AppleTV and AirPlay

AggieMike88

AggieMike88

Touchdown! Greaser!
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The original "I don't know it all" of aviation.
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I am considering purchasing an AppleTV box so I can mirror my iPad to my TV and make use of it's other functions.

Anything I need to know or be aware of that's not covered by easily found online material?
 
We have one, and it works great. We also find that the various app (Netflix, Hulu, etc) interfaces are far superior to the same apps on our Samsung smart TV, so that's a bonus. For 99 bucks, it's a no brainer if you already have Apple hardware.
 
Love ours, and it keeps getting better with incremental updates.

Watching today's Meet The Press on it right now.

Latest is ABC News - not great, but pointing to what's to come. Big changes rumored to be coming.

We cut the cord, so 95%+ of our content is via the AppleTV (rest is Netflix DVD's and Chromecast). Just $35 for the Chromecast. We rarely use it, but it has worked well for streaming World Cup games via the ESPN app.
 
Ditto. We have two and I threaten regularly to buy another just so one of the rooms that doesn't have one, would. The cheapskate in me wins that argument so far.
 
Anyone have a comparison between AppleTV and a blu-ray device connected directly to the internet? Pros/cons? I'm about to drop DISH and looking for alternatives.
 
murphey said:
Anyone have a comparison between AppleTV and a blu-ray device connected directly to the internet? Pros/cons? I'm about to drop DISH and looking for alternatives.
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I've found that the software in my 'smart' devices (a Samsung TV and Samsung Blue-Ray) is generally pretty terrible. I'm sure it'll get better with time, but right now it feels like they're simply trying to get anything out there just to stamp a Netflix logo on the box. The AppleTV's (I'm not an Apple fanboy by any means - get a Roku if you're an Android guy) interface is just a heck of a lot more polished.

The downside is that you have yet one more device and remote control to manage, but these devices are small, and I kind of like having these things be modular. That way you can replace your TV, stereo, or whatever, and not really have to worry about how well it does anything beyond what it was specifically designed to do.
 
I find airplay from my iPhone 4 to my Apple TV to be agonizingly slow. I streamed a 3+ minute video to the Apple TV today and it took a long time for it to start playing.

That said, we do enjoy episodes of Dexter on Netflix from time to time.
 
iflyvfr said:
I find airplay from my iPhone 4 to my Apple TV to be agonizingly slow. I streamed a 3+ minute video to the Apple TV today and it took a long time for it to start playing.

That said, we do enjoy episodes of Dexter on Netflix from time to time.
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I upgraded from a iPhone 4 to a 5s. Airplay was unusable from the 4. It works great with the 5s. I have Amazon prime wich gives you free streaming similar to netflix. I have the Amazon prime app on my phone and mirror it to the Apple TV with no issues.

Also - you can download the software Apple remote app and control the Apple TV from your ipad or iphone.
If you already own an iDevice, I would definately get the Apple TV.
 
AppleTV is a very useful device - does what it says. Ditto on the iPad/iPhone remote suggestion.

Only issue I have is that moving forward and backward in the time on a video is not very effective - lots of delay / buffering time.
 
iflyvfr said:
I find airplay from my iPhone 4 to my Apple TV to be agonizingly slow. I streamed a 3+ minute video to the Apple TV today and it took a long time for it to start playing.
Click to expand...

I find everything on an iPhone 4 to be agonizingly slow if its software is up to date... It's an old piece of hardware, time to upgrade! I gave my wife my old 4s (I have a 5s) so that I don't have to mess with the 4 any more.
 
Apple TV is great. I have one and enjoy it. I only subscribe to Netflix streaming and Hulu Plus.

Though, it's important to consider the bandwidth of your wireless access point.

If you're streaming a video from the Internet to your iPad and then to your Apple TV, then it's using WiFi bandwidth to get the content and then more bandwidth to stream it to your Apple TV.

Internet---->WiFi AP---->iPad---->WiFi AP---->Apple TV

If you have an older wireless B or G access point/router, I'd suggest upgrading.
IMO, Wireless N-600 is the minimum.
 
NickC99 said:
... it's important to consider the bandwidth of your wireless access point.
Click to expand...

Good reminder.... Fortunately, I believe I'm good on this point.
 
We've had an ATV2 and upgraded that to the ATV3 over the last 4 years and had almost no issues with them. Like above, AirPlay works great for photo/video sharing or even app mirroring. The ATV interface is dirt simple to navigate and understand. If you have Apple computers you can stream music and movies from them to the ATV.

The point about upgrading your wireless is spot on, wireless N at a minimum. We actually hardwire the ATV to our switch. That seems to help performance a lot.

The only downside is when the ATV can't connect to the internet (if your service goes down) it becomes a brick. It is very reliant on having an internet connection.
 
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I just got Apple TV too. Seems like a lot of the content wants us to provide our cable company credentials. The whole point of getting this device was that we don't have cable. Had DirecTV but got rid of that too. How do we access content like from ABC TV on the Apple TV without a cable subscription?
 
MtPJimB said:
I just got Apple TV too. Seems like a lot of the content wants us to provide our cable company credentials. The whole point of getting this device was that we don't have cable. Had DirecTV but got rid of that too. How do we access content like from ABC TV on the Apple TV without a cable subscription?
Click to expand...

Yeah... ABC used to let you watch their stuff on their iPad app for free, now it requires cable credentials too. I can understand HBO and other cable TV networks wanting (or needing due to contracts) you to have a cable subscription, but the broadcast networks? I don't get it.

FWIW, there hasn't ever been something on the AppleTV that was free and then required cable or another subscription. Most of the stuff that requires cable/sub is pretty new, just added in the last couple of months.

Netflix is probably the most-used app on our AppleTV, followed by the Movies and TV Shows which you pay for a la carte. I don't miss the ads at all. :no:
 
Personally I use a 2 part approach to my TV watching. I have an antenna and a DVR box(actually linux running MythTV, but there are more consumer friendly solutions out there) to record those shows on local stations. And then for the 1-3 shows I want to watch each week that would have been on cable I pay per-episode to Amazon or Sony and watch them on my PS3 or PS4.
 
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