[atv2] ATV2: worth it? how's the 1080p?

Hi, so I'm currently using a macbook (first gen) and for some reason things are skipping badly.. when they used not to.

It's not a big deal, the thing is on it's way out, but I do want to keep XMBC and I'd rather not buy a new PC.

I see a lot of post about the ATV2 and how it stutters at 1080p. I can almost live with that, but I would expect 720p to be pristine - is that the case?

Also, why are some people buying ATV1 when they could just buy the ATV2?

I have two atv2's and i love them. Sure they are not as fast as my htpc but the size and power output they are well worth it.

As for playback, i have no trouble with any 720p content, only some 1080p movies. Thats from 660 movies and 60 odd tv shows.

however..

I just switched from samba to nfs shares today and now i can playback my avatar rip which is 27gb 1080p. I havent been able to fully test this yet but any 1080p movie i had problems playing before now works great

The only thing the atv2 cant do is switch refresh rates to match the framerate. This causes stutter most people dont notice but it drives some people crazy. I guess if ur coming from a mac you will be used to it.

For the price and ease of setup the atv2 rocks.

cheers

EDIT: people buy the ATV1 cause you can run linux on it and because it has component output. You need to buy a crystal hd card to playback hd content though.

ATV1 has USB host, 1080 output, can work as a DVD player if you hook a drive up to USB, can handle IDE hard drives, and has more power for the GUI. Used ATV1s are as cheap as $50. You can even run a lot of mac OS X software on it (eyeTV and you have Live tv and DVR functions).

ATV2 has Netflix and future IOS ports/development, super awesome small, even lower power use, native airplay (ATV1 has some hacked airplay stuff, but can be buggy), currently has more developer focus.

harryzimm Wrote:As for playback, i have no trouble with any 720p content, only some 1080p movies. Thats from 660 movies and 60 odd tv shows.

however..

I just switched from samba to nfs shares today and now i can playback my avatar rip which is 27gb 1080p. I havent been able to fully test this yet but any 1080p movie i had problems playing before now works great

HOW?! I've got an AppleTV2 streaming from NFS shares and it stutters on over 50% of my 720p content. 1080p would be absolutely out of the question. The computer and AppleTV2 are both plugged in via CAT6... so it's not a network issue. How the hell are you making XBMC actually work like that when I can't even come close?

EDIT: Disregard this comment as I was able to figure out my issues... works pretty great now!

stingray88 Wrote:HOW?! I've got an AppleTV2 streaming from NFS shares and it stutters on over 50% of my 720p content. 1080p would be absolutely out of the question. The computer and AppleTV2 are both plugged in via CAT6... so it's not a network issue. How the hell are you making XBMC actually work like that when I can't even come close?

In short OP... I'm extremely disappointed in my ATV2. 1080p content? Hell no.

You have a network problem, plain and simple. Does not matter if you are using CAT5 or CAT6. I see this time and time again. user complains about stuttering... then finds their server/router/<insert net device> was causing problems.

davilla Wrote:You have a network problem, plain and simple. Does not matter if you are using CAT5 or CAT6. I see this time and time again. user complains about stuttering... then finds their server/router/<insert net device> was causing problems.

So I really thought you were wrong. But I just played a 90 second clip locally on the ATV2 and it worked fine... Can anyone help me figure out what my issue might be then?

EDIT: Ahhh I wasn't wrong! I went and put that very same clip on my network space and it plays fine! So it isn't a network issue that is happening, it is indeed a problem with XBMC trying to play large files.

EDIT2: Holy crap... I fixed it in the most insanely trivial way. If I simply pause the video for 1 second after loading it, then hit play again, the video loads perfectly fine.

stingray88 Wrote:So I really thought you were wrong. But I just played a 90 second clip locally on the ATV2 and it worked fine... Can anyone help me figure out what my issue might be then?

EDIT: Ahhh I wasn't wrong! I went and put that very same clip on my network space and it plays fine! So it isn't a network issue that is happening, it is indeed a problem with XBMC trying to play large files.

EDIT2: Holy crap... I fixed it in the most insanely trivial way. If I simply pause the video for 1 second after loading it, then hit play again, the video loads perfectly fine.

Sounds like a network problem to me. Your solution is merely allowing the ATV2 to buffer on what sounds like a flaky network.

shamxbmc5 Wrote:Hi, so I'm currently using a macbook (first gen) and for some reason things are skipping badly.. when they used not to.

It's not a big deal, the thing is on it's way out, but I do want to keep XBMC and I'd rather not buy a new PC.

I see a lot of post about the ATV2 and how it stutters at 1080p. I can almost live with that, but I would expect 720p to be pristine - is that the case?

Also, why are some people buying ATV1 when they could just buy the ATV2?

For the money you cant go wrong, it has a native xbmc running and I play 1080p just fine. It has issues(not with 1080p, in general I mean) but development is underway, I love icefilms and xbmc, I would recommend for anyone.

Must agree with harryzimm, i also got two ATV2 and they play 1080p movies flawlessly (Yes, sometimes there are problems )

ProphetVX Wrote:Sounds like a network problem to me. Your solution is merely allowing the ATV2 to buffer on what sounds like a flaky network.

Nah, that isn't the case. I realized the first time I made a clip, I had changed it slightly. So I made another real 90 second clip of one of my problematic files and put it on the ATV2, still messes up until I hit pause and play. So the network has nothing to do with it. (And honestly how could it... it's a brand new Airport Extreme with Cat6 plugged into the computer source and ATV2...)

It has to be a bug in XBMC. However it's so easy to get around... doesn't bother me.