Apple TV Questions...

September 27, 2007 10:09 AM

I'm thinking about the Apple TV - but have some unresolved questions. Information on the web about these issues is often conflicting - looking for answers from someone who has the device and knows how it works.

1. I have one source computer. I want to synch video and photo content, but stream music. Will the iTunes library on my iMac update play counts for music that is streamed to the Apple TV?

2. I've read conflicting reports about album artwork and streaming music. Some say the artwork is left behind, others say it shows up. Which is true?

3. Within iTunes I have a playlist of my favourite radio station streams. I can access this in frontrow, even though frontrow doesn't have internet radio functionality. Will this playlist work on the Apple TV?

posted by steinwald to computers & internet (5 comments total)

I am not 100% sure but I believe

1. Yes it should
2. It should show up
3. Don't know about this one...

depending on the luck you have finding the answer here you can check out

http://discussions.apple.com

I have had great luck getting things answered there.
posted by UMDirector at 10:25 AM on September 27, 2007

thanks UMDirector - I'll post these questions on the Apple forums...
posted by steinwald at 10:41 AM on September 27, 2007

I would say yes to 1 and 2, not sure of the 3rd, but I don't see why it wouldn't work.
posted by mathowie at 11:12 AM on September 27, 2007

What format are your video files in?

Be aware that if they're in DivX or XviD (and most files that end in .avi are one of these), you will need to transcode them to get them to play on your Apple TV.
posted by toxic at 2:11 PM on September 27, 2007

For 2: Depends on how/where the album artwork is stored. If it's stored in the tags of the .mp3/.aac file then, yes, it'll display when playing a stream.

Unfortunately, starting with iTunes 7, Apple changed things a bit and now artwork downloaded from the store is kept in a separate database (presumably to allow for high res images). This won't be displayed when streamed to a client.

This also seems to be the root of many of the complaints and problems surrounding album art and CoverFlow on the new iPods - because the audio file isn't changed it doesn't get updated on the iPod when syncing, and getting it there by deleting / adding the file on the iPod loads huge images which slow the iPod down when CoverFlow is turned on.
posted by Pinback at 5:24 PM on September 27, 2007