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What do you primarily do on your Apple TV?

whooleytoo said:
Yup, same here. I haven't rented or bought a single movie from iTunes. It's just really bad value in comparison to Netflix.

Netflix: for 7 euros, you can watch as many movies & TV episodes as you like, on any supported device (Mac, PC, 360, PS3, ATV, iPad etc...) for 30 days.

iTunes: for 4 euros, you can watch 1 movie, for 24 hours once you start watching it, only on Apple devices (or a PC with iTunes).
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very true. Netflix is great. Although you have to agree that the "instant" collection isn't nearly as complete as iTunes. In fact when I find myself search for a specific movie that I want to see at least 80% of the time Netflix doesn't have it. Netflix is good for browsing through to try to find something you can watch and it's good for a lot of TV shows (although they are always a season behind), but if you are looking for a specific movie you are better off with iTunes. I do wish the price would be more around $2 for a rental though.
 
Mad Mac Maniac said:
very true. Netflix is great. Although you have to agree that the "instant" collection isn't nearly as complete as iTunes. In fact when I find myself search for a specific movie that I want to see at least 80% of the time Netflix doesn't have it. Netflix is good for browsing through to try to find something you can watch and it's good for a lot of TV shows (although they are always a season behind), but if you are looking for a specific movie you are better off with iTunes. I do wish the price would be more around $2 for a rental though.
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Yeah, without doubt the iTunes library is better - in particular when it comes to more recent releases. It doesn't bother me that much, as I'm working through episodes of some shows from start to finish - I enjoy that much more than watching 1 episode every week.

That said, I'd happily pay more for Netflix (or a Netflix-like service) that had more content. That alone would let the ATV replace my cable box (bar a few live sports channels).
 
I d/l UK TV show torrents to my Time Capsule and stream them to my jailbroken ATV2. I never watch US television anymore. If cable didn't jack up the price the plain old internet without TV I would have ditched cable TV years ago.
 
Nychot said:
i can't believe no one here has mentioned that they've jail broken their apple tv. its pretty boring without a jail break which opens up a VAST world of content, from first run movies in the theaters now -- FREE -- to X rated and all the stuff everyone mentioned above PLUS much much more.
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You do NOT get first run movies FREE. You can steal them, but there is a cost to theft.
 
whooleytoo said:
Yup, same here. I haven't rented or bought a single movie from iTunes. It's just really bad value in comparison to Netflix.

Netflix: for 7 euros, you can watch as many movies & TV episodes as you like, on any supported device (Mac, PC, 360, PS3, ATV, iPad etc...) for 30 days.

iTunes: for 4 euros, you can watch 1 movie, for 24 hours once you start watching it, only on Apple devices (or a PC with iTunes).
Click to expand...

You forgot to mention the part where Netflix streams mostly old movies and iTunes has the new releases. The content is higher quality as well as the actual quality of the stream itself. So not exactly a fair comparison.
 
I use my Apple TV 3 almost exclusively for Airplay mirroring at the moment for movies and TV shows I download off the net. Hoping a jailbreak is coming at some point soon, but am happy with it so far. Looking forward to Mountain Lion to expand Airplay options.
 
newagemac said:
You forgot to mention the part where Netflix streams mostly old movies and iTunes has the new releases. The content is higher quality as well as the actual quality of the stream itself. So not exactly a fair comparison.
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Well, for me the pricing isn't even close - I've watched maybe 50 TV episodes and maybe a half dozen films over the last month, for 7 euros. How much more expensive would that be on iTunes? 5-6 times more? Yes, the iTunes catalog is bigger, but it's not worth that premium. To me, at least.

And the lack of new releases doesn't bother me in the slightest (given the number of tired franchises and sequels out there). When I get through the Netflix catalog and there's nothing left I want to see, I'll switch. ;)
 
Stream movies and TV Series on Netflix, stream media from YouTube, stream media from my iTunes library to my TV/speakers, AirPlay audio/video from my iOS devices to it, etc. Very useful. I've had one since the ATV2 came out around October of 2010. It was actually an impulse buy because of the low price, but it turns out I am very satisfied with my purchase. I would recommend getting one if you don't already have one. I plan on buying two ATV3's in the future, and moving my ATV2 to another room in my home.
 
I use it to:

Watch tv shows stored on my NAS
Watch movies stored on my NAS
Listen to music stored on my NAS
All of the above without having itunes or a pc/MAC on all the time
Stream content between ipad/iphone to tv using airplay
Watch internet tv (youtube, iplayer etc)

4th on the list is the most important/benefit.
 
Mine is a jail broken aTV 2 running XBMC.
I have all my external drives (movies and music etc) attached to a wireless Pogoplug pro.
No need to rip everything I own to iTunes as it will play pretty much any file type. No need for my macbook pro to be open all the time, and no need for my laptop to be tied up, so I can have a movie on in the background whilst still editing or whatever.
It's a pretty awesome system. I can watch my movies either on my large screen tv via my aTV 2 in my living room, or via a drive icon on my laptop in bed for example, or in another county via the web interface on the Pogoplug.
It's pretty robust! The only problem is that the XBMC interface, in my opinion, is a bit rubbish!
 
I use my ATV for the following not in any order:

Netflix
iTunes Library, Movies, Music, Photos streaming etc.

The thing I have the most fun doing with my iPhone 4 is playing angry birds on my phone and connecting the ATV2, and projecting it on my 42" plasma tv

Turn up the volume and keep hitting the screen on the red bird who says Caw, and watch 3 pugs and one Bull Mastiff go nuts looking for the bird, hours of adult entertainment.
 
My uses, and approximate percentage of use for each:

70%: Playback of movies, music videos, and cartoons from my iTunes library. The vast majority of these are "family movies" (Pixar, DreamWorks animated stuff, etc) from my child's DVD collection.
25%: NetFlix.
The other 5%: Music playback from my library, YouTube and (on very rare occasion) Internet radio.
 
Once mountain lion is out you will be able to stream Hulu from your Mac right to your atv. There won't really be a need to jailbreak for most users once that comes out. I myself can't wait for Mountain Lion for this exact feature.
 
I bought the AppleTV2 shortly after release, and didn't set it up until a jailbreak was released.

I use it for Netflix (when they have the show/movie we want), but I primarily use it for playing videos stored on a network drive. I used XBMC for a while for that, and recently switched to aTV Flash (black). It's great for playing videos you have downloaded elsewhere.

AirPlay is amazing. Not technologically amazing... just amazing. Most of my good friends have an iPhone. AirPlay makes it stupidly easy to share a photo or video with the whole room. AirParrot for Mac also lets you stream your Mac desktop to the AppleTV via AirPlay (coming soon to Mac 10.8) which comes in handy if you want to share Adobe Flash content to the TV.
 
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