Your post is worded poorly. I'm not going to argue with you.
Anyway, I love my AppleTV. I find it extremely useful for many things, especially AirPlay. For $100, it makes a great companion to the iPhone.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Is AppleTV really worth it?
- Thread starter eclipse01
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Your post is worded poorly. I'm not going to argue with you.
Anyway, I love my AppleTV. I find it extremely useful for many things, especially AirPlay. For $100, it makes a great companion to the iPhone.
Haha, I can understand that complaint. Inputting your Netflix username/password is such a test of patience. Though to be fair on anything but a keyboard/mouse (360/ps3/wii controller) the input is a chore. Overall, I do like the remote but I use my iPhone to control the ATV.
Depends on how you want to use it. I have an ATV2.
I have a pretty big home, so it's convenient to have everything just stored on my iMac and remotely accessed. The Apple TV is fine for me since I do use iTunes often. I like to use HomeSharing to watch television shows I have on my iMac as I eat breakfast or other free times. When I'm downstairs cleaning, cooking, or we're having a get-together, I use the ATV for movies, music or Pandora.
As for the remote, I either use my iPhone or my Logitech Harmony 650.
I have a pretty big home, so it's convenient to have everything just stored on my iMac and remotely accessed. The Apple TV is fine for me since I do use iTunes often. I like to use HomeSharing to watch television shows I have on my iMac as I eat breakfast or other free times. When I'm downstairs cleaning, cooking, or we're having a get-together, I use the ATV for movies, music or Pandora.
As for the remote, I either use my iPhone or my Logitech Harmony 650.
I am not a gamer but I bought Real Racing HD just to see how it worked and to me it was great. No lag at all (my Apple TV is hard wired). Tested mostly with my iPad 2. I do not believe I was using AirPlay Mirroring. I believe Real Racing can send some of the information to the TV (AirPlay) and also display other information on the iOS device. I think AirPlay is more usable in this mode.
One of the first things you should do is toss that remote and use your iPhone/iPad/iPod.
It's fantastic. I have a Samsung 42" LED TV and it looks like I'm watching a DVD. I've backed up a few of my favorite TV Shows and DVDs to my hard drive, imported them into my iTunes library, and then stream them to my Apple TV. They're fantastic.
I use my iPhone 4S as a remote control for the Apple TV, too.
I have watched a few iTunes Store purchases too, and they're good quality. I mean, it's not Blu-Ray, but I think that would just be so over-the-top in terms of streaming bitrate.
I'm pretty pleased with it, and I get a kick out of reading the MacRumors forums on my TV mirrored via Airplay.
If I was single, I would cancel my cable and landline phone service, bump up my internet service, and I would buy the Season Pass for all the shows I watch. Even if they're $40 a piece, you're talking like 5, maybe 6 shows not viewable over-the-air or internet a year. So that's at most $240 dollars a year for the shows you're paying around $80 per month for on basic cable. Unfortunately the baby likes his Disney channel and the Misses likes her primetime shows.
I just bought a second apple tv for my office. Cancelled the Comcast tv rip off crap-@ 50/month for non hd CNN and others. Now just steam from iPhone to apple tv live on CNN all day for free.
Savings? About 500.00 the first year.
Yeah for some it serves it purpose and is very cheap.
Savings? About 500.00 the first year.
Yeah for some it serves it purpose and is very cheap.
The ability to AirPlay is app dependent so if the developer doesn't include support for AirPlay, you won't be able to watch it on the
TV.I don't have Comcast service but if I had to guess I'm going to say it probably doesn't work over AirPlay as I'm sure Comcast wants you to pay for one of their boxes on each of your televisions and this would be a way around that.
ATV is the one Apple product I simply cannot get enthused about.
In my case I love the outdoors & fitness too much to sit on the couch. Living where more often than not, the weather is gorgeous, I'm into cycling, climbing, water sports & many other fun activities that are good for ones health & happiness.
Perhaps if Apple TV matures over the next few years, offering something compelling, I may feel differently. At this juncture I simply don't care.
In my case I love the outdoors & fitness too much to sit on the couch. Living where more often than not, the weather is gorgeous, I'm into cycling, climbing, water sports & many other fun activities that are good for ones health & happiness.
Perhaps if Apple TV matures over the next few years, offering something compelling, I may feel differently. At this juncture I simply don't care.
When I need to type usernames and passwords in, I use the remote app on my iPhone. I use the keyboard to knock them out.
For someone who doesn't want to fiddle with a media server like on the PS3 (I played for months with one and never did get HD video to stream flawlessly) then the ATV is perfect. I use it strictly to stream movies (I have started converting my Blu-rays for it) and music (~800 albums mostly in ALAC) for this it works great.
Also, tbayrgs, the new developer preview of Mountain Lion allows anything on your mac to airplay on your Apple TV.
Also, tbayrgs, the new developer preview of Mountain Lion allows anything on your mac to airplay on your Apple TV.
The xfinity app does indeed mirror to airplay. In fact, the only one I use that doesn't is the TV.Com app, which is annoying, but the fact that my mom lives in a Comcast area and I have a login allows me to use Comcast OnDemand via my phone and Airplay. For reference, we live about 75 miles away from her.
I live in a Cablevision area myself, and I can't wait to switch to Verizon Fios when I move later this year.
I think it's fair to say that the Apple TV is unlikely to mature in such a way that you will be using it whilst cycling, climbing or water sports. You do plug it into your TV after all.
I use it mainly for streaming content to my TV such as Netflix and renting movies from iTunes in 1080P. It's nice that you can use mirror play with your iPad and iPhone, however in my opinion that's just a feature. If you want to just stream what's on your device to your TV then buy an HDMI cable.
Random opinions really don't matter. An opinion doesn't help you unless you understand the preferences of the person presenting the opinion. Worth is always highly subjective no matter what the topic.
my experience with atv 2.
the only media player that packs both 2 and 5mghz wifi built in.
the best looking and user friendly interface (netflix).
with xbmc (jailbroken) the possibility is endless .
air-play/ mirror is awsome !
once atv3 is jailbroken...1080p completes the "picture" !
ps i don't use my WD-hd+ much anymore
the only media player that packs both 2 and 5mghz wifi built in.
the best looking and user friendly interface (netflix).
with xbmc (jailbroken) the possibility is endless .
air-play/ mirror is awsome !
once atv3 is jailbroken...1080p completes the "picture" !
ps i don't use my WD-hd+ much anymore