I have an AppleTV v2. It does indeed require an outboard DAC before it can render analog audio. An outboard DAC with an optical input no less.
If I wanted to use the AppleTV as an audio output device, I would need to either: Using TV interface - Turn on Stereo Turn on DAC Select AppleTV input on DAC Turn on TV Select AppleTV input Wake up AppleTV Navigate to Music options Choose and Play Using AirPlay - Turn on Stereo Turn on DAC Select AppleTV input on DAC Wake up the AppleTV (it sleeps) Grab a laptop or iPhone and fire up a music player Navigate to music, choose and play Select AppleTV AirPlay output Granted some of these steps may be avoidable (stereo already on or auto-sensing, DAC has only one input, etc.), but this is still a lot of switching and selecting just to play a few tracks. I'm not at all excited about the option of using a 50" plasma TV for an audio controller UI. Seems ridiculous. And you still don't get sync. And I don't know about the audio quality implications of AirPlay - does it do lossless? (certainly not FLAC), is there compression in the transmission?, etc. I don't really see this as a big use case for the AppleTV until Apple adds analog outs and gets serious about simplifying usage. _______________________________________________ discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
