To Apple TV or not to Apple TV?

bigboy123

Since looking at the details of IOS 4.3, an apple tv seems to be becoming more and more relevent, and i am considering buying one, as i already have an iPad and iPhone 4. I just thought id put it out there and see what the real pros and cons are to apple tv, not just the "revolutionary" apple marketing speak

bigboy123

bigboy123 wrote: »

Since looking at the details of IOS 4.3, an apple tv seems to be becoming more and more relevent, and i am considering buying one, as i already have an iPad and iPhone 4. I just thought id put it out there and see what the real pros and cons are to apple tv, not just the "revolutionary" apple marketing speak

I have a US account which is why I like it.

Pros:
New films
good prices
great quality
fast streaming 80% of the time
Cheaper than renting a movie/sky movies etc

Cons:
I've discovered some of the older trailers take ages to stream; this doesn't happen when I decide to rent the movie for some reason - still not sure why this happens but noticed it recently on a fair few older trailers

Some movies like The Social Network were released but only to buy and not to rent for the first few weeks of release - this pi**ed me off a bit

That's all I can think of. Other than that I love it.

jaykay2

As well as the above, you can also Jailbreak the Apple tv and install XBMC, which will allow you to stream almost any video format to your tv as opposed to the small selection allowed with the official firmware.

This does not effect your ability do purchase movies etc through iTunes.

I bought one around a month ago, jailbroke it, and am very happy with what XBMC allows you to do, which is far beyond what Apple would ever allow you to do.

I've thought of some more cons...

You can't add actors to your favorites - because there is no "favorites"

You have a "wishlist" which means you can add films you want to watch, but once you watch them, it removes from your "wishlist" but I can't "favourite" them to watch again in the future...

Does anyone know if there are any fixes re: the above?

pmsurveys

Here's another pro. Apart from getting a us iTunes account get yourself a dd- wrt router and a decent VPN account. About €100 all in. Router once off VPN about €40 / year. Then sign up to netflix €6 / month. End of sky !! (almost)

adox

pmsurveys wrote: »

Here's another pro. Apart from getting a us iTunes account get yourself a dd- wrt router and a decent VPN account. About €100 all in. Router once off VPN about €40 / year. Then sign up to netflix €6 / month. End of sky !! (almost)

I just cancelled my account with Netflix after 3 months use. I just found their selection quite poor.

I bought an Apple TV a couploe of weeks ago and am impressed so far. I have yet to jailbreak though. If you have a US iTunes account it will give you a lot more choice. Also your internet connection speed is important to a point, especially for HD.

I have an 8MB line through Vodafone but actually only get around 3.5 mb dowload speed. If I rent a HD movie through the Apple TV, it take around an hour to buffer before it will play. Of course you can download it on another device and stream from there as an alternative. The SD films are very good quality though and stream straight away on the Apple TV.

Cyrus

on a 720p tv the sd movies are more than acceptable imo

i have jailbroken mine and using xbmc with a 1TB buffalo network drive (which has a built in torrent client)

after a few teething issues i am very happy with how it works

ted1

i've no issues with with eircom 8mb NGB Hd films are ready to play within a minute.

Cotts

jaykay2 wrote: »

As well as the above, you can also Jailbreak the Apple tv and install XBMC, which will allow you to stream almost any video format to your tv as opposed to the small selection allowed with the official firmware.

This does not effect your ability do purchase movies etc through iTunes.

I bought one around a month ago, jailbroke it, and am very happy with what XBMC allows you to do, which is far beyond what Apple would ever allow you to do.

I jailbroke mine but cant get XBMC to find my content can someone help?

Brian017

Is jailbreaking and installing XBMC easy to do. Came across a guide a few weeks ago and couldn't make head nor tail of it

wasper

This has to be the one of the worst products Apple brought. This is coming from a guy that worked over 10 years in Apple. I have everything that Apple made. I am in the process of buying an Ipad. First of all the movies are hosted & tailored for the US market. Thats's why streaming is very slow. I have twice waited for days to download movies & got error in the end. I emailed Apple, on one occasion they refunded the money on the 2nd time they haven't acknowledged.
And anybody have noticed when you go surf youtube on a desktop machine & you wanted e.g Lady Gaga's Bad romance. You get straight away. But on AppleTV you will get wannabes & stupid imitation or a bad quality live version.
But you wont get the high quality Vivo version.

jaykay2

Brian017 wrote: »

Is jailbreaking and installing XBMC easy to do. Came across a guide a few weeks ago and couldn't make head nor tail of it

It's pretty simple Brian. Just download greenpois0n rc6 which will allow you to jailbreak the Apple tv. What I would say is that I was unable to put the Apple tv into DFU mode by following the on-screen prompts of greenp0ison, so I would recomend that you search for how to put the apple tv 2 into DFU mode and follow their instructions instead which I believe is as follows:

Connect your Apple tv by micro USB cable to your PC.
Then once it has booted up, hold down (on the circular button on top of the control), and menu on the apple tv remote at the same time for 6-10 seconds until you hear the itunes beep (the sound you get when you connect an iphone or ipod to itunes) or till the light stops flashing on the apple tv.
Then press and hold the menu and play bottons for between 10 and 20 seconds till you hear the beep again. If you go to greenp0ison, the button for jailbreak will be lit up, indicating that you have successfully put the apple tv into DFU mode.
Allow greenpoison to do its thing, remembering not to disconnect the apple tv from your pc for a couple of mins after it finishes.
After this is done, connect your apple back to the tv.
Once it boots up, you will see an option under the greenp0ison heading to inject software.
Do this and once it is finished, you will then have a Nito TV heading on the apple tv.
Then select the install software option and click on Install XBMC.


It's as simple as that. And there are plenty of better guides out there than what I have just given you, but this is how I was able to do it on 2 seperate ocasions.

Hope you find this helpfull.

Cotts

how can i view my media on XBMC cant detect it!!

david4791

Hi,
Are the movies on apple tv as up to date as xtravision ?

The Big Gig

Go on to iTunes and have a look for yourself. Just click the movie tab

ted1

david,

if you use an US itunes account there way ahead of xtravision.

i use pcgamesupply.com to buy us vouchers they work out at 30usd for 25sd worth of vouchers. so it works out at about 4€ per film. there are cheaper places to get vouchers but these guys are good and will delvier in about 5 minutes.

DubDJ

AirPlay is also another pro imho. Excellent feature.
And with iOS 5 approaching with iPad mirroring it'll get even better.

120_Minutes

and of course theres the whole jailbreaking/xbmc/addon that shall not be named.

eeloe

Just stop pussy footing around it and buy the damn thing!

It's THE best €119 i've spent this year...

massy086

eeloe wrote: »

Just stop pussy footing around it and buy the damn thing!

It's THE best €119 i've spent this year...

i fully agree (but mine was only 80 on adverts lol)

jaytobe

Is googletv gong to give more options?

jaytobe

ted1 wrote: »

david,

if you use an US itunes account there way ahead of xtravision.

i use pcgamesupply.com to buy us vouchers they work out at 30usd for 25sd worth of vouchers. so it works out at about 4€ per film. there are cheaper places to get vouchers but these guys are good and will delvier in about 5 minutes.

Ted, can you explain the 30US --> 25sd thing and how it converts?

Do you need a US address for the US account? Is the US advantage that you get the post cinema rentals much quicker that UK itunes releases?

Is buffering the main issue and what speeds are needed?

120_Minutes

I'd assume it's similar to those who sell Xbox live points on eBay, you pay the seller, they email you the codes and you redeem them on your us account. I didn't know iTunes codes were region specific though.

When setting up a us account simply pick a random American address, set payment method to none and away you go. Worked for me, I just use it to get American only iPhone apps though

Ya-Boy-Ya

Apple Tv is a MUST buy if u have iPad2 or iPhone... it just all works !!!

sfag31

how does it just work.
I have one.
It does nothing only play youtube videos.
It has very restricted audio out too - toslink only - cant plug in a standard audio jack lead.
Its not really designed for this part of the world.
I haven't used it in yonks.

Berty

I told the missus to get me one for Christmas and then I read that Netflix are on the way here:

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2011/1024/breaking19.html?fb_ref=.TqVUt4t5jwA.like&fb_source=home_oneline

adox

sfag31 wrote: »

how does it just work.
I have one.
It does nothing only play youtube videos.
It has very restricted audio out too - toslink only - cant plug in a standard audio jack lead.
Its not really designed for this part of the world.
I haven't used it in yonks.

I use it every day, more or less, wouldnt be without it. Use it to stream all my media, be it video, music, photos etc.

As for it only playing YouTube videos, you are incorrect. Even out of the box and not jailbroken it will play itunes content.

kjl

to everyone using XBMC on ATV

try out my cool repo, there is a deadly program there called Xtream Media which I keep up to date ahead of other versions of the plug in.

let me know what you think

*SNIP*

adox

kjl wrote: »

to everyone using XBMC on ATV

try out my cool repo, there is a deadly program there called Xtream Media which I keep up to date ahead of other versions of the plug in.

let me know what you think

*SNIP*

What does it do? Does it work with all versions of XBMC on ATV2?

120_Minutes

kjl wrote: »

to everyone using XBMC on ATV

try out my cool repo, there is a deadly program there called Xtream Media which I keep up to date ahead of other versions of the plug in.

let me know what you think

*SNIP*

well since installing your repo, my other repo which i cant name, doesnt work. yours worked briefly, and xbmc freezes when i try to shut it down.

adox

120_Minutes wrote: »

well since installing your repo, my other repo which i cant name, doesnt work. yours worked briefly, and xbmc freezes when i try to shut it down.

Guess I`ll give it a miss then. Sorry you had to be the guinea pig though.:(