Michal Ždanský Apple introduced new TV accessories on the occasion of the launch of the third-generation iPad. Despite many expectations, the new Apple TV is only an improvement on the previous generation. The biggest news is the 1080p video output and the redesigned user interface.
Hardware
In terms of appearance, the Apple TV compares the previous generation she hasn't changed at all. It's still a square device with a black plastic chassis. In the front part, a small diode lights up to indicate that the device is switched on, at the back you will find several connectors - an input for the network cable that is included in the package, an HDMI output, a microUSB connector for possible connection to a computer, if you want to update the operating system this way, an optical output and finally a connector for Ethernet (10/100 Base-T). However, Apple TV also has a Wi-Fi receiver.
The only external change was the network cable, which is rougher to the touch. In addition to it, the device also comes with a small, simple aluminum Apple Remote, which communicates with the Apple TV via an infrared port. You can also use an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad with the appropriate Remote application, which is more practical - especially when entering text, searching or setting up accounts. You have to buy the HDMI cable to connect to the TV separately, and apart from brief manuals, you won't find anything else in the square box.
Although the change is not visible on the surface, the hardware inside has received a significant update. Apple TV received the Apple A5 processor, which also beats in the iPad 2 or the iPhone 4S. However, this is a modified version of it using 32 nm technology. The chip is thus more powerful and at the same time more economical. Although the chip is dual-core, one of the cores is permanently disabled, as the modified version of iOS 5 would probably not be able to use it. The result is a very low power consumption, Apple TV consumes a similar amount of energy as a regular LCD TV in Standby mode.
The device has an internal flash memory of 8 GB, but it uses this only for caching streaming videos and the operating system itself is stored on it. The user cannot use this memory in any way. All video and audio content must be sourced by Apple TV from somewhere else, usually from the Internet or wirelessly - via home sharing or the AirPlay protocol.
You won't find any power off button on the device or the remote. If there is no activity for a long time, the screen saver (image collage, you can also choose images from Photo Stream) will automatically turn on, and then, if there is no background music or other activity, the Apple TV will turn itself off. You can turn it on again by pressing the button Menu on the remote control.
Video review
[youtube id=Xq_8Fe7Zw8E width=”600″ height=”350″]
New user interface in Czech
The main menu is now not represented by inscriptions in a vertical and horizontal row. The graphical interface is much more similar to iOS, as we know it from the iPhone or iPad, i.e. the icon with the name. In the upper part, there is only a selection of popular movies from iTunes, and below it you will find four main icons - Movies, Music, Computers a Settings. Below are other services that Apple TV offers. Compared to the previous version, the main screen is clearer for new users, and the user does not have to scroll through the vertical menu to find the service they want to use by category. The visual processing gives the environment a completely new touch.
The older Apple TV 2 also received a new control environment and is available through an update. It is also worth noting that Czech and Slovak have been added to the list of supported languages. The gradual "treating" of Apple's applications and operating systems is a pleasant phenomenon. It suggests that we are a relevant market for Apple. After all, when introducing new products, we made it to the second wave of countries in which the products will appear.
iTunes Store and iCloud
The basis of multimedia content is, of course, the iTunes Store with the possibility of purchasing music and movies, or a video rental. While the offer of titles in the original version is huge, after all, all major film studios are currently in iTunes, you will not find Czech subtitles for them, and you can count the dubbed titles on the fingers of one hand. After all, we already have a problem with the Czech iTunes Store discussed earlier, including pricing policy. So if you're not looking for movies only in English, this part of the store doesn't have much to offer you yet. However, at least the opportunity to watch the trailers of the latest films that are playing in cinemas or will appear in them soon is pleasing.
With a better processor, 1080p video support has been added, so the environment can be displayed in native resolution even on FullHD televisions. HD movies are also offered in high resolution, where Apple uses compression due to the data flow, but compared to 1080p video from a Blu-Ray disc, the difference is not particularly noticeable. Trailers of new movies are now available in high definition. 1080p video looks really amazing on a FullHD TV and it is one of the main reasons to buy the new version of Apple TV.
There are several alternative ways to play videos on Apple TV. The first option is to convert videos to MP4 or MOV format and play them from iTunes on your computer using Home Sharing. The second option consists of streaming through an iOS device and the AirPlay protocol (for example, using the AirVideo application), and the last is to jailbreak the device and install an alternative player such as XBMC. However, jailbreak is not yet possible for the third generation of the device, hackers have not yet managed to find a weak spot that would allow them to jailbreak.
[do action=”citation”]However, in order for AirPlay to work properly in general without dropouts and stuttering, it needs very specific conditions, especially a quality router.[/do]
For music, you're stuck with the relatively young iTunes Match service, which is part of iCloud and requires a $25-a-year subscription. With iTunes Match, you can play your music stored in iTunes from the cloud. An alternative is then offered by Home Sharing, which also accesses your iTunes library, but locally using Wi-Fi, so it is necessary to have the computer on if you want to play music from it. Apple TV will also offer listening to internet radio stations, which you will find as a separate icon in the main menu. There are several hundreds to thousands of stations of all genres. Practically, this is the same offer as in the iTunes application, but there is no management, no possibility to add your own stations or create a favorites list. At least you can add stations to your favorites by holding down the center button on the controller while listening to them.
The last multimedia item is photos. You already have the option to view MobileMe galleries, and the newer one is Photo Stream, where all the photos taken by your iOS devices with the same iCloud account that you entered in the Apple TV settings are grouped together. You can also view photos directly from these devices via AirPlay.
All-purpose AirPlay
While all of the above features might be enough for someone stuck in the iTunes ecosystem, I consider the ability to receive streamed video and audio via AirPlay to be the most important reason to buy an Apple TV. All iOS devices with operating system version 4.2 and higher can be transmitters. The technology has evolved from the original music-only AirTunes. Currently, the protocol can also transfer video, including image mirroring from iPad and iPhone.
Thanks to AirPlay, you can play music from your iPhone in your home theater thanks to Apple TV. iTunes can also stream audio, but this is not yet officially possible with third-party Mac applications. A much wider range of options is provided by wireless video transmission. It can be used by iOS applications from Apple, such as Video, Keynote or Pictures, but also by third-party applications, although there are rather few of them. It's actually ironic how few movie playback apps can stream video without using AirPlay Mirroring.
AirPlay Mirroring is the most interesting of the entire technology. It allows you to mirror the entire screen of your iPhone or iPad in real time. It should be noted that mirroring is only supported by the second and third generation iPad and the iPhone 4S. Thanks to this feature, you can project anything, including games, onto your TV screen, turning Apple TV into a small console. Some games can even take advantage of AirPlay Mirroring by displaying game video on the TV and the iOS device's display to display additional information and controls. A great example is Real Racing 2, where on the iPad you can see, for example, the map of the track and other data, and at the same time you control your car as it races around the track on the TV screen. Apps and games using Mirroring in this way are not limited by the aspect ratio and resolution of the iOS device, they can stream video in widescreen format.
Much more important, however, will be the arrival of AirPlay Mirroring on the Mac, which will be one of the new features of the OS X Mountain Lion operating system, which will be officially launched on June 11. not only native Apple applications such as iTunes or QuickTime, but also third-party applications will be able to mirror the video. Thanks to AirPlay, you will be able to transfer movies, games, internet browsers from your Mac to your TV. In essence, Apple TV provides the wireless equivalent of connecting a Mac via an HDMI cable.
However, in order for AirPlay to work properly in general without dropouts and stuttering, it needs very specific conditions, primarily a high-quality network router. Most of the cheap ADSL modems supplied by Internet providers (O2, UPC, ...) are unsuitable for use with Apple TV as a Wi-Fi access point. A dual-band router with the IEEE 802.11n standard is ideal, which will communicate with the device at a frequency of 5 GHz. Apple directly offers such routers - AirPort Extreme or Time Capsule, which is both a network drive and a router. You'll get even better results if you connect Apple TV to the Internet directly via a network cable, not via built-in Wi-Fi.
Other services
Apple TV allows access to several popular Internet services. These include video portals YouTube and Vimeo in particular, both of which also offer more advanced functions including logging in, tagging and rating videos or a history of viewed clips. From iTunes, we can find access to podcasts that do not need to be downloaded, the device streams them directly from the repositories.
You will then use the MLB.tv and WSJ Live video portals less, where in the first case it is videos from the American baseball league and the latter is a news channel of the Wall Street Journal. Among other things, Americans also have the video on-demand service Netflix in the basic menu, where you don't rent individual titles, but pay a monthly subscription and have the entire video library at your disposal. However, this service only works in the US. The offer of other services is then closed by Flickr, a community photo repository.
záver
Although Apple still considers its Apple TV a hobby, at least according to Tim Cook, its importance continues to grow, especially thanks to the AirPlay protocol. A big boom can be expected after the arrival of Mountain Lion, when it will finally be possible to stream the image from the computer to the television by creating a kind of wireless HDMI connection. If you plan to create a wireless home based on Apple products, this little black box should definitely not be missing, for example for listening to music and connecting to the iTunes library.
In addition, Apple TV is not expensive, you can buy it in the Apple Online Store for CZK 2 including tax, which is not so much compared to the price ratios of other products of this company. You also get a stylish remote control that you can use with a MacBook Pro or iMac to control iTunes, Keynote and other multimedia applications.
[one_half last="no"]
advantages:
[Checklist]
- Wide use of AirPlay
- 1080p videos
- Low power consumption
- Apple Remote in the box[/checklist][/one_half]
[one_half last="yes"]
Disadvantages:
[bad list]
- It won't play non-native video formats
- Offer of Czech films
- Demanding quality of the router
- No HDMI cable
[/badlist][/one_half]
Gallery
Gallery
So I have it too, but I'm waiting for a jailbreak like mercy. According to the latest reports, there will be a jailbreak, but it will take a while... Without a jailbreak, it's almost useless, I recommend waiting or buying a cheap 2G.
It's no use at all. You just have to be able to use it. I have an iMac with storage and all DVDs ripped. With both Apple TVs, access to movies, music, and photos at any time. In addition, AirPlay itself is great for playing iPhone and iPad content. Apple TVs are hidden behind the TV so they are not even visible. Just a parade :-)
So, if I understand correctly, all the music, movies and photos I have stored on the Mac in iTunes can be played on the AT at any time? Is it necessary to have the Mac on, or how does it work? How about movies with subtitles? Thanks for the answers :)
Mac must be turned on and iTunes running...
Thanks :)
The iMac behaves like a macbook, you just don't turn it off, it goes to sleep by itself. After activating it over the network, it wakes up and loads you with iTunes already running. When I bought the 27″ cow a year and a half ago, I set it up and haven't turned it off to this day. He just drives and sleeps
Well, that's really great. Convert every movie or DVD to MP4, you must have a computer running iTunes when playing. This is truly a luxury. A jailbroken AppleTV with ATV Flash Black or XBMC installed is a bit different. I have movies and all data on a NAS server from which AppleTV streams and downloads data. AppleTV without jailbreak is really worthless.
When was there an item on vysylani CT and I would be fully satisfied
with jailbreak and xbmc is.
Please correct the info about Bluray, Bluray video is quite compressed, less than itunes video, but it is.
Regarding ATV, I might add the absence of analog audio out as a minor disadvantage. It does not have an AV receiver with optics, but only a stereo amplifier (relatively high quality), I was forced to buy an additional converter.
In combination with Synology NAS and the DS audio application in the iPhone, it is an excellent solution for home audio without a computer.
Yes, added or deleted :-)
I haven't read such a good review in a long time. Thank you Mr. Žďánský.
Nice review, a little low. With the radio, it is possible to create a list of favorite stations by holding down the middle confirmation button while listening to the given station and agreeing to save it to favorites.
I use AirPlay fully and without problems and any outages with VDSL model Comtrend from O2.
Despite the fact that AppleTv has a small consumption, it heats up quite a bit. I haven't had the opportunity to measure the consumption yet, but I estimate it at 8-10W.
If nothing is playing, even the radio will turn off completely after a while. Wake her up by pressing any key on DO.
The only thing I haven't figured out is how to connect to itunes via PC so that I can see it in the library as a connected device.
I'm waiting to see what happens to Jaibreik, because without him it has very limited possibilities. Practically, for our little country, it does not have much application yet. A lot of interesting Czech films and series can be watched on YouTube. :-)
Thanks for the radios, added.
Please start distinguishing between the term ROUTER and WiFi Access Point. The fact that someone has adsl from O2 does not mean that they use the WiFi AP integrated in the modem ;) it is unnecessarily confusing. If you want to mention it, please be more specific!
Thanks for the note, I clarified it in the review.
I did not find anywhere at what speed the eth port works, is it fastEth or gigaEth? Thanks
10/100Base-T Ethernet
Otherwise, why should better conditions be achieved after connecting with a cable that supports 100Mbps, when according to wikipedia wifi-n is capable of real speeds of around 200-300 Mbps?
Because wired transmission is more reliable.
The ATV does not need to be connected to the Internet at all to use airplay.
And he someone says the opposite?
Because the iPad is connected to 5ghz wifi and as it seems, if I want the image not to break, it pretty much claims it, so connecting the atv3 with a cable is a reasonable solution for the router. Otherwise, I'm sorry that it doesn't have gigaEth..
I see 100 Mbit on the switch, if I have properly connected all 8 wires of the ETH cable :)
What about the NHL Finals? That's grease..it's there too. NHL Gamecenter..first final game tomorrow morning ;)
There must be a subscription (approx. CAD$ 160/year) and matches that are shown on TV (USA/Canada) can be seen with a 24-hour delay...
Otherwise Go Kings Go...
True with that subscription. You can scroll back through the calendar and see virtually any match that was played this year. I don't see, and with that delay...they played in the morning and I'm stiff, the match is already there, so I'm going to finish watching it now. Oh, and the Gamecenter app is also great.
Otherwise, I don't care who wins..I watched the Flyers and Jagr all season
Netflix is interesting here in Canada (and the USA) - for CAD$ 8/month access to thousands of movies and series (almost everything that is 1+ years old)...
Is there an app that allows you to stream video from TimeCapsule on the TV in a format other than mp4 on the iPad? I have BUZZ Player, unfortunately it only switches the sound of the movie on the TV in such a case :(
It's a pity that it's not solved, or I didn't find a way to solve it - AirPlay doesn't transfer it to the TV using the whole screen - so it's not solved either.
try air video, won't it solve your problem :)
"In the front there is a small LED to indicate that the device is on, then at the back you will find several connectors - the input for the mains cable, which is included in the package," this confused me, because the input for the mains cable is there, but not included in the package. According to the photos, the package includes an electrical cable. network, which is not generally called a network cable.
I mean, it's probably well-intentioned, but it's confusing.
What I don't like about ATV2 or ATV3 is that you can't use it to make purchases and listen to music trailers from the iTunes Store, WHICH OF COURSE WAS POSSIBLE WITH THE FIRST ATV!
I also don't understand why the ATV1 used to play LP formats from iTS and now it doesn't (this is the Apple standard).
I would understand the absence of analog audio output and component video output compared to the first version for the sake of saving space, although it could be solved, as with some Canon HD cameras, with a special mini-connector with a connecting cable with a cinch.
Otherwise, ATV3 is great and I highly recommend it for the social price, especially to owners of the iTunes Match service.
I don't know if I overlooked the fact that both version 2 and 3 are capable of WiFi on 2,4GHz and 5GHz, which is advantageous for owners of e.g. Time Capsules, and with speed and speed it is absolutely no problem when choosing 5GHz.
Those who complain about heating up the triple are quite the AppleGuru. You could heat tea on number one and after 30 minutes of operation you couldn't keep your hand off it. So development is moving forward…
I'm missing the support for HD DTS and TrueHD sounds, otherwise I would very much like to go for it. How is it with BD?
I bought an Apple TV 3 and it can be turned off by pressing the center button in the main menu for about 3-5 seconds and it turns off nicely. Otherwise very nice review, thanks. Just to be jailbroken
Why isn't Home Sharing working for me? I have it set up in both iTunes and Apple TV and yet the library does not appear on my TV. Please advise.
I had the same problem. Allowing the port that uses AirPlay on the computer firewall with iTunes solved it. Unfortunately I don't remember which port it was.
it's total shit
Good evening, can you please advise me if I can also play videos and movies downloaded from the Apple TV via Apple TV? Thank you very much
Did you really read this article? Airplay allows both direct sharing of everything happening on your iOS device and DLNA-like transmission.
Hello everyone. I would like to ask for clarification on what functions are available between the iPad and the TV if neither is connected to the Internet. I mean that I will take the TV to the presentation (photos, and the content of the iPad in general) and just connect it to the local LCD. So does Apple TV communicate with iOS without internet in the field? Thanks for the observations.
Hello, I want to ask if there are films in Czech on Apple TV, thank you in advance :)