8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
I like the trouble shooting and sync vs stream info, January 28, 2010
This review is from: Apple TV Pocket Guide, The (2nd Edition) (Paperback)
This book was a worthwhile purchase. I downloaded it onto my kindle, love that instant gratification. I was having trouble with my Apple TV and the book was able to shed some light on it for me. The book has a lot of description about how to hook it up, then the simple stuff like setting up a screen saver, and using the iTunes store.
One of the things I was struggling with was syncing and streaming which he helped clarify. Syncing is when you copy information such as music, movies and photos from your computer to the Apple TV box. Streaming is when you set your Apple TV to look at your computer for content. Syncing can take a long time the first time, but then the files are there whether the computer is turned on or not. But because the Apple TV probably has less storage than the average computer, your whole library may not fit on the Apple TV. If that is the case, you can set it to stream. A computer can only stream or sync, it cannot do both.
I ended up setting my desktop to stream because I can leave it on all the time. Warning, in Apple's settings, make sure under energy saving you have it set to never go to sleep. If it goes to sleep, you won't be able to stream. I then set my laptop up to sync, and I just synced my favorite things like photos, some tunes, and a few of my children's favorite shows.
He explains where to get software (handbrake) to rip your DVD's to your iTunes account so you can watch it on Apple TV. He also provides guidance on how to rip your home movies so they can go into iTunes. This requires you spend a little bit of money on software ($23-$30 at the time of writing).
He has a trouble shooting section that I found helpful. He explains how to restart the unit by holding down the Menu and Menu down/scroll (-) buttons for several seconds to put the Apple TV into recovery mode. After a minute you choose your language, then TV resolution and the Apple TV recovery screen comes on where you can restart, run diagnostics, or factory restore. Restart is safe, it just reboots the machine, if you choose diagnostics, and get an error message, you need to contact your Mac dealer. Restore factory settings wipes everything and put the machine back to the state it was in when you took it out of the box.
The only thing I didn't like about the book was that the screen shots were of a previous version of Apple TV. But other than that I found this book to be a good investment of my time (I blew through it in about 2 hours) and money.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good Reference Manual, May 5, 2009
Got this as a Kindle download to my iPhone. Nothing in here that isn't available on line at Apple help, but it's more organized and easier to read. A good reference and once you read through this book, you'll be an Apple TV expert.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
INFORMATIVE, June 29, 2008
This review is from: Apple TV Pocket Guide, The (2nd Edition) (Paperback)
Since there are very little instructions with the Apple TV this Pocket guide was very informational. It not only helped explain set-up possibilities, but also explained the difference between streaming and syncing. This guide gives one the ability to use their Apple TV to the fullest.
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