Apple TVs £84 today

[Stunsworth]

I would be willing to pay several times the price for a version that worked better and perhaps offered the ability to play back high resolution recordings

I wonder if the lack of high resolution playback is due to the DAC in the ATV? These days its almost impossible to buy a DAC that doesn't support 24/96. Perhaps it will come in the next version? It can't be an issue with the wireless bandwidth as that already supports 1080p video, which places much higher demands on the connection.

Replay of multi channel audio would be nice too. Qobuz and others have started to offer 5.1 audio downloads, but there's no easy way of replaying them using the ATV - 5.1 film and TV soundtracks aren't a problem.

[Dave2002]

I wonder if the lack of high resolution playback is due to the DAC in the ATV? These days its almost impossible to buy a DAC that doesn't support 24/96. Perhaps it will come in the next version? It can't be an issue with the wireless bandwidth as that already supports 1080p video, which places much higher demands on the connection.

Replay of multi channel audio would be nice too. Qobuz and others have started to offer 5.1 audio downloads, but there's no easy way of replaying them using the ATV - 5.1 film and TV soundtracks aren't a problem.

I suppose if the wireless bandwidth isn't too severe a problem that multi-channel sound might work. That'd need perhaps 10 Mbps, and the output could be fed into a multi-channel AV system. That would be in addition to, or instead of, appropriately compressed HD video. Regular (including HD video) probably has the audio compressed anyway - so having high quality audio would require more design work, and suitable engineering to make it work. Personally I'm not too bothered whether Apple do it, or some other company, but there might be a gap in the market for such a device which would could enhance the use of mobile devices, and avoid the need to have physical connections. However it is probably already feasible to do this, at a cost, for example by using a Mac Mini on a network connected by an HDMI cable to an AV system. That computer could then be controlled by a mobile device, such as an iPad or a laptop.

[Stunsworth]

It's already easy to contol a Mac from an iPad. There is software that will show you the Mac screen on an iPad and allow you to interact with it.

I think I've mentioned elsewhere that I stream all my music via a Mac Mini to the hifi. I use a virtual keyboard on an iPad instead of a physical keyboard as it's more comfortable to use from the sofa.

[Dave2002]

It's already easy to control a Mac from an iPad. There is software that will show you the Mac screen on an iPad and allow you to interact with it.

Indeed, though sometimes that's very slow. I tried Wyse Pocket Cloud - which works - but slowly - http://www.pocketcloud.com/

Here are some other apps - http://www.maclife.com/article/featu...r_mac_workflow
I didn't know about the Parallels Mobile app.

One slight irritation with the Apple TV seems to be the lack of an on-off switch. This can be a pain if the HDMI output is fed through an HDMI switcher unit, as it might be difficult to get auto switching to work. Other issues appear to be hardware and/or software dependent. Airplay mirroring from a Macbook Pro running Mountain Lion works easily, but although screen sharing works with iTunes on a mid 2011 Macbook Air running Lion, Airplay does not seem to work. It is curious that Apple seem to be inconsistent with their software/hardware. I find it hard to believe that there's actually a hardware limitation in the Air machine, so perhaps Airplay functionality would appear if the OS is moved on to Mavericks.

OTOH, AirParrot does appear to do the job - http://www.airsquirrels.com/airparrot/

[Word]

One slight irritation with the Apple TV seems to be the lack of an on-off switch. This can be a pain if the HDMI output is fed through an HDMI switcher unit, as it might be difficult to get auto switching to work.

It doesn't have a physical switch but I would have thought that putting it on stand-by (by holding down the 'play' button for a few seconds whilst on the 'app' selection screen) would do the job; superficially at least it appears to power down the HDMI port.