Apple TV: your feedback

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myfullflavour

896 posts

Ultimate Geek

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Full Flavour

#116016 15-Apr-2013 17:06

Who's got one?

How often do you use it?

What do you use it for?

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896 posts

Ultimate Geek

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Full Flavour

#799738 15-Apr-2013 17:08

And I'll start my own thread off with my own answers

1) I have one

2) Gets used weekly

3) Movie selection is pretty good and I'd rather pay $5 than drive to the video store, especially if it's raining.

I'm hoping they install some sort of iOS for it in the future so Apps such as TVNZ On Demand can be installed on it easily.

khull

1245 posts

Uber Geek

#799740 15-Apr-2013 17:11

love it to bits - 1080p wireless streaming from the NAS using Beamer

Mark

1653 posts

Uber Geek

#799744 15-Apr-2013 17:19

I used to have them, but got fed up with having to put everything into iTunes for it to play any of it, so hacked it put on XBMC which was much more format friendly .. then got an ATV3 for 1080p but it's still not jailbroken so got an Xtreamer Ultra2 instead which is far more betterer :-)

If you have an all Apple house and don't mind iTunes then the ATV is great, and I've heard NetFlix is superb on it as well (so long as you do unblockus as well).

but for me too limiting.

itxtme

2102 posts

Uber Geek

#799751 15-Apr-2013 17:28

Go a vizio co-star for streaming, so dont use it for that. Only really use it for airplay

MikeB4

18435 posts

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#799754 15-Apr-2013 17:31

I have one but the last update made it to flakey so I have stopped using it, I am using Twonky and the built in streaming facilities of the Panasonic TV's

sonyxperiageek

2958 posts

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#799761 15-Apr-2013 17:39

Yeah, the ATV3 is still not jailbroken.. a deal breaker for me.. Even the ATV 2's are selling for more than the ATV 3s on Amazon!

Sony

NonprayingMantis

6434 posts

Uber Geek

#799763 15-Apr-2013 17:42

I have atv3, so no jail breaking.

I use to for netflix, in conjunction with unblock us, and for air playing my other content from my nas via my ipad to get around the iTunes requirement rubbish.

Viewing family photos via airplay is also very nice, as is airplaying my ipad screen when looking at trademe with the wife for house things.

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casewindow

310 posts

Ultimate Geek

#799781 15-Apr-2013 18:23

I own 2 Apple TV2's

Use them daily. I made a huge effort to digitise my dvd/bluray library and now enjoy tv shows and movies through appletv2.

I get the DVDs/BluRays cheap from Amazon UK (though recently the warehouse has been extremely competitive and I go there more often - especially for the back catalogue of movies 5-10 years old.

Also digitise the kids stuff (using a plugin for youtube you can get heaps of free stuff that the kids enjoy - nursery rhymes etc. & kids dvds from the warehouse are dirt cheap).

Also set it up with photo stream & the screen saver using photo stream so that we can see our photos on the TV.

For non-itunes compatible files I purchased air-video & use air-play to send files to my phone

All in all pretty impressed, just a pity that my pc has to be running (it would be easier if it could integrate with the NAS)

I have found that the renting/purchasing of movies is problematic (and have heard others say this) - the few times i have tried it downloading stopped with some random error and had to be retried. Once It just didn't succeed and I had to get a refund (that they processed pretty fast). I avoid that part of it.

The WAF is high as well.

sonyxperiageek

2958 posts

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#799814 15-Apr-2013 19:32

casewindow: I own 2 Apple TV2's

Use them daily. I made a huge effort to digitise my dvd/bluray library and now enjoy tv shows and movies through appletv2.

I get the DVDs/BluRays cheap from Amazon UK (though recently the warehouse has been extremely competitive and I go there more often - especially for the back catalogue of movies 5-10 years old.

Also digitise the kids stuff (using a plugin for youtube you can get heaps of free stuff that the kids enjoy - nursery rhymes etc. & kids dvds from the warehouse are dirt cheap).

Also set it up with photo stream & the screen saver using photo stream so that we can see our photos on the TV.

For non-itunes compatible files I purchased air-video & use air-play to send files to my phone

All in all pretty impressed, just a pity that my pc has to be running (it would be easier if it could integrate with the NAS)

I have found that the renting/purchasing of movies is problematic (and have heard others say this) - the few times i have tried it downloading stopped with some random error and had to be retried. Once It just didn't succeed and I had to get a refund (that they processed pretty fast). I avoid that part of it.

The WAF is high as well.

I presume you have jailbroken your ATV 2?

If you have, you can download the Plex Media Server for your NAS, then get the Plex app for your jailbroken ATV 2? That would mean you can integrate it with your NAS!

Oh and a btw, if you sell your ATV 2, apparently you would get more money than the ATV3 is worth because the ATV 2 can be jailbroken? Lol, not that you'd want to though..

Oh and what's a "WAF"?

Sony

casewindow

310 posts

Ultimate Geek

#799829 15-Apr-2013 20:20

sonyxperiageek:

I presume you have jailbroken your ATV 2?

I looked into it but it seemed irritating (getting the 'exact' timing on some parts and some people saying that the untethered jailbreak sometimes needed re-doing but it was 'worth it' to get all the extras)

I haven't found a compelling reason to do this - the minor irritation of having to have the computer on outweighs the irritation I would feel if I went to use it and it had malfunctioned due to some jailbreak problem.

The WAF is 'Wife Acceptance Factor' which also would be severely dented by some "oh I just need to jailbreak it again so we can have all functionality [above and beyond what we're happy with]

SO yeah - not really worth it given the stability and complete use that the wife (and kids) have of it vanilla with a tailored library in itunes.

davidcole

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#799830 15-Apr-2013 20:21

I have a jailbroken 2 and a 3.

Mostly used for Netflix - used most days. I did have plex client on the atv2 but with a recent IOS upgrade the cleint is unsupported.

Both Used also as recipients for Airplay from spotify from my iphone and plex videos.

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sonyxperiageek

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#799840 15-Apr-2013 20:38

davidcole: I have a jailbroken 2 and a 3.

Mostly used for Netflix - used most days. I did have plex client on the atv2 but with a recent IOS upgrade the cleint is unsupported.

Both Used also as recipients for Airplay from spotify from my iphone and plex videos.

What? You've jailbroken an ATV 3? How? Is a jailbreak even out for ATV 3?

Sony

davidcole

6029 posts

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#799853 15-Apr-2013 20:46

A jailbroken 2 and a stock 3. Sorry to get your hopes up. With plex on a powerful server and an ios client it's no real problem for the atv3 to be stock.

More than handles anything I give it (I have video stream app as well)- and since I'm pretty much all plex'd (2 plex systems one for movies/TV content. A second I stance on my Pvr can transcode freeview dvb-t)

alasta

6701 posts

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#799866 15-Apr-2013 21:01

I use mine weekly, mainly for streaming from the 3News app on my iPad, and also for playing music through my audio equipment.

maslink

131 posts

Master Geek

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#799896 15-Apr-2013 21:49

I have an ATV2 and an ATV3; both non jailbroken.

Used predominantly for Netflix/Hulu - and TV/movies via iTunes (I have a US iTunes account, so good selection and often available well before NZ video stores). Also use as a media player for music or Airplay streaming to get house wide music.

HD movies work well now that I have fibre - generally <15min for full download (3-4GB)

I've played with some other streamers (Roku, WDTV) and XBMC - but the ATV wins for ease of use and stability (which is important when used by the whole family).

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