mandrieu

Q: Apple TV 4 - Home Sharing Slideshows - Scratching my head...

Hey guys, I've had my Apple TV 2 for a million years. I love it. One of the features I enjoy the most is the home sharing+itunes+Apple TV (2)+Computers+photos combo to put my 20k+ photos on the big screen, as slideshows (mostly using Ken Burns) with music using an iTunes playlist and screen saver (normally floating theme)...

 

So, I got my new 32GB flashy Apple TV 4 and...

- Home sharing seems to work fine

- I can share all that content without problems, as far as I can tell

 

but:

- The slideshow music settings are gone... in ATV2 you set a playlist in the slideshow settings and you're all set. ATV4 = nowhere to be found.

- Photos show out of order sometimes, not consistently (?). They start fine, then out of nowhere, it randomly presents some pictures out of the album. Seems like a bug to me.

- I can only start a slideshow from the beginning. (in my Apple 2 I can choose a photo and run the slideshow from that point). Seems like another bug to me.

 

(I haven't checked slideshows in the Photos app, because I can't care less about putting my stuff in the cloud, to be honest. Same with the music stuff.)

 

So, I'm not a happy camper right now. I'm I missing something or this is a really half baked $150 bucs thing? This feels more like a downgrade than an upgrade so far except for being faster (and I'll leave the whining about the remote control, the keyboard situation, siri, bluetooth for another time).

 

Thanks!

Apple TV (4th generation)

Posted on Nov 4, 2015 8:00 AM

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Q: Apple TV 4 - Home Sharing Slideshows - Scratching my head...

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  • by Steve Martin7,

    Steve Martin7 Steve Martin7 Nov 4, 2015 9:14 AM in response to mandrieu
    Level 2 (164 points)
    Nov 4, 2015 9:14 AM in response to mandrieu

    Apple seems to have a strategy of removing lots of features with a new version of a product, then adding back the ones that people care/complain about (iMovie, iWork applications, etc.).  So, definitely submit feedback and let it know that yo miss that feature.  Hopefully enough other people care that they will add it back.

     

    It could also just be a bug or oversight, but again, letting them know through feedback or a bug report is the way to get it added back.

  • by chriscove2,

    chriscove2 chriscove2 Nov 4, 2015 6:58 PM in response to mandrieu
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 4, 2015 6:58 PM in response to mandrieu

    I am having the exact same problem and like you not a happy camper! I certainly hope apple restores the old slide show features!

  • by samaki,Helpful

    samaki samaki Nov 15, 2015 11:56 PM in response to mandrieu
    Level 1 (14 points)
    Nov 15, 2015 11:56 PM in response to mandrieu

    Thanks Mandrieu,

     

    A nicely succinct description of the problem. I have exactly the same issues, it is maddening.

     

    But before reading your post I had called Apple Care. What I heard:

    - "known bug"

    - "Apple TV 4 a completely new platform for TV (in other words, not for slideshows"

    - "you are using a function that not many are interested in"

    - "you should send feedback to Apple to highlight this bug and hope that engineers will take note"

    - "since this is a new platform for developers, please wait until someone brings out a slideshow app"

     

    I thought I needed to share this since I found the responses condescending (although, unfortunately, not entirely unexpected).

     

    Stupid customer that I am (paying € 250,- and then begging to fix basic features), I filed a feedback with my complaints.

     

    Apple, if you read this, shame on you!

  • by mandrieu,

    mandrieu mandrieu Nov 16, 2015 6:58 AM in response to samaki
    Level 1 (7 points)
    Nov 16, 2015 6:58 AM in response to samaki

    Thanks for your comment. I filed feedback with these issues too. If this is a "completely new platform for TV", then it should be a new product, not a new version of an existing one, especially if you are silently eliminating existing features. Taking my money without letting me know what I lose is not cool. Some might call that misleading a customer. I gave away my ATV 3, but still have my ATV 2. I may return this ATV 4 thing, go back and use the ATV 2 while I check out other options

  • by samaki,

    samaki samaki Nov 16, 2015 7:04 AM in response to mandrieu
    Level 1 (14 points)
    Nov 16, 2015 7:04 AM in response to mandrieu

    Agreed. Not cool. Weird also because Apply keeps advertising the photo features of ATV 4 on their website. No word that home sharing would no longer be supported...

  • by IndyJones27,

    IndyJones27 IndyJones27 Nov 23, 2015 7:19 PM in response to mandrieu
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 23, 2015 7:19 PM in response to mandrieu

    I found a simple workaround to play music during a photo sideshow.  Go into the Music app and start playing one of your playlists.  Then just click the Menu key 4 times to get back out to the Apps list.  Note that your music is still playing.  The just go into the Photos app and start your slideshow. 

    Voila!  Pictures and music!

     

    Music should continue to play over any App that does not generate its own sound.

  • by mandrieu,

    mandrieu mandrieu Nov 25, 2015 8:29 AM in response to IndyJones27
    Level 1 (7 points)
    Nov 25, 2015 8:29 AM in response to IndyJones27

    Yep, thanks, that works but it's still a very sub-par user experience, and you need to do the reverse when you want to stop playing the slideshow. It forces you to manually set, start and stop 2 separate apps as a workaround for what was just a setting and was working properly in 1 app in ATV 2 and ATV 3 (never had an ATV1, so I can't say). Lame, to say the least. Hopefully they'll fix it soon, along with many of the other issues being reported

  • by Protodd,

    Protodd Protodd Nov 25, 2015 10:10 AM in response to samaki
    Level 4 (2,069 points)
    Nov 25, 2015 10:10 AM in response to samaki

    FWIW my company gave an ATV4 to every employee (3300) (we work in fleet safety) So last week I decided to take a poll and although it's a limited group I thought it was interesting...

     

    we gave 3300 out and I got 2469 responses and I asked how people used it and what they liked/disliked Here are a few of the highlights

    94% used it only for Netflix/Hulu/iTunes movies and tv shows.

    12%  who like you, we're very upset with the loss of photo functionality (and other features) and went back to the ATV3.

    90% found the games enjoyable/easy but only 25% actually played more than 10 times

    45% gave Siri a "positive" response

    14% have not been able to get home sharing working fully

    98% reported frustration with the remote app incompatibility

     

    The good news is that as a consumer we have choices and with those choices we can compare the pros and cons to determine how/when to upgrade or if it's even worth it.  But at the end of the day, Apple wants to satisfy the majority of users (let alone shareholders) and it appears like that's what they did since most only use it for movies/tvshows only with some obvious issues to iron out with media format, Siri integration and the remote app...

     

    anyway way I just thought it was interesting anecdote in dealing with our individual frustrations...

  • by RexRox,

    RexRox RexRox Dec 1, 2015 12:38 PM in response to samaki
    Level 1 (12 points)
    Mac OS X
    Dec 1, 2015 12:38 PM in response to samaki

    samaki wrote:

     

    Agreed. Not cool. Weird also because Apply keeps advertising the photo features of ATV 4 on their website. No word that home sharing would no longer be supported...

    Samaki you've hit on a point that drives me nuts about Apple.
    Every new release whether it be the OS or app updates comes out with all the information about the amazing things they've added but nowhere do they include information about features they have removed.
    They really should release tech bulletins detailing omitted features etc so that consumers can make a fair choice about upgrading because what their people may see as a little-used feature may well be mission critical to people.

  • by samaki,

    samaki samaki Dec 2, 2015 2:23 AM in response to RexRox
    Level 1 (14 points)
    Dec 2, 2015 2:23 AM in response to RexRox

    Hi RexRox,

     

    I guess the silver lining in all of this that Apple despite its claims and recent successes in many areas can't get a firm grasp on software quality. I also have a brand-new iMac Retina at home (that replaced a 5-year old machine), there the screen would come on every time the machine does its background network pings when in standby mode. I had to compare this with my other household machinery (that truly simply works) and came to the conclusion that there is still a vast rift between self-proclaimed progress and reality.

     

    I.e., this should be good news for start-ups that can manage to focus on quality both in software and hardware. Like getting really basic things to work well - like putting a computer to sleep reliably... (and perhaps pay more than € 5,- per hour for their outsourced employees along the way... or actually do pay taxes!)

  • by mandrieu,

    mandrieu mandrieu Dec 8, 2015 5:08 PM in response to samaki
    Level 1 (7 points)
    Dec 8, 2015 5:08 PM in response to samaki

    Hey guys, FYI, I just updated my ATV 4 to tvos 9.1. None of the issues I first reported in this post are fixed. Oh well. What a shame. The iphone remote app works now though. That's good. Back to my ATV 3 until next update...

  • by samaki,

    samaki samaki Dec 13, 2015 3:57 AM in response to mandrieu
    Level 1 (14 points)
    Dec 13, 2015 3:57 AM in response to mandrieu

    Hi Mandrieu,

     

    I share your frustrations... I had high hopes that Apple would fix this jarring bug before christmas... may they were too busy working on iCar, iWhatever...

  • by samaki,

    samaki samaki Jan 12, 2016 7:12 AM in response to mandrieu
    Level 1 (14 points)
    Jan 12, 2016 7:12 AM in response to mandrieu

    Apparently tvOS 9.2 beta is out... has any of you had the chance to check it out (to see whether our beloved bug has been addressed)?

  • by foxcub 6,

    foxcub 6 foxcub 6 Jan 12, 2016 1:36 PM in response to samaki
    Level 1 (73 points)
    Apple TV
    Jan 12, 2016 1:36 PM in response to samaki

    MY main gripe is photostream ? iPhotos app should work with I cloud the same way as I phone iPad and Mac does, I took out extra I cloud storage to store all my photos  and expected the photos app would be upgraded from the Apple TV 3 , I had to spend a lot of time sharing all my photos to myself  so I can view them on a slide show , pretty crazy since there in the cloud anyway

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