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New Apple TV Discussion

15478 Views 64 Replies 23 Participants Last post by  kcrw
Got my Apple TV 2.0 from FedEx this morning. Here are my first impressions:

1. Its small. I mean really small.
2. It comes with a power cord and remote. You'll need you own HDMI and optical audio cable (if you want to hook it up to your receiver).
3. Interface/controls familiar if you have any apple product.
4. Loaded the apple remote app on my iPad. Makes navigation easy - but more importantly, makes data entry (like accounts/passwords) super easy as it you can use the keyboard that pops up on the iPad.
5. Netflix - looks good but I don't like the interface as much as on the iPad. I don't think it remembers where I left off watching a recording - not sure about this yet.
6. Turned on home sharing and was able to stream anything from my iTunes library (music, video, podcasts) to the TV.
7. You can watch youtube and podcasts (not from your iTunes library).
8. Tried listening to some internet radio - as I expected it to be.
9. Only movie rentals (looks like they are around $6) - you can preview and select SD or HD. No TV shows - but you could stream them from your iTunes library if you purchased TV shows there.

All in all I am quite impressed. Fast, easy to use. I just wish it allowed streaming from outside of iTunes.
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Hugh, not that you want an extra step, but Airvideo converts files to apple-friendly formats.
I have AirVideo but it compresses xvid even further. Fine for watching on the iPad but not tv shows.
Curious here... has anyone tried using this with DNS-323 running iTunes Server? If it is doing that do you have to have another computer running iTunes in between the DNS-323 and the Apple TV box?
iTunes server on DNS-323 never worked for me. Theoretically no reason why it shouldn't work.
I also can not get the iTune server to work on my DNS-323. Can someone tell me what the benefit would be for this anyway? Now I just manually add the media from my 323 to iTunes.
It has launched for the iPhone? I thought VLC only launched their mobile player for the iPad.

If ATV2 does in deed gets apps, then a good one would be the CineXPlayer. This allows me to play XVID files on my iPhone. It would be nice if i could move this functionality to the ATV2 too.
I stand corrected! I did indeed mean the iPad for now. My understanding is that VLC will be released as well though for the iPhone and again, if they are allowing that functionality on these IOS devices then I see no reason why they wouldn't allow it on the ATV2 down the road. But hey, then again it is Apple we're talking about so who knows! ;)

Cheers!

James
I also can not get the iTune server to work on my DNS-323. Can someone tell me what the benefit would be for this anyway? Now I just manually add the media from my 323 to iTunes.
When you turn it on, the DNS-323 shows up in your iTunes and you get to browse the media right from there. No need to manually add or move anything. Has worked fine for me on my iMac but my DNS-323 is pretty stock, unlike many of the more advanced people here :)
Anybody tried photo sharing from Windows 7 to the new Apple TV?

My PS3 has difficulty finding new photos added in Windows 7 for some reason. I'm wondering if the Apple TV is any better?

Thanks.
Perhaps I'm missing something. I thought the only way to view photos on Apple TV is either via iTunes or Flickr. I don't khink you view photos from a Windows directory directly.
Larry, yes you need to use iTunes on your computer. With ATV 1 you could also store them on the hard drive.
Fedex just dropped off my ATV2 an hour ago. The setup was very quick. I am pleasantly surprised at how good this is. I connected through wifi and I played a few movies and TV shows form my itunes library. Very good quality on my 56" DLP. I played some HD videos I had recorded and the PQ was excellent. I also played some of the TV/movies I had converted for my iPhone and was very surprised at how good the PQ was on my TV. Not nearly as good as the HD shows, but watchable in my eyes. My next step is to sign up for Netflix, I am very curious how this will look.
Doesn't work with my tv

Really disappointed in ATV2 so far for one big reason - it doesn't work with my HDTV.

A little searching on the Apple discussions site and it seems to be a firmware issue with the ATV2 and DVI inputs. The TV I want to use it with supports 480i, 480P, 720P and 1080i via DVI and my PVR and Blu-Ray players have no problems with it via a HDMI->DVI cable. But plug in the ATV2 and no-dice :(

It doesn't seem to handshake properly with the TV. After a few attempts I could get a picture but it was off center, with pink patches, and wavy. Seems like the wavy image problem is common and specific to the ATV2 and doesn't effect ATV1.

Tried through an HDMI switch and things got worse. No picture at all and no picture from the PVR that would previously work through the switch.

Plugged it into my 50" Plasma upstairs via HDMI and things worked perfectly - but that's not the TV I want to use it with. I bought it for the DVI TV (which is a 2005 Sony incidentally). And it looks like I wasted my money on the HDMI switch and extra HDMI cables for that TV.

Too bad - not too happy with AppleTV so far. There's a longshot chance Apple could fix this in a future firmware update. Take this as a warning/heads-up for anyone else who wants to use with a DVI input/older TV.
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Really disappointed in ATV2 so far for one big reason - it doesn't work with my HDTV.
Works fine on my DVI equipped 2006 Panasonic Plasma. At first I was getting some weird lines around the edges and some pint vertical lines in the middle of the screen. Once I turned off Strobing it and restarted the TV it was all good. I'm using a HDMI to DVI cable.
Sorry to hear North of Calgary but thanks for the heads up.
Seems to primarily effect Sony Grand Wega TVs (which I have). Around the 2005/2006 models roughly.

To the topic subject, my first impressions were: "anger, disappointment, frustration".

I'll keep it and use it in the bedroom but I could use more of the functionality if it was on the Sony. Oh well, maybe Roku will come through eventually.
Oh, and I should add that on the 50" Plasma, the PQ was outstanding. HD Netflix looked pretty darn fantastic through the ATV2. Far above "just being acceptable" - actually HD looking. Even YouTube videos it served up very well. PQ from the device seems extremely good.
7 hours to download a show :(

My reactions to the new ATV are mixed!

It's beautiful, it's small, and it has a pleasing to the eye interface. I think that the idea of 8000 movies at my fingertips is a very good idea indeed.

Now, if only it didn't take 3 hours to download a 2 hr. HD movie!

I am on Shaw 'Lightning' Fast internet in Winnipeg, MB. We plugged it in, in the evening, and eagerly tried to watch some trailers. Time ticked by slowly. NARNIA took 5 minutes to download a 2 minute trailer. We tried to rent/download a movie. No luck! It said it would take 3 hours. We ended up going to bed.

The next morning...guess what! Instant, fast streaming video. It must be that our Shaw internet cable is too congested in the evening to support HD streaming movies :(

Now, I know that it's not APPLE'S fault. But do I keep the darned thing if I don't have access to adequate internet speeds?
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could be apple's servers are slow/overloaded. i remember years ago on an original atv, the odd movie would take forever to download, and it had nothing to do with my isp. my theory is that if everyone with an atv streamed/dl'ed a movie at once then it would be slow as f.
I was thinking of getting one of these for my parents for Xmas.

Quick question: does Apple TV stream digital copies of movies in your iTunes library? With a lot of Blu-Rays you get a digital copy that you can download to iTunes, and I know you can transfer it to an iPhone/iPod, but I wanted to make sure you could stream it from your PC's iTunes library to the Apple TV without any problems. That way I could also give my parents a bunch of digital copies of movies that I never used.
Yes you can. Anything in your iTunes library can be streamed as long as you have home sharing turned on.
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