You won't be able to use AirPlay until Apple updates OS X with this feature, which Apple has not yet announced it would do.
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Orders for New Apple TV Arriving in Customers' Hands [Updated]
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You won't be able to use AirPlay until Apple updates OS X with this feature, which Apple has not yet announced it would do.
That's ridiculous hyperbole. Never did I say that, so why would you? Of course resolution plays a role. But throwing tons of pixels into the frame is only half the story. Compression, compression, compression! When designing content for everyone, bitrate is more important. It's clear that 5mbps was Apple's target. Shoving 10 megabits down a 5 megabit pipe is only going to cause buffering problems, not-so-instant on demand movies and frustrated customers. If Jobs' emails are any indication, Apple sorely lacks Customer Service skills, so designing products that produce fewer tech support calls is always a good thing.
Of the two "HD" resolutions, 720p at 5mbps is superior in image quality to 1080p at 5mbps.
Care to add any other stupidity?
I'm more than a little ticked off. I ordered my AppleTV on the day of the announcement, and yet Fedex shows my order sitting in Alaska with a delivery date of October 5th.
Very disappointing.
Very disappointing.
I understood it a long time ago. I have the old Apple TV and I've been renting movies on it for years. I haven't purchased a DVD for years, and I haven't been to a blockbuster to rent a movie for years.
That is the point of the device. It's not any cheaper to rent movies on it than going to blockbuster/netflix, but it's more convenient. I don't have to drive or deal with mailing disks.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
That's exactly what I know and how I feel too. I just would like someone now to see if maybe that capability is already there, or is the hardware there so that it might be a surprise unlock not too far down the road.
I understand all the "720p is good enough" arguments in great detail. I get it. But all that justification for 720p still works with 1080p hardware. The 720p files will still stream at the same speed, store at the same file size. They'll not overload national bandwidth limits or stutter on average speed connections. Our current hard drives will be able to hold lots of them compared to the same files at 1080p. Etc. I understand all that completely, just like I understand why AAC128 made sense when iPods were maxing out at around 20GB, and AAC256 makes sense now, even though iPods have had lossless playback hardware built in for many years now.
So, I continue to hope that someone will put the new one to the test and definitively pump up or kill my hope. The old one could do a bit better than published specs. Maybe the new one can too?
If someone has a newTV, I'd appreciate it if you could test some 1080p render and see if it can play it back.
In it's current form, it won't. Don't buy any.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
OK. There's also SD files available in iTunes. I think there's more SD than HD. They are not targeted at 5Mbps.
I grasp your argument- and can even appreciate it- but it's like you are choosing points that only support one stance. How does "obviously targeting 5Mbps" apply to a much bigger selection of SD video available for streaming downloading from iTunes?
I'm fine with your arguments pro 720p, pro 5Mbps, etc. You are not wrong for feeling however you feel about this topic. I should not be wrong for feeling however I feel about this topic. You like this box for what you know it can do. I like this box for what I know it can do. One particular feature of this box is good enough for you and your situation. It may or may not be just as good for me and my situation. You know for certain at this point, and I don't.
So I've asked a question for people that own one, and I keep being told over and over that it makes no sense why I should care about that feature. I'm fine with you not caring about that feature. Can you be fine with me caring about it?
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
So you have one and have put it to the test? I'm looking for an actual test... a definitive answer... not someone who has read the specs and deemed it an impossibility. No iPhone could tether... until it could. No iPod could handle 720p video... until it could. Etc.
In my case, I've got a Mac Mini on my main TV, and wanted something to use on a different TV in a different room on a different floor without setting up another whole extra computer.
One thing that nobody seems to be mentioning is using it to watch Internet TV (Twit, Revision3, etc... aka Video Podcasts). I spend the bulk of my TV time watching Rev3 shows on my Mini, and very little time on Hulu/Live TV.
Cost and order
I ordered the Apple TV mid early Sept. In NZ we have a GST tax rise of 2.5% on 1 Oct. I orderd the TV but ship was expected mid Oct.
Apple has shipped 30 Sep for delivery by 5 Oct from Australia which usually only takes 1 day. In doing this Apple has honoured their original price of NZ$169 and saved me the extra 2.5% tax increase. Very thoughtfull!
I ordered the Apple TV mid early Sept. In NZ we have a GST tax rise of 2.5% on 1 Oct. I orderd the TV but ship was expected mid Oct.
Apple has shipped 30 Sep for delivery by 5 Oct from Australia which usually only takes 1 day. In doing this Apple has honoured their original price of NZ$169 and saved me the extra 2.5% tax increase. Very thoughtfull!
Well, there are SD files in iTunes because it was there before HD was, plus I'm sure there's all kinds of Licensing mumbo-jumbo concerning HD. 5 mbps was meant to be seen as the "upper limit" that most people can reliably stream, not as some kind of arbitrary "everything must be 5mbps" rule. SD can be less than 5mbps and stream just fine with great image quality.
In any event, I'd love to see 1080 on the Apple TV, it's just not part of Jobs' plan at the moment.
I don't have mine in my hands yet, but I can tell you from past experience with my old Apple TV: If you don't format the video to exactly the specs listed by Apple, it will not play.
I think the people who have hacked the old Apple TV have gotten 1080 to work on it, so one would only assume that newer, faster hardware would be able to do it to, but Apple still limits via software based around the offerings in the iTunes store.
I wouldn't be surprised if some variation of 1080 wasn't included in some future update or Apple TV version, but it's just not there at this moment.
However, the new Apple TV is already jailbreakable, so we might see some interesting software trickery in the coming months.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
You'll need another mini for that, unless Apple rolls out an app store and those sources create apps to help you do what you're doing on this device.
For video right now, it plays iTunes (home conversion or rentals/buys from the iTunes store), youtube, netflix and vodcasts.
It might have an ability to use the airplay feature to push video from an iDevice to the TV via
TV, though I suspect that will take each player deciding to support that feature, not just something that Apple can turn on for all video content playable on iDevices.For other sources like Hulu, etc it's going to take either Apple building a netflix-like add-on for them, apps in an
TV app store, or this Airplay feature will need to work with them.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Again, I also own the old
TV, and this is not true. You can push the specs a bit and it will still play. I think some specs are like battery life claims- Apple makes them good, but in practice you can get better than that out of them. Since I can't even offer an opinion without it being seen as wrong, I would encourage you to test it and see for yourself.In the pursuit for maximizing what can show on my HDTV, I've always tried to push the specs a bit with the old one. Now I'm wondering if Apple has laid out specs shy of what this new one can do too? You can't tell me for sure because you don't have one yet, but I can still appreciate all the arguments of why you think it can't, and why I'm wrong to hope that it can.
Now, can someone who actually received one, do a test and let us all know for sure.
Wait... are those actually Video Podcasts? Because the Apple TV can definitely stream Podcasts (both video and audio), as long as they're available through the iTunes store.
I watch the news that way on my old Apple TV.
I don't think you're wrong for hoping that it can. Perhaps we got caught up in the 1080p vs 720p crossfire, but I'm firmly in the camp FOR 1080p, it's just that I understand why it isn't there.
Either way, I did my very first tests on very early software, so maybe the specs have been relaxed a bit. Haven't tried again because it's easier to slip my .mt2s files on a USB stick and play them on my PS3.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Sorry, he's right if they are all podcasts. I was thinking some of those were video feed services. If they are all video podcasts, as long as they are within
TV hardware capabilities, you should be in good shape.Same here although now I am even more annoyed and confused. According to FedEx at 11:18am this morning it was in Hong Kong. An hour later it arrived in Alaska.....by that logic it should have gone from Alaska to Arizona and arrived at my house by around 2pm.
Definitely thinking about calling Apple and complaining.
If it makes you feel better, FedEx also showed (and still shows) a delivery date of October 5 for my ATV. I am in Anchorage, Alaska. My ATV is on the truck for delivery (which I won't get today, since there's no one home to sign for it, alas, so I'll have to go pick it up tomorrow).
Obviously, that "October 5" delivery date is not set in stone.
yeah, and I would quite like to try Pandora and Hulu as well... *sigh*
yes, most of us do, but it's a news article on Macrumors.com, and so a thread is always created on here as a result. It just works like that here
Use a VPN service that offers a US server. I use blackvpn and have fallen in love with Pandora.
To make Apple money through video rental. That's it, that's what it is. Only Apple could get away with doing that. Who buys the opportunity to rent shows for $99 plus show rental? Nothing to see really unless you like spending all your money watching lame tv shows that are free elsewhere.
Ha!
Wanted to see what everyone thought of their new toy. Same old arguments as when the original was released!
I guess I'll have to wait a little longer for those reviews!
Wanted to see what everyone thought of their new toy. Same old arguments as when the original was released!
I guess I'll have to wait a little longer for those reviews!
+1 I echo his every point. sorry HobeSoundDarryl, but you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between your 1080i (or p) source and 720p display thru ATV. just keeping it real.