Streaming Amazon Prime

No.

I am an Amazon Prime member, and they now offer free streaming of movies like Netflix. Can Apple TV access Amazon Prime movies?

Not at present. It would take a software upgrade from Apple to add services like Amazon or Hulu, but there is nothing to indicate that such an upgrade is in the works.

I was kind of excited about this until I looked at the movies they were offering. Hmm. Not a lot like Netflix, actually. Lots of duds and ho-hummers.

However, a software grade to ATV2 is critical. MAIL, Facebook, Weather, Shopping -- c'mon Apple -- it's a no brainer.

Jerome Del Ray wrote:
MAIL

no thanks, it's media player not a device for checking mail

Facebook

no thanks, it's a media player, not a device for checking facebook

Weather

no thanks, it's a media player, not a device..... you see the trend here yet ?

Shopping

see above

-- c'mon Apple -- it's a no brainer.

it's a no brainer to keep it as a dedicated media player.

Mr. Jobs stated publicly that there may be room for an app (like) feature on the Apple TV.

Personally I'd have no interest in mail and facebook on the TV, I don't want people hoging the tv for personal drivel, but checking the weather might be useful.

You'll just have to wait and see.

Netflix v iTunes; they are different, iTunes is more up to date, netflix has loads of older stuff, you have them both, they compliment each other, not sure you can ask for more.

Winston Churchill wrote:
but checking the weather might be useful.

i often find simply looking out of the window is 100% more accurate than relying on the various weather apps (most of them being totally inaccurate).

I've found the met office app quite reliable.

Unfortunately when you are considering ordering 150 tonnes of concrete for the next day for a warehouse floor and you don't want rain (or even more importantly, frost) to spoil it, I like to do a little more than just look out of the window. Over the years though I've got pretty darn good with just looking out the window, but I still like a second opinion.

Yep I have my mac, my iPhone etc etc, so it's not imperative it's on the tv too, but just saying' it could be useful.

🙂

Yet another thread turned into a personal chat room I see.

Glad you could join us 😉

capaho wrote:
Yet another thread turned into a personal chat room I see.

The "chat" as you call it was entirely ON-TOPIC.
However if you feel it is not appropriate to the thread then feel free to use the "report" button and let the hosts decide.

There's a name for people like you, but i won't use it here as it would be inappropriate. Feel free to email me though (as i don't hide behind an anonymous profile like you do) and i'll happily tell you what the name is.

Jerome. what you and Winston are looking for is called a "Mac Mini". Apple TVs are designed to be media platforms as emphasized by Apple removing it from the Mac OS and form factor.

If you want a media center AND computer in one form, then the Mac Mini is what Apple has developed for that niche.

If you want a media center AND computer in one form, then the Mac Mini is what Apple has developed for that niche.

And it works quite well in that role. I replaced my ATV1 with a Mac mini last year and I love it. I'm surprised Apple doesn't promote it more aggressively for that purpose.

romad wrote:
Jerome. what you and Winston are looking for is called a "Mac Mini".

Not exactly, the Apple tv 2 is just fine, I would just like it to have my iTunes library (that's the library database-not the content) permanently loaded as it was with Apple TV 1 and to observe the nested folders in TV shows and movies that the Apple TV 1 was capable of when listing content.

I don't want to have the expense of 5 mac mini's to replace my Apple tv's, nor do I want my iTunes content under my TV, it would be extremely ugly.

Think of it this way:

The ATV2 is just an interface device to get the media stored on a remote server (NetFlix, iMac, Mac Mini, etc.) connected to your A/V system. It is for those who do NOT want to use their A/V system as a computer's monitor and speakers.

For those who DO want to view the content of their computer's hard drive (and interface with it) there is the Mac Mini. The ATV1 duplicated the Mac Mini somewhat in this respect. Apple had to decide if they wanted their "hobby" product to duplicate (and possible replace) one of their mainstream products. They decided to strip the ATV down to its "essentials", thus lowering the price and physical footprint.

However, who knows what a future ATV will have with iOS and Mac OS on a converging path, SSD prices dropping, etc? You may get your wish, but people need to decide which current offerings fit best now.

You clearly misunderstand me. I don't want a mac mini because they are too expensive to have five of, front row is not intuitive and I don't want my library under my tvs, I want it on my mac pro.

The Apple tv does what I want quite well, but not as well as the first generation model. When I start to use my first gen model the library is already loaded, it takes me around 15 seconds to locate what I want and start to watch it, it takes around a minute to do the same on the second gen model.

The reason it takes longer is because when I start to use it, I have to go to computers/my library and let the library load. I have a large library and this can take 30 to 40 seconds. Then when the library has loaded I have to locate the movie I want and this takes much longer on the newer Aplle tv, because all of my almost 2,000 movies are in one long list. On my older Apple tv they are in folders, ie all my James Bond movies are in a James Bond Folder, all my Bob Hope movies are in a Bob Hope folder and all my Family vacation movies are in a Family Vacation folder. In these there examples alone that's 3 listings under movies on the first Apple tv but almost two hundred listings on the second Apple tv, not only that but the movies aren't even together either.