signal".
 
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eayost said:
NHL GameCenter support seals the deal for a purchase at some point... Just a bit nervous about the rumored hardware update.
Click to expand...

It's getting pretty late in the year to release any more hardware as manufacturing has to ramp up production for Christmas. Even the iPhone 4S is a bit "late" considering.

I wouldn't expect anything until the middle of next year.
 
I am on Ethernet connection and this Apple TV update is taking 104 minutes?

Apple server must be slammed because this cant be that big.
 
Updates are nice, pity Photostream is lost towards the bottom of a list which I can't remove stuff from. I've no interest in WSJ or NLB.TV so would quite like to re-order the menu or remove them (without having to jailbreak it).
 
It wouldn't not be so bad if you actually got full 4:3 video, but your ending up usually with a 16:9 video within in. So u just end up with a square in the middle of the screen. The developers of the plugins hv known about AirPlay mirroring for long enough to make there so they dealt with it well
peterjcat said:
The default for AirPlay Mirroring is 4:3 because that's the size of the iPad screen (presumably the 4S will mirror a slightly wider 3:2 image).

If an app has Video Out enabled (traditionally for one of the video adapters), instead of looking at the iPad screen, AirPlay Mirroring will act on the Video Out signal instead. That will be a full 16:9 image. However, many TV type apps don't enable Video Out, precisely because they don't want you to watch shows on a big screen for free. So a 4:3 image is the best you can hope for here.

If they're feeling particularly unhelpful here, the app can enable Video Out but just feed it a blank signal or a message that says "No can do". That way AirPlay Mirroring will send the Video Out signal instead of what's on the screen, and you won't get any image at all.

Bottom line is that AirPlay Mirroring is no help if the app developers don't want you to watch on a big screen, and not always very useful if they don't want to make the effort to give you a good big screen experience.

Video quality is always going to be compromised because the iPad has to encode a real-time H.264 video stream from all the pixels on your screen, which takes a lot of effort to do well. When you try to recompress an already-compressed stream, the results often aren't pretty.

AirPlay Mirroring is best suited for still, simple images, like presentations, Internet browsing etc (I don't know if there's a web browser that does 720p video out -- that would be cool). Games are OK too as their graphics are often more predictable and easier to compress than real-life imagery.
Click to expand...
 
noticed they added advert capability into the WSJ internet app, so it's possible we'll see hulu+ at some point.
 
I was so fed up with having to bounce between my ATV2 for Netflix and PS3 (the black hole of energy consuming devices) for Hulu+ that I caved in and bought a Roku XS yesterday. Disconnected the ATV2 last night and enjoyed using the Roku.

Fast-forward to 5 minutes ago, and I saw the headline stating an update for ATV2. I was dreading the thought of Apple adding Hulu+ to the ATV2, but I guess I made the right choice yesterday.

Taking Airplay and Netflix out of the equation, what do I get by keeping the ATV2 in my theater setup? I'd like to keep it, but the Roku smokes it feature-wise.
 
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AirPlay mirroring DOES display in full screen 16:9 on a wide screen tv if the developer supports it in their app.

And regular video AirPlay is better quality than mirroring but mirroring looks pretty good to me.
 
jwdsail said:
No App store... still?

Hockey? Really?

No live.twit.tv?
No NASCAR Raceview?
No Amazon Prime Video?

It's likely a welcome upgrade for current owners, but still leaves the AppleTV severely lacking compared to a mac mini...
Click to expand...

Whats wrong with hockey? I am very excited about this update, good job Apple!
 
The way many people get into Hockey is by seeing it live. The game that got me hooked was a Sharks vs. Detroit playoff game. It was maybe the 2nd game I had ever been to. Two years later, and now I have season tickets. It's really a great game. Makes other sports seem slow.

By the way: I don't live in what most people would think of being a "hockey market" (in other words: it's not cold). But every game here sells out and Sharks Ice has the largest adult hockey program in the country. Hockey is not only for those in the far north :)
 
JackieTreehorn said:
Looks like the ultimate test for Apple servers around the globe.
Click to expand...

yeah man i remember before the iPhone 4 launch apple had been buying and building space for rows and rows of rack mount servers. But with all these updates that went out today and it holding steady, and most updates going well, I haven't heard many "I updated and ___ " horror stories as of yet. this is definitely both good and awesome!
 
ipedro said:
I was wondering where this new Trailers app was, and the "In Theatres" menu looks identical. The answer: It's US only. :(
Click to expand...

I'm in the U.S. so I can compare.

The new "Trailers" section looks very, very similar to the old one.

At first I didn't immediately even notice the change. Then I went to the other room (I've left that AppleTV jailbroken on 4.3.3) to see what specifically was new.

The old one just lumped all the trailers under one heading. The new one breaks them up into categories:
Just Added
Top Movies in Theaters
Opening Soon
Top Reviewed from Rotten Tomatoes

And at the top banner are four movies, with "Browse" in the middle. Select that and it lets you browse by genre.

All in all, not big deal IMO -- you're not missing much. I am much more impressed with the layout and utility of Apple's new Trailers application for iPad/iPhone. It's seriously slick. And you can AirPlay from those devices to the AppleTV… so if I'm browsing for Trailers I think I'll be doing it that way...
 
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