New happy owner of an Apple TV:)

XJ-linux · Oct 24, 2010

baggss said:
I bought a new ATV about 2 weeks go but returned it within 24 hours. Now there was nothing wrong with the ATV itself as far as I could tell, but I'm in a hotel on business and apparently the hotel blocks the ports I need to log into my Apple account from the ATV (the help page lists the exacts ports). I was sharing the ethernet connection from my MacBook to the ATV wirelessly.

Now, before you say, what do you need an ATV in a hotel for let me say that a) it's an 8 week trip, b) I came with over 150 movies on my hdd/iTunes and c) I've ripped 80+ movies while I've been here.

I took the ATV back to the Apple store and explained to the genius what was wrong and what i did. She responded that it definitely wasn't me and was most definitely likely the hotels network and cheerfully refunded my money.

Now, I could have kept the ATV and taken it home with me but on the off chance that it WAS the actual unit itself I would have then been outside the 14 day return window from Apple. I'll buy one right before I leave and take it home with me though. I was certainly impressed with what I saw of that little black box. Just wish I could have gotten it to log onto my acct though.

I have an old ATV at home and I like it but the interface lags (I have a HUGE video and music library on iTunes). I did notice that the ATV2 interface was MUCH snappier.

Bummer man. This is why I still treasure the internal HDD on my original ATV. Of course, it wouldn't have held your 150 movies either though.

iggibar · Oct 26, 2010

Here's my final verdict on my old apple tv compared to the new one that I have on my toshiba tv. The atv1 is SLOW, but for 70 bucks that I paid for it, it's awesome as a media point to share...media. The atv2 is noticeably quicker, even scrolling through menus is faster. Streaming things is not cool with me. And the hdmi only connection ruins it for the basement, which is why I have it connected to my tv, which sits just 5 inches away from my macbook pro. I think they would have used a min dvi or something similar. I haven't renewed my netflix subscription, so I'm not sure how snappy that is, but I hear it's not bad. I wish it had a hard drive! I don't know why apple is trying SO hard to kill off the old atv. I like it more.

schweb · Oct 26, 2010

Yeah, it probably depends on what your expectations are for it and how you plan to use it.

I never bought the old AppleTV because I never could see how or why I would really want it. But I do have the new AppleTV and it's perfect for me. I actually much prefer streaming to local storage.

JohnCL · Oct 26, 2010

Mini dvi?? C'mon man, you don't expect Apple to move in reverse do you??

I find that the streaming works perfectly, and I personally have not had one issue with it. I manage 5 libraries in iTunes, and whichever one is open it is available on the ATV instantly. If the wife wants to see her stuff I just open her library and bam, there it is. The Netflix speed in queueing up a movie could be faster, but it is no slower that any other Netflix device on the market. I have not had any bad video watching various titles.

Still love my 160gb ATV1 and have no intention of getting rid of it, but this new one is pretty sweet as well.

iggibar · Oct 26, 2010

JohnCL said:
Mini dvi??

I actually meant the mini display port that is on all current macbooks, not the old mini dvi...oops.

Also, I didn't say there was a problem with the streaming of music with the atv2, as long as your main computer is in the house! That's not easy for me since my mbp is my main media library, and I'm away from home 80% of the time....which is why I NEED a new MBA

JohnCL · Oct 26, 2010

idrinorbarsaku said:
That's not easy for me since my mbp is my main media library, and I'm away from home 80% of the time....which is why I NEED a new MBA

That does pose a problem for you. My iTunes is always running and available to the ATV.

Yes, you NEED a new MBA. I am actually going at lunch to buy one for the wife to satisfy her "I gotta have that" need.

When she pulled up the Apple site last week she flipped!

eliehass · Nov 1, 2010

pigoo3 said:
I see...I get it now. Yes...I saw that part about the Apple TV being able to receive music/video content from iTunes (via a persons computer which I would assume means a persons itunes library)...since iTunes purchases can be done directly from the Apple TV (no personal computer required for this).

I thought that I read somewhere that if you were able to "rip" the video from a movie CD/DVD/HD-DVD...and get it into iTunes...then the Apple TV could play it (sent from a computer)...just not directly from a disk in the optical drive.

If I cannot wirelessly send video from a movie CD/DVD/HD-DVD directly from my computers optical drive to the Apple TV...then I think that this is the "deal-breaker" for me!

I guess this is what you meant earlier when you said that the Apple TV was not a "full blown Windows based HTPC".

Thanks so much for the help,

- Nick

One feature of the new apple tv that you might be interested in is airplay. It's not out yet, but it was announced. It will allow you to stream video or audio from an iOS device (and possibly a mac or pc) to your apple tv. This opens up a new method of getting video to the apple tv that doesn't rely on iTunes. it may be possible in a few moths (airplay should be first released sometime in November) for someone to build an airplay compatible application that can stream content directly from the DVD drive to the apple tv. It would be amazing, if video players like VLC and Quicktime got airplay built in to them. In my opinion that would really open up the device and turn it into something above and beyond what it is now (and thats saying something, because I love my little black atv).

baggss · Nov 2, 2010

Well, I repurchased an ATV2 and brought it home with me. Hooked it up today and frankly it rocks. Way faster at streaming than the old ATV and in general just a better all around platform.