PDA

View Full Version : Apple TV



Chuck Wintle
01-27-2012, 5:05 PM
Was thinking about buying this gadget from apple...and was wondering what the experience has been with it. It says i can stream netflix thru wi-fi and etc. As usual SMC is and has always been an excellent source of information.

thx,
chuck

Brian Kent
01-27-2012, 5:55 PM
We have a Blu-ray DVD player with WiFi built in (different from wireless ready, which needs something else with it). We watch Netflix over our home wireless network. I think ours is a Samsung. Trouble free and something like $159 a year ago.

By the way I am a dedicated Apple user but have not found a unique reason for their product. I just checked and I think it is $99, which is a bargain if you already have a DVD player.

david mcnamara
01-27-2012, 7:49 PM
Chuck,
I bought one for our family to replace the blue ray player we were using in the family room. I cannot say enough about the ease of use and how happy we are with it. The ease of the remote and menu navigation is enough of a reason to purchase the item. The blue ray player was purchased a year ago to stream netflix and the occasional movie we rented to watch. In the last year we have moved away from renting discs and just use netflix, so i just wanted something that loaded quicker menus and movie titles/info. The apple tv does a great job of what i wanted and then some, the ability to link to your home computer and stream your photos and movies is a nice feature. You can access your music library on your home computer, but then again, there are about 10,000+ internet radio stations available though it. Audio Podcast and video Podcast are also available to access, plus you tube videos. MLB, NBA, and other pay subscriptions are available to you other than netflix. My wife likes the apple pay per view feature, she like the movie descriptions better and the ability to watch the movie trailers prior to renting. I would caution you to remember that it only has an hdmi output and optical audio output. Not an issue for me to run to the home audio system with an hdmi then to the TV with another HDMI. Just remember you have no easy way of getting an RCA audio output from the apple TV to run to your home theater receiver, just HDMI and optical audio. If your an Iphone guy or Ipad2 you can mirror whatever is on your display to the apple tv also. An ipod touch can airplay to the apple tv, allowing for apps such as Pandora to stream to apple tv. So I can sit outside with an iphone or ipod touch and control my music selections/volume level via the apple tv hooked to the home stereo system on my outdoor speakers. That has been something I have wanted to do for a while and now is accomplished with ease. Airplay and mirroring work on your home wifi network. I also should add that the apple tv has an ethernet port and wifi for your internet input. I tried both to see if there was much of a difference in speed and didn't have any issue with either configuration. Google TV and the Roku might be an option for you to look at, but for me, $99 dollars well spent. I would highly recommend an apply tv.
David

Pat Barry
01-27-2012, 9:14 PM
How is that Pandora these days? I gave up on it long ago when they kept forcing music derivatives I couldn't stand. I'd go from Led Zep to some weird, never heard of song in the space of a few songs. Their channel application was terrible. Has anything changed?

Jim Becker
01-29-2012, 9:56 PM
AppleTV is a very nice product and yes, it will stream NetFlix well. But that's the only online streaming servie is supports outside of YouTube. The new BluRay unit I just bought covers several online services and was only about $25 more than the AppleTV cost me!

shane lyall
01-29-2012, 10:02 PM
I don't have the TV but I did buy LOML an Ipad for Christmas and just upgraded to a new Iphone myself. The kids all have Ipods so were an Apple family. If the tv is anything like the other products it should be trouble free. Again, just MHO but all the Apple products we have seem to hold up well.

Brian Kent
01-30-2012, 12:28 AM
Active rumors are out now about a new Apple TV product that will include access to new apps. I am looking forward to seeing what that will be about.

Brian Elfert
01-30-2012, 8:04 AM
There have been rumors circulating for some time that Apple is planning to make actual TVs with screens this year. I have no idea why Apple would want to get into that market. Would consumers really pay extra for a TV with the Apple logo on it?

Matt Meiser
01-30-2012, 8:10 AM
Would consumers really pay extra for a TV with the Apple logo on it?

Ever been to the Apple store? :D

dennis thompson
01-30-2012, 8:21 AM
Ever been to the Apple store? :D
Couldn't agree more. I live in NJ near the Short Hills mall. If you walk thru the mall there'll be 1 or 2 people in most stores & literally 100 in the Apple store, absolutely amazing.

John Shuk
01-30-2012, 9:19 AM
I just bought the Roku 2 xs. It is a great streaming device. It seems to work well with my DSL line that gives me 3mbs. I'm amazed at the amount of free content available. I can also take advantage of my Amazon Prime subscription on it which rules. I've been an Apple fan for a while but I'm finding Apple a bit restrictive when using stuff that I have paid for. If you look at the reviews on Amazon, you can see where one person did a comparison to the Apple tv unit. It kind of sealed the deal for me.

Peter J Lee
01-30-2012, 10:26 AM
Personally, I'd wait. It seems like a product that is on the threshold of significant changes.

Brian Elfert
01-30-2012, 10:30 AM
Ever been to the Apple store? :D

Many of Apple's products are unique to Apple. A TV is not at all unique unless they add some out of this world features to it.

Matt Meiser
01-30-2012, 10:46 AM
But I wouldn't suspect anything less. Build the Apple TV inside and you've got that.

Phil Thien
01-30-2012, 7:53 PM
I use a Roku w/ Amazon Prime. So I get some free movies. But I can watch new DVD releases, too (for a fee).

Netflix had such a limited # of movies to watch. More than Amazon Prime (free), but lots of movies are DVD only.

Rich Harman
02-18-2012, 2:55 AM
I use my AppleTV in the shop solely for streaming NetFlix. I don't really use it for movies too much, mostly for playing old TV series as background "noise". It works very well and is very small. We also have Prime but NetFlix has more shows than I will ever watch in a lifetime.

Jamie Buxton
02-18-2012, 10:43 AM
Bear with me here... I'm not clear what AppleTV really is. Apparently it is a misnomer -- the basic function is that it streams movies, not television programs. My desktop computer can also stream movies -- it does that with YouTube. But the Netflix and the other streaming sources only allow movie streaming to boxes they know will pay them their license fee. So what it boils down to is that AppleTV is mostly a licensing scheme for Netflix. Is that right?

David Weaver
02-18-2012, 3:01 PM
My $70 rca blue ray player streams netflix and youtube. Why would anyone pay for an apple label to do that?

EDIT: I guess I overassumed by thinking that the apple tv player would probably also play discs. So it's like a budget blue ray player, except it costs more, and doesn't do anything but stream.

It's good to be the brand that some people will buy without questioning, I guess.

Peter Stahl
02-18-2012, 3:24 PM
I bought a PS3 to play games, watch Blu-ray disks & Stream Netflix shows. Does all 3 well. As far as Apple Store shows/movies I don't think you can do it with a PS3. Don't think you can use it to watch Amazon shows/movies either.

Brian Kent
02-18-2012, 3:30 PM
I'll be watching to see if they can fulfill the formula:

Apple TV is to a television set
as iPhone is to a telephone.

They need to come up with a lot more unique functionality than ability to show Netflix and Hulu. Could it be a full internet access device?

Tim Morton
02-18-2012, 4:04 PM
As a 30 year user of apple products, i both love and hate these type's of threads, and i long ago decided to stop participating, unless a specific question was being discussed that i could address.

Brian Elfert
02-18-2012, 5:20 PM
Apple TV is basically a device for streaming TV content from the Internet. It does YouTube, NetFlix, Sports (NBA, MLB, NHL), and other streaming video. It also plays shows and movies from iTunes of course.

Several of co-workers have Apple TV and love it. One of my co-workers said Apple TV makes the most sense if you're already an Apple family and own other Apple products like the iPhone, iPad, iPod, and/or a Mac. It works fairly seamless with other Apple devices from what I have been told.

Matt Meiser
02-18-2012, 6:07 PM
It's also a tiny fraction of the size of a Blu Ray player and could easily be hidden behind a wall mounted TV.

Jim Becker
02-19-2012, 3:28 PM
Bear with me here... I'm not clear what AppleTV really is. Apparently it is a misnomer -- the basic function is that it streams movies, not television programs. My desktop computer can also stream movies -- it does that with YouTube. But the Netflix and the other streaming sources only allow movie streaming to boxes they know will pay them their license fee. So what it boils down to is that AppleTV is mostly a licensing scheme for Netflix. Is that right?

AppleTV is a small device that connects to both your TV and your Internet connection and it's from Apple, not Netflix. It provides an interface for streaming content from computers as well as the Internet from services like NetFlix and YouTube. (The streaming sources are somewhat limited with AppleTV right now compared to many of the current Internet capable BluRay machines and TVs, but that might change in the future) AppleTV happens to use the same operating system as the iPhone and iPad.