To Apple TV or not to Apple TV?

jack presley

It connects to the Internet and your computer by wifi and to your telly by hdmi cable. You don't surf the net on it (well you can with AirPlay and mirroring but we'll get to that). Basically theres a menu where you pick music or films or whatever. YouTube is on the menu though so that's how you access that. There's no browser though so you can't go onto rte.ie or whatever

But that's where mirroring comes in. If you connect your iPad or iPhone 4s via AirPlay, it mirrors what's on your screen so you can open safari and surf the net that way

Cyrus

kraggy wrote: »

But how does the apple tv connect to the internet? Does it have to be connected via a pc/laptop or can you browse websites with the apple tv itself? As in, when you turn on the apple tv, what do you see on the hdtv screen? A browser of some sort?

Sorry, just find it hard to grasp for some reason.

Second question, what do you call the set up whereby you can play the music on your iphone/ipod touch on an apple monitor? i.e scroll down the screen of your iphone, select a song physically away from your apple monitor but it plays on the monitor. Is that airplay?

i think you need to see some xbmc screen shots

soundsham

Do most of you guys use the in box remote or have you bought any from the app store for use with iPhone
Just wondering as I find the standard remote on iPhone isn't great when streaming to my atv for movies

CathalDublin

Vertigo100 wrote: »

Now that mega upload is being shut down I imagine that will be the end of icefilms

I give it a week before a mirror is up
There is always fastpasstv plugin which uses different sources other than Mega sites

kraggy

jack presley wrote: »

It connects to the Internet and your computer by wifi and to your telly by hdmi cable. You don't surf the net on it (well you can with AirPlay and mirroring but we'll get to that). Basically theres a menu where you pick music or films or whatever. YouTube is on the menu though so that's how you access that. There's no browser though so you can't go onto rte.ie or whatever

But that's where mirroring comes in. If you connect your iPad or iPhone 4s via AirPlay, it mirrors what's on your screen so you can open safari and surf the net that way

Cyrus wrote: »

i think you need to see some xbmc screen shots

Thanks lads.

I still don't really see the point though. Can't your laptop/xbox do the same thing basically? i.e act as feeder of netflix etc. to your tv. It just doesn't have the pretty interface.

CathalDublin

kraggy wrote: »

Thanks lads.

I still don't really see the point though. Can't your laptop/xbox do the same thing basically? i.e act as feeder of netflix etc. to your tv. It just doesn't have the pretty interface.

It can, in fact XBMC was first written for the original xbox and can still be installed on it, I personally run it on linux on a htpc

xbmc.org wrote:

Currently XBMC can be used to play almost all popular audio and video formats around. It was designed for network playback, so you can stream your multimedia from anywhere in the house or directly from the internet using practically any protocol available. Use your media as-is: XBMC can play CDs and DVDs directly from the disk or image file, almost all popular archive formats from your hard drive, and even files inside ZIP and RAR archives. It will even scan all of your media and automatically create a personalized library complete with box covers, descriptions, and fanart. There are playlist and slideshow functions, a weather forecast feature and many audio visualizations. Once installed, your computer will become a fully functional multimedia jukebox.

It is difficult to put into words all that XBMC can do, head to the gallery to see some examples, or take the plunge and Try it Today.

vinnycoyne

Any more piracy talk and I'll be handing out straight-up bans. Final warning.

Branoic

kraggy wrote: »

Thanks lads.

I still don't really see the point though. Can't your laptop/xbox do the same thing basically? i.e act as feeder of netflix etc. to your tv. It just doesn't have the pretty interface.

You could, but laptop set up is messy and Xbox is noisy and doesn't have nearly as good a selection of movies.

It really depends on how hassle free and integrated you want your home entertainment network - eg iTunes on the Mac, 2 apple TVs in different rooms, iPhone 4s and iPads for remotes, airplay and mirroring, and hifi speakers in other rooms connected to airport express base station - love it.

Giblet

Think of an AppleTV as a potential always on (it's on even when sleeping, as long as power is connected), low power, silent linux box that you can ssh to. You can stream to it from your laptop, or iPhone, and use things like youtube or netflix without having to have you laptop hooked up to your tv.

jack presley

Branoic wrote: »

It really depends on how hassle free and integrated you want your home entertainment network - eg iTunes on the Mac, 2 apple TVs in different rooms, iPhone 4s and iPads for remotes, airplay and mirroring, and hifi speakers in other rooms connected to airport express base station - love it.

Just wondering, would you be a fan of Apple by any chance?

120_Minutes

jack presley wrote: »

Just wondering, would you be a fan of Apple by any chance?

to be fair, in this case, it just works.

oh, and we know you can airplay music from your pc to ios devices/speakers but with this you can airplay music from your ios devices back to your pc.

Branoic

jack presley wrote: »

Branoic wrote: »

It really depends on how hassle free and integrated you want your home entertainment network - eg iTunes on the Mac, 2 apple TVs in different rooms, iPhone 4s and iPads for remotes, airplay and mirroring, and hifi speakers in other rooms connected to airport express base station - love it.

Just wondering, would you be a fan of Apple by any chance?

And not ashamed of that!

jack presley

Branoic wrote: »

jack presley wrote: »

Branoic wrote: »

It really depends on how hassle free and integrated you want your home entertainment network - eg iTunes on the Mac, 2 apple TVs in different rooms, iPhone 4s and iPads for remotes, airplay and mirroring, and hifi speakers in other rooms connected to airport express base station - love it.

Just wondering, would you be a fan of Apple by any chance?

And not ashamed of that!

I know. I was only joking! I have a few apple products myself

sharkman

If I jailbreak my ATV can I connect an external drive to it and will it play from this ?

Cyrus

No you need network storage

sharkman wrote: »

If I jailbreak my ATV can I connect an external drive to it and will it play from this ?

sharkman

Cyrus wrote: »

No you need network storage

Feck , I already have a Buffalo Linkstation live connected , but am having problems with Home-Share dropping out on me .

Cyrus

sharkman wrote: »

Cyrus wrote: »

No you need network storage

Feck , I already have a Buffalo Linkstation live connected , but am having problems with Home-Share dropping out on me .

Really, are you wired or wireless?

flyandrain

MU is down now. wat should we do by now?

sharkman

Cyrus wrote: »

Really, are you wired or wireless?

Wireless , on UPC but using a Belkin PlayMax router.

Leiva

sharkman wrote: »

Wireless , on UPC but using a Belkin PlayMax router.

I watch all my saved movies etc on my Buffalo linkstation pro 2 via XBMC on my atv2.

UPC (Boston scientific modem) -->netgear wireless router---> atv2 (wired)

crapmanjoe

flyandrain wrote: »

MU is down now. wat should we do by now?

Not mentioning MU here would be a start!

Cyrus

mixednuts wrote: »

I watch all my saved movies etc on my Buffalo linkstation pro 2 via XBMC on my atv2.

UPC (Boston scientific modem) -->netgear wireless router---> atv2 (wired)

i have everything wired aswell but watch a lot of stuff and never an issue

Bigcheeze

Branoic wrote: »

eg iTunes on the Mac, 2 apple TVs in different rooms, iPhone 4s and iPads for remotes, airplay and mirroring, and hifi speakers in other rooms connected to airport express base station - love it.

Like the sound of that. Can you use XBMC with airport express or is it itunes only? What sort of speakers do you need?

legrand

Aside from streaming movies, browsing trailers, watching youtube, streaming from iTunes laptop/cloud etc.

In the main I use mine to port my digital music to by home theater system via my iPod or Laptop. One of my more recent favorite things to do (when folks out of the house) is to listen to Pink Floyd at Live 8 2005. A HD download from youtube I have stored locally and kicking out at max volume over a rather nice sound system (500w sub woofer, 4 100w sats, 1 140 centre speaker) - reason enough ?

Edit - just realised I responded to the original post in this thread... anyhoos

barryd09

Is there a built in web browser on ATV2?
Thinking of ditching my digital tv subscription completley if i can use ATV2 to view the channels that are free on aertv.ie.
Can this be done?

With Netflix now available on both my ipad & ps3 im seeing less and less reason to be paying for crap upc channels.
I have a liveonlinefooty subscription plus netflix and a jailbroken ipad supporting tvout (for filmon etc) so WHY would i keep upc?

tallaghtfornia

As far as I’m aware there is a browser called 'couch suffer'

Maybe the bordies could tell us if the web browser can play flash divx etc?

karljd

Got an atv2 but it won't connect to youtube,same message all the time No content found.( There is a problem connecting to youtube.Try again later).Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Lockster

I've had Apple TV for over a year and all was working fine until recently. Now I'm having trouble with home sharing and it finding my iTunes library. Most of the time it can't find the library even thought everything is turned on and when it does find the library it only plays for a while before disconecting again. Is anyone else having the same problem or have any ideas?

Thanks

corkscott

Thinking of buying one if these or would I be better spending another few euro and buying a mac mini? The only thing that puts me of the mini is that I would have to have a keyboard and mouse lying around or can the mac mini be controlled by my iPhone ? Does anyone know?

macgabhs

corkscott wrote: »

Thinking of buying one if these or would I be better spending another few euro and buying a mac mini? The only thing that puts me of the mini is that I would have to have a keyboard and mouse lying around or can the mac mini be controlled by my iPhone ? Does anyone know?

I have a mac mini myself running plex. It's an excellent system for downloaded content but not as well integrated with streaming based services. For example the Netflix plugin for plex does not work for the Irish Netflix site so I have to launch a web browser to watch Netflix which is not very wife friendly!

To answer your question there are loads of remote apps for the iPhone that let you control the mac mini or any other computer. Most turn the iPhone into a kind of trackpad to control the mouse and gives you a virtual keyboard too. I use hipporemote works well for me.