Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion HiFi & HT Chat New Apple TV for $99

I assume it will still downres any 96/24 material to 44/16 for output. Unclear to me whether multichannel music files will be passed as 2 channel down mix. I don't have any hires files so I don't know whether it did pass as 5.1 channel before. Says it supports multiple channel but how and in what codecs? Applelossless multichannel supported? How hardwired could you get from a Macpro tower to the new or old appletv with multichannel music files? Is there a Converter device which could bypass Apple Tv and go to a HD621 from a tower or other Mac with hires files from iTunes through Amarra or Pure Audio? It is unclear to me what the options and limitations are to get hires files thru a HD621 from the various devices to take advantage of apodizing on 44/16 files when those are presented.

While there may be dissent on the lack of storage on the new AppleTV, the latest version of PLEX is available as a Mac and iOS4 download.

This means that anyone with a NAS can take advantage of their stored movie and audio library via PLEX and the new AppleTV.

Now I'm interested...

well, obviously we won't know until one gets in someone's hands but going off what the current one is like, but the current one doesn't support 24/96 or multichannel ALAC. It will stream out Dolby Digital I think but that's the only multichannel option.



I thought that one of the long tenets of plex was that they weren't going to make a version for the appletv? Also, with no local storage where would you install it?

a new mac mini running the new version of plex would work well though.

dave

My Mac Mini picks up iTunes and iPhoto from network folders stored on my QNAP NAS.

I can't figure if the diskless Apple iTV will do the same or whether it needs a Mac/iPhone/iTouch in order to feed it something to stream.

Any thoughts?

Can you elaborate on what Plex offers in this scenario??

My interpretation is you can play your, let's call it, non iTunes Movie Collection?? I know that the new Apple TV can see all other computers on the home network, but I'm not sure it will be able to see any non iTunes libraries??

While the new Apple tv is likely to be i OS 4 in the future, it isn't at the moment

For the moment, you can use the Apple TV to PULL any iTunes content from the home network. This includes Music, Movies & TV Shows.

Using the new Airplay, you can also PUSH content from any OSX device

Unsure what Plex offers over and above that, Unless you mean PUSHING non itunes content from a Mac with access to a Plex library??

A new Apple TV will also be able to see your NAS library (likely as long as the Mac is left on)

I've just downloaded PLEX 9 and on the surface, it looks very nice. I haven't had a lot of time with it yet, but for me, the original and new Apple TV, just doesn't cut it - audio or video. I agree with a comment made earlier, the new Apple TV is an airport express with a gui.

I doubt M will ever release a video option for Sooloos, so PLEX looks like the solution for me.

You can check out PLEX 9 at: http://www.plexapp.com

PLEX for iOS needs a PLEX server running elsewhere on your network. So it looks to me as if the new Apple TV will need a MAC on elsewhere running PLEX unless your NAS can be made to run this.

Can you use the original AppleTV to act as a server and run lots of the new AppleTV's off of that???

I might just use the current AppleTV to run OSX Server.

The Apple TV uses a Pentium M processor, which is ancient in the modern world.

I also seem to remember that it only carries a minimum amount RAM

No chance this has the necessary horsepower to run OSX and definitely not the OSX Server Edition

A Mac Mini will do what you're looking for, but I'm sure you already knew that

As mentioned above, a Central Mac Mini (and its iTunes Library on a local HD or NAS) can be used by distributed Apple TV's to PULL the Movies and Music to the connected TV Display

You can also PUSH the Media from the Central MacMini to distributed Apple TV's. This would involve Starting the Movie and then using Airplay to PUSH that Movie to a particular Apple TV. In this way, you could use the Plex MC as a Store / Library for non-iTunes Media Streaming

It's possible that this PUSH could be initiated by a the combination of the new Plex iOS4 App and the Apple Remote App on an iTouch or iPad, whilst sat in front of the Remote Apple TV. But this remains to be seen

I do not think that will work, but it is possible to install OS-X 10.4 on the original AppleTV. I bookmarked some links on another computer which I could dig up if necessary.