Major Step for Apple TV

[eTip]

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Why would you need an A5 chip to do this? I watch videos by streaming air play from my iPad 1 to my TV. I streamed the entire keynote this way. It worked just fine.

You have to distinguish between regular AirPlay and AirPlay Mirroring. Regular AirPlay takes an already-encoded video stream and just sends it out over the WiFi, so it doesn't need any real processing power (in fact much less processing power than it would take to play on the device itself). AirPlay Mirroring needs to encode a new video stream, which takes substantial processing power.

It's still not clear to me why the video would need to be re-encoded. If playing it locally doesn't require encoding & sending it over wi-fi to ATV doesn't require encoding then why does mirroring require encoding? I am not necessarily saying you are wrong - just that I don't understand your explanation. If it is being re-encoded then exactly what is it being encoded from/to?

 

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does anyone know if the 1st gen Appletv can do airplay? can't seem to find a firm answer on that

Hacked & RemoteHD installed then yes. Otherwise, no.

 

[peterjcat]

It's still not clear to me why the video would need to be re-encoded. If playing it locally doesn't require encoding & sending it over wi-fi to ATV doesn't require encoding then why does mirroring require encoding? I am not necessarily saying you are wrong - just that I don't understand your explanation. If it is being re-encoded then exactly what is it being encoded from/to?

I guess the difference comes down to bandwidth. With regular AirPlay, the iPad (etc) can just send out the underlying video file, which is already encoded, probably at somewhere between 1.5 and 5 megabits per second, for the ATV2 to decode and draw onto your screen. This is easily within range of most Wi-Fi networks.

With mirroring, you're not just playing out an encoded video stream, you're making a copy of every pixel on the iPad screen. If you mirror over HDMI, then the iPad copies these pixels in an uncompressed format for your TV to draw itself. This takes a lot of bandwidth: 1024 x 768 at 30fps is between 350 and 550 megabits per second (depending on the colour model), and 720p and 1080p would of course be even higher. This is fine for HDMI but is too much for your home Wi-Fi network. So AirPlay Display Mirroring has to continuously compress its own screen into a video stream that can be transmitted over Wi-Fi for the ATV2 to decode and draw on your TV.

 

[NachoGrande]

Airplay mirroring absolutely lowers the video quality. Not sure if it's the beta or not, but when I mirror the picture looks somewhat washed out.

 

[fabian9]

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First gen Ipad and iphone 4 should work as well

I haven't seen or heard any evidence of this. As I recall "iPad2" was mentioned specifically during the keynote. In addition, the iPad 2 is the only IOS device that currently does screen mirroring (via HDMI cable). Don't get me wrong, as an original iPad owner - I hope you are right.

That's not quite right, the iPhone 4 also supports mirroring via an hdmi cable as far as I know.

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

Apple just killed GoogleTV, if it works the way we think it will, all you need is an AppleTV and an Ipad, have a mac mini running somewhere, and boom you get everything you ever wanted, Hulu Plus, Netflix, Plex, airvideo, everything!!

"Just" need?

You apparently need an entire television studio to watch a flipping movie....

With that setup, you could just use the Mac Mini and skip all the rest. AppleTV IS an iOS device with ATV2. Why on earth should you need an iPad to run those services? Apple should get with it and offer those services FOR ATV2 and then you won't have to drop over $600 on an iPad just to watch Hulu. If they'd add a server option to TimeMachine or Airport Extreme or even a functional USB storage port, you wouldn't need the Mac Mini either. I know Apple wants to sell hardware, but having to buy over $1300 in ancillary equipment to make AppleTV work the way you want it to is just flat out ridiculous, IMO. So much for the attractive $99 price option.

 

[Lahmy88]

my opinion: Apple TV without 1080p = FAIL
Once it has it = WIN

 

[radiogoober]

Certainly regular AirPlay doesn't decrease the quality of the video, and AirPlay Mirroring is smart enough to switch to regular AirPlay when it can (ie when your app or website is already AirPlay enabled). But for non-AirPlay apps, AirPlay Mirroring has to compress a new video stream from everything that's on your iPad screen, which will result in loss of quality. It does a good job and you might not notice the compression, but it's there.

The good news is that stereo sound is also streamed. And if your app is enabled for Video Out then it can fill the external screen instead of being pillarboxed. It looks like the AirPlay Mirroring just presents the ATV2 as a Video Out device like the AV Adapter (will test with Real Racing later!) -- except that when it's truly mirroring it has to compress the video as WiFi can't handle uncompressed video like HDMI can.

The automatic switch to regular AirPlay is really, really slick. I was playing with it last night, and went to a website that had a YouTube video embedded, and when I went to play the YouTube video it switched to regular AirPlay and did the video full screen automatically. Was really impressed!

 

[sdawgisinthebui]

does anyone know if the 1st gen Appletv can do airplay? can't seem to find a firm answer on that

I doubt it.

 

[gcmexico]

"Just" need?

You apparently need an entire television studio to watch a flipping movie....

With that setup, you could just use the Mac Mini and skip all the rest. AppleTV IS an iOS device with ATV2. Why on earth should you need an iPad to run those services? Apple should get with it and offer those services FOR ATV2 and then you won't have to drop over $600 on an iPad just to watch Hulu. If they'd add a server option to TimeMachine or Airport Extreme or even a functional USB storage port, you wouldn't need the Mac Mini either. I know Apple wants to sell hardware, but having to buy over $1300 in ancillary equipment to make AppleTV work the way you want it to is just flat out ridiculous, IMO. So much for the attractive $99 price option.

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I couldn't disagree more

Apple TV 99.00
Ipad 2 16g wifi 499.00
Mac mini, you can get of ebay all you need is an intel core 2 duo with 4 gb of ram, you should be able to get one used for 500.00

that's a total of 1000

Cable bills today run about to 120 a month for everything, in 1 year you can drop 1500, and that is yearly!

I would rather drop 1000 up front and be done with it, then see what I want to see, live tv, Hulu Plus, netflix, my media library, unlimited video podcasts, what ever you want, and if you feel like renting the option is there too

you don't need a whole television studio to watch a movie, you just need to know what you're doing

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

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I couldn't disagree more

Apple TV 99.00
Ipad 2 16g wifi 499.00
Mac mini, you can get of ebay all you need is an intel core 2 duo with 4 gb of ram, you should be able to get one used for 500.00

that's a total of 1000

Your total is including used gear off e-bay....

Cable bills today run about to 120 a month for everything, in 1 year you can drop 1500, and that is yearly!

I wasn't talking about dropping cable one way or the other, just the supposed 'need' to have an iPad and a Mac Mini to do something the Apple TV should be able to do on its own plus maybe an NAS and/or router with UPnP. I currently use an old PowerMac as the server and multiple Apple TV units around the house. I don't care for the iPad. I got a netbook for half the price that runs full Snow Leopard, has a keyboard and mouse and real USB ports. It should be able to do Airplay from full iTunes with ATV2. I'm still using ATV1.

ATV2 should be able to do Hulu, etc. with a hack and some ported software.

you don't need a whole television studio to watch a movie, you just need to know what you're doing

I obviously wasn't be literal, but referring to all the extra devices needed to watch Hulu on something that should be capable of watching it by itself. Apple doesn't really want you to watch Hulu or it would already be on there.

 

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That's not quite right, the iPhone 4 also supports mirroring via an hdmi cable as far as I know.

That would be news to me - unless you mean via jailbreak & a Cydia app.

 

[apatel87]

I dont mean to thread hijack but I have ios5 on my iphone and to enable this mirroring does my AtV2 need to be on ios 5 as well. I can't seem to get it to work. Thanks!