Apple TV (2nd Gen) screensaver photo shuffle

Question

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Apple TV (2nd Gen) screensaver photo shuffle

Received my 2nd gen ATV yesterday, and successfully setup home sharing with iTunes on my mac, along with photo sharing. I really like the photo screensaver capability of the ATV, and set it up to use my entire iPhoto library with "Floating". However, every time the screensaver starts it shows a bunch of pictures from 10 years ago (the oldest stuff in my iPhoto library). I don't mind seeing these pictures, but I'd prefer to get the photos in random order and not "oldest first". I can't seem to find a "photo shuffle" preference, am I missing something?

Apple TV (2G), iOS 4

Posted on Oct 1, 2010 6:20 AM

Answer 1

Jolly Giant

Level 7

25,484 points

Oct 1, 2010 6:52 AM in response to edernest

you could put the photos you prefer into a folder and tell TV to use that folder.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4362

J GG

edited by the Jolly Green Giant (where Green stands for environmentally friendly)

Answer 2

edernest Author

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Oct 1, 2010 7:24 AM in response to Jolly Giant

Thanks for the suggestion. It's not really that I don't prefer to look at the old photos so much as, I don't only want to see them first every time the screensaver starts. I do have some custom folders set up in iPhoto (such as "Last 12 Months") and I could use them for the screensaver, but I would still want to randomize the order. Is this not possible?

Answer 3

Jolly Giant

Level 7

25,484 points

Oct 1, 2010 7:29 AM in response to edernest

edernest wrote:
... I would still want to randomize the order. Is this not possible?

well, there is a setting for random under the screen saver menu ...

J GG

Answer 4

edernest Author

Level 1

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Oct 1, 2010 9:00 AM in response to Jolly Giant

I noticed there is a "Random" setting, but selecting it only randomizes the type of screensaver used, not the order of the photos. Is the the setting your referring to? If you've found a way to randomize the order of the photos, can you share where you found that setting?

Answer 5

Jolly Giant

Level 7

25,484 points

Oct 1, 2010 9:33 AM in response to edernest

edernest wrote:
Is the the setting your referring to?

yep, but i thought it would randomize the photo selection.

If you've found a way to randomize the order of the photos, can you share where you found that setting?

unfortunately, i didn't 😟

J GG

Answer 6

firetr2

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Oct 1, 2010 12:41 PM in response to Jolly Giant

I am an AppleTV 1G and 2G owner and I, too, am having the same issue. There should be a shuffle photos pref in the list above the horizontal separator. The AppleTV 1G did successfully shuffle photos in the floating screen saver.
If you show the photos from a shared library, you will see the settings for the slide show. Within settings, you can see the Shuffle Photos pref but it doesn't exist on the screen saver settings.

Answer 7

Oct 1, 2010 5:05 PM in response to edernest

Here's another request to restore this feature. If you have a large library of photos taken over a long period of time, this represents significant step backwards from the original AppleTV.

Answer 8

Oct 2, 2010 12:00 PM in response to ahirsbrunner

I too am greatly disappointed by the lack of true photo randomization across my large iPhoto library.

Answer 9

Oct 2, 2010 4:01 PM in response to edernest

If you go in to actually look at the photos, under Computer, you can adjust the Slideshow settings there, and the changes you make there will affect the screensaver slideshow as well (such as Time on each slide, etc.)

Answer 10

edernest Author

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Oct 3, 2010 5:14 AM in response to dpmilligan

Changing the slideshow sort settings under Computers doesn't seem to impact the settings for the screensaver, in my case. Can anyone else confirm that they can get the screensaver to randomly display images using this method?

Answer 11

firetr2

Level 1

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Oct 3, 2010 1:14 PM in response to edernest

I can confirm that the Computers -> Photos -> Slideshow - Settings does NOT effect the screen saver shuffle settings. This is a major step back from the 1st Gen. I think that it is due to the photos not being local on the device and it steaming the photos from the computer remotely. On the 1st Gen, you couldn't show photos on the screen saver that were not synced locally onto the device. They need to have Home Sharing of iTunes/iPhoto randomize the photos before being streamed.

Answer 12

Oct 3, 2010 11:28 PM in response to firetr2

After loving the random photo screensaver on my previous Apple TV I can't believe how much Apple TV 2 falls on it's face in this department. Hopefully there will be un update to fix this.

Answer 13

firetr2

Level 1

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Oct 4, 2010 6:22 PM in response to firetr2

Anyone from Apple out there? Care to comment? Please relieve our minds so we can continue to recommend the Apple TV 2G to our friends and family.

Answer 14

Oct 5, 2010 12:29 PM in response to firetr2

This thread intrigued me enough to go run a little experiment on my new ATV2.0 ...

I use an Album I have published to my MobileMe Gallery for my screen saver photos.

I went to SCREEN SAVER on ATV2.0 and hit PREVIEW three different times to see what would happen - random photos started up at each preview.

I then set the screen saver start time to 2 minutes, and let it start up 3 different times - 3 completely different sets of photos started up.

Apparently if you use a MobileMe Gallery for your screen saver photo location it randomizes the photos.

Answer 15

Oct 5, 2010 1:09 PM in response to edernest

I have the same problem. It seems to focus on old pictures, iPhone pictures, and scanned pictures. I am assuming that it is slurping up the lower resolution pictures from iPhoto quicker than the hi-res ones. I have tried letting the screensaver run for a significant period of time, but it still fixates on old pictures.