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brewno

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 8, 2007
461
18
Montreal, Canada
Do you believe the old AppleTV will have an update for streaming Netflix? It would be perfect... I didn't watch the streaming, I was working. Does anyone know?
 
Very unlikely.. hardware is not capable.

Out of curiosity, why do you think that? Based on my experience with Netflix on PS3 and Wii, all it seems to take is an internet connection and the software. The old Apple TV has the connection. Why couldn't they conceivably just upgrade the software?
 
Out of curiosity, why do you think that? Based on my experience with Netflix on PS3 and Wii, all it seems to take is an internet connection and the software. The old Apple TV has the connection. Why couldn't they conceivably just upgrade the software?

The folks who have hacked the AppleTV have been trying for years, but haven't been able to make it work.
 
The folks who have hacked the AppleTV have been trying for years, but haven't been able to make it work.

Because the old version used flash. But now it will have a native version for the AppleTV, meaning no flash. So it might run perfectly.
 
Because the old version used flash. But now it will have a native version for the AppleTV, meaning no flash. So it might run perfectly.

Netflix is based on Silverlight, it has nothing to do with Flash.

Netflix streaming actually requires a very specialized hardware to do decoding and DRM processing. Old ATV GPU/processor are ancient and don't have the horsepower to do Netflix. If it did - it would have been done years ago by hacking community.

You're not going to see Netflix on the old ATV hardware.
 
I agree with the comments about the hardware in the older AppleTV--it plays iTunes content very well. But when I've used some of the hacks it really struggles with other stuff--the exception being DVDs that are ripped to VIDEO_TS folders. It can handle that with ease, but then again, that is standard def and plenty of old Macs could handle that.

As a current AppleTV owner, I'm more curious if the 99 cent rentals will be available to me. Once other studios/networks get on board, I think that will be a nice option for people that miss a show or hear about a show and want to check it out at their convenience.
 
Just fix the bugs!

Just fix the bugs in the current Apple TV, and I would be happy with that.

1) Duplicate downloads when initiating purchase from Apple TV.
2) Icons not displaying properly
3) Clicking sound when navigating does not work all the time.
4) Can't remove podcasts from favorites

I have no problem with purchasing and syncing. Yes, it's a little more to manage, but I don't mind it. Netflix would be nice, but I'm not a NetFlix subscriber currently.

Please fix the bugs and let the current Apple TV work as intended (which is good enough for many of us.)
 
Netflix is based on Silverlight, it has nothing to do with Flash.

Netflix streaming actually requires a very specialized hardware to do decoding and DRM processing. Old ATV GPU/processor are ancient and don't have the horsepower to do Netflix. If it did - it would have been done years ago by hacking community.

You're not going to see Netflix on the old ATV hardware.

Netflix on the Web is based on Silverlight. It’s all H.264 on the backend. That’s why it now works on the PS3, Roku, iPad, iPhone, etc none of which support Silverlight.

The hacking community doesn’t have access to the Apple TV’s GPU or for that matter, Netflix’s H.264-capable API.

Apple could release an update to make it work if they wanted to. However, I doubt they’ll want to put anymore effort into a four-year-old device. But you never know, they’ve been pretty generous to Apple TV 1.x owners. If it comes, it’ll come in October like every other major Apple TV update of recent.
 
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