Apple TV questions

[bgalizio]

I have a few questions for Apple TV users. My wife likes to fall asleep with TV show DVDs playing. Apple TV would be nice way to replace having all the DVDs in the bedroom. I have the following questions:

1. Movie playlists are now supported, correct?
2. Apple TV does NOT have a sleep timer - what happens when a playlist is completed or the computer put to sleep?
3. Can an iMac be set to fall asleep on a timer DESPITE currently streaming to the Apple TV? ie: streaming would stop and the iMac would fall asleep.
4. Does Apple TV works with non-widescreen/non-HD TVs that have component video input?

 

[spice weasel]

1) Yes.
2) If a playlist or whatever media is finished playing, it will just stop and go back to the dashboard screen in ATV. The screen will eventually dim depending on your settings. If the computer goes to sleep, you will get the yellow warning icon and a message saying that the ATV cannot play your file.
3) Not sure, never tried it. But I think so.
4) Yes.

 

[jaw04005]

As far as my experience goes, #3 is not true. The Apple TV keeps the iMac awake. However, this doesn’t prevent the iMac from turning its display off.

With Snow Leopard, the Apple TV will even send a packet to wake up the iMac via wireless or wired (if using an AirPort Base Station). Wireless wake on LAN only works on newer model Macs though.

 

[bgalizio]

Thanks for the answers thus far.

I should clarify that the iMac would be streaming wirelessly to the Apple TV. My iMac is the 1st Intel Core Duo version (Jan 2006) running Snow Leopard.

 

[PaulMoore]

I think for #4, the Apple TV does not work out of the box if you need it to display correctly on a 4:3 display.

There are workarounds but you would need to hack it to do so, unless I am mistaken. That's one of the reasons I don't own one.

 

[mchalebk]

I think for #4, the Apple TV does not work out of the box if you need it to display correctly on a 4:3 display.

There are workarounds but you would need to hack it to do so, unless I am mistaken. That's one of the reasons I don't own one.

Actually, it does work out of the box with some 4:3 TVs, ones that have a 16:9 mode. However, if your 4:3 TV does not have a 16:9 mode, you will get a distorted image.

 

[jaw04005]

Thanks for the answers thus far.

I should clarify that the iMac would be streaming wirelessly to the Apple TV. My iMac is the 1st Intel Core Duo version (Jan 2006) running Snow Leopard.

Well in your case it would be able to keep the iMac awake, but won’t be able to wake the iMac up once it does go to sleep.

 

[bgalizio]

Well in your case it would be able to keep the iMac awake, but won’t be able to wake the iMac up once it does go to sleep.

That is the opposite of what I would want to do. I would want the iMac to sleep on a schedule, even if it's streaming to the Apple TV (because we would already be asleep, and the TV would turn off on its sleep timer).

 

[jaw04005]

That is the opposite of what I would want to do. I would want the iMac to sleep on a schedule, even if it's streaming to the Apple TV (because we would already be asleep, and the TV would turn off on its sleep timer).

What you want makes no sense at all.

If the iMac is asleep it can’t stream media to the Apple TV. You would have to sync what you’re wanting to watch before the iMac’s scheduled sleep time.

 

[bgalizio]

What you want makes no sense at all.

If the iMac is asleep it can’t stream media to the Apple TV. You would have to sync what you’re wanting to watch before the iMac’s scheduled sleep time.

My wife likes to fall asleep while the TV show DVDs play. But, we don't want them playing all night long. Since the Apple TV itself doesn't have a sleep timer, I was wondering if the iMac could act as a sleep timer.

 

[spice weasel]

My wife likes to fall asleep while the TV show DVDs play. But, we don't want them playing all night long. Since the Apple TV itself doesn't have a sleep timer, I was wondering if the iMac could act as a sleep timer.

Does your television have a timer?

 

[jaw04005]

My wife likes to fall asleep while the TV show DVDs play. But, we don't want them playing all night long. Since the Apple TV itself doesn't have a sleep timer, I was wondering if the iMac could act as a sleep timer.

OK. I did a few tests for you.

If you schedule a sleep in the Energy Saver preference pane the iMac will sleep regardless of the Apple TV streaming (and any other tasks too). It pops up a notification with a 10 minute warning to suspend the sleep. If you do nothing, the iMac will sleep after the 10 minute warning expires.

This doesn’t work if the iMac is set to sleep automatically within say 20 minutes or whatever. It has to manually scheduled.

 

[bgalizio]

Does your television have a timer?

It does. And we would use that too. But, putting the iMac to sleep at night would save some extra power.

 

[BoulderBum]

As mentioned, if you have Snow Leopard and an Airport Extreme or Time Capsule as your wireless router, everything but your TV will sleep as normal when your videos finish up.

I use a Mac Mini, too, which means that when it sleeps, it consumes around 1W of energy while waiting for a request from the Apple TV to wake it up.