Help with New Apple TV (1 Viewer)

[Raul Marquez]

Trying to create a Slideshow that will include both Photos and Videos (short videos, less than 4 min ea) to be played on a new Apple TV. Trying to prepare this for my Xmas party next Friday.


Any ideas or suggestions as to how to do this?



Thanks and Merry Xmas to All!


Raul

 

[DaveF]

Bought an AppleTV tonight. Impulse purchase.

I'm confused by music playback: under Music in the top row, there's basically nothing. It doesn't show my music on my IMac at all. I have to navigate to the computers icon, select my computer, then my music and then play from my library. Is there any way to get my music into the primary Music icon?

The rest of it...I need time to evaluate. My motivations were for music and photos. And both of these are more difficult than I expected. And the remote isn't wowing me; too easy to overshot icons when navigating. But some time could improve my impressions.

 

[Raul Marquez]

Dave,


Tried to create a slideshow for my Xmas party this Friday using the new Apple TV without any luck.


The new Photos app is AWFUL. I went back and re-installed iPhoto which allows for easy Slideshows with music.


I have the new Apple TV since release day and STILL I pick up the remote the wrong way, upside down, and swipe my finger along the WRONG remote surface. Whoever designed this remote blew it. Interestingly, a brother who lives in Florida had the same comments on the remote as I did.


As far as I know, you cannot use the Music icon for your music. Apparently it's for Apple Music, to which I'm not subscribed, and not interested since it's cloud based. I like having my music files on my hard drive. To me the "cloud" is for Backup, not for streaming music which depends entirely on a stable internet service. I signed up for a 200 Mega Internet plan last week from my cable provider, but the resultant speed so far it's all over the place, from 1-2 Megas to 180 Megas. I had a service call this morning from my cable provider who changed a couple of splitters, which sort of fixed things while he was here, having the speed go to crap during the afternoon. Oh well... the joys of Internet, and the main reason while I like physical media.


Anyway, back to the Apple TV. It works fine with Netflix and Hulu (as the prior model), but I've yet to use the Siri commands, and game apps are of no interest to me.


The one thing I really like are the screen savers. They are gorgeous!

 

[Clinton McClure]

Bought an AppleTV tonight. Impulse purchase.

I'm confused by music playback: under Music in the top row, there's basically nothing. It doesn't show my music on my IMac at all. I have to navigate to the computers icon, select my computer, then my music and then play from my library. Is there any way to get my music into the primary Music icon?

The rest of it...I need time to evaluate. My motivations were for music and photos. And both of these are more difficult than I expected. And the remote isn't wowing me; too easy to overshot icons when navigating. But some time could improve my impressions.

Raul pretty much nailed it. I have two previous generation AppleTVs (3rd gen I think they are) - one in the living room and one in the master bedroom and the Music icon is for Apple Music only. I stream daily from my MacBook Pro and have to go to Computers then select my library which is an extra "keystroke" so to speak but isn't a show stopper.

 

[DaveF]

Dave,


I have the new Apple TV since release day and STILL I pick up the remote the wrong way, upside down, and swipe my finger along the WRONG remote surface. Whoever designed this remote blew it. Interestingly, a brother who lives in Florida had the same comments on the remote as I did.

I haven't picked up the remote the right-side up once in the past day. I like Apple's physical design as a rule. But this remote is one of the times when they sacrificed the majority of usability for its appearance. Hopefully I'll get used to it, but the pressure and throw for clicking is too much and too far. And I think that a D-pad would be easier and more accurate for selection than the quirky swiping.

 

[DaveF]

I realized the remote reads as upside down to me. The shiny part should be top (like the touch screen of my logitech remote) and the matte part should be down (the plastic control part). Or, touch-sensitive screen of my iPhone is shiny. But it's the opposite with the remote. It's probably just me, but the remote is visually confusing.

 

[DaveF]

I've had a little time to play with the AppleTV and start figuring out how it fits in my life. This has been my ambivalence about buying one: neat gadget but I'm full on gadgets and TiVo dominates my TV viewing. So where does an AppleTV fit?


I downloaded the iTunes Movie Trailer app: love it. I like watching trailers, but YouTube is a nuisance to sort real trailers from the fakes and fanfic. This app is what I wanted.


So the music isn't as simple as I'd like, but I can play my music. We've had my wife's Christmas music list playing, which is great after a weekend of the rather short playlist from the cable company music channel.


AirPlay. My nieces are watching some crazy kid-zumba channel on my iPad. I figure out Airplay, and now they're dancing in the living room!


YouTube app. An easy way to watch Will Wheaton's TableTop on the big screen.


And my wife has given it an early SAF, which is always good.

 

[McPaul]

But you can do these things on the previous gen Apple TV. Is there anything new that makes this worthwhile?

Think I'll skip this gen.

 

[Clinton McClure]

It can't output digital audio via optical since Apple nixed the port as part of their forced obsolescence program. That made my decision to skip this generation an easy one.

 

[schan1269]

It can't output digital audio via optical since Apple nixed the port as part of their forced obsolescence program. That made my decision to skip this generation an easy one.

Roku and Netgear(NeoTV) have done the same thing.

 

[DaveF]

But you can do these things on the previous gen Apple TV. Is there anything new that makes this worthwhile?
Think I'll skip this gen.

This is my first AppleTV, but the significant change is the App Store and access to more content.

“The new Apple TV vs. the old Apple TV: What's changed?”
http://www.engadget.com/2015/09/09/new-apple-tv-vs-old-apple-tv/

Old: iTunes, AirPlay, iCloud, Netflix, MLB, NBA, NHL, YouTube, Vimeo, WSJ Live, Flickr

New: iTunes, AirPlay, iCloud, Netflix, HBO Now, Hulu, Showtime, MLB, NBA, NHL, CNN, FOX, PBS Kids, ABC News, Disney Channel, ESPN, USA and more

 

[DaveF]

It can't output digital audio via optical since Apple nixed the port as part of their forced obsolescence program. That made my decision to skip this generation an easy one.

How much of a problem is this? I've been HDMI only since 2009. It's not an Apple death march that's killing optical ports, it's just normal technological progress.

 

[Clinton McClure]

How much of a problem is this? I've been HDMI only since 2009. It's not an Apple death march that's killing optical ports, it's just normal technological progress.

It's a problem for those of us who have a receiver without HDMI. The ATV is connected to the plasma with HDMI and the optical goes to the receiver for airplay streaming and watching Netflix and Hulu using headphones.

One of these days I will upgrade receivers but I can't justify it as long as my dear old Yamaha still works flawlessly.

 

[schan1269]

Nobody said you had to buy brand new. Hdmi(with lossless audio) debuted 9 years ago.

 

[DaveF]

I can't recommend the AppleTV for Netflix over the TiVo. The aTV subtitles are low quality, like close captions on '90s vintage tube TVs; TiVo uses a nice readable font. This is very obvious in the caption-reliant show "Switched at Birth"

 

[DaveF]

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202772

Maybe this is the issue