YouTube goes live on AppleTV - How To
YouTube is now live and rolling on AppleTV, here's how to get it.
-Fire up your AppleTV. It is on a network that is internet connected, right?
-go to Settings
-go to Update Software
-it'll check for update, and if you're successfully connecting to the internet, it will say:
"Apple TV Update
An update is available for your Apple TV. Do you want to download it now?
A message will appear when the update is ready for installation."
There are then choices for Download Now or Udpate Later.
Select Download Now, it takes you back to the Settings screen and where it said "Update Software" before it now says "Downloading update..." with a little twirly thing to let you know it is working on it.
The download took about 4 minutes for me at 3PM CST, probably servers are busy today.
You CAN navigate away and do other things while it is downloading.
Once it is done downloading, it takes you back to a screen that says:
"Apple TV Update
The Apple TV update has finished downloading. Do you want to install it now?
Your Apple TV will restart and begin installing the update. Do not unplug your Apple TV while it is updating.
Clicked Update Now at 3:06:00, it took 3 1/2 minutes to be back up and running normally.
The Apple logo appeared and dissapeared 4 times, the fifth time the logo had a progress bar underneath.
Progress bar goes away, logo again, black screen, logo again, blink, logo again, blink, logo again, logo fades out, logo back, black screen, then the intro animation. So up and rolling at 3:09:30 roughly.
Then there's a new item after Movies and TV Shows - YouTube.
Select that, and you get Featured, Most Viewed, Most Recent, Top Rated, History, Search, Log In.
Selecting Featured, you can then see a scrolling list on the right with sample frame and descriptions on the left.
Videos start playing after a few seconds.
16:9 videos do play full screen appropriately, but of course the compression artifacts are pretty atrocious.
Even videos that are several minutes long start playing within seconds.
Search is there, but you have to navigate the alphabet with the 4 direction remote - a pain.
OK, gotsta get back to work, more some other time.
But as expected - it is YouTube quality - heavily compressed, and only as good as the source material, which is often OF questionable quality.
I also noted huge variances in audio levels, but again that is a source content issue, not an Apple or YouTube issue.
-mike