Apple TV Software Update Adds Streaming of Purchased TV Shows, Vimeo Support, and More

[Chicagomac08]

Not everything showing up

Looks like my prior purchases of The Walking Dead aren't included.

I wonder why all my shows aren't showing up. Maybe it's a slow roll out?

 

[eoblaed]

I wonder why all my shows aren't showing up. Maybe it's a slow roll out?

According to John Gruber, it's a rollout thing.

 

[jalagl]

I really want some international love for aTV. The option to remove MLB.tv (irrelevant to most outside the US and is the first thing you see when you turn it on) and add in some iPlayer, iTV Player, 4OD, skyPlayer. Even my Wii has iPlayer!

Disagree on MLB.tv, it is actually one of the factors that influenced my decision to get the TV. I live outside the US, love baseball and pay for mlb.tv. Here they only have one game per day on cable TV (two if we are lucky), and normally not from the teams I follow.

That being said, I would LOVE having iPlayer. It is restricted outside the UK, though, so I don't know if it would work for me. But it would definitely be a great addition.

 

[prhammer]

I'm hoping that some of the missing shows are just due to this being a new feature and perhaps they are still getting the files prepared. Unless there are contractual issues with some shows/networks.

Just checked my iTunes again and shows that weren't there this morning have now appeared - so it is definitely updating through the course of the day as they roll the system out.

 

[jamisonbaines]

Happy to see the vimeo addition, though some of the videos I searched for which I have viewed online aren't showing up on the Apple TV. Any reason why that's the case?

I had my box jailbroken so this is my first time with the MLB option on there. Nice addition. There is no NBA league pass option on my ATV though, is that a Canadian thing or an offseason thing (or maybe something else?)

Still no TV shows for Canada.

Happy with the upgrade though. Keep the content coming.

 

[jaw04005]

Being an early adopter who dropped 300 bucks on a 1st-gen Apple TV, it feels like a slight betrayal to see these updates (Netflix, Vimeo, etc.) available only to the users who paid $100 for a 2nd-gen ATV... I always told people that one of the (many) reasons iPods prevailed over other MP3 players was that Apple kep supporting/updating them long after you purchased it, but now I'm feeling the opposite with my Apple TV

If you are really an early Apple TV adopter you would realize that Apple offered a ton of updates for the Apple TV 1.0 over its lifetime including two major software updates and a free iOS app.

They supported it longer than most other products.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3187

If you bought an Apple TV 1.0 before the 2.0 release, you got screwed.

 

[Avatar74]

Happy to see the vimeo addition, though some of the videos I searched for which I have viewed online aren't showing up on the Apple TV. Any reason why that's the case?

A couple possibilities come to mind... It could be restrictions placed by the copyright owner (I believe Vimeo allows independent contributors to set some control which as a content creator I like, and it actually makes content creators more likely to contribute material rather than less. There may be differences on international and domestic distribution rights for independently produced content, e.g. short films... say a filmmaker worked out a deal for distro in Germany but not in England or the US.

the other reason might be format... Vimeo launched an HTML5 player in 2010 but some older content may still be Flash-based and inaccessible to AppleTV.

I've been fiddling with the new update for just a few minutes and I absolutely love it. I've been using AppleTV from the beginning, and this year got AppleTV 2.... I've completely abandoned cable TV which was costing me over $100/mo to get the digital package just so I could get the four or five HD channels I wanted, and still only ever be able to watch a fraction of the content. I think this isn't for everyone, but in combination with the rest of Apple's product ecosystem of mobile devices they've got almost everyone covered in one way or another.

 

[imahawki]

I'm having trouble with AirPlay from my iPad after the update. Anyone else? I'm trying to play a movie loaded on the iPad through iTunes. Not a web video or anything.

 

[Biscuit411]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

Happy to see the vimeo addition, though some of the videos I searched for which I have viewed online aren't showing up on the Apple TV. Any reason why that's the case?

A couple possibilities come to mind... It could be restrictions placed by the copyright owner (I believe Vimeo allows independent contributors to set some control which as a content creator I like, and it actually makes content creators more likely to contribute material rather than less. There may be differences on international and domestic distribution rights for independently produced content, e.g. short films... say a filmmaker worked out a deal for distro in Germany but not in England or the US.

the other reason might be format... Vimeo launched an HTML5 player in 2010 but some older content may still be Flash-based and inaccessible to AppleTV.

I've been fiddling with the new update for just a few minutes and I absolutely love it. I've been using AppleTV from the beginning, and this year got AppleTV 2.... I've completely abandoned cable TV which was costing me over $100/mo to get the digital package just so I could get the four or five HD channels I wanted, and still only ever be able to watch a fraction of the content. I think this isn't for everyone, but in combination with the rest of Apple's product ecosystem of mobile devices they've got almost everyone covered in one way or another.

I ditched my cable too. I do Netflix streaming and DVD rentals and that's it. It's plenty for me and my kids. I was leaning toward an ATV, and I think this is a step in the right direction. Let's hope v3 with iOS 5 has more surprises in store...

 

[imahawki]

Do you cord cutters not watch any sports?

 

[CapnJackGig]

Do you cord cutters not watch any sports?

I get ESPN 3 on my 360 and MLB and NBA are on Roku and Apple TV2. Most NFL games are on over the air. You don't miss sports by dumping cable.

Just noticed that some stuff that was gone is now showing up. Simpsons episodes are beginning to appear, but not the full season. Still only have part of season 2 of Community. Family Guy also just showed up, but again is missing several episodes per season.

 

[Chicagomac08]

Getting Better

According to John Gruber, it's a rollout thing.

Yep, it is getting better every time I check back.

 

[Biscuit411]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

Cord cutter and NFL nut. Over-the-air works for 90% of games I care about. Sports bars for the other 10%. Same for NBA.

 

[imahawki]

I get ESPN 3 on my 360 and MLB and NBA are on Roku and Apple TV2. Most NFL games are on over the air. You don't miss sports by dumping cable.

Just noticed that some stuff that was gone is now showing up. Simpsons episodes are beginning to appear, but not the full season. Still only have part of season 2 of Community. Family Guy also just showed up, but again is missing several episodes per season.

Until I can get Big10 Network on the Internet, I'm not dropping cable.

 

[CapnJackGig]

Until I can get Big10 Network on the Internet, I'm not dropping cable.

Understood. I dont care for college sports, so it's not much of an issue to me. When they stop letting computers and sports writers decide the champion each season, I'll start watching.

 

[fpnc]

This is a pretty big update for the iTunes/iCloud service on the Apple TV.

My Apple TV is currently at a different location from my home and after the update to the latest firmware I looked in the Purchased TV section on the Apple TV and found literally hundreds of TV shows that I had downloaded from iTunes over the last several years (most were fee pilots and single episodes, but I've also purchased maybe $100 of additional content -- mostly HD at reduced, special season prices). I then selected a few of the titles and they began streaming almost instantly to the Apple TV (and while at this other location the Apple TV is completely standalone, it's not even connected to a Mac/PC).

I then tried to "purchase" a few more of the free TV episodes and they were ready for playback within only a few seconds (they obviously aren't downloaded, they are just streamed in realtime to the Apple TV).

There also seems to be some interesting content on Vimeo, all presented with the same nicely curated interface that is used throughout the Apple TV.

Just yesterday I bought one of the price-reduced Logitech Revues (Google TV) from Best Buy for only $85 ($100 - $15 Best Buy Rewards certificate) and I've got to say I was more impressed with this one update to the Apple TV than anything I've yet seen on the Revue.

Sadly, IMO, the Revue fails miserably at doing what should be its most important function -- content presentation and consumption. Most of the content that you are likely to view on the Revue can only be accessed via links to web sites where each site presents a different look and feel with no optimization for TV-based viewing or control. Frankly, a lot of this content is just a PITA to use (biggest issue, where's the full-screen zoom button, which you usually have to toggle manually).

Contrast that to the Apple TV where you have easy access to literally thousands of video podcasts which cover a notable percentage of the episodic content that you can find on the web. Furthermore, the Apple TV presents all of this using a consistent, full-screen mode with a UI specifically tailored for a TV.

All in all, a good day for the Apple TV.

 

[HMFIC03]

Also _ I think Game Recaps is new on MLB.tv - I don't remember seeing that before.

 

[hexonxonx]

Do you cord cutters not watch any sports?

I don't watch sports. I don't have an Apple TV yet either but I do all my TV viewing through iTunes.

I'm extremely happy that iTunes now has the ability to re-download TV show purchases because I can now delete some shows knowing I can download them again anytime I wish.

 

[fpnc]

...I'm extremely happy that iTunes now has the ability to re-download TV show purchases because I can now delete some shows knowing I can download them again anytime I wish.

You do understand that not all content will be able to be re-downloaded. In fact, some content that is currently available for re-download may not be available in the future. Thus, you better keep a backup or you may eventually lose access to some of your purchases.

 

[hexonxonx]

You do understand that not all content will be able to be re-downloaded. In fact, some content that is currently available for re-download may not be available in the future. Thus, you better keep a backup or you may eventually lose access to some of your purchases.

True. I do have a complete copy of every purchase on at least one of my Macs
As of today, I have 2630 TV shows taking up 1561GB of space. That's way too much to backup to DVD so I've been keeping a copy on each Mac for the past five years.

Some of my purchases will never leave either computer because I watch them many times a year.

 

[HMFIC03]

Also new in this update MLB.tv on the remote app can skip to the tops and bottom of inning with one click of the button as well as skip back 10 seconds.

 

[Champ1]

Yes, definitely. Seems very half-baked to me.

I lost about 300 episodes about 4 years back because they were not backed up. I have them all now. This is really great

 

[shurcooL]

According to John Gruber, it's a rollout thing.

But it's still not even there in Canada. >_>

 

[chrono1081]

ability to stream prior purchased tv shows is huge. i approve.

I don't get why people are saying this. You have always been able to stream your paid for tv shows. They have always showed up on my Apple TV. Am I missing something?

 

[fpnc]

I don't get why people are saying this. You have always been able to stream your paid for tv shows. They have always showed up on my Apple TV. Am I missing something?

You can now stream them directly to the 2nd generation Apple TV from iCloud without linking to a Mac or PC that has the file stored locally in iTunes.

That's a really big difference as you can now carry your Apple TV around as a kind of mobile video jukebox with a virtual copy of each of your TV purchases. That is, the Apple TV can be used completely standalone, even with your purchased TV shows whereas before you could only do that for rentals (for a limited amount of time) or if you linked to a local copy on your Mac/PC.