Power up

Instead of a USB port, the Siri remote features a Lightning port. It also comes with a Lightning to USB cable for charging purposes. According to Apple, the new rechargeable battery in its remote can last for months on a single charge (with normal use). While this is significantly less than the battery life touted by its past remotes that used regular apple tv remote batteries, it does help save you a trip to the local electronics store to get new batteries.

No LED battery life indicator

As we’ve gotten used by Apple, there’s no LED light to notify you about how much power is left in the battery. So instead of waiting for the batteries for apple tv remote to drain, is there another way you could check how much power you have left and how long you can use the remote until you need to replace the batteries? Well, the good news is that you can actually do that.

Charging the remote

If your apple tv remote control stopped working, then you should charge it. However, if your remote control still works, then you should turn on your Apple TV and then go to Settings.

Once you’re there, navigate to Removes and devices and then click on Bluetooth. At this point, you’ll see every Bluetooth device connected to your machine. By default, the only Bluetooth connected device is the Apple TV remote.

Other Bluetooth connected devices

If you have other connected devices (such as game controllers) or remote controls, you’ll also see them displayed in this screen.

It’s here that you can finally check the apple tv remote battery life. You’ll see it displayed as an icon at the right side of its name. While the amount of power left in the batteries is not displayed in a percentage amount, the visual representation should at least give you an idea of how long you can use the remote before you need to recharge it.

The new 4th Generation Apple TV remote may not provide the same batter life as past Apple remotes, but thanks to the new design change it’s thinner, lighter and easier to use. On top of that, it can also save you a trip to the store to get new batteries. While you may not appreciate that now, you will once you have to go out on a cold, rainy or snowy day just to get a new set of batteries for your apple tv remote.

The post How to check your Apple tv remote battery life appeared first on Apple TV Hacks.

Nuvyyo’s new Tablo app is the first real live TV app on the Apple TV 4. The app is free but it requires you purchase additional hardware (Tablo DVR), antenna and TV guide service, because, obviously, Apple TV doesn’t have a coaxial connection in the back that you can hook up an antenna.

Tablo is not an IPTV app. It’s a hardware and service that gives you major networks over the air, like NBC, ABC, Fox, CBS, PBS, and as many channels as the antenna in or on your house can pick up.

You get a grid-style Program Guide and the ability to record single and multiple recordings. You also can manage recordings right from the app.

This is the best way to stop paying a monthly subscription to your cable provider and cut the cord for good.

Last year Apple stated: “The future of television is apps”. And they are correct.

Watch the video and tell me if you agree.

Learn more about Tablo.

Search for “Tablo” on your Apple TV’s App Store to download the free app.

Also check out:

• Infuse 4 for Apple TV 4: first look (video)
• Plex on Apple TV 4 explained (video)
• How to save media files to your Apple TV 4 ‘hard drive’ for offline viewing (video)

You can find more videos on my YouTube channel AskUncleDave.

Be sure to follow Apple TV Hacks on Twitter, Facebook or Google+ for all the latest Apple TV-related news.

The post A first look at Tablo’s live TV and DVR app for Apple TV 4 (video) appeared first on Apple TV Hacks.

MrMC is the most popular app for bringing Kodi on Apple TV 4. However, it doesn’t provide a “100% Kodi experience”: it strips out all of the prohibited features that go against the terms of service for the App Store, like python add-ons, which are the basis for many of the most popular Kodi add-ons. A YouTube user Nandor, “an Apple TV 4 and Hackintosh Enthusiast”, posted a video in which he shows how to install a pre-alpha version of the “real” Kodi on Apple TV 4 using Xcode and an iOS App Signer app. This version of Kodi is supposed to let you use all your favourite add-ons, skins and other features.

This is 100% Kodi!!! You need to understand that this is an “unofficial pre pre pre alpha” release of Kodi for tvOS. So there will be bugs and not all add-ons will work right now. Unless you are able to get them to work yourself.

Downloads:

• iOS app signer
• kodi tvos.deb

You can find more tutorials on Nandor’s website.

Be sure to follow Apple TV Hacks on Twitter, Facebook or Google+ for all the latest Apple TV-related news.

The post How to install Kodi on Apple TV 4 using Xcode (video) appeared first on Apple TV Hacks.

Apple sells iOS devices that come in 16GB, 32GB, 64GB and 128GB, but what about the Apple TV 4? Why only 32GB and 64GB? Apple figures most Apple TV customers will just stream content via DLNA/UPnP or use home sharing for content we purchased on iTunes. So the internal storage is to just store apps and data.

I don’t think Apple would imagine that people may want to download media to the Apple TV hard drive so that we can use the Apple TV in the car, like i did (check out: Apple TV 4 in The Car detailed) or bring their Apple TV to a friend’s house.

However, there is an app that allows you to do just that. Save your collection of movies, tv shows and music right on the Apple TV hard drive itself.

In my video (below) i give you an overview of all the media apps i use on my Apple TV and if you skip to 7:05 you will see the app that allows you to download media to the Apple TV for offline use.

I don’t want to mention the name of the app in the article. So Apple, you will just have to watch the video to find out! But please don’t pull it from the App Store.

Also check out:

• Infuse 4 for Apple TV 4: first look (video)
• Plex on Apple TV 4 explained (video)

You can find more videos on my YouTube channel AskUncleDave.

Be sure to follow Apple TV Hacks on Twitter, Facebook or Google+ for all the latest Apple TV-related news.

The post How to save media files to your Apple TV 4 ‘hard drive’ for offline viewing (video) appeared first on Apple TV Hacks.

Admit it, you’re not necessarily a fan of all Apple’s products. Some are life changers for sure – you’ll have to pry my iPhone out of my cold, dead hands. Others are maybe more, ‘meh’. iTunes falls into that latter category for a lot of people. While it was groundbreaking back in the day, these days it is more of an unkempt warehouse for Apple to cram things into. So how do you maintain your love for your Apple TV, while hating iTunes and not using it?

The big problem is that your Apple TV requires you to fully incorporate all your media (music, photos and video) into your iTunes catalog, if you want to connect that media to your Apple TV. This is easy if you’re buying all your stuff in iTunes. But if you’re like a lot of people, your media comes from a lot of different places – ripped CDs/DVDs, downloads from Amazon, friends, etc. Not all this is quickly or cleanly imported into iTunes, ignoring that many of us just don’t remember to do it all the time.

younity makes it easy to use your Apple TV for all your media, even if it is not in iTunes. When you install younity on your computer, it indexes your hard drive for all your video, music and photos. When it discovers all of it, it reads the file metadata (stuff like the artist name, album, song, movie title, etc.). If your content is in iTunes, younity will have all your library categorization, like your playlists; but for all your media not in iTunes, younity will automatically organize it into the same type of sections for Artist, Album, Songs, etc.

younity turns your computer into a personal media server, so you can stream all your video, music and photos to your iPhone or iPad without having to sync. This means you can carry all your digital content around with you, without taking up any storage on your mobile devices. When you want to access something, younity streams it from your computer to your mobile device.

Of course, younity also uses AirPlay, which means that you can stream everything on any of your computers directly to your Apple TV – with or without using iTunes. You can still browse your music library by Artist, Album, Playlist, etc., because younity will read all your media’s metadata and recreate those lists for you – no importing required.

You can also use younity to access all your computers at once , instead of one at a time, to stream any of your content to your Apple TV.

Click here to learn more about younity.

Throughout our series on hacking your Apple TV with younity we’re giving away FIVE Apple TV 4s! Enter below until 10/31 for your chance to win.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

younity is a simple easy and free app that enables your computer to work like a home media server, giving you access to all your media files on your computer from your iPhone or iPad.

The post How to love your Apple TV and hate iTunes, successfully (and Apple TV 4 giveaway!) appeared first on Apple TV Hacks.

At one point or another, we’ve all been visiting family or friends and wish we could watch a movie stored back on our home computer while we’re at their house. Or listen to a favorite playlist at someone else’s backyard party, or show off our latest GoPro video on a friend’s big screen.

While the Apple TV lets you stream video, music, and photos from your computer to your TV, what about when you want to stream stuff from your computer to someone else’s Apple TV?

This has previously been impossible because the Apple TV only connects to a computer on the same WiFi network – if your computer was back at home (on another network), it was off limits.

With younity you can take all your media with you to stream to any Apple TV, or even share your media with friends for them to stream on-demand when you’re not around. younity turns every computer you install it on into a personal media server, similar to Plex. It’s easy to set up and free.

How to install younity:

1. Install younity on each computer you want to access and let it index that content (about 5-30 minutes, depending on how much stuff you have).
2. Install the iOS app on your iPhone or iPad.

If you install younity on more than one computer, it will unify all of your files into a single list within the younity iOS app.

Not only does younity let you connect to all your computers at once, it lets you stream all your video, music and photos to your iPhone or iPad no matter where you are in the world. This means that the next time you’re at your friend’s house you can easily stream anything you have at home to their Apple TV using AirPlay.

How to stream a video to your friend’s Apple TV:

1. Start playing avideo in younity
2. Pull up the Apple menu from the bottom of your iPhone. If an Airplay-enabled device is nearby then the AirPlay option will appear.
3. Click on AirPlay
4. Select the device you want to connect to, and your video will stream.

You can also share videos, photos, and music with friends or family through the younity app. Just find what you want to share and choose your friend’s email address of Facebook account and they’ll be allowed to stream your content from your computer to their mobile device or Apple TV.

Whether it’s taking your media with you or sharing it with friends for them to watch on their TV, younity is a simple, unlimited and free way to always have access to your stuff.

Click here to learn more about younity.

Throughout our series on hacking your Apple TV with younity we’re giving away FIVE Apple TV 4s! Enter below until 10/31 for your chance to win.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

younity is a simple easy and free app that enables your computer to work like a home media server, giving you access to all your media files on your computer from your iPhone or iPad.

The post How to stream your content to your friend’s Apple TV (and Apple TV 4 giveaway!) appeared first on Apple TV Hacks.

You are here probably because your Apple TV’s visual output to the television is not as expected. This can be due to a variety of reasons and manifests in different ways. So, before you take your Apple TV to an Apple Store for repair, try this guide to learn how you can fix some common video issues with it.

Case 1. My TV screen is completely black, frozen at a frame or is blurred

Step A. Check the television set, cables and peripherals

• Verify if the TV’s source is set to your Apple TV HDMI connection. If not, refer your television manual and change it using your remote. If this is the first time you are firing up the Apple TV, check if your HDTV matches Apple’s minimum resolution requirements. Don’t worry, almost all of them do.
• Inspect if the Apple TV power cable and HDMI cables are undamaged and properly inserted.
• If you have cables going through home theater receivers, splitters, repeaters or switches, try bypassing them and connect directly to the television. If the video issue resolves now, the defect is  in the peripheral used and you can get it corrected.
• The HDMI cable you are using might be unidirectional. So try flipping the connection between Apple TV and television. If available, try using another HDMI cable also.

Step B. Troubleshoot the Apple TV

• Verify if the Apple TV is getting power. Press any button on your Remote and see if a white light responds at the face of the Apple TV. If not, check the power cable and try using a different outlet.
• If Apple TV is getting power, try rebooting it. You can do this easily with your remote by pressing and holding (Menu + Down) buttons for 6 seconds. Wait till Apple TV restarts and check if the issue is resolved.
• Now let’s try changing the Apple TV output resolution. Press and hold (Menu + Up) buttons for 6 seconds. Apple TV will now start cycling between various resolutions for around 20 seconds each (image above). Whenever you see the display come up, just press the Play button to set it as the native resolution.

Case 2. My Television is displaying wrong or inverted colors

Step A. Check your television settings
Most HDTV have different picture modes like Dynamic, Vivid etc which can interfere with the true color of the output. Refer the television manual to change this mode to Natural using your TV remote.

Step B. Change Apple TV output settings
Go to Settings > Audio & Video > HDMI Output. You will see a menu: Auto, YCbCr, RGB High, RGB Low.

Use the arrow buttons to check out the options one by one. Give a few seconds after selecting an option for changes to get previewed.

Case 3. My TV shows a stretched film or it isn’t filling up the screen

Apple TV natively outputs content in 16:9 aspect ratio. So as long as you have a HDTV, you should be able to see contents in full screen. You can refer the user manual of your television to set your display to 16:9 if it isn’t already.

It is worth noting that when you’re AirPlay mirroring your iPhone or iPad screen, or while playing some movies in non-HD formats, it is normal to see black bars on top or sides of the TV display.

Case 4. I am getting an error “This content requires HDCP for playback”

“HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection) is a form of digital copy protection that requires compatibility between your Apple TV and high-definition TV.” So this error might be due to problems with your HDMI cable or HDTV as Apple TV supports HDCP out of the box.

Step 1. First try putting your Apple TV to sleep. Go to Settings > Sleep Now
Wait for about 10 seconds and press the Select button to wake it up again.
Step 2. Check and install if your HDTV has a firmware update.
Step 3. Use a different HDMI cable like the Apple HDMI to HDMI cable.

More how-tos:

• I cannot AirPlay mirror my iPhone and iPad to Apple TV: The Apple TV AirPlay troubleshooting guide
• How to use any third party remote to control your Apple TV
• My Apple TV Remote isn’t working properly: The Apple Remote troubleshooting guide
• How to send audio from Apple TV to AirPlay speakers

Be sure to follow Apple TV Hacks on Twitter, Facebook or Google+ for all the latest Apple TV-related news.

The post My Apple TV has video issues – The Apple TV video troubleshooting guide appeared first on Apple TV Hacks.

I’ve been having a lot of issues lately with Netflix on my Apple TV and other iOS devices from home. On Apple TV, the most common outcome of launching Netflix was the dreaded “Netflix is currently unavailable” screen. It has gotten so bad that my kids keep asking to just watch Netflix on Roku!

Obviously if Netflix was running on Roku and computers, the problem wasn’t with Netflix themselves, and today I decided to break out Wireshark to see exactly what was happening when the Apple TV tried to load Netflix. I’ve written previously about how Apple TV handles ‘applications’, so this was halfway between trying to fix a problem and hopefully learning something new.

I configured port mirroring on my Ethernet switch so I could see traffic heading to and from the Apple TV (I keep my Apple TV’s wired if at all possible, saving wireless bandwidth for other devices). As my Airport Extreme, my Ethernet switch, and Apple TV devices are all in the same cabinet, this was fairly simple to accommodate.

The first thing I noticed is when I attempted to launch the Netflix app, the Apple TV would immediately do a DNS lookup for a netflix.com hostname, but did nothing from there for basically 50 seconds until the “currently unavailable” screen popped up. Very strange…

After doing some more digging, I discovered that this was NOT actually the case – the Apple TV was just switching to IPv6, which I had filtered out of my Wireshark view. I changed the filter to the MAC of the Apple TV, and could now see that something was happening after the DNS lookup, but that whatever was happening didn’t appear to be working very well. There were duplicate packets, and it appears the SSL connection never really got much past the TCP connection establishment before ending the connection.

So, now the question was, is this related to IPv6, or is something else broken with Netflix/Apple TV? I disabled IPv6 connection sharing on the Airport Extreme and tried again.

Success!

Netflix quickly loaded as if nothing had ever been wrong. Wireshark showed the difference – SSL connection is successfully negotiated without a problem.

I haven’t done a capture from the external side of the Airport as of yet to see what the ‘IPv6 Connection Sharing’ was breaking in the SSL stream, but there is obviously a bug somewhere. At this point, I’m content having things work again, and while troubleshooting SSL is a great Friday activity over beers, I think I’ll just binge watch some X-Files instead.

To disable IPv6 on your Airport, launch Airport Utility and go to Edit —> Internet —> Internet Options and uncheck the “Enable IPv6 Connection Sharing” box.

I have also had intermittent, and frustrating, issues with AirPlay either not connecting, taking a very long time to connect, or not working at all. Since making this change, I have had no AirPlay issues at all.

Be sure to follow Apple TV Hacks on Twitter, Facebook or Google+ for all the latest Apple TV-related news.

The post Disabling IPv6 fixes Netflix and AirPlay issues on Apple TV appeared first on Apple TV Hacks.

If you are having trouble with Apple TV’s audio output, go through these basic fixes before you take it to the Apple Store for repair.

Case A. My Apple TV has no sound / the audio is stuck during playback

Step 1. Basic Apple TV audio troubleshooting

• Check if the volume on your television or receiver is reduced or set to mute. Use the TV or Receiver remote and refer their manual to enable sound.
• Check if the connection between your Apple TV to television/home theater is secure and they are connected to power.
• Verify that the source on your audio receiver is set to the Apple TV input. Check the receiver’s or speaker’s manual to find out how to change the source.
• If none of these helped, try rebooting your Apple TV. Just press and hold (Menu + Down) buttons on the Apple remote for 6 seconds and your Apple TV will restart.

Step B. Troubleshoot the Apple TV audio peripherals

• This step is only for those users who have a third party home-theater set, audio receiver or speaker set up as the Apple TV sound output. In this case, you are probably using the optical audio output from the Apple TV.
  Try disconnecting the optical digital audio port and connect the Apple TV directly to your television via HDMI only.
• If the audio issue is now resolved, your audio peripheral or the optical audio cable is defective. Contact the corresponding product’s manufacturer for support.

Step C. Troubleshooting the Apple TV audio settings

• On the Apple TV, Go to Settings > Audio & Video
  Change the Audio Output setting from Auto to 16 bit.
• Change the Dolby Digital from Auto/On to Off.

Case B. I cannot hear the sounds while navigating Apple TV menus

If Apple TV is playing the audio for all video content and music but not the sound effects while navigating the menus, this is just an issue of faulty audio Settings.

Go to Settings > Audio & Video > Sound Effects and turn it On.

Case C. During AirPlay, I can see the video but there’s no audio

1. Make sure the audio is not muted on your iPhone/iPad nor on your television set.

2. Check if your iPhone is on silent/vibrate mode. If so, toggle the side switch to turn it into ring mode.

More how-tos:

• I cannot AirPlay mirror my iPhone and iPad to Apple TV: The Apple TV AirPlay troubleshooting guide
• How to use any third party remote to control your Apple TV
• My Apple TV Remote isn’t working properly: The Apple Remote troubleshooting guide
• How to send audio from Apple TV to AirPlay speakers

Be sure to follow Apple TV Hacks on Twitter, Facebook or Google+ for all the latest Apple TV-related news.

The post My Apple TV has no sound – The Apple TV audio troubleshooting guide appeared first on Apple TV Hacks.

Holiday Gift Guide 2015: Best Accessories for Apple TV

HBO NOW, the new standalone streaming service from HBO, has gone live on Apple TV and other iOS devices yesterday. Although you can’t sign up to HBO NOW on your desktop, you can access the new service on hbonow.com via Mac or PC after signing up on Apple TV, iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.

Here’s what you need to do:

STEP 1: Subscribe to HBO NOW directly on Apple TV or on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch (via a free iOS app) using your iTunes account.

STEP 2: Purchase an HBO NOW subscription directly in-app for $14.99 per month (following the limited time, introductory 30 day free trial period).

STEP 3: Upon registering, you will set up HBO NOW login credentials, enabling you to watch your favorite HBO programming on hbonow.com via Mac or PC.

HBO NOW offers more than 2,000 titles online, including the series like Game of Thrones, True Detective, Silicon Valley, Girls, Veep, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, The Leftovers, The Sopranos, Sex and the City, True Blood, The Wire and Deadwood.

HBO NOW is only accessible in the U.S. (check out our tutorial on how to access U.S.-only services on Apple TV outside the U.S.).

Be sure to follow Apple TV Hacks on Twitter, Facebook or Google+ for all the latest Apple TV-related news.

The post How to watch HBO NOW on Mac or Windows appeared first on Apple TV Hacks.