Apple TV 4th Gen - no Mac support!

[GBO Possum]

I was on the point of springing for an upgrade from my 2nd gen ATV, when I called Apple to try to find out the best plan for preparing my home videos to support the search function.

That's when they told me that search only works on Netflix etc, and doesn't support searching of content on an Apple computer on my home network! Unbelievable!

The ATV 2 interface to my Mac is primitive at best, presenting just a list of sorted titles, which is OK when you have maybe 20. But I have hundreds, so I was looking forward to a big improvement.

Anyone done any gaming on this box? That just might get me more interested.

 

[Sprite]

While I understand your disappointment I've never had an issue searching for locally stored files.

I do wish it would use Siri to search local files. I'm guessing it will come later as it works on iPhones and iPads when searching music and the Atv4 doesn't even search music with Siri.

Gaming wise it works as expected. The graphics really look good on the big TV. The remote doesn't work well, so if you want to do medium to heavy gaming you'll need a dedicated pad.

I'm going to grab PLEX and try it out. I'm hoping they have worked out a nice search in that app.

 

[Lain]

I haven't tried Plex on Apple TV, but Plex is awesome on anything. But then again, chances are good that if you own a relatively modern console, it also has a Plex app for it... so I dunno about buying an ATV just for it. Miles better than just a sorted list though.

 

[GBO Possum]

Thank you so much, @Sprite and @Lain!

I was completely unaware of Plex. A quick read tells me that I can put the Plex app on my Roku, replace my iMac's iTunes app with Plex Server and I'm good to go. A little effort in file naming and I think I'm there.

If this works as it seems, I can get rid of my ATV2, freeing up an HDMI port. The UI on the Plex app for Roku surely must be better than the ATV2 interface.

I'm seeing cracks in the Apple ecosystem. This is one. Another is that I have a MacBook Pro of 2008 vintage which I have upgraded 4x over the years. A new MacBook Pro would give me no greater storage capacity, with no upgrade path. In addition, a new MBP can't grow beyond 16GBs and I already have 8. Storage and RAM are now soldered-in components! Crazy.

 

[Sprite]

No problem. I have a MBP Retina from 2013 and it is a pain about upgrades with the newer models.

Hopefully when I move I'll get a Mac Pro which is maxed out and that will act as my main computer plus server for media etc. I'll then just hook up some Atv's around the home and use PLEX to stream my content.

 

[GBO Possum]

No problem. I have a MBP Retina from 2013 and it is a pain about upgrades with the newer models.

Hopefully when I move I'll get a Mac Pro which is maxed out and that will act as my main computer plus server for media etc. I'll then just hook up some Atv's around the home and use PLEX to stream my content.

Here's my solution.

My iMac provides the server function, as well as being the workhorse for photography (Aperture), video, family tree, and usual general use. I decided against a Mac Pro because I don't need the extreme amount of CPU power offered, nor the high price.

So I bought the absolute top of the line iMac in 2011, just after its release, with minimum RAM (8 GB). Later, I upgraded it to 32 GBs, added a couple of large drives to the Thunderbolt ports, plus a bunch of drives to the FireWire and USB ports. I paid my $20 to upgrade OS X to the Server version.

With 32 GBs, it rarely stresses its RAM, and the CPU never gets to do anything much other than idle along. It has effectively 8 cores at 3.4 GHz. What will eventually cause its retirement is the RAM ceiling, 32 is the limit.