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Apple TV for UK - what's the point?

L

Lankyman

macrumors 68020
Original poster
May 14, 2011
2,083
832
U.K.
As the title states why does Apple bother with Apple TV for UK market given it is so limited? For a start let's take BBC iPlayer as an example - I can use iPlayer on my iMac but I cannot stream it from the iMac through to Apple TV then onto my large screen TV. However, if I had an iPad I could do exactly that i.e. stream from the iPad using BBC iPlayer through Apple TV onto main TV, why one and not the other?

Secondly, films - with the poor Broadband infrastructure in the UK plus many consumers on capped download limits is streaming films or even downloading them really feasible?

May be a nice tidy solution for the U.S. market with Hula etc. but for the UK a complete waste of £100 - shame really as it does have potential.
 
I primarily use mine for playing back my own DVD collection and my own bluray rips. It is much more convenient to have everything on my server and being able to instantly watch my movies...
 
Lankyman said:
However, if I had an iPad I could do exactly that i.e. stream from the iPad using BBC iPlayer through Apple TV onto main TV, why one and not the other?
Click to expand...

Actually you can't do it with an ipad either, iplayer app has disabled airplay.
 
We use our Apple TV for watching TV programs and Films stored in iTunes (some has been imported from DVD via Handbrake, and some purchased in iTunes). We also semi-regularly rent films directly on the Apple TV. We have an up to 20Mb broadband connection through Zen and get actual speed test results of around 15Mb. We don't have any problems ever watching HD films. Even before we got the upgrade from the 'up to 8Mb' broadband and we had around 6Mb actual speed we were able to watch HD films, it usually took several minutes to buffer.

Certainly the services included on the Apple TV could be MUCH better than they are currently just with a software update and better content selection, but as it is I still find my Apple TV extremely valuable and use it constantly.
 
Horses for courses I suppose. My main use would be iPlayer. Not really a film buff though have Sky if I need films plus I have my Blu-Ray player. As for BB well some UK citizens are very lucky sadly a large percentage are not. I'm lucky to get 1mbps in the evenings so downloading films would not be an option in any event.

Can't understand the BBC iPlayer issue though as you can stream from many Microsoft devices and some very obscure ones too plus iPlayer is now included in many TVs as standard.
 
I have just bought one and have been really impressed.

Used it so far for:

- Watching downloaded Orange Thursday films
- I have amassed quite a large 'Watch Later' list on Vimeo - working through these
- Video content I already have in iTunes
 
ashy7 said:
Get XBMC installed on it and you can watch iPlayer. Problem solved.
Click to expand...

On what, my iMac or an iPad? Also as many BBC iPlayer programmes are stream only not download can this app do this i.e. stream from iMac to TV through ATV2?
 
Lankyman said:
On what, my iMac or an iPad? Also as many BBC iPlayer programmes are stream only not download can this app do this i.e. stream from iMac to TV through ATV2?
Click to expand...

Jailbreak, my friend.

My main use of my ATV2 is to display movies on my TV streamed from my Mac mini. I'm slowly ripping my entire DVD collection; I've done about 250 and have about the number left to rip. The benefit is that all my movies, TV shows and music is quickly accessible, and two large DVD wallets and a 2 TB hard disk take up a lot less space than 500 DVD cases.

And Vimeo is great.
 
I Can Understand

Lankyman said:
As the title states why does Apple bother with Apple TV for UK market given it is so limited? For a start let's take BBC iPlayer as an example - I can use iPlayer on my iMac but I cannot stream it from the iMac through to Apple TV then onto my large screen TV. However, if I had an iPad I could do exactly that i.e. stream from the iPad using BBC iPlayer through Apple TV onto main TV, why one and not the other?

Secondly, films - with the poor Broadband infrastructure in the UK plus many consumers on capped download limits is streaming films or even downloading them really feasible?

May be a nice tidy solution for the U.S. market with Hula etc. but for the UK a complete waste of £100 - shame really as it does have potential.
Click to expand...

Why you feel that way.....When I was BETA testing this I dared to suggest that the name (ATV) was wrong. People will be misled I said. Of course I'm just a humble Human being with some friends who work at Apple, so I was duly ignored.

If you read the reviews (UK based) they are all of the same opinion.:

Apple missed a trick on this one..What's in a name? A lot in this case. I'm not good at naming kit, but if you think of the ATV in terms of a powerful streaming device...Lose the TV label, now then you are on it.

Sigh..They didn't listen. Me? I'm happy, got it for free and it streams from every device in the house...TV? Films? Nope...It's a very cheap very powerful network device. I will try and find that review, got it archived someplace.
 
sandyjmacdonald said:
Jailbreak, my friend.

My main use of my ATV2 is to display movies on my TV streamed from my Mac mini. I'm slowly ripping my entire DVD collection; I've done about 250 and have about the number left to rip. The benefit is that all my movies, TV shows and music is quickly accessible, and two large DVD wallets and a 2 TB hard disk take up a lot less space than 500 DVD cases.

And Vimeo is great.
Click to expand...

Is the result as good as watching Blu-Ray on a dedicated player though with 5.1 audio through toss-link - genuine question BTW?
 
DefBref said:
Actually you can't do it with an ipad either, iplayer app has disabled airplay.
Click to expand...

It's working for me, though i am using airplay mirroring with iOS5. I've got that running, along with 4OD, Demand5, itv player, sky go, sky news, vevo. Also if you use the site TVCatchup which streams live telly (basically freeview) then it's really handy indeed.
 
Last edited:
It Couldn't

OllyW said:
How could a DVD rip ever be as good quality as watching a Blu-ray? :confused:
Click to expand...

Some of this comes down to perception over human faculty. I'm in the business, and I look for aberrations it's what my mind does, most people wouldn't notice a thing. I used to strive for utter perfection, and I still try to produce the best results I can (believe me, you guy's want to hear some of the bands I've been working with lately...errr no you really don't)

But Blu-ray, as in true Blu ray as a fully noticeable, WOW that looks better factor, you need really really high spec kit.

And who, as in most people who view and listen is likely to fork out in excess of £15000.00 to watch a movie or listen to some music?

Nobody, It's just hype, trust me.
 
But Only

heliocentric said:
Apple tv is pointless in the uk until they solve the refresh rate problem
Click to expand...

If you can't get away from the whole TV thing....Forget it, forget about films, intact forget about it as anything other than a very cheap powerful Network device....Use mine all the time, but only for network purposes. At that it's great, otherwise don't get one...Simples...They got the name ALL wrong.
 
Macman45 said:
If you can't get away from the whole TV thing....Forget it, forget about films, intact forget about it as anything other than a very cheap powerful Network device....Use mine all the time, but only for network purposes. At that it's great, otherwise don't get one...Simples...They got the name ALL wrong.
Click to expand...

i use mine for films, telly, music and have no problems whatsoever, dunno why you're so down on it.
 
shandyman said:
i use mine for films, telly, music and have no problems whatsoever, dunno why you're so down on it.
Click to expand...

If I could be sure I could get streamed iPlayer 4OD material from my iMac to the TV then I would have one. Failing that then it will have to be an iPad with the rather expensive apple connector to HDMI/whatever else it is cable. With the state of my BB connection and the fact I have Blu-Ray in any event I don't see me using it for much else.

Forget it, forget about films, intact forget about it as anything other than a very cheap powerful Network device....Use mine all the time, but only for network purposes. At that it's great, otherwise don't get one
Click to expand...

Can provide some examples for how you use it then and exactly how i.e. setup?
 
Lankyman said:
If I could be sure I could get streamed iPlayer 4OD material from my iMac to the TV then I would have one. Failing that then it will have to be an iPad with the rather expensive apple connector to HDMI/whatever else it is cable. With the state of my BB connection and the fact I have Blu-Ray in any event I don't see me using it for much else.
Click to expand...

I airplay all my stuff from my iPad to my apple tv, i don't have a mac. all the stuff i listed in my above post about 4OD, Demand5, BBC iPlayer, TVCatchup, etc all airplays from my iPad to my Apple TV, works fine for me.
 
shandyman said:
I airplay all my stuff from my iPad to my apple tv, i don't have a mac. all the stuff i listed in my above post about 4OD, Demand5, BBC iPlayer, TVCatchup, etc all airplays from my iPad to my Apple TV, works fine for me.
Click to expand...

Yes, which is what I said I would have to do IF I can't do same from iMac. Seems a pretty expensive solution i.e. buy iPad buy Apple TV just to get material onto TV. I want to stream from iMac to Apple TV - no definitive answer as yet.
 
Lankyman said:
Yes, which is what I said I would have to do IF I can't do same from iMac. Seems a pretty expensive solution i.e. buy iPad buy Apple TV just to get material onto TV. I want to stream from iMac to Apple TV - no definitive answer as yet.
Click to expand...

apologies, i thought you had said you had an iPad, i misread. well you could just get the iPad and the £30 HDMI adapter and not bother with the Apple TV.
 
I'm Not

shandyman said:
i use mine for films, telly, music and have no problems whatsoever, dunno why you're so down on it.
Click to expand...

Down on it at all, if you read my post's you will see that I like it for what it should have been NAMED, it is of lnow use as a TV or Movie unit, but as a network dreaming device it is the best value for money on the market today.
 
Macman45 said:
Down on it at all, if you read my post's you will see that I like it for what it should have been NAMED, it is of lnow use as a TV or Movie unit, but as a network dreaming device it is the best value for money on the market today.
Click to expand...

I watch TV on it fine... Picking on its name is kinda worthless...
 
I think the Apple TV is brilliant - I've got loads of videos in my iTunes library and it's fantastic to be able to stream them to the lounge. I don't use BBC iPlayer much at all as I also have Sky+ so just record things I want to watch on that.
The AppleTV is brilliant at what it does, which is basically bring your iTunes content to your big screen TV. If you need a device to do something else, then it's probably not such a good thing
 
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