I’ve been watching movies through NetFlix on my kids’ Wii for a year. The problem is the Wii is not HD and defeats the purpose of having a 52in HD TV. So, I finally got Apple TV.
The setup of Apple TV itself is very easy. To take full advantage though, you need to share all of your media from your desktop. And that’s the awkward part. First, you need to turn on Home Sharing which requires and iTunes store account. Then, if you want to share music in your iTunes library, going to iTunes > Preferences > Sharing and configuring your options makes sense. But what if you want to share your photos and videos from iPhoto? Go to the sharing preferences in iPhoto? No, it’s done in iTunes but, not in the sharing preferences where iTunes music is shared. To share iPhoto content, you have to go to iTunes > Advanced > Choose Photos to Share.
Having to share everything through iTunes is not a dead end, but defintely a wrong turn. That being said, if you undernstand Apple’s product history it’s easy to see why this is. Apple’s foray into media began with syncing music to iPods with iTunes, which was available to Mac and PC users. iTunes contained all of the purchasing, DRM, computer (up to 5) authorization functionality. Then, iPods started holding pictures (remember, it wasn’t always that way) and this was done through iTunes sync since iPhoto was not available to PC users. And…that’s the direction it’s gone ever since. Apple really needs to reconfigure the media sharing ecosystem around a central sharing app, like iShare or iSync (remember iSync?). But I digress.
Now, my media including all of my music, photos and videos can be streamed to my TV, and through my surround sound, with a Apple’s technology called AirPlay. This solved another problem: I wanted to get my music in the living room anyway! All of it can be controlled by visually browsing on my iPhone or iPad using the Remote or iTunes app, depending if you want local device play or streaming play. And because it’s WiFi, it can be done from anywhere in the house. I can also send anything I’m playing on my iPhone/iPad directly to Apple TV if I want to share. But just wait! It’s going to get even better with the release of iOS5 with AirPlay Mirroring. AirPlay Mirroring will allow you to stream your entire iPad “desktop” screen to Apple TV!
Now I just need to get my hands on some iW1 Airplay speakers!
