Apple TV in corporate environment- some questions!

Printable View

04-19-2008, 06:33 AM
chockster

Apple TV in corporate environment- some questions!
Hi all,

First post here, first time I've really been looking into the Apple TV in detail, so apologies if I ask any utterly obvious questions.

My work has decided that it'd be really awesome to have a slideshow in our offices with some photo slideshows of what we do. So far so good. The first stage was setting it up on one TV, which we did with a Cisco box , using a Flash photo slideshow tool. It turned out that the Cisco box was utter crap, and didn't have the processing power to do even the most basic photo transitions, etc. It also cost over $1000.

So, for phase two (i.e. setting it up on a few more TVs) I want to push to use an Apple TV. Of course, it's going to be difficult to convince them because the aTV is a consumer device, uses MacOS, I have to "hack" it, etc. etc. so I want to get my facts straight! The stuff I need for the aTV to match the capabilities of the Cisco box:
- Play flash files (I've seen some tutorials for web browsers) and play them at a decent speed
- Choose what should happen when the device starts up- i.e. run the slideshow rather than show the main menu.
There is some stuff I'd love to be able to do in addition to what we can do now- can anyone tell me if these are possible:
- Turn on/off (or go into standby) at certain times of day- i.e. turn off outside of office hours.
- Run at a custom resolution (can I specify it, or do I choose from presets? What is the maximum?)
So, can anyone help me out with any of these? I think the aTV would be the perfect solution, but I figure I have an uphill struggle to actually get this!
04-19-2008, 05:53 PM
metty
Quote:
Originally Posted by chockster

Hi all,

First post here, first time I've really been looking into the Apple TV in detail, so apologies if I ask any utterly obvious questions.

My work has decided that it'd be really awesome to have a slideshow in our offices with some photo slideshows of what we do. So far so good. The first stage was setting it up on one TV, which we did with a Cisco box , using a Flash photo slideshow tool. It turned out that the Cisco box was utter crap, and didn't have the processing power to do even the most basic photo transitions, etc. It also cost over $1000.

So, for phase two (i.e. setting it up on a few more TVs) I want to push to use an Apple TV. Of course, it's going to be difficult to convince them because the aTV is a consumer device, uses MacOS, I have to "hack" it, etc. etc. so I want to get my facts straight! The stuff I need for the aTV to match the capabilities of the Cisco box:

Play flash files (I've seen some tutorials for web browsers) and play them at a decent speed
Choose what should happen when the device starts up- i.e. run the slideshow rather than show the main menu.

There is some stuff I'd love to be able to do in addition to what we can do now- can anyone tell me if these are possible:

Turn on/off (or go into standby) at certain times of day- i.e. turn off outside of office hours.
Run at a custom resolution (can I specify it, or do I choose from presets? What is the maximum?)

So, can anyone help me out with any of these? I think the aTV would be the perfect solution, but I figure I have an uphill struggle to actually get this!
Just get a Mac Mini. That will do everything you need (and more) out of the box.
04-19-2008, 08:26 PM
chockster

Probably a good idea. I know the boss wants a device that doesn't have fans (i.e. point of failure!) though, that's the only issue.

Having researched it some more, we wouldn't really need any of the Apple TV OS at all... I could run Linux from a pen drive (bypass the hard disk - another point of failure!) and leave the internals exactly the same. I'll have to see how far Linux on the aTV has come, though. Probably not very far!
04-21-2008, 05:04 PM
ash

There is also the posibility to install osx on an appletv. This would let you play flash files as well as other applications. So maybe that would be a solution.
Though there are some drawbacks: i always have troubles with setting the screen resolution. My ATV OSX sets it either to the highest possible value or to the lowest ...

But maybe it's an option for you ...

Btw: browse the forum and you'll find plenty of infos about what's working with atv and what not (good).

ash
04-21-2008, 07:34 PM
davilla

Quote:

Originally Posted by chockster

Probably a good idea. I know the boss wants a device that doesn't have fans (i.e. point of failure!) though, that's the only issue.

Having researched it some more, we wouldn't really need any of the Apple TV OS at all... I could run Linux from a pen drive (bypass the hard disk - another point of failure!) and leave the internals exactly the same. I'll have to see how far Linux on the aTV has come, though. Probably not very far!

Linux has come very far. See http://code.google.com/p/atv-bootloader/, there a lot of possibilities.
04-21-2008, 09:50 PM
metty

Quote:

Originally Posted by chockster

Probably a good idea. I know the boss wants a device that doesn't have fans (i.e. point of failure!) though, that's the only issue.

Having researched it some more, we wouldn't really need any of the Apple TV OS at all... I could run Linux from a pen drive (bypass the hard disk - another point of failure!) and leave the internals exactly the same. I'll have to see how far Linux on the aTV has come, though. Probably not very far!

Honestly you will probably run into further "failures" if you start hacking on an AppleTV. I'm not underestimating your skill or the linux crowd, I just know that you are entering a world with a lot more unknowns if you go that route.

Also, the time to hack it together is also costing your boss... Spending that money on a Mac Mini makes the most sense.