Apple TV as Music Streamer.

Cressy Snr · Post by **Cressy Snr** » Tue Sep 07, 2010 9:58 pm

I've pre-ordered one of the new Apple TVs to stream my music from iTunes.
It looks like a good deal.

Connected to my passive modded Beresford DAC, it should offer an easy to use, painless way to stream stuff to the system and to stream video and photos to the telly.

Why the change of streamer?
I'm having lots of "scan terminated unexpectedly" problems with the squeezebox server software. So are a lot of others, both PC and Mac users and frankly I'm getting sick and tired of it.

Never had any of this crap with the SlimServer software.
It's a shame really as I have had two flawless years with the SB3, and had planned to save up for a Transporter, but since the 7.5.* update in June, I have had more than enough problems.

http://www.apple.com/uk/appletv/

The Stratmangler · Post by **The Stratmangler** » Tue Sep 07, 2010 10:34 pm

The scan termination thing is usually down to issues between Squeezebox Server and AV software.
I have to turn my AV live monitoring off for the duration of a scan, and switch it back on when the scan is finished. It's a bit of a pain, but on a scan for new music it's a pretty short period of time anyway.

Cressy Snr · Post by **Cressy Snr** » Tue Sep 07, 2010 10:58 pm

Hmmm......

I have a program called "Little Snitch" that monitors outgoing traffic for apps trying to phone home. The network monitor can be turned off but still leave the program watching outbound traffic in the background.

I turned off the network monitor, tried a scan and it went without a hitch. First time in weeks I've not been tearing my hair out with it.

What with hard drive problems and scanners crashing, my SB experience has not been too good over the past couple of months.

Cheers Chris for the quick solution:D

I'm still trying the Apple TV out when it ships at the end of the month.
It'll be nice to compare the two approaches to server based music.
Wonder which will win out in the end.

The Stratmangler · Post by **The Stratmangler** » Tue Sep 07, 2010 11:12 pm

I'm pleased that the fix worked Steve.
The Apple TV will probably work fine, with the one usual caveat - I'll almost bet £ 1.00 that it won't support flac.

ed · Post by ed » Wed Sep 08, 2010 12:26 am

serious question here guys...........

what was the benefit that made you move from SB3?

I'm still quite happy with slim 6.2.2 and havn't had a glitch or need to upgrade in nearly 4 years.......I can't upgrade cos my little linkstation won't support any newer versions of the slim software...I did have to hoover out the little box though cos it had blocked up with dust.

I've heard some of the newer stuff and to my ears it doesn't sound any better than a bog standard SB3....maybe I need to upgrade my ears

Ray P · Post by **Ray P** » Wed Sep 08, 2010 7:30 am

I've been using a SB Duet for around 6mths now and have never had a problem with the scanner - it just works. I run the SB software on a Windows Home Server platform (Tranquil) and because that only accesses the internet for software updates I run it without the usual AV scanner.

I won't consider an Apple solution because their approach is to tie you into proprietary Apple solutions/formats and, more generally, their products are over-priced and not as good as the Apple marketing machine generated hysteria will have you believe.

Logitech's SB solution is also proprietary with respect to its server and control software but they do at least use open formats, such as FLAC, so adopting, say, a upnp solution will be simple.

Ray

Ray P · Post by **Ray P** » Wed Sep 08, 2010 7:34 am

Oh, forgot to say that I can control my SB Duet with my mobile phone too. I use SlimControl software; my phone runs windows mobile but other platforms may be supported.

http://sc.sciatec.de/index.html

In some ways I prefer SlimControl to the Duet Controller interface.

Ray

Cressy Snr · Post by **Cressy Snr** » Wed Sep 08, 2010 8:30 am

Ray P wrote: I won't consider an Apple solution because their approach is to tie you into proprietary Apple solutions/formats and, more generally, their products are over-priced and not as good as the Apple marketing machine generated hysteria will have you believe.

Ray

Oh dear!

This must be a record.

I was really......no..... really hoping... that just for once, this wouldn't happen.

Well that's that then I guess.

So.....

Cressy Snr · Post by **Cressy Snr** » Wed Sep 08, 2010 9:48 am

The Stratmangler wrote:I'm pleased that the fix worked Steve.
The Apple TV will probably work fine, with the one usual caveat - I'll almost bet £ 1.00 that it won't support flac.

Chris. You're right of course in that the iTunes universe currently does not support FLAC, however, as you will know. The Squeezebox server software
will convert ALAC to FLAC on the fly, when using iTunes as its music database.

Also I've bought Hi-rez downloads from the Linn website where they give comprehensive instructions as to how to use MAX 0.9.1 to convert Hi-Rez

FLAC files to ALAC so they will play via iTunes. It's a simple drag and drop your files process. I've never had any problems with that.

Apart from that the AppleTV supports

This little lot:

Video formats:

* H.264 video up to 720p, 30 frames per second,
Main Profile level 3.1 with AAC-LC audio up to 160Kbps per channel,
48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4 and .mov file formats

* MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5Mbps, 640x480 pixels, 30 frames per second,
Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160Kbps, 48kHz,
stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4 and .mov file formats

* Motion JPEG (M-JPEG) up to 35Mbps, 1280x720 pixels, 30 frames per second, audio in ulaw, PCM stereo audio in .avi file format

Audio formats supported:
* HE-AAC (V1), AAC (16 to 320Kbps),
legacy protected AAC (from iTunes Store),
MP3 (16 to 320Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3 and 4),
Apple Lossless, AIFF and WAV;
Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound pass-through

Photo formats

* JPEG, GIF, TIFF

Not bad really

Steve

Ray P · Post by **Ray P** » Wed Sep 08, 2010 10:47 am

SteveTheShadow wrote:
Ray P wrote: I won't consider an Apple solution because their approach is to tie you into proprietary Apple solutions/formats and, more generally, their products are over-priced and not as good as the Apple marketing machine generated hysteria will have you believe.

Ray
Oh dear!

This must be a record.

I was really......no..... really hoping... that just for once, this wouldn't happen.

Well that's that then I guess.

So.....

Sorry to disappoint you Steve.

Perhaps I should have added that I managed a network of Apple devices for a few years in a commercial environment so my 'prejudice' is based on real experience.

Anyway, hope you get things sorted....

Ray

Cressy Snr · Post by **Cressy Snr** » Wed Sep 08, 2010 11:01 am

Yes but what has that got to do with the topic?

Ray P · Post by **Ray P** » Wed Sep 08, 2010 11:11 am

SteveTheShadow wrote:Yes but what has that got to do with the topic?

I was simply stating a personal opinion, relevant to the product you mentioned, you are free to disregard it if you wish.

Now, if you want to introduce a rule that says everyone has to stay 'on-topic' whenever they post this place is going to get pretty dull pretty quickly......

Ray

pre65 · Post by **pre65** » Wed Sep 08, 2010 11:13 am

This should be Steve's new avatar.

Cressy Snr · Post by **Cressy Snr** » Wed Sep 08, 2010 11:23 am

pre65 wrote:This should be Steve's new avatar.

OK Phil

I give up!

Great suggestion!

Seeing as I once worked for them, colours are now firmly to the mast,
then we all know where we stand.

Dave the bass · Post by **Dave the bass** » Wed Sep 08, 2010 11:52 am

SteveTheShadow wrote:
pre65 wrote:This should be Steve's new avatar.

Great suggestion!

Seeing as I once worked for them,

You worked at a Tomato factory? Gettaway widja!

DTB

audio-talk

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