Teardown of New Apple TV Reveals Same 8 GB Flash Storage, Bump to 512 MB RAM

[pcharles]

Blueray at its worst is no more than 54 Mbit/s which would fit comfortably inside the bandwidth of 802.11n, let alone 100Mbit/s ethernet. Atv2 can handle that with a tiny margin, and atv3 has no problem with such streams, in my experience. WiFi or copper, A4 of A5-single core should be enough. But, YMMV.

Yep, it works fine! Based on the VUDU system we have on our VIZIO TV, you need about 8-9MBit minimum download in to the house to get 1080 from them. I assume that this is similar for the streaming.

Streaming within the house is not an issue, and when it becomes an issue I have found I need to reboot the router. Which version of "n" is the ATV using? Is it the low power, or the 300 MBit? Either way, there will be plenty of internal bandwidth to stream video to multiple ATV's.

A lot of people think they need to upgrade their routers to get better internet, when it rarely makes any difference because the incoming pipe is always the limit. We have "n" in the house because our "g" router started crashing when we entered the house with our iPads. We got an "n" Airport Extreme so I could set up a Time Machine backup system. It is really nice to walk in the house, and have the Macbook backup automatically while I make dinner.

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cool stuff.

not sure if I will upgrade from itv2 yet, but I do love the device!

We did not upgrade, we added. ATV2 is in the bedroom, and we added the ATV3 in the front room. It is really nice. I was playing Angry Birds from my iPad 3 on the 47 inch VIZIO, and then streaming Star Trek and podcasts.

 

[burne]

A lot of people think they need to upgrade their routers to get better internet, when it rarely makes any difference because the incoming pipe is always the limit.

120Mbit/s is getting fairly commonplace in the Netherlands, and a cheap or old router will limit your internet-experience at those speeds. You need a fairly speedy CPU to do NAT at that speed. However, if we're talking about streaming it's most often from a NAS or a computer inside your network to an Apple TV, and even the most basic and cheap gigabit switch will do a gigabit at 'wirespeed' over all its ports simultaneously.

 

[mbell1975]

The people that were holding out for a fullhd atv should get this one. But people who already have one are not going to be pushed to swap theirs.

I had the last ATV and bought the new one last Friday with my iPad. 1080p>>>>720p Enough said.

 

[mazz0]

With the 8 GB storage, apps are a problem. But given that the Apple TV is always stationary (and not reliant on cellular data), it could make sense to pilot test iCloud for storing apps/app data to reduce the need for on-board storage.

Big apps would be a problem, but I'm envisaging more apps for streaming from new sources (eg individual TV networks), since Apple can't be bothered. Eg, in the UK, an iPlayer app.

I think it must be an idiological reason they're not doing that - they don't want people going to different apps for content from different suppliers, they want a streamlined, Apple-style experience. Unfortunately, that means at the moment we only have iTunes, so we can't watch last nights TV for free, for example.