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New Apple TV vs. Old Apple TV
- Thread starter P140897
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This is my biggest problem as well.
I ordered a 160 gig refurb last Monday. During the week I second guessed that choice and bought a new one. After playing with it for the weekend, I unplugged the new one and plugged in the 160 gig. I'll take the new one back. What I would want is the old software in the new hardware. The main problems on the new one for me were the way it displayed your library under my computers and thus doesn't keep playcounts. Then I notice it's only showing a small fraction of my pictures on the screen saver. Really? As I said, I prefer the hardware. The episode "Fresh Water" from the Planet Earth series doesn't play on my old ATV, but it played fine on the new one.
If I knew for a fact Apple were going to fix these items in the next software update due this month, I would keep it. But as there are no promises in this regard, I'm sticking with the old ones.
Why do you relate content being under "computers" as being the reason for not updating playcounts? I don't see any connection.
I doubt whether they will move where your content is shown (and I hope they don't because I think it works well as it is), but I'd be surprised if the playcount issue isn't resolved fairly quickly.
Finally, are you aware that you can use the Apple remote on iPad, iPod or iPhone to play media using Airplay and in that case it will update playcounts, as you are actually playing it from iTunes. It doesn't work with video yet, but should do soon.
I doubt whether they will move where your content is shown (and I hope they don't because I think it works well as it is), but I'd be surprised if the playcount issue isn't resolved fairly quickly.
Finally, are you aware that you can use the Apple remote on iPad, iPod or iPhone to play media using Airplay and in that case it will update playcounts, as you are actually playing it from iTunes. It doesn't work with video yet, but should do soon.
Because ALL content shared through home sharing doesn't update playcounts. If you play a song from another computer, it does not update playcounts. I think they will need to either change that or put content back to the way it was for playcounts to work. And I'm pretty sure you could still view your content in the my computers home sharing method on the old ATV.
I forgot to mention another gripe I had. With my old ATV sync'd, when I go to my movies, my music, etc, the screen is there and populated with my media. On the new ATV, I go to my computers, I pick my movies and get something about accessing library for 5-10 seconds. Then I click on a different genre, I get to wait another 5-10 seconds. So yea, I think the old method was far superior. My library is large, but not huge. I have about 120 HD movies and 11000 songs/music videos and 500 or 600 tv shows.
I was using the remote app through the iPad and using the ATV as a remote speaker from my main computer and that worked well enough and avoids the lag note mentioned above. But as you said, it doesn't work with video yet. I'm also concerned what impact airplay will have on battery life of the iPad and iPhone if you streamed directly from them.
I guess this is my thing. If I KNEW 4.2 was going to give me all the functionality I had on my old ATV in one way or another (fix the photo screensaver, airplay enables me to play content from my iMac using the iPad remote) I might keep it. But we all know Apple is very hit and miss on what they decide to fix (it took 5 or 6 updates on the iPhone before smart playlists worked properly with limits.) I KNOW how the old ATV works and it does EXACTLY what I want it to do. Do I wish it ran cooler and had the stronger processor? Absolutely. That's why I said if you gave me the old software in the new hardware I'd be sold. I don't care about buying things from my couch and my bluray player has Netflix and Pandora.
The new iPad remote app is hands down the greatest thing to happen to either ATV. It manages to be far superior to the iPhone remote app.
Right, I see. I read your original message as saying that it was just where it was shown in the menu that affected playcounts, which obviously didn't make sense.
You are right about home sharing not updating playcounts, and I'd hope that it is something that is resolved soon. I think we can say for sure that they aren't going to abandon home sharing though, so if that is a problem to you then I think that returning the unit is your best solution.
Actually, I had not thought about the problem with playcounts being updated being due to home sharing. It would probably be quite an easy change to program, but then I suspect that some people who homeshare between computers wouldn't want plays by other people updating their playcounts.
It would probably require some preference settings which obviously makes it a little more complicated. I suspect it will be resolved fairly soon, due to the weight of negative comments about playcounts and watched flags, but it isn't as easy as I first thought.
I agree that the reason playcounts through Home Sharing doesn't work is probably because you wouldn't want other people watching your stuff through Home Sharing and updating your playcounts. What's not clear is if this is also intended for the Apple TV or it just hasn't been updated yet to differentiate from the standard Home Share behaviour. I could see the decision being made that since ATV devices are less of a personal experience than computers and mobile iOS devices, that you don't want to automatically update the playcounts.
I think overall I would rather have playcounts to update through the ATV but my wife often listens to my music and watches some of my TV shows through my Apple TV home share so I am not exactly sure I would like them to be updated when she does that. The Apple TV is more of a family device than an iPhone/iPod/iPad so maybe the design was intentional?
I think overall I would rather have playcounts to update through the ATV but my wife often listens to my music and watches some of my TV shows through my Apple TV home share so I am not exactly sure I would like them to be updated when she does that. The Apple TV is more of a family device than an iPhone/iPod/iPad so maybe the design was intentional?