The Apple TV Thread

Mod please change word from NO to NOW. Thank you

Apple just lowered the price of Apple TV to $69. Great! And you know there is a new one just around the corner.

 

I'm waiting for one that will read from NTFS external hard drives so we can watch content offline.

 

I never wanted one til I got a gift card and bought one. I love it. If you have apple everything else , it ties it all together nicely

 

You'll be waiting forever then. That's a niche, outdated way of accessing content, to be honest.

You can, however, stream anything in your iTunes library, so long as your computer is awake and on the same network.

 

Agreed. Might not have ever bought one myself but got it as a Christmas gift one year and love it.

 

link to this...please.

 

Just go to apple store online- it's right there

 

ok.. thanks.

 

Yeah Apple just lowered the price so shop anywhere.

 

Well, anywhere but Amazon (who never seem to play nice with Apple TV prices).

 

They will update the price. Apple just changed it today.

 

That's a great price for something I already consider a great value. I use mine every day.

 

I buy a movie, TV show on my iPad, laptop or phone then output to ATV = boom, done. Same with outputting pictures and videos. It really is useful. This morning I bought the latest Walking Dead episode straight from the ATV and started watching within a few seconds.

This method has worked very well for me. I'm very happy with how well it handles the content I've ripped and put on my server. I've used other solutions such as Plex on Android devices, but it's nowhere near as polished. As my personal library has grown I'm considering getting a bluetooth keyboard to load specific titles quicker.

 

I love em! I have three in the house and generally carry one in my bag for doing presentations, also great to take on trips for hotels.

 

That's a great deal. From news reports, HBO's new OVD service will be available exclusively on Apple devices.

 

I have an iMac, an iPod and iPhones. Never had an interest in the AppleTV. Never saw the big deal because I'd never want to play my music stored in iTunes through my TV. I'd simply plug my iPod into the dock connected to my receiver. And I'll never, ever purchase a movie from there either, never mind paying $4-5 for a rental. I'm a blu ray man, thank you very much. Besides, any video I have stored on my computer can be put on a flash drive and inserted into my blu ray player. It's far more reliable, I think.

I bought a Roku instead and am extremely happy with it. The selection of apps is far greater.

 

What can you do with AppleTV that you couldn't otherwise do?

 

Nothing really which is why I resisted so long. It just pulls it all into one spot as a tv entertainment thing. Screensaver with my photos on the laptop, play my iTunes library of music, any bluray I bought with an iTunes code is avail to stream at 1080, Netflix Hulu etc. use iPhone ornipad as remotes including searching my laptops music for next song to play.... To me if you have a Mac laptop iPhone ipods etc, it ties everything together in one spot.

 

thanks...

 

I've had 2 of these, 1st and 2nd generation. Now mainly use a Roku and it blows the ATV away. If it doesn't have,um ,certain "modifications" (not possible on ATV 3) then it's way behind the competitors like Roku, Amazon Fire TV and Chromecast.

 

I have both the first and third generation. I keep the first generation hooked up because I thought I'd load content onto its internal hard drive for playing on my main system. The third integrates so well with my iTunes library on the computer in the other room that there has never been a need to use the first gen.

My only complaint is that I wish there were an easier way to browse large libraries. The endless scrolling is painful.

 

I continue to be bummed-out that Apple TV won't let you record. All I want is a self-contained box that acts just like a Tivo but can record to easily copyable files that you can put on a computer or portable devices. All Apple TV is (and I own a couple) is a box designed to make you want to buy content from iTunes. I get that you can access your own content to a point, but there are a lot of limitations I don't like.

 

I definitely do not like how so much of the screen real estate is taken up by purchasable content. I wish there were a way for the music app to show the last 20 albums I added to iTunes, irregardless of whether I purchased it from Apple or not. I also wish there were a way to browse albums in a playlist, you just get an endless list of songs. The only solution I've found is building robust playlists, scrolling to find a song on the album I want to hear, holding down the center button and picking "Show Album" and then playing from there.

 

I've also got Amazon's fire stick, which has its own set of problems. Again, a huge focus on purchasable content, questionable games, and way too much scrolling. The saving grace for these devices that they're small and cheap enough that you're limited by your available HDMI ports.

I'm tired of the content battles; you can't get Amazon content on your Apple and can't get Apple content on Amazon. My Blu Ray player also supports apps, but has the awful Sony interface.

Now, apparently the new HBO subscription service is only available on Apple. Is Criterion going to announce an app that supports bonus features and commentaries, and make it only available on one platform?

 

Welled garden. Enter at own risk. It's not for me.