Apple TV, home/theater setup?

stonetools · 04-07-2012, 03:53 PM

My brother is about to buy a new home theater/audio system. Would you recommend Apple TV? What other recommendations would you make for an ITunes focused system?

Shack70 · 04-07-2012, 04:05 PM

Apple TV is fine if your media is all in iTunes. I have a Roku that is very easy to use and works well, but all my media is not in iTunes.

kyteflyer · 04-07-2012, 08:27 PM

AppleTV is good when jailbroken with seas0npass and then having Plex or XMBC installed on it, via ATVBlack. That way you are not restricted only to iTunes, or having to convert everything to work in iTunes.

Go read at http://www.firecore.com and make your decision after that. They make the jailbreak simple and painless (and also do OTA updates). Caveat: I do not know if they have yet jailbroken ATV3. I have an AppleTV 2nd version, and I have not updated the firmware to the latest, yet.

[edit] Never mind... Its looking like the best bits of ATVBlack dont actually work (they are calling it ATV Flash) anymore. Plex and Overflow not working, XMBC nightly builds only. Also its only a tethered jailbreak which is fine if you have your computer near your TV, mine is at the other end of the house. And they have not jailbroken ATV3 in any form. Looks like I won't be updating either the firmware from Apple or the software from firecore at this stage.

Recommendation: Looks for a second hand ATV2 with its firmware no more recent than 4.4.x OR get a mac mini.

Sischa · 04-16-2012, 09:24 AM

Apple TV + iTunes Match is an absolut winning team when it comes to music usability.

If you want TV Shows and Films and don't have your whole TV Show and Film portfolio in iTunes you need another solution if you don't want to ripp/render your whole portfolio into iTunes which could be a pain in the a**.

Besides that you'll have to run a mac with itunes the whole time you use your Apple TV watching films or TV Shows. Depends on your setup but with my own setup running a desktop computer and a MacBook Pro that would not be a good solution.

So ATV Black will be your friend. Your don't really need Plex or XBMC cause with an Apple TV and the ATV Black Software you'll get a really nice Media Player which can play most standard video codecs for example from an extern Network Storage.

For the moment ATV Black needs you to jailbreak your Apple TV and use an tethered JB. But in the past this problem was always fixed after some month when people figure out how to do so. Whith an untethered JB you'll never notice your JB again, believe me.

Questions you should answer (yourself or us):

What to do? Music? Video/TV Shows? Both?
What is your focus?
What is your home hardware? Do you already have a Mac? Do you have a NAS?
What format is your media? iTunes Music already from what i can read? What is about film and TV Shows? DVD? Blueray? Other media files?
...

petermillard · 04-16-2012, 01:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stonetools

My brother is about to buy a new home theater/audio system. Would you recommend Apple TV? What other recommendations would you make for an ITunes focused system?

For an iTunes focused system I think Apple TV is great. I have two ATV2s, and will be adding an ATV3 into the mix shortly. My only niggle with it is that the audio-out is an optical TOSLink, rather than a regular 3.5mm stereo jack - this may not be an issue if your brother's using a full 'home theatre' setup, but for me it meant faffing about with DACs as I just use a set of active 2.1 speakers for my audio.

That aside, the ATV is a totally painless way to show content from a Mac, iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch on your TV; throw Netflix, video podcasts, youtube etc.. (and the Remote App!) into the mix as well, and for the money you can't go far wrong.

HTH Pete

Bookworm_Girl · 04-16-2012, 01:38 PM

Apple TV is great for a few other reasons. I love sharing photos from my Mac to the TV. I also like the AirPlay feature which allows you to stream content from your iOS device to your TV. That said I also have a Panasonic DVD player which has Amazon prime, Pandora, Hulu+, Netflix, etc integrated into it. I stream more through my DVD player than through my Apple TV. However for the price it was totally worth it to me to have the Apple TV!

04-07-2012, 03:53 PM	#1
stonetools Wizard Posts: 2,016 Karma: 2838487 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Washington, DC Device: Ipad, IPhone	Apple TV, home/theater setup? My brother is about to buy a new home theater/audio system. Would you recommend Apple TV? What other recommendations would you make for an ITunes focused system?

04-07-2012, 08:27 PM	#3
kyteflyer Wizard Posts: 1,841 Karma: 9547754 Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Newcastle, Australia Device: iPhone SE2020	AppleTV is good when jailbroken with seas0npass and then having Plex or XMBC installed on it, via ATVBlack. That way you are not restricted only to iTunes, or having to convert everything to work in iTunes. Go read at http://www.firecore.com and make your decision after that. They make the jailbreak simple and painless (and also do OTA updates). Caveat: I do not know if they have yet jailbroken ATV3. I have an AppleTV 2nd version, and I have not updated the firmware to the latest, yet. [edit] Never mind... Its looking like the best bits of ATVBlack dont actually work (they are calling it ATV Flash) anymore. Plex and Overflow not working, XMBC nightly builds only. Also its only a tethered jailbreak which is fine if you have your computer near your TV, mine is at the other end of the house. And they have not jailbroken ATV3 in any form. Looks like I won't be updating either the firmware from Apple or the software from firecore at this stage. Recommendation: Looks for a second hand ATV2 with its firmware no more recent than 4.4.x OR get a mac mini. Last edited by kyteflyer; 04-07-2012 at 08:33 PM. Reason: additional info

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04-07-2012, 04:05 PM	#2
Shack70 Guru Posts: 775 Karma: 1043626 Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: York, Pa Device: Kindle Fire 10", Honor 8 Android Phone	Apple TV is fine if your media is all in iTunes. I have a Roku that is very easy to use and works well, but all my media is not in iTunes.

04-16-2012, 09:24 AM	#4
Sischa Evangelist Posts: 428 Karma: 2370 Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Germany Device: Nokia 770, Ilead, Cybook G3, Kindle DX, Kindle 2, iPad, Kindle 3, PW	Apple TV + iTunes Match is an absolut winning team when it comes to music usability. If you want TV Shows and Films and don't have your whole TV Show and Film portfolio in iTunes you need another solution if you don't want to ripp/render your whole portfolio into iTunes which could be a pain in the a**. Besides that you'll have to run a mac with itunes the whole time you use your Apple TV watching films or TV Shows. Depends on your setup but with my own setup running a desktop computer and a MacBook Pro that would not be a good solution. So ATV Black will be your friend. Your don't really need Plex or XBMC cause with an Apple TV and the ATV Black Software you'll get a really nice Media Player which can play most standard video codecs for example from an extern Network Storage. For the moment ATV Black needs you to jailbreak your Apple TV and use an tethered JB. But in the past this problem was always fixed after some month when people figure out how to do so. Whith an untethered JB you'll never notice your JB again, believe me. Questions you should answer (yourself or us): What to do? Music? Video/TV Shows? Both? What is your focus? What is your home hardware? Do you already have a Mac? Do you have a NAS? What format is your media? iTunes Music already from what i can read? What is about film and TV Shows? DVD? Blueray? Other media files? ...

04-16-2012, 01:38 PM	#6
Bookworm_Girl E-reader Enthusiast Posts: 4,871 Karma: 36507503 Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Southwest, USA Device: Kindle Oasis 3; Kobo Aura One; iPad Mini 5	Apple TV is great for a few other reasons. I love sharing photos from my Mac to the TV. I also like the AirPlay feature which allows you to stream content from your iOS device to your TV. That said I also have a Panasonic DVD player which has Amazon prime, Pandora, Hulu+, Netflix, etc integrated into it. I stream more through my DVD player than through my Apple TV. However for the price it was totally worth it to me to have the Apple TV!

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