[TheBum]

I've had the same Apple logo issue and it seems to be worse if I "turn off" the Apple TV (hold down the play button for 5 seconds) between sittings. One other annoyance is that the Apple TV will get in a state where the audio (optically connected to my stereo) drops out every few seconds, even when playing non-streamed content.

[NW_Mike]

Yes, you are correct that the universal remotes like Harmony can screw with your Apple TV. I noticed this behavior as well. Unfortunately even if you remove the Apple TV from your controllable devices it still picks up commands when you are using it with other devices. It is really hard to pin down.

[NW_Mike]

I switched to Verizon FiOS & Tivo over my aggravation with them and could not be happier.

[Michael33rs]

It's a shame that I can play music videos continuously on my iPod and iPhone, but NOT on my Apple TV! I've filled out at least three Apple TV Feedback forms to request this feature that I hold little hope that I ever see it.

[NW_Mike]

as intended. I have my Apple TV paired with the Apple remote and it STILL picks up my Harmony remote. It doesn't, however, pick up any other Apple TV remote. Oh goody...

[NW_Mike]

That make 5 then that Apple has received. WHY is it so hard to shuffle videos??? Come on, is it really beyond the programmers to pull this off?

[Michael33rs]

NW Mike, I really don't understand it either! It's very frustrating though, and like I said earlier, I hold out little hope of seeing it. I guess it's not an important enough feature.

[drdocument]

Thanks very much for the tip on pairing the Apple remote. I'll try that tonight.

I bit the bullet and skipped the AppleTV in favor of a Mac Mini connected to my TV with DVI-to-HDMI converter and audio mini-plug to optical digital for surround sound to audio system, with 1TB FireWire external drive for storage. And I use my MacBook Pro to control the Mini via Screen Sharing. It's AppleTV on steroids. But the Apple remote does activate the MBP as well.

The only drawback is that HD movies are only available from iTunes for ATV. But I'm hoping that will change soon.

[smax013]

woodworks said:

the way-too-minimalist remote (oh please, let iPhone 2.0 have remote capability!),

And what, pray tell, would you add to the remote other than going to the full other end of the specturm by doing some sort of touch screen remote that replicates what is on the screen and allows you to "touch" which item you want? It is not like putting a numeric key pad on the thing would do any good. About the only "middle" ground that could be useful that I could see is somehow doing some sort of a scroll wheel type control like on an iPod. Face it, there is not really a whole lot that needs to be done with the remote. Go up...go down...select an item...move back up a layer...play...pause. About the only thing that could be added would be more play back features (i.e. frame advance, scan forward/backward without having to hold the button on the remote, selectable speeds for forward and reverse...both faster and slower, maybe an actual power button, etc). But, while some of those items might be nice to have, none are rather essential. Yes, it is kind of a pain to have to repeatedly push up or down to navigate up or down the main menu, so having a Movie, TV, Music, YouTube, Pictures, and Settings button on the remote would be nice...but that menu is only 6 items long, so scrolling is not THAT painful.



I don't disagree that the remote is minimalist...but then I don't see much of a driving need for it to be more complex either.

[smax013]

Philmco said:

You know what's REALLY annoying?? (aside from the lame remote) You can't customize the order of the menu screen. It really ticks me off when I try to return to using the ATV as a music player, but I am forced to scroll through the movie rental screen and then the itunes rental screen to get to the "My Music" option. It wouldn't be so bad if it would remember where you were when last used, but when left on pause for long periods, it automatically resets so I'm forced to turn on the tv just to get back to my music collection. Update this preference please!

I cannot say that I have left it paused in an actual music selection to see what happens with it, but from my experience it DOES remember where it was in the menu structure. Everytime I power it off (i.e. hold the play button for about 5 seconds or so), it will wake up just where I left it in the menu structure...even if that is on a particular artist buried in My Music.

[smax013]

Saundhaus said:

I'm using the tubestick to record TV instead of eyeTV and it does a fair job, but I can't get all the cable stations or the EPG to work with digital cable.

And you won't get those digital cable stations...at least not using the tuner adapter as the actual tuner. Digital cable (and satellite) signals are scrambled/encrypted. As such, you need to have a cable box (or satellite box) to be able to receive them. Thus, just any old digital tuner will NOT work with them. There is only one tuner adapter card (for a desktop computer) that I am aware of that will work with digital cable (but not satellite) with the card being the tuner (it still requires a CableCard from your cable providor), but it is only available with new Windoze PeeCees from some manufacturers...it is not available as a third party card to be added to an existing Windoze computer...and I don't believe it is compatible with a Mac at all.



The only way to digital cable is to use the cable box and then connect the cable box to your tuner card so that your tuner card is just a "dumb" video input. This can typically be done using a coax cable and then setting the tuner for the tuner card to channel 3 or 4 ALL THE TIME (you then select the channel with the cable box)...OR using a pure video input type cable such as a composite RCA cable (the yellow video cable) or S-Viedo cable or one of the more advanced options such as HDMI or component cables...depending on what you have on the cable box and what your computer/tuner card/adapter can handle.

[gugy]

Apple needs to allow external drives to be connect to the USB port in order to increase storage. 160gig is nothing if you have a larger DVD library.
Once they do that I will buy an AppleTV. I want to hook up 1TB to it and have endless possibilities when comes to storage.

Come on Apple, lift some of these ridiculous barriers.

[trip1ex]

[quote name='smax013']

>

woodworks said:

the way-too-minimalist remote (oh please, let iPhone 2.0 have remote capability!),
And what, pray tell, would you add to the remote other than going to the full other end of the specturm by doing some sort of touch screen remote that replicates what is on the screen and allows you to "touch" which item you want?

I would add the capability to turn on your TV&Stereo and change the input.

A scroll wheel would help. A Tivo-like 30 second skip & 8 seconds backwards would be nice. Wii-like pointing/motion functionality would be sweet too. The Wii has some nice interfaces on its weather and news channels and it's winning kudos for not being that complex.

[drdocument]

There are a couple of adapters out there (less than $100) that take S-Video and input to Mac via USB, but they seem to be limited to 640x480. And there are more expensive (much more) devices that will import component video to Mac, still with limited pixel dimensions.

What we really need (and I'm sure it will become available eventually) is an adapter that takes an HDMI signal and allows us to import the video via USB or FW.

For the time being, if I want to keep something I burn a DVD with a component DVD Recorder, then put the DVD in the computer and rip it with HandBrake. It wastes a DVD but it works.