AppleTV Feature Idea

[Keir]

I wouldn't be surprised if this has been bought up already but I only just thought of it.

What I think would be quite a handy feature (especially for some people from what I have read on here) is if you could play a DVD remotely with a paired Mac or Windows machine.

You're able to install OS X using the superdrive on another mac so I don't see why you shouldn't be able to stream a DVD to your AppleTV.

I would imagine it would be easy to implement and when a Movie DVD is found in the optical drive of a paired machine, it could simple display a DVD or Remote DVD option in the Movies menu on the AppleTV.

I have submitted this as a feature request and if it's something you'd like to see added then you can request it at
http://www.apple.com/feedback/appletv.html

Anyway, just an idea I had

 

[DoFoT9]

thats a pretty good idea! but kind of defeats the purpose of the TV!

 

[designgeek]

I wouldn't be surprised if this has been bought up already but I only just thought of it.

What I think would be quite a handy feature (especially for some people from what I have read on here) is if you could play a DVD remotely with a paired Mac or Windows machine.

You're able to install OS X using the superdrive on another mac so I don't see why you shouldn't be able to stream a DVD to your AppleTV.

I would imagine it would be easy to implement and when a Movie DVD is found in the optical drive of a paired machine, it could simple display a DVD or Remote DVD option in the Movies menu on the AppleTV.

I have submitted this as a feature request and if it's something you'd like to see added then you can request it at
http://www.apple.com/feedback/appletv.html

Anyway, just an idea I had

Usually it annoys me when people do this but that's actually a good one. I'd go for it. That would make it more useful certainly, I wonder if someone can hack it to do so now using drivers from a MBA...

 

[Keir]

thats a pretty good idea! but kind of defeats the purpose of the TV!

haha that is true, but if you didn't have a DVD in a paired machine's dvd drive then you'd never even notice the option.
It's a software solution to a hardware problem that seems to be an issue with a fair few people.

Personally it's not something that I would use as I'm happy to rip my DVD's, purely because it's easier to watch thing's when you want, but for those that would like to see an optical drive in the AppleTV then it would be a nice quick fix

 

[Keir]

Usually it annoys me when people do this but that's actually a good one. I'd go for it. That would make it more useful certainly, I wonder if someone can hack it to do so now using drivers from a MBA...

it would be pretty cool. I guess it would be useful for me in a way as mum and dad have their DVD's which frankly, I wouldn't want to rip for my collection so it would make it easier when they wanted to watch one of theirs...although I guess that's what we have a DVD recorder for however for those with just DVD player's who would like to minimise the amount of stuff around their TV then it would be an option.

 

[MacBoobsPro]

Its not a bad idea but the question would then be, why don't they just build one into the AppleTV? Now your right back at the beginning.

I think eventually when Apple decides the time is right, the AppleTV will transform into an Apple Television set with built in iTunes. i.e. everything will be stored on the TV and you can control iTunes directly on your TV as well as remotely from your Mac.

It's right up Apples street. A Simple and elegant solution. There still wont be a DVD option but your TV will most likely hooked up to one anyway so it matters not.

I would love to see an Apple LCD or LED tv with these capabilities. A multitouch remote would cap it all off!

 

[sandman42]

Not to burst your bubble, but this has been brought up quite a few times in the past. One problem with this idea is that DVDs use less compression (MPEG2) than the formats currently required by the TV, which means the volume of data that would have to stream is greater. Lots of people's networks wouldn't be able to handle it, at least not without a lot of buffering time at the beginning, so it wouldn't be a great 'user experience'. I suspect the real reason Apple doesn't provide it is, like others have said, that it's not consistent with their business model and 'plan' for the TV, but it might also be that it wouldn't consistently work well either.

 

[DoFoT9]

Not to burst your bubble, but this has been brought up quite a few times in the past. One problem with this idea is that DVDs use less compression (MPEG2) than the formats currently required by the TV, which means the volume of data that would have to stream is greater. Lots of people's networks wouldn't be able to handle it, at least not without a lot of buffering time at the beginning, so it wouldn't be a great 'user experience'. I suspect the real reason Apple doesn't provide it is, like others have said, that it's not consistent with their business model and 'plan' for the TV, but it might also be that it wouldn't consistently work well either.

Oh dont be silly. You can comfortably stream a DVD over 802.11g. I used to do it, network utilisation was around 3MB/s, which was pretty much the max my router could do. All the latest routers are 802.11n as we know so streaming a DVD will be easy.