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Sell me on Apple TV (a few questions)

K

kjvi5

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 29, 2007
57
0
O.K. so I really want to get Apple TV but I'm not entirely sure it does what I want/need it to do. The apple site page on it is good but not specific enough.

Here's my set up:

-Imac running Leopard (purchased in November 07, all software, firmware, etc. up to date).
-Airport Extreme Router with an airport express base station right next to where the Apple TV will be.
-42" Plasma Flat Screen TV with an HDMI cable.

Questions:
1) Will I be able to browse/play anything from my entire itunes music library? Some of the Apple TV information says "play up to 36,000 songs from your library". I have about 40,000 songs on mine, so I'm not sure how or in what way this would impact playability or connectivity, if at all.

2) Will I be able to browse/view all of my photos as they are on my computer in iphoto (events, etc.)

3) Will I be able to brose/view my home movies? Currently they are stored basically in my movies folder but not connected to any one program (ie. imovie, etc.).

I guess what I'm asking is, is the basic functionality of Apple TV pretty much similar to having Front Row on your television only with some added features (flickr, youtube, etc.).

What I'm looking for is a way to stream and pull up the personal content on my mac (which is in my office room) to my living room. Will this do the trick?

Thanks in advance.
 
As long as all your stuff is in the formats AppleTV can play (standard iTunes stuff) you should be good to go.

40k songs?! Wow thats a lot :) I think the 36k songs has to do with having them held on the AppleTV drive itself, not streamed from a server. But I could be wrong.

-Allen
 
akm3 said:
As long as all your stuff is in the formats AppleTV can play (standard iTunes stuff) you should be good to go.

40k songs?! Wow thats a lot :) I think the 36k songs has to do with having them held on the AppleTV drive itself, not streamed from a server. But I could be wrong.

-Allen
Click to expand...

That makes sense abou the size of the Apple TV drive itself, and since I'm not really planning on storing anything on it exclusively I should be o.k.

I'm assuming the same thing holds about pictures, movies, etc. That if it's all in regular formats (jpg, mpg, etc.) that I can stream it and view it from Apple TV?
 
Apple TV

The Apple TV device does not stream audio or video or photos from your computer. You must transfer the files to the Apple TV device first. You can purchase from the Apple store music and videos that will download to the Apple TV hardware then later Sync to your Itunes library on your computer to have a backup.
You can stream Youtube videos from the Internet along with access other services that the Apple TV supports.
 
Not true

NinjaKid said:
The Apple TV device does not stream audio or video or photos from your computer. You must transfer the files to the Apple TV device first. You can purchase from the Apple store music and videos that will download to the Apple TV hardware then later Sync to your Itunes library on your computer to have a backup.
You can stream Youtube videos from the Internet along with access other services that the Apple TV supports.
Click to expand...
You can stream music and videos from your Apple TV
 
jmccray said:
You can stream music and videos from your Apple TV
Click to expand...


Do you mean from my mac to my Apple TV? This is a big question mark. If the other poster is right and everything I want to view NEEDS to be transferred and stored on apple tv to be watched, then it's useless to me. I may do that for some things (movies purchased from itunes, etc.). But the main functionality I want and need is to view content from my mac on my tv wirelessly. But I don't want to transfer the actual files.
 
NinjaKid said:
The Apple TV device does not stream audio or video or photos from your computer. You must transfer the files to the Apple TV device first. You can purchase from the Apple store music and videos that will download to the Apple TV hardware then later Sync to your Itunes library on your computer to have a backup.
You can stream Youtube videos from the Internet along with access other services that the Apple TV supports.
Click to expand...

This is not true. While you can synchronize content, you can also choose to stream from iTunes.

I do think that to show pictures, you have to synchronize them with the Apple TV.
 
kjvi5 said:
Do you mean from my mac to my Apple TV? This is a big question mark. If the other poster is right and everything I want to view NEEDS to be transferred and stored on apple tv to be watched, then it's useless to me. I may do that for some things (movies purchased from itunes, etc.). But the main functionality I want and need is to view content from my mac on my tv wirelessly. But I don't want to transfer the actual files.
Click to expand...

You can stream or sync music and movies (anything from iTunes). Both work great. I am not sure about the 36,000 song limit, I only have about 3000 songs in my library.
 
Does anyone here actually use an apple tv? Yes, you most definitely can stream your entire itunes music collection TO the apple tv. Yes, you can stream your movies TO the apple tv. Keep in mind though that any movies must be in an apple tv compatible form. Just because they play in itunes/quicktime doesn't necessarily mean that they will play on the apple tv. Yes you can also stream your photos from your computer to the apple tv, you do not need to sync the photos directly to the box. For any of this to happen though, the computer that the box is streaming from must be on, and itunes must be running on that computer while you are streaming any of the content. As far as "selling" you on apple tv, it is a interesting product that does what it says it does fairly well, with a fairly nice interface. However its options are limited as far as how it displays content, and what content it will display. Just don't expect it to do anything else besides what apple says it will do.
 
I'm constantly using my apple tv. I rent HD movies on friday nights usually. I have a fairly extensive collection of my own movies and a few tv shows as well.

I'm use it for airtunes so I can pipe the music off my laptop through my surround.

I use it by itself to play music with my iphone as the remote.

I love my atv. <3
 
I JUST got an AppleTV, very impressed. To answer the OPs questions:

1 & 2) You can stream content to the ATV from iTunes no problem. In my testing so far, music streaming is instant, pretty much just like you had it on the unit. Streaming movies involves a slight buffering time (over .11g) but it's not much - like a minute. I assume if iTunes will handle your library it will stream it to the ATV OK, but don't have 40k songs to test. I agree that the 36k is probably what fits on the internal 40gb HDD>

3) You can stream any movie in MPEG4 or H264 format, including home movies, as long as they fit in the limits Apple gives for video formats. From iMovie (if you started using that) you can "Export to iTunes" and it will move a copy of the video you've edited into your iTunes movie library, which would then be available from the ATV.
 
Love my Apple TV

I have a Mac Mini with 2 external hard drives connected to my living room TV with several hundred movies (mp4 format) I have ripped and converted from my own collection. This is my main home theatre pc. I stream all of my content (music, movies) to my Apple TV in my bedroom and it's awesome. Also have Connect 360 on the Xbox in the game room which is fine...it does the job...but it's nothing compared to the interface of the Apple TV.

Whoever the guy was that said you can't stream movies and music was wrong. I stream all of it. The only thing I actually put on the Apple TV are the photos. (this must be done as the Apple TV won't stream photos)

As far as selling you on it... if you have a lot of content that you want to stream to your home entertainment center then I would recommend it. Easy set up...works like a giant ipod for your TV. Looks great on the HDTV. I actually enjoy the interface more than Front Row on the Mac Mini and will eventually put an Apple TV in the living room and just use the Mac Mini as a music/movie computer to stream to both Apple TVs.
 
downinitjr said:
It WILL stream photos what is the deal people.
Click to expand...

No it won't. The Apple TV will stream music, movies, and tv shows from the iTunes library just fine. However, it is NOT possible to stream photos from the Mac to the Apple TV. The only way to stream any photos if they are not synchronised to the Apple TV using iTunes, is to stream from MobileMe and/or Flickr galleries. It is possible to view any photos stored in these galleries directly on the Apple TV.

Nevertheless, if the OP has photos on his/her Mac that they want to view on the Apple TV, they must be synchronised to the device first. The reason being that the Apple TV will only stream compatible content from the iTunes library, and no photos are stored there.
 
davidjearly said:
No it won't. The Apple TV will stream music, movies, and tv shows from the iTunes library just fine. However, it is NOT possible to stream photos from the Mac to the Apple TV. ...
Click to expand...
WOW!, I must own some super special secret model then...
As I said before... TWICE... you CAN and I DO currently stream photos to my apple tv just fine. As with any of the other categories they show up under "Shared Photos" in the menus. My apple tv is set to stream only, right next to the summary tab for the apple tv in itunes, is the photos tab where you can select which albums/ photos you want to share/stream.
 
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