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Will the old ATV stream from iTunes?
- Thread starter Stuart21
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Of course. I don't store any video content on either of my 40GB Apple TVs - they both stream from a central library hosted by a Windows Home Server machine. One Apple TV is wired while the other is wireless.
This is interesting to me, because my brother in law also has the current 40GB ATV, and I talked with him the other night about his impressions of streaming. Not only did he tell me he only syncs and plays directly from the hard drive, but that he didn't know it was capable of streaming. He is pretty tech savvy, so I wonder why some users have no clue that this works.
Streaming performance over the wireless connection was poor if I was simultaneously generating a lot of wireless network traffic from a separate source (like say downloading a few GB of a Windows ISO file from my Technet subscription to my laptop). That led me to run network cable between my home office to a wall plate behind my home theater in my living room. My other Apple TV is in the MBR, and I don't work so much when I watch it.
So basically you can stream but the video quality takes a hit. The new ATV has an A4 chip so streaming should still be good quality. I basically just have a bunch of dvd that I have ripped in my itunes library and trying to decide if I should get the new or old ATV. Sounds like the old ATV can do almost everything the new on can minus Netflix. I have Netflix with my xbox so I dont need netflix on my ATV. The only thing about the New ATV that attracts me is the chance of an App store or being jailbroken. What do yall think the chances of that happening.
I'm interested in response to Stuart21 above, as I'm now thinking the 160 gig Old Edition for $150 sounds good.
Never owning an ATV, my question is -
For streaming with the ATV2, I understand that my Imac must be on, --but
1) Can my IMac be 'sleeping' while it streams, or must it/will it wake up entirely to stream to the TV?
2) To view my Iphoto and Itunes library and Iphoto over the ATV2, must these programs be launched and running on my Imac? If so, do I have to go to my computer to launch them or will the ATV2 automate that?
Thanks!
Never owning an ATV, my question is -
For streaming with the ATV2, I understand that my Imac must be on, --but
1) Can my IMac be 'sleeping' while it streams, or must it/will it wake up entirely to stream to the TV?
2) To view my Iphoto and Itunes library and Iphoto over the ATV2, must these programs be launched and running on my Imac? If so, do I have to go to my computer to launch them or will the ATV2 automate that?
Thanks!
1: No, and the AppleTV will not wake it on demand.
2: Yes and yes you must manually launch them. (edit: oops, just iTunes. Photos aren't streamed and must be copied to the AppleTV's internal storage via syncing within iTunes. I don't use my TV as a photo viewer.)
I am not going to speculate on unsupported/unannounced functionality on a product that isn't shipping yet. This thread would be a better place to engage in that discussion: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1016208/
First off there is no video quality hit if you stream movies as opposed to watching them off the ATV hard drive. I have about 10 movies on the ATV and about 100 streaming to it and there is no difference in the video quality. I watch movies all the time wile downloaded large torrent files at the same time and have not once noticed any issues with the video.
Also, you don't need iPhoto running to view your pictures on the ATV, just iTunes.
Your computer, imac, can't be sleeping, but the monitor can obviously be off.
Also, you don't need iPhoto running to view your pictures on the ATV, just iTunes.
Your computer, imac, can't be sleeping, but the monitor can obviously be off.
My Mac gets automatically woken up from sleep mode by my AppleTV via the Snow Leopard Wake on Demand feature.
More info @ http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3774
More info @ http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3774
FWIW, I could not make that functionality work when I had my 2009 Mac Pro hosting my iTunes library.
I have a few related questions, maybe one of you can help with...
Can you use the computer while it's streaming to the Apple TV?
Can you use other account logins during streaming (and do you know if this is OS dependent? Some OS's I may be using - 10.4, 10.6, XP home, some Win 7 variant)
Can you use iTunes on the same or another account while streaming, for example to manage an iPod?
I'm trying to figure out if I have to get the old unit instead of the new in order to let the family use the computer while I'm listening to my music library.
Many thanks,
Dan
1) yes
2) I have no interest in reconfiguring my setup to test this. I can say that the iTunes instance supporting my AppleTVs runs on a Windows Home Server in a disconnected console session. If I log into the server in a second session it does not affect the behavior of the disconnected session and my AppleTVs are still able to stream from it.
3) My iTunes library used to be hosted on my Mac Pro, which I use to manage an iPhone and an iPod. I don't recall any problems, but then I don't usually go into another room to putz around with my iPhone when I am watching a movie.
I did a quick test using 10.6
Yes. I do this all the time.
Yes.
You can definitely use iTunes on the same account. I was also able to stream to my AppleTV from one account while logged into another account and listening to iTunes music using the computer's speakers. From what I can tell you can test this by using the shared library feature of iTunes and streaming files from one library to another.
One clarification on this point: if you have an Airport Extreme router, the iMac (at least newer ones) can be in standby until you request content on Apple TV, then the "Wake On Demand" feature can kick in and spins up your Mac's hard drives and start streaming. The monitor can be off, though.
You must also leave iTunes running all the time. iTunes will register with the Bonjour proxy service on the Airport Extreme/Time Capsule, and be good to go.
Right now, it won't automatically wake up the sleeping computer and launch iTunes for you. I suppose some updates to iTunes could include a "helper" app that will always run, and launch iTunes if needed (and configured to do so!).