Why purchase Apple TV?

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kornchild2002

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I think the feature I am using the most is pushing video content from my iPad to my AppleTV. I haven't upgraded my 4G iPod touch to iOS 4.2 so I don't know if that feature was carried over from the iPad or not. I can now finally watch purchased video content on my HDTV stored on my iPad. That was the whole point of me purchasing the $30 VGA adapter that did absolutely nothing.
 

Cold Irons

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Oh, and it's worth noting that Smart Playlists actually work on the Apple TV, unlike most of Apple's iOS devices. :rolleyes:
Well, I'm loving mine just for the iTunes Library access to my home audio/TV system.

One question; my music playlists (on the AppleTV) are all in alphabetical order by song vs. the order they are in iTunes. Is this normal on the Apple TV?

edit note:
Opps; just read your "Instant Expert" Link. Apparently when I update tonight, the playlists will be ordered like iTunes.....
 
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Maroon_tiger

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why get an appleTV?!

one word... AIRPLAY STREAMING movies/music/tv shows to your TV from your laptop or external hd via your local itunes library

just because the 2nd Gen AppleTV doesnt have a dedicated Harddrive on it, it doesnt mean that you can set up an external source to act as its dedicated hardrive

WHAT APPLE REALLY NEEDS is a better remote.. at least one with a few more buttons... to skip chapters easily, and open up chapters window
 

aristotlewilde

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I bought Apple TV a month or so back.

For years, I have been searching for an elegant solution to get my vast video library to play on my bedroom TV at the other end of the house.

I started with a DVD player that allowed for a large USB hard drive to be attached. This required me to copy everything to a hard drive then carry that drive with me.

I then built my own PC running Boxee since I was resistant to converting everything to a format Apple TV would like. I was also hesitant due to the 720p ceiling for Apple TV.

When the new Apple TV arrived, I HAD to try it. $99? Really!?!?! I am so glad I did. I watch my favorite video podcasts every other morning. I stream video from my desktop iTunes flawlessly.

As far as resolution, my video is displayed on a 42 inch LCD. Most source material wasn't 1080 to begin with. I am not missing a thing by using Apple TV.

Oh yeah... It was $99. I spent $300 plus putting together that PC I ran Boxee on.
 

BearinMind

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Hi aristotlewilde,

Like you I was very happy with Apple TV 2 before the release of iOS 4.3. Have you lost the Description Metadata of your home movies?

I think that the removal of the Description data in home movies is a deliberate act of sabotage on the part of Apple. They should have had the courage or the decency to inform their users that iOS 4.3 and future versions would waste the time and efforts invested by all who used this feature. I find it very wrong and unexpected from a company that up until this incident I considered above reproach. Their thinking is probably that this will result in an increase of movies rented through iTunes. Good luck Apple! I swear the God that I’ll never rent or buy through iTunes.

I have been an ardent defender of Apple since the very first Mac (128k) in 1984 and throughout the years I invested a lot of money only to realize that this company has now become too big and too insensitive to its user base. I find that i’s time to move on. I wanted to purchase an iPad 2 as soon as it became available in Canada but I have decided to wait for the Galaxy Tab 10.1. This tablet is more “up to date” than the iPad 2. If you look at the specifications, you’ll see that it offers better hardware for the same price and no one can afford to play God in the Android world. Thank you Apple for finally opening my eyes.
 
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Hi and welcome to iLounge.

I'm fairly convinced at this point that the description issue that has been reported is simply a bug that will hopefully be resolved in the next version. I haven't actually looked into this specifically as I'm not affected by this issue, but I think it's actually an attempt to fix a prior problem with the Apple TV that has existed since it was released in September.

There are actually two fields used for Description information in iTunes. The main "Description" field is limited to 255 characters in length and can be edited in iTunes. The "Long Description" can only be set through third-party tagging utilities, but is effectively unlimited in length (if there's an upper limit, I've never hit it). The "Description" is what is shown in the iTunes column view, and the "Long Description" is what appears in a pop-up window if you click the "info" icon to the right of the description field in the column view.

From the beginning of encoding my own videos, I have used both the "Description" and "Long Description" fields. I generally place a very short one or two sentence description in the "Description" field, and then place the much more detailed description from the DVD insert or a source like tv.com into the "Long Description" field.

The first-generation Apple TV always displayed the "Long Description" field if it was filled in, and fell back to the "Description" field if not. The "Comments" field in iTunes was also usable for descriptions at one point as well (from before the days when iTunes let users enter an actual "Description"). This worked quite well, as the assumption was that you would want to display the most detailed description possible.

With the second-generation Apple TV, suddenly the Long Description was getting ignored entirely, and only the main "Description" field was being used. This created an even stranger situation as some of the iTunes Store Movies and TV Shows included oddly-truncated short descriptions, although iTunes Store content always includes a proper Long Description entry.

So for me, iOS 4.3 actually fixes this problem by returning the display of the "Long Description" so I can see the full description of my content, and not just the rather short and often-useless one or two sentence summary. Unfortunately, it appears that Apple simply switched which field they were using rather than falling back to the description field in the cases where the Long Description is empty like the first-generation Apple TV did. Obviously for iTunes Store content this is going to be a huge advantage, but will be less useful for those who are importing and tagging their own content, unless like me they've been using the Long Description field all along.

In fact, this problem is exacerbated by the fact that iTunes 10 does seem to fall back to showing the Description as the "Long Description" while the Apple TV does not. You get the small "info" icon on all description fields now, but if the "Long Description" is blank, the pop-up window will simply show the "Description" field. Prior versions of iTunes omitted the info icon if no long description was available.

Note that if you're a Mac user, it's actually almost trivial to fill in the Long Description field using an AppleScript. You could easily just copy all of your Description fields over to the Long Description field which would probably make everything show up correctly on the Apple TV. Something like the following should work:

Code:
tell application "iTunes"
	set myshows to selection
	repeat with eachshow in selection
		set desc to description of eachshow
		set long description of eachshow to desc
	end repeat
end tell
Just select a bunch of tracks in iTunes and run this through the AppleScript editor and it should quickly go through and copy all of the "Description" fields over to the "Long Description" for each track.
 

vplc

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I think its pretty cool. I wish there was a way to get more content on it though. I understand having all itunes content on there, which is why they would block some other distributors. I think that apple tv would be so much better with more content, but really netflix has so many movies, you would never be able to watch it all (although i probably wouldnt want to watch 3/4 of the stuff on there).

edit to add

Airplay is the coolest thing ever.
 

kornchild2002

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Many months later and I think another reason for wanting to own an AppleTV 2 can now be added: display mirroring. This is a feature that is only available on the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S but people with those can now mirror their device's display on their HDTV wirelessly using the AppleTV 2. I have now started using this a lot and it came in handy. For example, I gave a presentation at school on Thursday. I went to class a little early to set things up but I connected my AppleTV 2 and iPad 2 to my university's wi-fi network. I was then able to display a presentation I made in Keynote (on my Mac) using my iPad 2. I carried it with me and walked around the front of the large classroom while the content was being displayed on my AppleTV 2 wirelessly. I even used the virtual laser pointer and everything. The video quality was a little sub-par but it was still really nice that I wasn't tied to one spot behind a podium when giving a presentation. I use this feature all the time when I am home. Certain apps, like HBO Go, still don't support video output through this but others (Hulu Plus) do and the quality looks OK on my little 32" LCD in my bedroom.
 

ant_uk

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I have just purchased/ordered a Samsung UE46D8000 TV with built in wifi. Will I be able to access my itunes library on the TV or will I still need to purchase apple TV?

;)
 

Cold Irons

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I can's speak to Macs, but on PCs, I know of no way to directly access iTunes just with a networked TV; others here may correct me.

I assume your TV would get to a PC & music using DLNA - I recently got a wireless/networked HDTV with this & have played around with it. You have to run something on your PC that provides a DLNA server. Windows Media Playerdoes this, so I temporarily set it up to point to a backup copy of my media files. This worked, the media appeared on the TV using it's built-in player.

Presumably you'd be able to do the same; I didn't (and don't) really trust WMP with my actual iTunes media library, so used the backup. In my case, I have the AppleTV, so don't need the other approach.
 

Sparkee

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I have just purchased/ordered a Samsung UE46D8000 TV with built in wifi. Will I be able to access my itunes library on the TV or will I still need to purchase apple TV? ;)
Get an Apple TV, if you want to use your iTunes Library you can't beat the ATV. I also like it for a convenient way to rent movies. Like all gadgets I recommend buying from a place with a good return policy if it doesn't work the way you like.
 

ant_uk

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@Sparkee @Cold Irons

Thanks very much for your advice, Apple TV it is then!
 

Quiet123

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Hi

I really want to buy Apple T.V. It's a good option that is available in market.

Thanks
 

Fatboy71

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The main reason I got a Apple tv initially was for the AirPlay feature and to be able to connect the Apple TV to my home cinema system, and also for the mirroring feature, for these features alone it's worth it for me.

After I got it I discovered other things that I really like about it, these are some of the other things I discovered.

The ability to rent or buy movies and have them charged to my iTunes account. I've watched a few of the 1080p previews/trailers and the quality on my tv is superb, for my eyes it matched Blu ray quality.

Also when I have my PC on, I'm able to use to Home Sharing feature. We have two iTunes libraries in our house, so with Home Sharing, we can AirPlay our complete iTunes music collection which is really useful, especially has its all played wirelessly and in excellent quality too with the AirPlay feature all through our home cinema system.

Also, there is the Radio section on the Apple TV. I found loads of excellent radio stations that I liked, and again I can play these through my home cinema system, and it's excellent sound quality.

There's also the Podcast section, which i find handy if I want to listen to my video Podcasts. I normally sync my Podcast onto my iPhone with iTunes and then AirPlay them through my Apple tv, but if I haven't had a chance to sync my iPhone with iTunes I can still watch my video podcasts through the Podcast section on Apple tv.

Before getting the Apple TV I had the#Apple Digital AV Adapter. But it i found it was a hassle having to connect it up, then have it stretched out across the room everytime I was wanting to use it. Granted I could watch video, photos, mirror my iPhone, but I couldn't have it running through my home cinema system or use the Home Sharing feature that I use now to access all out iTunes libraries. The AirPlay feature is a really elegant way of viewing, listening to content on your iPhone, iPad etc.
 

peterthomas

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Apple tv does not have anything special or anything much innovative that can attract people to it! its a pure waste of money, but still people buy it for the sake of style and traditional reasons.
 

rockmyplimsoul

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Apple tv does not have anything special or anything much innovative that can attract people to it! its a pure waste of money, but still people buy it for the sake of style and traditional reasons.
Do tell ... what other product can do what ATV can do for $99? Be sure to include products that support AirPlay, as well as screen mirroring from your iPhone or iPad.
 

kornchild2002

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Don't forget that the AppleTV will also support display mirroring from Mountain Lion along with app interactivity as a secondary display for some iPad and iPhone games. Then again, I purchased my AppleTV units simply for style. That's why I have them Velcroed to the back of each TV... They just look so stylish back there, hidden away from everything. It's not like I actually use my AppleTV for AirPlay features, to mirror my iPad's display, or to push video/audio content from my MacBook Air to my TV's. No, I don't do any of that at all. I purchased those $100 boxes just to hide them behind my TVs because they look stylish there.
 
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