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Given up on my ATV for now... Have you?

Have you given up on ATV?

  • Yes, I found an alternative.

    Votes: 47 25.5%

  • No, my primary media box is still ATV.

    Votes: 137 74.5%
  • Total voters
    184
I've had 3 over the years and have 100% given up on the things. Gave them away , the last one I quite literally threw in the trash in frustration.

I thought it might be my wifi - I was using an old airport system so upgraded to bt infinity , that didn't work , tried a home hub 3 , then a 5 then a home hub 3v b - nope...

So I upgraded a business line to another level of BT infinity - VERY fast - everything works with it - EVERYTHING ( HP printers , iPads , iPhones , Macs of various descriptions , Sky boxes , TV's etc etc ) - EXCEPT the apple tv

That thing loses connection , locks up , freezes and is generally total and utter cr*p. Airport's flakey as hell too on it.

Worst product apple have ever made imo.
 
George Dawes said:
I've had 3 over the years and have 100% given up on the things. Gave them away , the last one I quite literally threw in the trash in frustration.

I thought it might be my wifi - I was using an old airport system so upgraded to bt infinity , that didn't work , tried a home hub 3 , then a 5 then a home hub 3v b - nope...

So I upgraded a business line to another level of BT infinity - VERY fast - everything works with it - EVERYTHING ( HP printers , iPads , iPhones , Macs of various descriptions , Sky boxes , TV's etc etc ) - EXCEPT the apple tv

That thing loses connection , locks up , freezes and is generally total and utter cr*p. Airport's flakey as hell too on it.

Worst product apple have ever made imo.
Click to expand...

Apple uses a single core A5.
http://ifixit.org/blog/1915/apple-tv-teardown-reveals-upgraded-wireless-single-core-a5/

I agree with the network problems, I have random cut outs for years with it, Apple really does treat this device like a hobby.
 
I use it rarely, an only to stream the occasional movie from the iMac to the TV.

I don't know how things are setup in the US, but in the UK, I think that with a little bit of work or opening it up to some apps, it could be made into a fantastic content delivery device.

That way, on-demand channels could have their apps on it (BBC, ITV, C4, FIVE, Sky Go) and a great feature would be SAT-IP ability. A lot of those features are already there, but locked down.
 
I have the Atv, Roku and a Chrome stick. I use the ATV every day, the Roku once in a while and the Chrome almost never.
 
I only use my :apple:TV2 to XBMC and stream movies from my NAS. Navigating around was getting pretty slow so I grabbed a Fire TV Box and installed XBMC on there.

Amazon FTV sticks are now sold out on Amazon and Best Buy, will pick one up when avail.
 
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I have three TVs and had an ATV 2 and an ATV 3. The ATV 2 is jail broken with XBMC installed on it. They work just fine for me. I wanted to get into building my library so I picked up a refurbed quad mini for my 3rd TV. I picked up a $100 iTunes card for $75 on eBay so movie rentals are pretty cheap. I can wait for an ATV 4 and hopefully Apple will have an ATV that supports third party apps and the latest Bluetooth.
 
JoEw said:
After many years of countless airplaying and random network stuttering, I have upgraded to a $24 dollar Amazon Fire TV stick, apps I now have Amazon Instant Video, Plex, XBMC (Kodi), and Spotify. While my ATV remains sitting on my mantle, I might dust it off when there is an app store of some kind but my $99 dollar ATV has been beaten by a $24 dollar Amazon android-running stick for now. Whatever Apple has sitting in the lab, I hope they release it soon.
Click to expand...

No. No reason to.
It works flawless with Netflix and iTunes and it never stutters.
I only use it hardwired on Ethernet and my Mac Mini doubles as the movie server on a GigE connection to the switch.

Most of you "ATV sucks" people, either have a faulty unit or don't know how to debug your home networks. There are many things that can lead to stuttering and congestion both on ethernet and wifi.

I've used ATVs since they first appeared and recently traded my ATV2 unit for double the price of an ATV3. I don't care about jailbreaking, I want smooth easy Netflix and my movie collection streaming to my TV. For those purposes the ATV3 is perfect.
 
tentales said:
No. No reason to.
It works flawless with Netflix and iTunes and it never stutters.
I only use it hardwired on Ethernet and my Mac Mini doubles as the movie server on a GigE connection to the switch.

Most of you "ATV sucks" people, either have a faulty unit or don't know how to debug your home networks. There are many things that can lead to stuttering and congestion both on ethernet and wifi.

I've used ATVs since they first appeared and recently traded my ATV2 unit for double the price of an ATV3. I don't care about jailbreaking, I want smooth easy Netflix and my movie collection streaming to my TV. For those purposes the ATV3 is perfect.
Click to expand...

My ATV2 works flawless as well through my ethernet connection. I also have a smart TV but I just prefer to use Netflix and anything else through the ATV. It's just too convenient.

I have a 2012 Mac Mini that serves up non Apple purchased movies and it does it's just perfectly.
 
tentales said:
No. No reason to.
It works flawless with Netflix and iTunes and it never stutters.
I only use it hardwired on Ethernet and my Mac Mini doubles as the movie server on a GigE connection to the switch.

Most of you "ATV sucks" people, either have a faulty unit or don't know how to debug your home networks. There are many things that can lead to stuttering and congestion both on ethernet and wifi.

I've used ATVs since they first appeared and recently traded my ATV2 unit for double the price of an ATV3. I don't care about jailbreaking, I want smooth easy Netflix and my movie collection streaming to my TV. For those purposes the ATV3 is perfect.
Click to expand...

If I do have faulty unit that means apple swapped my previous faulty unit with yet another 🙄

In any case I'm glad it works well for you, and if you only use iTunes and Netflix the ATV works fine for that.
 
I got an Apple TV a couple of years ago for Christmas. I used it quite frequently then, until Chromecast came out. For what it does, ATV is perfectly fine. The CEC TV wake on feature of Chromecast just makes it a tad more convenient to use.

I just got the new Amazon stick also; so far it's decent.
 
JackieInCo said:
My ATV2 works flawless as well through my ethernet connection. I also have a smart TV but I just prefer to use Netflix and anything else through the ATV. It's just too convenient.

I have a 2012 Mac Mini that serves up non Apple purchased movies and it does it's just perfectly.
Click to expand...
I have 2 AppleTV2s (jallbroken) and an AppleTV3 and mine all work perfect (even the one that runs on wifi). Not sure why others are having issues, but it hasn't been my experience on my network. I also has a Roku XDS and I just prefer the combination of Airplay, the ability to sync podcasts with iOS, and the interaction with Apple apps including iTunes, iTunes Match, and iTunes Radio. I have iPhones and iPads and I like the way you can just open most music/video/photo apps and send them to the TV with a touch of a button (which for music, you can also have controls in the lock screen). Also, when I don't feel like using my iOS device to control it, many of the most important apps can be controlled with a standard of universal remote (Youtube, Netflix, HBO, etc..)

I thought about getting a Chromecast since they are practically free (they bundle it with free months of Google Play and Hulu), but I was thinking about the CEC feature and I am not sure it would be all that useful. Can you use it to switch inputs and turn the TV off? If it can't be pulled into my system for its remote control capabilities, I am not sure what I would use it for. I have a feeling it would get used less than the Roku since I prefer apps to using a browser.
 
JoEw said:
After many years of countless airplaying and random network stuttering, I have upgraded to a $24 dollar Amazon Fire TV stick, apps I now have Amazon Instant Video, Plex, XBMC (Kodi), and Spotify.
Click to expand...

The ATV3 is still working fine, and, is easy for almost anyone (family, visitor) to use. I've used Roku before (and helped set it up with Netflix), but, I still like the ATV best and like the ATV controller the best-- nice, short-stroke click, easy on the joints, not squishy, and easy to clean. (But, too easy to misplace.) What it doesn't do, is 3840x2160p60 + HDMI 2.0. The ATV4, I hope.
 
Nope, we use all three of ours daily. I wish they would improve the menu for people with a lot of content but I use Plex + Plexconnect now so I guess I really don't care. Connects wirelessly and plays everything. I don't need an app store (except for plex) so I'm happy.
 
I have tried numerous different options to replace my Sony XL-301 running windows 7 x86 media center over the years including both the old style and new style ATV, Plex, xbmc.

None of them worked anywhere as good for my big media requirements and have all been discarded. My xl3 has 8tb of internal storage, access to more media off the 12tb storage array hooked up to one of my servers. So I upgraded the xl3 instead; I recently flashed it with the big bios xl3 community ROM to add new cpu support so gone from an e6700 core2duo to a q6700 core2quad and shortly the big bios update project are releasing a bios with ahci support so I can finally boot off an SSD. A Kepler gt640 Rev 2 card will be fitted soon for 4k support to replace the current AMD5450.

With the media control plug in with 7MCE I can switch subs on/off adjust audio sync on the fly all via the MCE remote and with the codec packs hooked up to my optical input on my amp it plays every single format with aplomb unlike nearly any other system. The my movies plug in adds all the thumbnails and movie info. Air video server HD caters for all the iOS devices and transcodes on the fly for those files I haven't already converted. Netflix works on 7 MCE too. The 3 kids and the missus have all mastered the interface, from movies, pictures, music, catch up tv etc so I guess I'll be sticking with my master of all trades my Sony xl3 is for the foreseeable future!
 
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JoEw said:
After many years of countless airplaying and random network stuttering,
Click to expand...

So you're not on the most recent model? What do you use as a wireless access point?

I have upgraded to a $24 dollar Amazon Fire TV stick, apps I now have Amazon Instant Video, Plex, XBMC (Kodi), and Spotify. While my ATV remains sitting on my mantle, I might dust it off when there is an app store of some kind but my $99 dollar ATV has been beaten by a $24 dollar Amazon android-running stick for now. Whatever Apple has sitting in the lab, I hope they release it soon.
Click to expand...

Having used both it is my experience that my ATV soundly trounces the "android-running stick." I have two Apple TV's and have only ever had a problem when watching Apple's live WWDC broadcast. I've noticed I can't watch any of the approx 3 TB of movies/music/TV shows that are stored on my Time Capsule with the Android stick. I stream from the Time Capsule to the ATV's, so Android is really a non-starter. I don't use Spotify (I get Rhapsody free), I don't need XBMC or Plex for anything (iTunes/Video/AppleTV works), and Amazon instant video is not worth more than my current video catalog/iTunes.

So in your specific instance, this may work for YOU, and that's great. But I use my AppleTV'(S) daily. Without issue. Without complaint. And I look forward to HBO being a subscription service available on ATV in 2015.
 
kd5jos said:
So you're not on the most recent model? What do you use as a wireless access point?



Having used both it is my experience that my ATV soundly trounces the "android-running stick." I have two Apple TV's and have only ever had a problem when watching Apple's live WWDC broadcast. I've noticed I can't watch any of the approx 3 TB of movies/music/TV shows that are stored on my Time Capsule with the Android stick. I stream from the Time Capsule to the ATV's, so Android is really a non-starter. I don't use Spotify (I get Rhapsody free), I don't need XBMC or Plex for anything (iTunes/Video/AppleTV works), and Amazon instant video is not worth more than my current video catalog/iTunes.

So in your specific instance, this may work for YOU, and that's great. But I use my AppleTV'(S) daily. Without issue. Without complaint. And I look forward to HBO being a subscription service available on ATV in 2015.
Click to expand...

Airport Extreme.
Did you try the FireTV or Chromecast?

If you only use iTunes + Netflix the ATV works fine but thats basically all you can do and have to Airplay everything else of course, I got frustrated doing this especially after IOS8 made it to unreliable for me and I was having problems back to IOS6/7 days..

I think the ATV would be awesome if it had more access to apps every other streaming solution has, but it doesn't.

It is well documented I am not the only one with airplay problems either, just check out this forum 🙄
 
We use our two ATV2 (had one of these since launch day) every day, both use Ethernet so no connection issues. We cut cable several years ago and have an antenna on the roof although we end up just watching Netflix most of the time.

I have hundreds of Movies and TV shows on a Drobo that we can stream as well.

Really love these things, the only issue has been the little silver apple remotes have failed on us, so had to buy some cheap universal remotes.

----------
From A Buick 8 said:
We use our two ATV2 (had one of these since launch day) every day, both use Ethernet so no connection issues. We cut cable several years ago and have an antenna on the roof although we end up just watching Netflix most of the time.

I have hundreds of Movies and TV shows on a Drobo that we can stream as well.

Really love these things, the only issue has been the little silver apple remotes have failed on us, so had to buy some cheap universal remotes.
Click to expand...

I have seen no aiplay issues, I use that from time to time with Airvideo app to steam my old MST3K collection.
 
Our ATV3s are going strong, they do everything we need so we haven't had to look elsewhere.

It would be nice if the ATV supported third party apps but that's about it.
 
blueroom said:
Our ATV3s are going strong, they do everything we need so we haven't had to look elsewhere.

It would be nice if the ATV supported third party apps but that's about it.
Click to expand...
It does support third party apps (HBO, Netflix, YouTube, etc..). It also supports many more via Airplay.
 
With all the additional channels they keep adding, my ATV can be used like a cable box for a secondary tv instead of renting one from my tv provider.
 
Still use my ATV3 daily. It has had issues mainly after an update that are then usually fixed in the next update.

I tried a Chromecast but it gave me headaches, I assume due to the Ultrasound stuff it uses? I had a similar thing when I had ultrasound therapy on my shoulder. Bar that it was a very nice little device.

Haven't tried the FireTV or Roku but I do like the look of the Nexus Player. That said owning an Iphone and a couple of Ipads it would be nice to get a nice new shiny ATV4 with extra features so I don't lose Airplay.

They could also add some stuff for us Brits BBC Iplayer, ITV, 4OD etc.
 
does what i need, would like a few more features

I love my AppleTV2. Use it every day for Netflix/Hulu/Hbo/ESPN/iTunes/Youtube for TV/Movies/Video. I also subscribe to iTunes Match so it has all my music playable through my stereo which is nice. I use the MLB/NFL and occasionally the NBA apps frequently. I use Photostream for my iPhone photos as well as a few albums. I love the ability to add my desktop (2nd screen) to the TV to stream other videos from the web or apps like spotify.

Cant imagine any reason to switch, tho there are improvements to be made.

I would LOVE the following upgrades:
1> Universal Search (this needs to happen soon)
2> App store
3> Use as a replacement for my cable box (i heard this was in the works with time warner at some point?)
4> a morning homepage, i.e. i power it up in the morning and it shows the local weather, the commute/traffic issues on a route i save, latest updates from a news source i select, healthkit related stauts/encouragement/etc, anything for that day from my iCal, email, maybe even hooks into Homekit, wake upon a timer or wake on voice would make this perfect, the true digital home.
 
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