[zothen]

Apple A5 is the processor used in the iPhone 4S which is dual core CPU, dual core GPU (not that dual core GPU matters without knowing the performance of one of those cores which differs greatly in the SoC world). The A5 dual core GPU graphically still outperforms every part available today and is many times better than A4. Just search for some iPad vs iPad2 benchmarks. If ATV 3rd gen uses a single CPU core like all the reports say, it should use a different name like A5S, as just A5 doesn't make sense. Using only one CPU allows them to save licensing costs to ARM though if it's just masked off, it won't be any cheaper to produce.

Who knows about the rest of the specs outside of what they've announced so far like 1080p. Due to smaller and newer process technology it has the ability to run at faster speeds than the A4 and as it's been mentioned, a Cortex-A9 based processor has better performance than a Cortex-A8 processor. So hardware-wise I'd guess that it should outperform the A4 part (2nd gen Apple TV) in general processing by >35% even without multiple CPUs.

[GnarusLeo]

Apple A5 is the processor used in the iPhone 4S which is dual core CPU, dual core GPU (not that dual core GPU matters without knowing the performance of one of those cores which differs greatly in the SoC world). The A5 dual core GPU graphically still outperforms every part available today and is many times better than A4. Just search for some iPad vs iPad2 benchmarks. If ATV 3rd gen uses a single CPU core like all the reports say, it should use a different name like A5S, as just A5 doesn't make sense. Using only one CPU allows them to save licensing costs to ARM though if it's just masked off, it won't be any cheaper to produce.

Who knows about the rest of the specs outside of what they've announced so far like 1080p. Due to smaller and newer process technology it has the ability to run at faster speeds than the A4 and as it's been mentioned, a Cortex-A9 based processor has better performance than a Cortex-A8 processor. So hardware-wise I'd guess that it should outperform the A4 part (2nd gen Apple TV) in general processing by >35% even without multiple CPUs.

Actually, they are stating at their webpage that it is a single core A5 chip. http://www.apple.com/appletv/specs.html

[Tartifless]

Think you forgot the ATV9-S version first, so add another 6 months !

[dfiler]

You are still out of luck, ALL ATSC is mpeg2, not h264. So you have to transcode them anyway to h264. Since you have to transcode anyway, drop the fps.

Interesting...

I currently use EyeTV and EyeConnect to record and serve raw atsc on my iMac. This shows up as a UPnP streaming server in xbmc on an atv2. xbmc attempts to play the files and somewhat succeeds but needs to stop every 2 seconds to re-buffer. This makes it a completely worthless combination of technologies but is still an interesting factoid.

My understanding is that EyeConnect does not transcode at all so xbmc/atv2 must be playing raw 720p60 and 1080i atsc from an mpeg2 container. My hope was that it was merely a processing power problem and that an A5 based atv3 might succeed in playing these files.

Other video players have worked but struggled with the raw atsc streams. This includes the PS3 and LG BD670. They could play the files but had serious trouble fast forwarding or rewinding. My solution was to jump forward a few minutes in the time-code in order to skip commercials.

Is there something i'm missing? If not, it seems possible that the atv3 with xbmc will be able to play unmodified atsc. Either way, i've ordered an atv3 and am keeping my fingers crossed that the magical elves behind jailbreaking and xbmc will make it kick serious but.

[dfiler]

Apple A5 is the processor used in the iPhone 4S which is dual core CPU, dual core GPU (not that dual core GPU matters without knowing the performance of one of those cores which differs greatly in the SoC world). The A5 dual core GPU graphically still outperforms every part available today and is many times better than A4. Just search for some iPad vs iPad2 benchmarks. If ATV 3rd gen uses a single CPU core like all the reports say, it should use a different name like A5S, as just A5 doesn't make sense. Using only one CPU allows them to save licensing costs to ARM though if it's just masked off, it won't be any cheaper to produce.

Who knows about the rest of the specs outside of what they've announced so far like 1080p. Due to smaller and newer process technology it has the ability to run at faster speeds than the A4 and as it's been mentioned, a Cortex-A9 based processor has better performance than a Cortex-A8 processor. So hardware-wise I'd guess that it should outperform the A4 part (2nd gen Apple TV) in general processing by >35% even without multiple CPUs.

One possible explanation for the single core is that given the production volume of iPads, there are enough A5 chips with one reliable and one unreliable core that they can be used for a device that only really needs the performance of one core. This is a common practice in processor manufacturing. Each chip is tested and certified to run reliably at a certain speed with a certain number of cores enabled. These can then be sold at different price levels. In other words, apple might be getting these chips basically for free as scrap left over from iPad production.

I'm left wondering how the GPU will perform in comparison to the current atv2. Given the comparison between iPad1 and iPad2, and taking into account the core count, I wouldn't be surprised if the atv3 has 3 or 4 times the GPU power of the atv2. Can anyone offer more insight?

[TeOS]

Apple A5 is the processor used in the iPhone 4S which is dual core CPU, dual core GPU (not that dual core GPU matters without knowing the performance of one of those cores which differs greatly in the SoC world). The A5 dual core GPU graphically still outperforms every part available today and is many times better than A4. Just search for some iPad vs iPad2 benchmarks. If ATV 3rd gen uses a single CPU core like all the reports say, it should use a different name like A5S, as just A5 doesn't make sense. Using only one CPU allows them to save licensing costs to ARM though if it's just masked off, it won't be any cheaper to produce.

Who knows about the rest of the specs outside of what they've announced so far like 1080p. Due to smaller and newer process technology it has the ability to run at faster speeds than the A4 and as it's been mentioned, a Cortex-A9 based processor has better performance than a Cortex-A8 processor. So hardware-wise I'd guess that it should outperform the A4 part (2nd gen Apple TV) in general processing by >35% even without multiple CPUs.

This is typical manufacturing restriction. I am almost 100% certain that the produced silicon is the exact same as the original dual core A5 found on the iPad 2 and the iPhone 4S. The only thing they did was probably do disable the second core. Manufacturing another CPU with only one core is a lot more expensive than keeping the same silicon and just disabling the second core.

I am guessing that there will be some hacks to enable the second core, just like some AMD chips.

[TeOS]

...

I'm left wondering how the GPU will perform in comparison to the current atv2. Given the comparison between iPad1 and iPad2, and taking into account the core count, I wouldn't be surprised if the atv3 has 3 or 4 times the GPU power of the atv2. Can anyone offer more insight?

Here is Anandtech's review of the iPad 2, which has comparison of the GPU power between A4 (original iPad) and A5 (iPad 2) http://www.anandtech.com/show/4225/the-ipad-2-review/5

The A5 seems to have a lot of horsepower.

[dfiler]

Here is Anandtech's review of the iPad 2, which has comparison of the GPU power between A4 (original iPad) and A5 (iPad 2) http://www.anandtech.com/show/4225/the-ipad-2-review/5

The A5 seems to have a lot of horsepower.

The A5 is definitely impressive.

Keep in mind that the Anandtech review is based on a dual core A5 while the ATV3 only has a single core A5. Rarely though does doubling the core count translate into double performance. So my expectation is that we should see at least 60% of the A5 performance depicted in that review... hopefully more.

[vskatusa]

Davilla or anyone... Guess or predictions

ATV3
===
Will the A5 processor have enough juice to play mythtv OTA HD recordings?

IPAD3
====
Will the A5X quad core processor have enough juice to play mythtv OTA HD recordings?

[taltal13]

So the question is it worth waiting for the ATV3 or now buy the ATV2 at $69 as my first machine?

[PantsOnFire]

taltal, it depends on your needs. If its high-bitrate 720p, then you're fine.

But high-bitrate 1080p is known to struggle on the ATV2.

[Serenus]

Pardon the ignorance but I've never owned an atv and have had little experience with XBMC, that particular combo (atv + XBMC) would allow me to directly access a public shared drive on a NAS and play all my movies without requiring something DLNA compatible on the NAS end (such as: Serviio, Twonky, etc)?

I hope I made myself clear, thanks for your time.

[GnarusLeo]

Yes.

Please read through http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=XBM...ecific_FAQ as it will give you a clearer picture what it can do.

[taltal13]

taltal, it depends on your needs. If its high-bitrate 720p, then you're fine.

But high-bitrate 1080p is known to struggle on the ATV2.

Well at the moment I don't even have a 1080p TV but I plan on getting one. I think mostly I will use it for streaming video as opposed to local content, but I do like the occasional high def torrent

[frieten]

how is it that no one knows how much bloody ram is in this thing yet? stupid apple never releasing full specs.