Just bought an AppleTV

[A4orce84]

Hey Guys,


So I just received a brand new AppleTV and hooked it up. I already had a Macbook, iPhone, and iPad....so I guess this made the most sense to stay in the Apple ecosystem.

I already had a chromecast to do some streaming (or casting) to my TV, so excited to get more plugged into Apple's toy for the Home TV experience.

What's everyone's favorite feature, app, function that they like to do? Anything I should definitely look into or setup to get the most out of my device?


Thanks in advance!
--Asif

 

[wesk702]

Hey Guys,


So I just received a brand new AppleTV and hooked it up. I already had a Macbook, iPhone, and iPad....so I guess this made the most sense to stay in the Apple ecosystem.

I already had a chromecast to do some streaming (or casting) to my TV, so excited to get more plugged into Apple's toy for the Home TV experience.

What's everyone's favorite feature, app, function that they like to do? Anything I should definitely look into or setup to get the most out of my device?



Thanks in advance!
--Asif

Using airvideo to stream over the air encoding mkv movies to my Apple TV from my computer, using my phone is my favorite. Second is HBO go, and Netflix. I'd say Hulu, but I hate the ridiculous amount of commercials in a paid app. Plus after cutting the cord, my cable bill is only $70 from $140 before.

 

[A4orce84]

Is airvideo free? Looks like I just need to throw the server component on my desktop, and that's it?

 

[rkaufmann87]

Is airvideo free? Looks like I just need to throw the server component on my desktop, and that's it?

He meant AirPlay and yes it's free assuming your Mac's have that capability. It's free on IOS devices too. You need to check to see which Macs have the ability to use AirPlay.

BTW, i use my ATV to stream my 750 DVDs from my iMac to my big screen TV. Works well and easy to setup.

 

[A4orce84]

Do you have them all ripped and loaded up in iTunes?

Thanks again everyone for all the comments so far! Please keep them coming!


--Asif

 

[Lord Hamsa]

The things I do most, in order:

1) Stream movies and TV shows from my own (ripped) collection from my Mac Mini HTPC.

2) Netflix.

3) AirPlay video from an iPhone app.

4) Use AirPlay mirroring (mostly to entertain the young ones with whatever game I'm playing on my phone without them having to crowd around me and peer over my shoulder)

5) B*tch about the UI.

Edited to add: though I may have placed #5 too low on the list...

 

[A4orce84]

How do you achieve #1?


Thanks,
Asif

 

[Plutonius]

How do you achieve #1?


Thanks,
Asif

Google Plexconnect.

 

[orestes1984]

The first step to fixing all your issues is using Subler to convert all of your MKVs and other containerised movies to MP4s. Once you've done that you can tag them all with iDentify and then import them into your iTunes library which will neatly sort and categorise all of your movies on your hard drive.

People bitch and moan about iTunes but that's mostly because they've never bothered to tag their content properly. Once you've tagged everything iTunes works almost faultlessly

 

[Lord Hamsa]

How do you achieve #1?


Thanks,
Asif

A) Use Handbrake to rip my DVDs to M4V files (using the Apple TV3 preset), then MetaZ to change the files' metadata before loading into iTunes (with Home Sharing enabled so the ATV can see the library). The process for ripping BD is similar, but more complicated, but since I don't have a BD drive on any of my computers, I don't do that anyway. When buying movies on BD, I tend to look for packages that include a digital copy.

B) iTunes purchases download to local storage in iTunes (with Home Sharing), These will also be available to stream direct from the cloud, but having it local has advantages too, including lower latency.