iPad

[beats me]

P.S. i now own an Apple TV

Sweet. What are you using it for? Your own library? iTunes movie rentals? Netflix? HBO Go? Some other shit and/or all of the above?

The UI needs a serious visual overhaul. I wouldn’t say iOS 7 skinny text on stark white background, but it’s seriously looking dated. Another thing I remembered last night that has been annoying me is TV show organization. All the shows should be put in their own sub window regardless of season. The way it is now South Park season 1, South Park season 2, South Park season 3, etc. are all on the main TV show page. They should just have South Park and inside that section is the season and episode break down, not making it look like each season is its own show.

[H20nly]

regarding shows like South Park... that's how you would buy them on DVD, in Season volumes. so my guess is that is how they are treating it/those. not that i don't agree with your logic, but i can see the flipside logic too.

what i really hate though (1st thing on the shit list)... is that the Apple TV doesn't track the progress of what you have watched (at least in Netflix) like it does on every other version of Netflix i've ever used (Wii, Xbox, LG Blu-Ray, Samsung TV, Sharp TV, web browser, his house, her house, everywhere but Apple TV). so, i watched 2 episodes of Breaking Bad season 5 last night... i'd love to tell you where i am in the series, but i can't because i didn't memorize the obscure show titles. tonight i will fumble around and watch portions of episodes to determine where i left off. think different... ffs

i'm mostly using the Apple TV because it consolidates all the apps that i had spread out. for example Hulu and Crackle had to be watched on my Xbox, Youtube was only available on my Blu-Ray player, while Vudu is only in the apps built into my TV. having them in one place is just easier.

i could have easily gone Roku on this... and don't think for a second that Amazon movies alone is not a tempting reason to do so, but my buddy had an "extra" Apple TV still in the factory sealed box that he let me have for 80 bucks... no tax, no gas, no shipping... and he supplied the beer that led into the conversation. so yes, beer goggles. meh.

i like it except for the progress tracking thing.
the HD movie rentals seem cheap enough and they're easy to get to. bonus.
i love that it grabs the music off my iMac
i hate that the screen saver has to be a fuckin photo extravaganza
i love that it let me program my TV remote to work with it too (helps the girlfriend)
i like the fact that the other channels are there... sports scores are cool... but are they subscription based or not???

i still have lots of questions.

[beats me]

Yeah, Netflix not remembering which episode you are on in a series is horrid. I’ve only used it on my Apple TV so I’m appalled to learn that it isn’t that way on all hardware.

I still get DVDs from Netflix but mostly just for new releases. I’ll see a mention or a trailer for a movie months before it’s in theaters and it’s usually already in Netflix for when it is released, sometimes many months before it hits theaters.

I sometimes rent movies directly because of this new money grab:

1. New movie digital release only available for purchase
2. A few weeks to a month later it’s available for paid rental
3. A few weeks to a month after that it’s available on Netflix DVD
4. Once everybody has already seen a highly rated movie a half dozen times and no longer gives a shit it might be available on Netflix streaming *

* If it’s a widely praised classic from even 20 years ago it won’t be on Netflix streaming EVER.

[H20nly]

Netflix pays for itself 100 fold with the content they do have. some movies come for a time and then go. regardless, i won't fault them for not having the entire galactic movie library for 7.99 a month.

but yeah... it's only on Apple TV that you can't keep track of your movies/shows on Netflix progress.

what about other apps? do they keep track or progress? Hulu??

also, out of curiosity, what other apps do you use on the Apple TV?

[beats me]

Netflix pays for itself 100 fold with the content they do have. some movies come for a time and then go. regardless, i won't fault them for not having the entire galactic movie library for 7.99 a month.

but yeah... it's only on Apple TV that you can't keep track of your movies/shows on Netflix progress.

what about other apps? do they keep track or progress? Hulu??

also, out of curiosity, what other apps do you use on the Apple TV?

I don't use Hulu. Other than my own library and Netflix I also use the HBO Go and Smithsonian (documentaries) app. The iTunes Music Festival app is pretty good if you can find any artists you like. The festival takes place over all 30 days of September and as far as I know you’ll be able to stream all the artists’ shows from the previous year until the next festival. They have less commercial artists, but I’m not ashamed to admit my faves from this past year were Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, and Justin Timberlake. THAT’S RIGHT. If nothing else you can check out the spectacle and hype under your private roof without being judged.

[H20nly]

Justin is a talented motherfucker... just sayin



i want to explore some of the other apps, but i don't know which ones you end up painstakingly setting up one letter at a 6x6 grid time only to finally get to a credit card entry screen. so, i know with HBO you have to have cable (with HBO), which i do not have. what about Smithsonian? that's something i can see myself getting into. is there a catch/fee with their content?

[beats me]

The Justin show is ACE. Bring a burger.

Smithsonian is free with no setup.

I don’t know about other apps that you may have to pay for. From what I’ve seen, and I’m sure you did with Netflix, you don’t have to “type” in a bunch of shit with the Apple remote. You just start the app, it gives you a code, you enter that code into an activation web page on your computer, and it authorizes the Apple TV app. All the long form subscription info would happen on a web site on your computer first.

If/when HBO decides to let people subscribe to HBO Go directly without getting it as part of a cable package it will be the beginning of the end for the old world order cable providers. And the beginning of those cable providers forcing you into years long contracts to provide you internet.

[H20nly]

Smithsonian is free with no setup.

If/when HBO decides to let people subscribe to HBO Go directly without getting it as part of a cable package it will be the beginning of the end for the old world order cable providers. And the beginning of those cable providers forcing you into years long contracts to provide you internet.

i've been looking forward to that day for many years...


ironically, i get Comcast installed tomorrow.
not cable. just internet and phone.
AT&T is fired.

[beats me]

About a year ago I verbally signed a 2 year contract with Comcast because it was the only way I could get them to lower my rate and lock it in for 2 years instead of them just arbitrarily raising it every 6 months. The early termination fee is like $150 and decreases by $10 each month of the contract. The fact that they even offer contracts like that now shows they know the writing is on the wall. People are perfectly willing to give big cable the finger now.

[H20nly]

i've had AT&T DSL since 2006. i used to pay about $43 for that... my last bill was $70

me: um why has my bill gone up?
rep: the promotional period has expired.
me: there was a 7 year promotional period?

ffs!


the good news is that after 2 years i won't be saving any money with Comcast but my speed is going from 6.0 Mbps to 25 Mbps.

[beats me]

Speaking of the internet, I read a recent report that concluded the US is really getting screwed by providers. Compared to the rest of the developed world we are paying 2 to 4 times more for half the bandwidth or worse. I realize this is a bad example to say this, but THIS U.S. CAPITALIST EVERYTHING FOR THE MOST PROFIT SHIT NEEDS TO STOP!!!!

Also speaking of the internet, mobile device optimized porn sites still make me giggle. I check out porn on a laptop like a gentleman.

[H20nly]

^ i dunno, maybe some of our international comrades can confirm this, but i believe in a lot of other countries that the plans are more like cellular data plans where they have a cap/limit to how much they can download each month, like 1 GB or 3 GB etc.

it could be worse than that and be 1 Gb or 3 Gb...etc. as in bits not bytes. which is essentially 7/8 less data.

internet speed is typically measured in bits. there's 8 bits in a byte.
*this is why when your .jpeg is 12 MB (12 Megabytes) while your download speed is 12 Mbps (12 Mega bits per second) it doesn't take 1 second to download the image... it's more like 10

[Angstrom]

UK here, on my ISP plan there's generally no speed or data usage cap. But there is a peak-time traffic management which kicks in between 5pm and 10pm, if I go over a 4Gb limit during that time my downloads are slowed by 25% for a few hours as the network assumes I am a bandwidth hog. The slowdown is lifted after those hours pass.

That's roughly how it works anyway

My speeds are 30Mb/s, for about £20 a month

[beats me]

Hm, so maybe that report is a little slanted with a general “places outside the US have it better than us!” agenda.

I'll leave it at that. Plenty of other political threads on the forum to go deeper into that.

iPad!

Retina!

[H20nly]

UK here, on my ISP plan there's generally no speed or data usage cap. But there is a peak-time traffic management which kicks in between 5pm and 10pm, if I go over a 4Gb limit during that time my downloads are slowed by 25% for a few hours as the network assumes I am a bandwidth hog. The slowdown is lifted after those hours pass.

That's roughly how it works anyway

My speeds are 30Mb/s, for about £20 a month

That's not a bad deal... not at all. I'd sign up for that plan at that rate real fast.