Really nervous about upgrading from ATV1 to ATV2

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Level 1

32 points

Really nervous about upgrading from ATV1 to ATV2

Man, oh, man... from what I am reading on this support forum, I am very nervous about upgrading from 1st-gen to 2nd-gen Apple TV.

From what I can read, it seems that ATV2 has real problems with sorting and organization of content within your iTunes library (I have a lot of purchased TV shows), doesn't nicely display your iTunes content in the main screen, has real problems with Bonjour (i.e. Homeshare discovery), has real problems with wireless streaming of content (i.e. uses 2.4 Ghz 802.11 N instead of supporting the more robust 5 Ghz) which is causing many customers to experience slow loading times and buffering delays, blah, blah, blah...

This all sounds like a lot of steps back from my beloved Apple TV (classic). I wanted to upgrade, because I've read that the video playback of HD content looks really nice on ATV2 (the review I read stated that it crushed everything else for video quality).

Can anyone who has made the switch tell me they are glad they did?

Thanks, Ken

Mac Mini, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Jan 31, 2011 11:01 AM

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Answer 1

Chenks

Level 5

7,435 points

Jan 31, 2011 11:04 AM in response to Krutsch

for me i have no problems with home sharing or with streaming over WIFI (on either G or N).
no slow loading times or buffering delays.

there are a few anomolies with regards for sorting etc, but i believe those will eventually get sorted (the grouping issue is still regarded as a "known issue").

i replaced one of my original appletv's with a new one, and still have one original elsewhere in the house (that is also WIFI connected).

if you have a good robust WIFI network then you shouldn't have any issues with regards to streaming (most don't have a good WIFI network and are using "default" factory router settings).

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Answer 2

Alley_Cat

Level 7

20,548 points

Jan 31, 2011 3:02 PM in response to Krutsch

Sorting is a nuisance if you have TV Shows with many many seasons, but as Chenks says hopefully this will get sorted in time - remember AppleTV 1 is a different beast now from original release.

The new AppleTV front page is annoying (or wasteful of screen rela estate) if you mainly play your own content and rarely rent. I doubt they'll change burying your content under Computers heading. To be honest it's less annoying than using Shared libraries with 1 that constantly reloaded the library when you moved from category to category, though I still think the AppleTV 1 software currently has a better interface.

If your AppleTV 1 works fine with wireless I'd be surprised if you have issues with ATV2.

The slow downloads are frequently due to slow internet connections - if you have one AppleTV 1 is better with slow connections (like mine) as with ATV2 spurious things flush downloads from the solid state cache requiring redownload from scratch - all very unpredictable. Wasteful of bandwidth too.

Personally I prefer video output from AppleTV1 - this is subjective but I prefer ATV1. ATV2 won't display 1080p menus only 720p so they look a bit more cluttered to me.

The pros of ATV2 are:

Small form factor
Low power/Less Heat.
Much improved buffering/navigation of locally streamed content. Buffer faster and navigation is usable.
Cheaper.
Netflix if you can get it.
Airplay.

Cons:

No analogue video/audio out
No onboard configurable storage - things only held transiently in solid state memory.
No iTunes Extras/LP support yet.
No user settable resolution.
No ability to stream audio to Airport devices - only acts as a client.
Lost ability to browse for music/music video or purchase anything from iTunes store - rentals only.

AC

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Answer 3

newagemac

Level 2

245 points

Jan 31, 2011 4:20 PM in response to Krutsch

The Apple TV does support 5GHz N as far as I am aware.

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Answer 4

Krutsch Author

Level 1

32 points

Feb 13, 2011 5:27 PM in response to Krutsch

Update: well, I bought one this weekend for my home office screen and left the ATV 1st Gen in the home theater.

All I can say is 'Nice' - the ATV2 is simply awesome and my worries seem to be without grounding. Of course, my unit was already installed with 4.1.1 (latest version?), so maybe many of the issues I've read about have been resolved.

The TV show organization seems just right (I'm not sure I understand what the issues are with others, with respect to what I've read).

Streaming from my personal collection on my Mac Mini and MacBook pro was quick and without hesitation.

I do wish my iTunes collection was placed more prominently in the main screen, but I understand why Apple did it that way.

The video quality was really awesome with my HD videos archived from Blu-Ray and the ability to quickly rewind/fast-forward was a real upgrade from Apple TV 1.

Of course, you get what you pay for in a TV. My home office monitor is a 23" Samsung LED for computer use and doesn't upscale and cleanup the video as well as the Samsung LED I have in the theater (which really looks impressive, even with SD content from my Apple TV 1).

Finally, the Netflix client on the ATV2 is a far cry from the one on my PlayStation 3, which supports streaming HD and 5.1 audio and looks and sounds incredible by comparison. I am hoping Apple will provide an update to their Netflix player in the near future.

So, I would 'Yes', I am very happy I upgraded and plan to buy a second unit for the theater.

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Answer 5

Alley_Cat

Level 7

20,548 points

Feb 14, 2011 11:34 AM in response to Krutsch

Krutsch wrote:

Glad you like it.

The TV show organization seems just right (I'm not sure I understand what the issues are with others, with respect to what I've read).

TV Shows with the same name used to be grouped in a common folder if there was more than 1 season.

So say for Star Trek, if you had Seasons 1-3, they would all have been grouped in the same Start Trek folder with a Season number heading followed by season episodes.

Now you have a subfolder for each season, so instead of just a single Star Trek entry you'd have:

.....
Star Trek (season 1)
Star Trek (season 2)
Star Trek (season 3)
.....

If you consider some show may have had tens of seasons of shows this then really clutters your TV Show menu.

Also you used to be able to group similar movies together, now you can't.

I do wish my iTunes collection was placed more prominently in the main screen, but I understand why Apple did it that way.

To annoy us 😉

They want to make money from rentals not make it easy to watch your own content.

. the ability to quickly rewind/fast-forward was a real upgrade from Apple TV 1.

I agree - big difference.

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Answer 6

user1724

Level 3

535 points

Feb 14, 2011 11:59 AM in response to Krutsch

I did the upgrade (and gave my 2 old TVs away) betting on what is coming. I can see apps that allow video chat from your TV (think iChat or FaceTime) since there is a USB port for a webcam, news apps, a browser, etc.

Well, I also did it because I like AirPlay and the new method of sharing libraries.

Losing local storage is not as much of a big deal as I thought it would be. And you cannot beat the price point.

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Answer 7

Krutsch Author

Level 1

32 points

Feb 14, 2011 2:37 PM in response to Alley_Cat

Alley_Cat wrote:

TV Shows with the same name used to be grouped in a common folder if there was more than 1 season.

So say for Star Trek, if you had Seasons 1-3, they would all have been grouped in the same Start Trek folder with a Season number heading followed by season episodes.

Now you have a subfolder for each season, so instead of just a single Star Trek entry you'd have:

.....
Star Trek (season 1)
Star Trek (season 2)
Star Trek (season 3)
.....

If you consider some show may have had tens of seasons of shows this then really clutters your TV Show menu.

Actually, I have close to a TB of just TV shows, including series with many seasons (e.g. five seasons of MI-5) and the organization doesn't seem cluttered to me. Most series don't have that many seasons and most people don't have that many series in their collections. But I get your point.

I do wish my iTunes collection was placed more prominently in the main screen, but I understand why Apple did it that way.

To annoy us 😉

They want to make money from rentals not make it easy to watch your own content.

Rental goal acknowledged, I disagree with the latter part. Apple TV 2 makes it easier to watch your local content if you have more than one computer in your Home Share collection (or whatever they call it).

With the Apple TV classic, you could only sync with one computer. If the family uses a shared account for music and video, everyone had to copy their stuff onto the same machine. With the new version (ATV2), my wife and daughter can have their own collections and access them from the Apple TV 2 as they wish. I really don't need a copy of Scooby Doo on my Mac Mini, but my daughter probably watches a movies 10 times before moving on to a new title.

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Answer 8

Alley_Cat

Level 7

20,548 points

Feb 15, 2011 12:47 AM in response to user1724

user1724 wrote:
I did the upgrade (and gave my 2 old TVs away) betting on what is coming. I can see apps that allow video chat from your TV (think iChat or FaceTime) since there is a USB port for a webcam, news apps, a browser, etc.

The USB is not for peripherals - in fact you cannot apparently connect a micro USB cable to it whilst HDMI is connected as there's no room - unless of course Apple produce a custom $30 connector !

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