Can you stream from other computers to a Mac Mini? It seems like it is a lot more money for something that doesn't work as well. The size of the hard drive does not matter if you stream, and I stream everything. What advantage does the Mac Mini have? I already have a PS3 for blu-ray and DVD, so for me a mac mini wouldn't make sense.
I just switched over to a mini and it handles online content MUCH better --- due to the better hardware. Netflix and Hulu rock.
Front Row is almost as good as the appleTV interface, but I'm not sure if it allows streaming from multiple computers. The appleTV really is good in that regard.
The mini seems (to me) the logical step up when you out grow the appleTV. It's a bit more work, but the flexibility is much greater than appleTV.
(As a side note, Handbreak encoding on the mini is super quiet...compared to my Macbook...I had to verify that it was actually working since I couldn't hear the fans.)
I think it is actually iTunes that is crap, I blamed the wrong thing.
It looks like all my AppleTv problems only occur when my iPhone is plugged into the computer, meaning that iTunes has trouble talking to two things at the same time or something. Also, there is some interaction with the backup on time machine - if you are doing too many things (I was backing up to time machine, downloading new purchases, and streaming a movie all at the same time- it locked up to the point that I had to reboot both my mac and appletv).
I'm starting to hate Apple as much as I hate Microsoft.
i've seen good deals on used atv and frankly i don't care about hulu, netflix or amazon streaming because eventually all of that stuff will be coming through my future hdtv or blu-ray player or some other device.
I'm just going to wait for the nextgen hardware no matter how long it takes and then an atv will be on every tv in the home (which is only one right now lol)
i'm actually more excited about viewing or listening to my own creations rather than the garbage that is currently being broadcast. Sure there are gems here and there but it's a needle in a haystack search.
If you can, do have look how I have set-up all Apple products at my home, I have explained it on my blogger website. I am extremely satisfied with Apple TV. You ought to know how to use it efficiently to enjoy the experience. Only then will you love it, or as Steve Jobs says, its doggone marvelous.
I think it is actually iTunes that is crap, I blamed the wrong thing.
It looks like all my AppleTv problems only occur when my iPhone is plugged into the computer, meaning that iTunes has trouble talking to two things at the same time or something. Also, there is some interaction with the backup on time machine - if you are doing too many things (I was backing up to time machine, downloading new purchases, and streaming a movie all at the same time- it locked up to the point that I had to reboot both my mac and appletv).
I'm starting to hate Apple as much as I hate Microsoft.
Time machine over wifi sucks.
Also, you have recent hardware, are you running your wifi on the 5.8 ghz band? Not only is it much faster, it is much less susceptible to interference. Only the most recent airport supports dual band ( 2.4 and 5.8 simultaneously ), older models need to be set manually. The only downside is that older devices wont see it. I have an airport express set to bridge mode to provide 2.4 ghz access.
[edit] Time machine over wifi ( G ) is very slow. My macbook would spend hours backing up a few megabytes of changes. It was so bad that it was taking all day. I gave up on wifi. I suspect that with 5.8 ghz N wifi it would be much better, but my macbook is too slow.
It looks to me like 2/3 of your issues are local network related, rather than decidedly Apple TV related.
It is an all-Apple network, so the issues have to be somewhere in some Apple product. At least one of the major problems relates to iTunes getting confused when you have both an iPhone and a AppleTV connected at the same time - unplug the iPhone and most of the problems go away.
But to be truthful, I love it partly in spite of Apple - rather than because of Apple.
Once a week I might buy something on iTunes to watch - and use it as it was intended.
But mainly, I use it to play 720p TV & Movie content - that is stored on a server - and it play it wirelessly to my big TV with Dolby audio. It plays video files directly without having iTunes involved. I just love being able to do that. It's smaller and quieter than any other media player I know. The software I have even grabs metadata and cover art from the internet.
But the out-of-the-box AppleTV is much less useful.
The reason the device meets my needs is that I have modified the software. Although nowadays, it's pretty easy to mod without complex Unix hackery.
I mod'd mine with Boxee but the content looked like crap so I removed it. I use it but wouldn't replace it if it broke. In fairness, Steve has said that ATV is "just a hobby" for Apple.
It looks to me like 2/3 of your issues are local network related, rather than decidedly Apple TV related.
All my problems are network related.
The biggest problem is that after playing any video the AppleTV insists on syncing with iTunes. Unfortunately syncing locks out the user interface. Thus I end up waiting for several minutes between videos while the syncing completes before I can do anything with the AppleTV. For a consumer device this is unacceptable. The UI should be King. Syncing should be subservient to the UI. Especially when all your really doing is updating the playcount and removing a played video from the AppleTV.
The second issue is manual syncing from my iMac. Sometimes they end up in an endless loop waiting on one or the other. Looking at the network ports I can see the iMac and AppleTV talking to each other as ports are being opened and closed. But every so often it appears that the final shit-load of ports (well over 200 of them) fail to be opened. I do not know if this a AppleTV problem or a problem with iTunes or the MacOS on the iMac. I think that something gets lost between the two and the sync gets hung up waiting for that lost item to show. There does not appear to be a time out function that resends the lost item if the proper response is not received.
The final item is that ever now and then the AppleTV reboots. Sometimes when it reboots the connection with the iMac reconnects and other times it doesn't. When it doesn't I have to restart iTunes to reestablish the connection.
Comments
Can you stream from other computers to a Mac Mini? It seems like it is a lot more money for something that doesn't work as well. The size of the hard drive does not matter if you stream, and I stream everything. What advantage does the Mac Mini have? I already have a PS3 for blu-ray and DVD, so for me a mac mini wouldn't make sense.
I just switched over to a mini and it handles online content MUCH better --- due to the better hardware. Netflix and Hulu rock.
Front Row is almost as good as the appleTV interface, but I'm not sure if it allows streaming from multiple computers. The appleTV really is good in that regard.
The mini seems (to me) the logical step up when you out grow the appleTV. It's a bit more work, but the flexibility is much greater than appleTV.
(As a side note, Handbreak encoding on the mini is super quiet...compared to my Macbook...I had to verify that it was actually working since I couldn't hear the fans.)
It looks like all my AppleTv problems only occur when my iPhone is plugged into the computer, meaning that iTunes has trouble talking to two things at the same time or something. Also, there is some interaction with the backup on time machine - if you are doing too many things (I was backing up to time machine, downloading new purchases, and streaming a movie all at the same time- it locked up to the point that I had to reboot both my mac and appletv).
I'm starting to hate Apple as much as I hate Microsoft.
i've seen good deals on used atv and frankly i don't care about hulu, netflix or amazon streaming because eventually all of that stuff will be coming through my future hdtv or blu-ray player or some other device.
I'm just going to wait for the nextgen hardware no matter how long it takes and then an atv will be on every tv in the home (which is only one right now lol)
i'm actually more excited about viewing or listening to my own creations rather than the garbage that is currently being broadcast. Sure there are gems here and there but it's a needle in a haystack search.
+10000
I think it is actually iTunes that is crap, I blamed the wrong thing.
iTunes is just the wrong application for managing a large movie library.
Grab a USB stick - download the atvusb creator - stick it in you AppleTV.
5 mins later, you can stream from any shared drive without iTunes being involved in the slightest.
All my movies sit on a hard-drive parked in my Airport Extreme.
C.
agree
If you can, do have look how I have set-up all Apple products at my home, I have explained it on my blogger website. I am extremely satisfied with Apple TV. You ought to know how to use it efficiently to enjoy the experience. Only then will you love it, or as Steve Jobs says, its doggone marvelous.
I think it is actually iTunes that is crap, I blamed the wrong thing.
It looks like all my AppleTv problems only occur when my iPhone is plugged into the computer, meaning that iTunes has trouble talking to two things at the same time or something. Also, there is some interaction with the backup on time machine - if you are doing too many things (I was backing up to time machine, downloading new purchases, and streaming a movie all at the same time- it locked up to the point that I had to reboot both my mac and appletv).
I'm starting to hate Apple as much as I hate Microsoft.
Time machine over wifi sucks.
Also, you have recent hardware, are you running your wifi on the 5.8 ghz band? Not only is it much faster, it is much less susceptible to interference. Only the most recent airport supports dual band ( 2.4 and 5.8 simultaneously ), older models need to be set manually. The only downside is that older devices wont see it. I have an airport express set to bridge mode to provide 2.4 ghz access.
[edit] Time machine over wifi ( G ) is very slow. My macbook would spend hours backing up a few megabytes of changes. It was so bad that it was taking all day. I gave up on wifi. I suspect that with 5.8 ghz N wifi it would be much better, but my macbook is too slow.
It looks to me like 2/3 of your issues are local network related, rather than decidedly Apple TV related.
It is an all-Apple network, so the issues have to be somewhere in some Apple product. At least one of the major problems relates to iTunes getting confused when you have both an iPhone and a AppleTV connected at the same time - unplug the iPhone and most of the problems go away.
I *love* my AppleTV - I use it all the time.
But to be truthful, I love it partly in spite of Apple - rather than because of Apple.
Once a week I might buy something on iTunes to watch - and use it as it was intended.
But mainly, I use it to play 720p TV & Movie content - that is stored on a server - and it play it wirelessly to my big TV with Dolby audio. It plays video files directly without having iTunes involved. I just love being able to do that. It's smaller and quieter than any other media player I know. The software I have even grabs metadata and cover art from the internet.
But the out-of-the-box AppleTV is much less useful.
The reason the device meets my needs is that I have modified the software. Although nowadays, it's pretty easy to mod without complex Unix hackery.
C.
Might I ask where you get your 720p content from?
It looks to me like 2/3 of your issues are local network related, rather than decidedly Apple TV related.
All my problems are network related.
The biggest problem is that after playing any video the AppleTV insists on syncing with iTunes. Unfortunately syncing locks out the user interface. Thus I end up waiting for several minutes between videos while the syncing completes before I can do anything with the AppleTV. For a consumer device this is unacceptable. The UI should be King. Syncing should be subservient to the UI. Especially when all your really doing is updating the playcount and removing a played video from the AppleTV.
The second issue is manual syncing from my iMac. Sometimes they end up in an endless loop waiting on one or the other. Looking at the network ports I can see the iMac and AppleTV talking to each other as ports are being opened and closed. But every so often it appears that the final shit-load of ports (well over 200 of them) fail to be opened. I do not know if this a AppleTV problem or a problem with iTunes or the MacOS on the iMac. I think that something gets lost between the two and the sync gets hung up waiting for that lost item to show. There does not appear to be a time out function that resends the lost item if the proper response is not received.
The final item is that ever now and then the AppleTV reboots. Sometimes when it reboots the connection with the iMac reconnects and other times it doesn't. When it doesn't I have to restart iTunes to reestablish the connection.