Bought an AppleTV last week, and had some initial problems in getting it to work reliably and easily; all sorted here so I thought I'd share in case it helps anyone else.
- Home Sharing was very slow, and unreliable. Airplay was quite unreliable too. Solution: dump my Belkin N router for my cable provider's old G router actually improved things a lot, but still unreliable. Dumping the G router, and wiring the AppleTV via Ethernet was MUCH better. No problem with the AppleTV dropping off network and it's much faster.
- Airplay only offering audio streaming, not video. This was happening a lot when on Wifi (probably bandwidth related) but still on certain sites. I don't know if it's an oversight by the content providers or deliberate decision, but it's a pity. For instance, the FilmON LiveTV would be great for letting me stream live TV channels (that I wouldn't otherwise receive) to my TV, but it only offers audio.
- All video was overscanning (too big for the screen). Solution: as many here suggested, it's always likely to be a TV setting, so found a "PC Mode" on my TV's menus and voila. Perfectly sized/positioned video!
- The included remote control looks nice, but is very poor to use. It's far too easy to accidentally tap the select button while trying to hit left or right. Solution: once I discovered the Remote app on the iPad, who needs it? THIS is how I wanted to enjoy my music & videos!
My BIG worry: last week there was a problem with the Home Sharing authentication server/service; for a few hours I couldn't turn on Home Sharing on any machine (AppleTV, Mac, iPad..). So my 'private' home streaming solution still depends on some server in Apple. If they turn it off, do I lose my home streaming? I certainly lose the ability to add a new device. Is it once-off authentication, or does it check the authentication regularly? I'm a bit worried about that.
All in all, so very happy now. AppleTV on its own, not great. AppleTV + iPad as remote + Mac/PC streaming media =
- Home Sharing was very slow, and unreliable. Airplay was quite unreliable too. Solution: dump my Belkin N router for my cable provider's old G router actually improved things a lot, but still unreliable. Dumping the G router, and wiring the AppleTV via Ethernet was MUCH better. No problem with the AppleTV dropping off network and it's much faster.
- Airplay only offering audio streaming, not video. This was happening a lot when on Wifi (probably bandwidth related) but still on certain sites. I don't know if it's an oversight by the content providers or deliberate decision, but it's a pity. For instance, the FilmON LiveTV would be great for letting me stream live TV channels (that I wouldn't otherwise receive) to my TV, but it only offers audio.
- All video was overscanning (too big for the screen). Solution: as many here suggested, it's always likely to be a TV setting, so found a "PC Mode" on my TV's menus and voila. Perfectly sized/positioned video!
- The included remote control looks nice, but is very poor to use. It's far too easy to accidentally tap the select button while trying to hit left or right. Solution: once I discovered the Remote app on the iPad, who needs it? THIS is how I wanted to enjoy my music & videos!
My BIG worry: last week there was a problem with the Home Sharing authentication server/service; for a few hours I couldn't turn on Home Sharing on any machine (AppleTV, Mac, iPad..). So my 'private' home streaming solution still depends on some server in Apple. If they turn it off, do I lose my home streaming? I certainly lose the ability to add a new device. Is it once-off authentication, or does it check the authentication regularly? I'm a bit worried about that.
All in all, so very happy now. AppleTV on its own, not great. AppleTV + iPad as remote + Mac/PC streaming media =