Netflix on old Apple TV

PC WOW wrote:
Since when Apple cares about their users?

Apple loves their users... Anything I have ever had a problem with... my iMac, one of my iPhones, my macbook pro... they have fixed the problems without asking for any money from me.

All they want is your $$$, and lots of it!!!! You only have the right to buy and upgrade as they see fit.

Not sure where you are going with this. You can upgrade all of the computers they sell and the devices that you can't aren't the kind of device that anyone can upgrade. (Phones, tablets, apple TV (media set top box)) No one sells any of those devices that can be upgraded.

It's impressive how the "BEST product ever" (as they always introduce it) only works for no more than 4-years... My 2-years-old boy waches Netflix from a Dell Inspiron 5100 (9-years-old / worth $30) and I cannot use my 1 1/2 year-old AppleTV that I paid $300!

You are comparing two completely different devices. One is a set top box... one is a computer. What are the specs on this 9 year old computer... I might just be calling "shenanigans" on your comment. The specs required at netflix say a 1.2 Ghz CPU and 1GB of ram... I doubt your 9 year old laptop has that in it.

I was only waiting them blaming it on Microsoft, since they depend on Silverlight to stream Netflix content, like they blame Adobe for the "unstable" Flash content...

It is the power of the CPU and the lack of RAM that results in no Netflix support.

Hey I use to watch Netflix and Hulu on my ATV. Then Apple upgraded the software and the hack stopped working. So I bought a ROKU, which connects to Amazon, Netflix, but not Hulu. I wonder if someone will hack the ATV again with the ability to stream Netflix and play Hulu? I am still keeping an eye on Boxee.

have you seen this?
http://firecore.com/mirow

Yeah. That is for a mac, not an Apple TV.

I bought two Apple TVs and, despite my initial excitement and high hopes, have been consistently disappointed with them. We rented a number of movies and enjoyed them with good performance, but could only access Netflix via Boxee (until Apple apparently shut that down). It's a shame that Apple didn't support the Apple TV well until recently. In addition, I don't like being locked into iTunes when I want to deal with movies/videos. Thus, I abandoned Apple in favor of Sony's new product line, and have been very pleased. The new Sony products support Netflix, Amazon, Pandora, and a host of other multimedia sites and files -- now including Hulu Plus, which I haven't tried yet. The Sony Internet-ready devices even handle files from our HP EX495 MediaSmart home server (via Twonky's DLNA server packaged with HP), which also cooperates with our Apple devices. I'm still a devoted Apple fan. In fact, I just bought a Mini with OS Server, which works perfectly. However, for movies and videos, I'm sticking with Sony. I'm interested to see what Google does as well.

I am still not convinved that Apple could not issue a software update to either enable Netflix streaming directly to the ATV ( like UTube) or through ITunes.

Since even the iPhone is supposed to handle Netflix, the argument that the old ATV does not have the processing power to handle the Encodex does not seem to make sense, and the disk storage capacity of the ATV should be able to handle the meory requirements - afterall memory is storage.

When I originally asked whether it would be possible to watch Netflix on ATV (about 6-8 month ago) the answer I got was "**** no - Netflix is a competitorm and Apple wants to sell movies thru Itunes". It was a failed logic then, and it took Apple this long to realize that it is to their advantage to enable Netflix. I am still holding out to see if Apple will change their mind and provide a suitable upgrade to the old ATV - if not, I will buy a non-apple device. I had three friends asking me if I would recommend ATV, and I told them NO!

In fact, the CPU on the iPhone is more powerful than the Apple TV.

When you say that the "old" Apple TV will not get a software upgrade to support tv show rentals or Netflex you might be right, but that also means that Apple is not the kind of company it used to be. Lets face it: *The new Apple TV is nothing but a modem*. The truth is: _there is NO reason why the old aTV hardware shouldn't be able to do what the new aTV does_. This means, that Jobs became greedy just like the rest of the forcing every Apple user who wants to rent tv shows or use Netflex buy a new one. I suggest that every "old" Apple TV costumer writes them a feedback email complaining about that. Jobs didn't even consider to mention anything about supporting the old Apple TV when he introduced the new one. At least he should have had the decency to say it straight in our faces: "Sorry, old Apple TV costumers, but you loose". I called Apple sales about this and the rep even said that she already wrote Apple about that. Is this the way Apple will treat their costumers in the future. Than it is time that we all switch to a different company, guys, one that is as hip and loyal as Apple once used to be.

TGMusic wrote:
_there is NO reason why the old aTV hardware shouldn't be able to do what the new aTV does_.

How do you know this? Have you discussed it with Apple engineers? Please cite evidence(required specs for streaming, etc).

My "old Apple TV" does exactly what I bought it to do. Actually, it does more as a result of various software updates? Why on earth should I be upset because it doesn't do something it was never advertised or promised to do?

For pity's sake, the new one is $99, Roku boxes are even cheaper. If you already own a PS3 or a Wii, you've already got a device that streams NetFlix. For the life of me, I can't see what all the uproar is about.

TGMusic wrote:
When you say that the "old" Apple TV will not get a software upgrade to support tv show rentals or Netflex you might be right, but that also means that Apple is not the kind of company it used to be.

Really? So where is your PowerMac 6500 that can run OS X 10.6? Or the 286 that can run Windows 7?
You are speaking completely from a non-educated child's stand point. When hardware gets older, it can no longer support the newer software that is released. It is the way technology works. No matter what product or what manufacturer makes it.

Lets face it: *The new Apple TV is nothing but a modem*.

That's odd that you found a modem in your new Apple TV. When they did the breakdown, they found an advanced mainboard from a iPod touch. (If you want to see a breakdown of it. Google... there were several sites that did it.)

The truth is: _there is NO reason why the old aTV hardware shouldn't be able to do what the new aTV does_.

The Truth is you are talking like that uneducated child that I mentioned before. Technology has changed. It has advanced. The A4 chip that is running the new ATV is quite a bit faster than the 1 Ghz intel that was used in the 1st version.

This means, that Jobs became greedy just like the rest of the forcing every Apple user who wants to rent tv shows or use Netflex buy a new one.

Two things on this one, Jobs (Apple) is a business. They aren't here to be your best friend, they are here to provide a solid device or service that you are willing to pay for. And 2, here comes that uneducated thing again, you can rent TV episodes on the new ATV.

I suggest that every "old" Apple TV costumer writes them a feedback email complaining about that.

Costumer? you mean I can dress up as an Apple device for Halloween?!?!? (sorry a huge rant with a misused word... couldn't resist)

Jobs didn't even consider to mention anything about supporting the old Apple TV when he introduced the new one. At least he should have had the decency to say it straight in our faces: "Sorry, old Apple TV costumers, but you loose".

When a new device is replacing an old one, how often do you see the older device mentioned? I would say 90% of the time... My point? It is not out of the norm to ignore an older device when introducing a new one.

How in the heck did we lose? I got a device that, with a little tweaking, did exactly what I expected it to do. If they had said in the past that it would someday support netflix and then never supplied that feature and released a new product that would... I would be a bit miffed.

That did not happen. It did what Apple said it would do.

Message was edited by: D0GG

The iphone hardware is faster than the apple tv? Even a 3rd gen iPod Touch like I have? That's hard to believe. I'm not saying it's not true but hard to believe. I can watch netflix movies on my ipod touch 3rd Gen and I find it strange that it's impossible to get it going on the ATV, cause I assume that the ipod/iphones aren't running silverlight, or if they are it's an extremely stripped down version of it. Even if they lowered the res to something more comparable to the iphone to get it working it would be great.

Message was edited by: ran103

I think Netflix is more than capable of making it work on the older Apple TV hardware, I would imagine they even offered to do it for Apple. I guess there is no official word on this yet.

Best solution in my mind... Keep your AppleTV1. It's a great device, and personally I don't want to have my computer online so I can stream my music. AppleTV1 was a much better device than the new AppleTV2 (but then, I have a laptop... sometimes I leave it at work, which means no music or media at home with the newer AppleTV).

Instead, buy a Roku ($59 or $79) and put it next to your AppleTV1. Get the best of both worlds -- Netflix on Roku (along with LOTS of other content and streaming sources), and store your home media on your AppleTV1.

Anyhow, just on principle, I'm not shelling out another $99 to Apple when I just bought my "new" AppleTV last year.

(By the way, people ARE hacking Boxee into your AppleTV1's and using it stream Netflix. Haven't tried it myself, but saw a YouTube as evidence so I'm confident AppleTV1 can play Netflix... it's just that Apple wants you to shell out more money for a less capable device).

ran103 wrote:
The iphone hardware is faster than the apple tv? Even a 3rd gen iPod Touch like I have? That's hard to believe. I'm not saying it's not true but hard to believe. I can watch netflix movies on my ipod touch 3rd Gen and I find it strange that it's impossible to get it going on the ATV, cause I assume that the ipod/iphones aren't running silverlight, or if they are it's an extremely stripped down version of it. Even if they lowered the res to something more comparable to the iphone to get it working it would be great.

Yes, the 3rd gen iPod Touch actually has a very powerful processor. There is a company called FireCore that makes a product called aTV Flash that adds a number of features to the older Apple TV, including a web browser. On other products intended for the Mac, they offer Netflix. But they do not offer Netflix for Apple TV. Their explanation: "Unfortunately due to the AppleTV's limited processing power streaming Internet video is not currently supported."

Doesn't the ipod/iphone version of netflix use something other than silverlight? I don't know for sure but it seems like this is true. Maybe the ATV could utilize this also.