Kevin Bouah

Q: Apple TV

Can anyone explain the advantages of Apple TV, compared to our normal satellite TV (pay channel)which is currently running in South Africa.

Can one subscribe to a Movie Channel and watch as per norm...or does one have to download movies whenever one finds a suitable movie to watch?

We have Showmax ''attached' to the satellite system, which costs a nominal fee and downloads movies within 30 seconds....the problem we have is that with a relatively unstable internet connection speed, which should run at 8MB/s but only averages approx 4MB/s, the movies freeze!....which makes it really unenjoyable.

Please advise also if there are normal programs to watch on Apple TV.

AppleTV 2, Other OS, null

Posted on Jun 24, 2016 1:12 PM

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Q: Apple TV

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  • by daapple,

    daapple daapple Jun 24, 2016 1:12 PM in response to Kevin Bouah
    Level 1 (124 points)
    iPhone
    Jun 24, 2016 1:12 PM in response to Kevin Bouah

    Kevin Bouah wrote:

     

    Can anyone explain the advantages of Apple TV, compared to our normal satellite TV (pay channel)which is currently running in South Africa.

    Can one subscribe to a Movie Channel and watch as per norm...or does one have to download movies whenever one finds a suitable movie to watch?

    We have Showmax ''attached' to the satellite system, which costs a nominal fee and downloads movies within 30 seconds....the problem we have is that with a relatively unstable internet connection speed, which should run at 8MB/s but only averages approx 4MB/s, the movies freeze!....which makes it really unenjoyable.

    Please advise also if there are normal programs to watch on Apple TV.

    Apple TV Entertainment

  • by Phil0124,

    Phil0124 Phil0124 Jun 24, 2016 1:23 PM in response to Kevin Bouah
    Level 7 (26,733 points)
    iPhone
    Jun 24, 2016 1:23 PM in response to Kevin Bouah

    Apple TV is a streaming set top device. so if your internet cannot sustain at least 8MBps you will experience the same issues as with Showmax.i.e It does not really download anything it gets the video data form the server to play. If the internet connection is not fast enough to keep up with playback, you get pauses, and what is known as buffering. Which is a small pause while the Apple Tv downloads enough video data to resume playback.

     

    Apple TV does not really have channels in the sense you are used to with Satellite or cable TV.

     

    It's more Apps or content providers.

     

    Everything on an Apple TV is on demand, so no schedules and no times for watching. You can watch anything at any time.

     

    Services such as HBO, Netflix, etc.. offer monthly subscriptions so you can watch anything you want at any time with no limitations.


    iTunes on the other hand offers purchases and rentals of Movies and TV shows at any time, on a per item basis. i.e each item has a cost. If you buy it, you can then watch it as many times as you want.

     

    If you rent it, then you have 30 days to begin watching the rental before it expires, and 24 hours with which to finish watching it once you've started to.


    For tv shows the main difference, is they may not be available at the same time as they are on your satellite tv service as most content providers will simply offer an entire season of a show once it's been aired.