For Mom: Will AppleTV work with her iPad (2nd gen)?

I have a quick question, please.

My mom bought her iPad about 3, 4 years ago. I am 99% certain it is the 2nd Gen iPad. She wants to cut off her cable bill, and FINALLY get the DSL turned on at her house (yipeeeeeee!) but she is adamant about being able to watch her favorite show on the Bravo Channel.

I told her about Roku, but she is interested in the AppleTV because we heard that she can magically beam whatever she sees on her iPad to her TV.

We looked and there is BravoTV.com, the Bravo Channel's, website, and it has episodes of her show under their video list. So she is excited and me too, since we will finally be able to watch ALL of the videos we want now on her ipad and my devices, without using up her 3GB data plan.

I have a Roku at my house and love it. But I'm not familiar with Apple TV and how it works......

SO: If I buy her the AppleTV, can we 'beam' whatever videos she finds on her iPad to her Vizio TV? I think I read she needs something called "Air Play" on her iPad>? Does the 2nd gen ipad have this feature? Can I download it from the app store? Unfortunately, I don't have her ipad here in my hands, so I can't check. And asking HER to check while on the phone will be confusing for her.

And if the answer is yes-- is it difficult to do? See, my mom is getting on up there in age, and has a hard time with figuring out how to use this technology (she still fumbles badly with her ipad after ALL of these years!)-- so will it be easy for her to use it with the AppleTV?

Thank you guys so much for your help!!


******Came back to edit and add another question: I just discovered there is a Bravo tv App I can download on her iPad. Can I use this app to watch the Bravo shows on the TV with Apple TV then? And I can't find the Air Play icon on my ipod while I"m looking at it now--does it only show up when you are connected to the Internet via WiFi and you have your Apple TV on and running?

I'm sorry for these lame questions, I just want to be sure of everything before I spend the $100 for the Apple TV. Thank you!

Please read through the following article to get a better understanding of "Air Play" and what is required to set it up. LINK If you have any further questions please post back to this same thread.

First, I have an iPad 2 but also use a Roku device attached via an HDMI cable to my HDTV. As like the Roku, the Apple TV is simply a small box that can be controlled by a remote and offers much content w/o the need for AirPlay (now I'm not sure if Bravo is a service available - you'll have to check or wait for another poster to respond).

Second, AirPlay is a proprietary Apple technology that allows mirroring of content from an Apple device to an AirPlay compatible unit, such as an Apple TV or an Airport Express (there are other possibilities such as speakers for music). Of course, the Roku device does not offer AirPlay. To use AirPlay w/ the iPad 2 and an Apple TV both have to be on the same Wi-Fi network and AirPlay activated to stream to the Apple TV (if the Bravo app is playing a show on the iPad, then that content should stream to the Apple TV and to her HDTV, I'm assuming).

Now there is PLENTY on the web that addresses your questions more thoroughly - just a few sites listed below - good luck. Dave

P.S. I'm assuming that AirPlay is not showing up on your iPod because there is not another AirPlay compatible device on your Wi-Fi network - correct?

AirPlay Basics

AirPlay Troubleshooting

Apple TV

RadDave, THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! You helped me a LOT! I am visually impaired and even though I have a large screen here on my PC, it is difficult for me to read all of these webpages, so you answering me has helped me a TON! THank you!!!

I REALLY appreciate it a lot! Now we are very excited to get an Apple TV device!!

Fwiw, we just added an apple tv and i'm not yelling, but i thought using caps might help your visual reading.

You don't even normally need to even use an ipad or any air play, but the apple tv must be connected to your provider's device either via ethernet or wireless and we use an apple express for wireless connection that's connected to our providers modem.

And i just checked our apple tv choices in canada and as for bravo, at least the 'desperate housewives' episodes are listed using the apple tv by itself. So i guess the other bravo programs would be available as well.

Also, to make things easier to control, i was finally able to get our old logitech harmony remote 520 to control all the connected devices, including the tv and audio receiver for volume control which the apple tv remote doesn't do. So much easier with using just a single remote!!

i hope this helps and good luck.

Ps: My wife is just loving the apple tv and also uses it to play her itunes and radio station music.

EDIT: SORY, BUT THE CAPS GOT CHANGED TO LOWER CASE WHEN I POSTED AND I DON'T KNOW HOW TO CHAGE IT SO I'M TRYING A LARGER FONT SIZE.

Just a passing note. If you don't have something like the Logitech Harmony a lot of the cheaper universal remotes can do the job of working well with the Apple TV. There is a trick to this that is not obvious though.

Don't try to get the Universal remote to learn the commands from the Apple remote. Go in to the Apple TV setup. I think it is in the remotes section. Run that routine. The Apple TV will show you a function. You then hit the key on the remote that you want to use for that function.

One may be able to get some of the controls working on a Universal remote and Apple provides a kb article:
Apple TV: Using a third-party remote control

But I discovered that the audio volume couldn't be controlled along with some other functions and it was even a hassle setting up our old Harmony Remote 520 we had to control everything, but I finally succeeded, and it didn't help that the setup software had erroneous directions.

Then there was Apple's bizarre pairing/unpairing hassle, and who would have believed that one had to un-pair the Apple TV remote and the Harmony Remote to get and keep it working.

Ten days later, all our devices are now working with the single old Harmony Remote 520.

It's probably best to do a search for one's specific needs and modify such a search:
https://www.google.ca/search?client...&oe=UTF-8&gfe_rd=cr&ei=be3eU4vXMajP8geT6YCADA

Thank you pm-r and slydude for your help! You have both helped me a lot, and thanks for the larger words, I appreciated that a lot! Yes, it made it easier to see.

Also, good tip about the universal remote. Mom isn't cutting off her satellite service for another month, and between it and the Apple TV and the TV remote-- that is 3 of them--I was wondering HOW she was going to fare trying to figure out how to use that INPUT button and switch from SAT to a HDMI channel, hahaha. After we get everything hooked up and running, I'll look into getting the remote you guys suggested. Thank you everyone for your help! We are all set now!! :-D

Here's something to think about that might solve the Input button issue. Some remotes, including some of the cheaper universals, have the ability to store a series of commands as a macro. One button can, for example, turn on the TV, switch inputs, and turn on surround sound. One Macro could be set for general TV watching, one for DVD, etc.

This may or may not work well. I tried repeatedly with my previous TV set and it did not work well. You were essentially cycling through the inputs and I never got it to function reliably.

I'm not sure if this has been answered but in case it hasn't:

The BravoTV Now app does not support AirPlay. You also need to have a login from the TV Provider you subscribe to. I'm not entirely sure how that all works in the US and Canada. But just from reading the app description you need to have a subscription to watch on your device and the app does not support AirPlay