Tell me about Apple TV

[ripal]

Does anyone here have it? Do you like it? What do you use it for?

I already have Roku player, so being able to access Netflix and Hulu+ is already covered for me. But ever since I've bought iMac almost 15 months ago, I've been thinking about getting Apple TV to be able to view photos and videos on TV. Is it worth getting Apple TV just for that? I'm guessing I can also play my music from what I have on my computer? What are other creative ways to make use of Apple TV to make it worth getting it?

[NeverendingJen]

Lydia has more than one, I know, lol!

[Milmomma]

We have two. We use iTunes and Netflix for movies/tv shows/music. We don't have any other service and are happy with it. Its easy to airplay from your device to your apple TV which is nice when I'm cleaning. I love that I can stream through it for any movies we own or Netflix. There's also ESPN and what not. We are an apple family with iPods, iPhones, iPads and Macs, so it fits right in for us. We were able to use ours overseas too. :)

[Robin Carlton]

I have one... never use it. Thought I would, but enh, I just dont. It's nice for renting things occasionally on itunes that arent available elsewhere, but my tv has all the apps like netflix, hulu, cinemanow, etc so I just dont have a need for the appletv most of the time. I'd save your money (for scrapbook supplies :P), but that's just me.

[Lyd]

We have two, and we LOVE them! We have our entire DVD library (which is pretty big) on a server in the basement, and I use iMatch for my massive music collection. So, we can access all of that through the Apple TV without having to have a computer or anything else running. We also have our family photo library on the server, so the screen saver on the AppleTV accesses those. Our kids love to sit and watch the screen saver. :) And, no more switching discs in and out when we want to watch movies. Wahoo! We use it for Netflix as well. It is definitely the most used media device that we own. I wouldn't say it's for everyone, but I can't imagine going back to living without one.

Another thing you can do, which I don't do very often, but which is cool . . . you can share your computer screen with the Apple TV. So, basically, your TV becomes a computer monitor. Kinda cool, but since I like to watch TV while I scrap, I don't do that very often. Hubby has used it to play games on his iPad cause the kids like to watch him play, and that way they don't crowd all around him while he's playing.

[Traci Reed]

WSS ^^^^ We use our apple TV 24/7

[ripal]

I don't have the server, but I did buy second EHD for all the 'media' storage/back up few months ago. I plan on putting all my music, photos, LOs on there. We do have lots of movies on DVDs. Which software do you use to save it on harddrive? Quick search told me about Handbreak and Mac The Ripper. Do you use any of these?

Switching over 2-3 computer has totally messed up my iTune library. I need to start from the scratch! :(

[Lyd]

Well - our server is basically just a really big hard drive in the basement. But, hubby's the computer geek who runs all that stuff.

We have used Handbrake to digitize all our movies. We have been really happy with it, and have never tried anything else.

[ripal]

Mine is 2TB, so I figured it's good enough size for now. I have another 2TB that I use for auto backup.

[Jennilyn]

I got ours in early January and love it! We use it to watch movies that are on my library (my account is hooked up with iTunes Match), watch Netflix, look at photos through my stream or Flickr & watch videos through Vimeo & YouTube.

[nesser1981]

Is the Apple TV easy to move from room to room?

[Lyd]

It depends on your set up. It's quite small, but you have to hook it into whatever system you have. For us, it's a pain because it involves getting behind our entertainment system and detaching it from our receiver and TV. That's why we have two of them. :) If you have easy access to your components, then it would be really easy to move.

[nesser1981]

Got ya

[joelsgirl]

We have used Handbrake to digitize all our movies. We have been really happy with it, and have never tried anything else.

Can you tell me about this? Do you mean you took all your DVD's and now you have them stored on your computer?

[bexy]

we use ours constantly...LOVE it!! then again, we only rent movies from itunes,s o it's awesome to watch them that way.

[nikkiARNGwife]

Love ours too..we use is almost daily.

[CA Dreamer]

We have two, and we LOVE them! We have our entire DVD library (which is pretty big) on a server in the basement, and I use iMatch for my massive music collection. So, we can access all of that through the Apple TV without having to have a computer or anything else running. We also have our family photo library on the server, so the screen saver on the AppleTV accesses those. Our kids love to sit and watch the screen saver. :) And, no more switching discs in and out when we want to watch movies. Wahoo! We use it for Netflix as well. It is definitely the most used media device that we own. I wouldn't say it's for everyone, but I can't imagine going back to living without one.

Another thing you can do, which I don't do very often, but which is cool . . . you can share your computer screen with the Apple TV. So, basically, your TV becomes a computer monitor. Kinda cool, but since I like to watch TV while I scrap, I don't do that very often. Hubby has used it to play games on his iPad cause the kids like to watch him play, and that way they don't crowd all around him while he's playing.

OK... obviously, I need a lesson on how to use my ApplyTv! :thumbup:

[Lyd]

Can you tell me about this? Do you mean you took all your DVD's and now you have them stored on your computer?

Yes - we took all our DVDs and "ripped" them into digital files. It was quite a project, because we have a lot of DVDs. Hubby and I had both our computers ripping movies for several weeks before we had them all finished. But, it was sooo worth it. All of the files are on the server, and the discs are neatly packed away in storage boxes.

Handbrake is the software that "rips" the digital file for you. Hubby did all the research that went into deciding the settings that we use, so I can't tell you all the reasons behind the way we do things. I just know it works for us. But, there are settings for aspect ratio/resolution, video quality, audio quality, adding different audio tracks for foreign languages, adding captions/subtitles, etc. It automatically detects the chapter markers from the DVD, and you can name each chapter so you don't lose the functionality of skipping to a particular place in the movie. It does pretty much everything you would want it to do.

There are definitely some advanced options in there, and hubby has figured out some pretty neat stuff, like how to splice together a long movie that spans more than one disc (the Lord of the Rings movies come to mind). I can't help much with those things either - it's his department, and he gets a real kick out of figuring that stuff out.

I should say that there is some debate about the legality of ripping DVDs. The fair use and digital piracy laws that are out there have conflicting regulations that make it kind of unclear what's actually allowed and what isn't. DH has researched this fairly extensively as well. In the end, we had to go with what we felt was right. And, we thought that as long as we owned the DVDs that we were ripping and we kept the physical discs (as opposed to selling them after we ripped them), that we were within our fair use rights. So, take that for what it's worth.

[penguinluvr]

We love ours! Not only do we use it at home but we also love to take it with us when we travel. It is so small and easy to take along in the suitcase. It has been to the States, Italy, Germany, France, England and this summer will go to Japan. Most tv's in hotels (and Bed and Breakfast) have the connections you need.

It is so cheap (in Canada it was just under $ 100) it is worth it. We have Macbooks and iphones and ipods so it makes sense.

[Lyd]

Just a little tidbit for anyone who owns an Apple TV 2. They sell like hotcakes on Ebay because the jailbrakers like them. Apparently something changed with the Apple TV 3, so the Apple TV 2 is the one that all the jailbrakers want. We sold our Apple TV 2 for $200 on Ebay. It sold in about 5 minutes. And, then we went and bought an Apple TV 3 for $100. Not a bad return, right?

Hubby has had a bunch of coworkers and family members who have been able to do the same things. So, if you own an Apple TV 2, you might consider selling it, buying a new one, and making $100 while you're at it. Just make sure to clear the settings before you ship it to anyone, or they'll have access to your iTunes account. :D

[ripal]

Just a little tidbit for anyone who owns an Apple TV 2. They sell like hotcakes on Ebay because the jailbrakers like them. Apparently something changed with the Apple TV 3, so the Apple TV 2 is the one that all the jailbrakers want. We sold our Apple TV 2 for $200 on Ebay. It sold in about 5 minutes. And, then we went and bought an Apple TV 3 for $100. Not a bad return, right?

Hubby has had a bunch of coworkers and family members who have been able to do the same things. So, if you own an Apple TV 2, you might consider selling it, buying a new one, and making $100 while you're at it. Just make sure to clear the settings before you ship it to anyone, or they'll have access to your iTunes account. :D

Good to know! I know my brother have one, he got it as a gift from his work. I don't think he's ever used it. I will ask him if he wants to sell it on eBay. Even if he's using it, it would be great to sell the old one and replace it with new one.

Can you get YouTube on it? I thought Apple broke contract with YT or something? Maybe that's why Apple TV 2 is appealing for jailbreakers?

[Lyd]

Good to know! I know my brother have one, he got it as a gift from his work. I don't think he's ever used it. I will ask him if he wants to sell it on eBay. Even if he's using it, it would be great to sell the old one and replace it with new one.

Can you get YouTube on it? I thought Apple broke contract with YT or something? Maybe that's why Apple TV 2 is appealing for jailbreakers?

Not sure about YouTube. I know we used to have it. But, we disabled that channel cause we don't want our kids messing around on YouTube without supervision. So, it doesn't show up on our panel, but it still might be available. Not sure.

[Milmomma]

Just a little tidbit for anyone who owns an Apple TV 2. They sell like hotcakes on Ebay because the jailbrakers like them. Apparently something changed with the Apple TV 3, so the Apple TV 2 is the one that all the jailbrakers want. We sold our Apple TV 2 for $200 on Ebay. It sold in about 5 minutes. And, then we went and bought an Apple TV 3 for $100. Not a bad return, right?

Hubby has had a bunch of coworkers and family members who have been able to do the same things. So, if you own an Apple TV 2, you might consider selling it, buying a new one, and making $100 while you're at it. Just make sure to clear the settings before you ship it to anyone, or they'll have access to your iTunes account. :D

Both of ours are ATV 2's and we love them. I don't intend to upgrade. But certain family members in my family... coughdhcoughcough, has been know to "break the rules."
We rent through iTunes as well for movie night sometimes. Our current iTunes library is split between 2 3TB HD's. Hubby wants to upgrade me to a new tower that holds 18TBs next year. At this rate we will need it! We don't do any physical copies of movies I should say though! All of our movies are digital. Its so much easier when moving.
I don't know about YouTube as I've never tried. My kids have access to Netflix and our iTunes through it but are taught to leave the rest alone unless they have iTunes GC funds. We also have the Kinect for Xbox which can do Netflix but I actually like ATV better.

[Jennilyn]

Yes, you can watch YouTube on it. :)

[ripal]

Just wanted to give update that I bought it over the weekend and love it! Watching the photos on screensaver has been our favorite feature! This was the main reason I wanted to get it anyway (to show off the photos).

Thanks for the input! Eventually, I'll be ripping my DVDs.

[Lyd]

Woot, woot! Glad you're liking it Ripal! We definitely <3 ours (in case you couldn't already tell). :D

[LibbysMommy]

So glad you guys like it, Ripal!! We have two of them and we use them both constantly!! :)

[ripal]

We only have one TV right now, so one is good enough. But I'm sure if we had 2 TVs, I would've kept Apple TV and family get to keep Roku (until I manage to buy second one! ;)