Old Apple TV will NOT get new features

That is my exact complain, no local storage! Nice to rent but I like to have my own collection of movies that will not require paying every time I want to watch it. If AppleTV 1 allowed for an external hard drive I would rather have that in a second over the AppleTV 2.

No software update for Netflix…you have got to be kidding! I've been a huge advocate for ATV for the last few years and have talked more than one friend into buying one. My Brother owns a Sony PS3 and we've had an ongoing friendly competition comparing PS3 to ATV and, sadly, unless Apple sees more than just $$, the PS3 wins. Not easy to say since I've been a huge Apple supporter since the first iMac to now owning the iPhone 4, new 27" iMac and subscriber to MacWorld. C'mon Steve, what's up with that??

I think this is a huge disappointment. Apple complains about not selling enough Apple TV's so they punish their customers who do buy them by neglecting them for years and then cut them off completely from software updates. Well done, Apple. I do enjoy my current ATV, but I defiantly won't buy the new one since it probably won't receive a single software update until 2012.

I see this as a good thing.
I wouldn't want my good appletv changed to that new software.

I'm agreeing a lot with Chenks today. I actually would find it a much more compelling argument if the new ATV could have the "old" software from ATV 1 loaded onto it. I don't store anything locally anyway (I have about 4.5tb of content), so don't sync and only stream from my Drobo via my iMac. The "old" interface for those of us with significant home content allows our movies and tv content to be placed under the appropriate menu structure, not buried under a sub-menu within "Computers".

For me the new ATV is a huge disappointment. I love my old ATV and use it constantly. I have all my music stored on it as lossless rips and I play this via a high quality dac. With the remote app on my ipod touch, it's a great high quality audio solution.

Albeit an imperfect one. What I was hoping for in ATV2 (but not expecting to be honest) was 1080p video support; 24bit/96kHz or 192kHz audio output; bbc iplayer; improved codec support.

We have got none of these. Only it's worse. No hard disk, streaming only. And because of no hard disk, no movie purchases - only rentals. And because of Apple's ridiculous insistance that ATV has to stream from itunes, I have to power up my PC to play any media at all. Why on earth can they not allow streaming from a NAS for god's sake.

The only advantages I can see the new device offering are 6W power consumption (vs nil as I unplug my ATV when not in use) and netflix.

Huge ball dropped Apple. Sadly when my loved ATV finally dies and I have to buy a replacement box, I don't know what it will be but an ATV2 will not be it.

If I can give my 2 cents on the matter, I’m an ATV user since it came out, I recognized it potential as a user friendly alternative to network hard drives, the UI and the work Apple did with Front Row was outstanding. As many of you here, I use it standalone as my music player connected to a receiver via the optical audio output, to store my 5000+ photos and watch them on my TV whenever I want, and for my 5 years old daughter to watch Team Umizoomi a hundred times without me having to turn on my PC (yes, I’m not a Mac user) or put in a DVD for her to see the show. The ATV UI is so simple and intuitive that my daughter’s use it by herself since she was 3, is that simple.

For this use, local storage is a must, so I’m also sad and concerned to see a product so good –but misunderstood and neglected- going away, and agree with all of you the new ATV is a radical departure in another direction, and won’t fit our needs at all. Apple may definitively being seeing things we don’t, and in order to reduce costs an make things simpler for what they expect to be a bigger market, they just abandoned us for a cheaper mass-appealing product. I am not happy but I don’t blame them, and this coming from a Windows guy is a significant statement 🙂

I was also puzzled Apple didn’t even try to give us old faithful ATV users the possibility of streaming Netflix and then it got me: It’s not possible with the processor we have on the old ATVs, and the architecture of the device was not designed for streaming. There is a physical barrier no firmware can overcome, and after the 3G iPhone fiasco with the iOS 4.0, forcing a device into things that will stress its physical limits I’m sure is not on Apple plans. If you want to be convinced, visit the aTV Flash website and they will tell you right there in the FAQs that is not possible to watch Netflix movies on the ATV because of processing power limitation, the frame rate will be horrible.

So here we are, ole ATV owners with a technology we love simple being pushed into something else we don’t want. My guess is that was the feeling of Mac lovers when Apple was at the brink of disappearing about 10 years ago. Maybe we could found an “original ATV users” club or something and get together in an effort to extend the old ATV life as far as possible.

Cheers

OKAY! Looks like ATV 2 is a no go!! I'll stick to my ATV 1 until Steve & co get back to the drawing board!

Well I tried. alas I could not manage to avoid discussing the new Apple TV.

Lets start this with a back story.

Two years ago I sat in my living room. The TV was a rear projection with its own rolling cabinet and underneath that sat a DVD/VHS combo. Ontop of the DVD/VHS were DVDs. Just sitting there lying around doing their own thing. One day one of these DVDs was slid across the brick fireplace by my then 3 year old and scratched beyond playability. I thought to myself there must be a better way.

A friend introduced me to the Apple TV. Imagine putting the movies we own in a box after converting to a playable format for Apple TV with a handy utility called Handbrake!

"Take 2" made it something more attractive to place in the living room. Imagine renting movies without going to the movie store!

Fast Forward 2 years. The TV is on the wall. An "up-scaling" DVD player is sitting next to the Apple TV. Both are on the mantle below the TV. Movie Gallery just closed a couple of months ago. We are now up to about 4 movies a week on the Apple TV (mixing a few Netflix DVD or streaming movies (via the Xbox 360) in there on occasion). After struggling through about 160 DVDs with Handbrake the DVDs have been put away with the exception of the ones enjoyed by our child. Long Handbrake story short, time is money and we spend more time watching movies we haven't seen these days. Handbrake uninstalled. Disk space restored. Dream of moving away from physical media abandoned.

As I am sitting in my living room today I take notice that the Apple TV is used for two main purposes. Renting movies and viewing our digital photos.

I suppose the new apple TV would be a viable replacement should our current one die. I suppose there is the potential for further development to unleash the device's full potential further down the road (could swear I thought the same thing two years ago!)

Oh well. At least it will be around. Maybe it will get better. Maybe I'll just get something to run Plex 😉

Message was edited by: pocket8077

Message was edited by: pocket8077

With you all the way Charly.

I've ordered the new Apple TV and when I get it I'll see if I like the old one or the new one the best. I stream everything now anyway and you can still stream your iTunes content with the new one.

The only feature I think I will miss on the new one is being able to buy my shows on the Apple TV. I'm not sure If I will like renting better then buying. For the four or five shows I watch through out the year I will probably still buy them so I can watch them as many times as I want, whenever I want. But at .99 I might watch other shows that I wouldn't put out the 2.99 for.

And Netflix is an added plus. I can unhook my Roku box and have it all in one interface.

I got my Apple TV when it first came out and it's been one of the best things I have bought. It has served me well for the last 3 (or is it 4) years but I can see it's at the end of it's life. The entry point of the new one is low enough and the potential of being based on the iOS is great.

Very disappointed in new offering. Appears to be streaming only - a big step backwards.

Hopefully, they come out with a big sibling that merges capabilities of old ATV and the new.

Come to think of it, what's the feasibility of using a MacMini? Granted its a higher price point, but wouldn't it allow streaming, synching, as well as full features of the Mac?

Chenks wrote:
I see this as a good thing.
I wouldn't want my good appletv changed to that new software.

I also agree with Chenks. I just hope that Apple continues to support video rentals with my old Apple TV box. I could care less about NetFlix.

Disclaimer, I do have NetFlix capability via my Samsung BlueRay player (built-in). However, I've never used it, but it works the same way the new Apple TV works. IF Apple stops supporting my old Apple TV, I can also rent the few movies I want from DirecTV. However, they cost a buck more on DTV.

Without a good buffer, I got to believe streaming NetFlix movies will give an occasional skip, pause or cough.

What you need to do is research how to get your DVD's contents into iTunes, then you can stream all day long!

Charly Brown wrote:
I was also puzzled Apple didn’t even try to give us old faithful ATV users the possibility of streaming Netflix and then it got me: It’s not possible with the processor we have on the old ATVs, and the architecture of the device was not designed for streaming. There is a physical barrier no firmware can overcome, and after the 3G iPhone fiasco with the iOS 4.0, forcing a device into things that will stress its physical limits I’m sure is not on Apple plans. If you want to be convinced, visit the aTV Flash website and they will tell you right there in the FAQs that is not possible to watch Netflix movies on the ATV because of processing power limitation, the frame rate will be horrible.

ATV Flash doesn't say in the FAQ's that it's not possible it says becuase of HULU and Netflix's use of Adobe's Flash that the quality is poor. However that must have been written some time ago. With the new Netflix and HULU app on the iPad and now the iPhone we know that they have to be using something other that flash to run it. (HTML5?) Either way, I think its possible.

I stream live MLB games and replays on my Apple TV using AtvFlash and Boxee, it works great! Even streaming Hulu through Boxee worked until it was shut down by HULU. If Apple doesn't provide an update then we "hobbiests" will have to turn to 3rd parties like atvflash to get it to work.