Hi Michelle, First of all, the Apple TV does not offer its own subscription service. Apple is trying to make deals with major content providers and to offer a subscription based service via the Apple TV, but if this ever happens it would basically just mean that you can potentially get rid of your existing cable service and access the same channels via your Apple TV. The benefit is that hopefully Apple can offer this at a less expensive price and secondly of course the big benefit for a blind user is that the Apple TV is completely accessible which should make for a much better experience when it comes to looking at the channel guide, selecting channels etc.
At this point the Apple TV is basically a small box with Voiceover and the newest version of the Apple TV, the fourth generation Apple TV, which came out last November has an app store which allows you to install apps on it. For example, there is a Netflix app, a Youtube app, there are apps for some news channels and some already exist for popular channels like Disney, HBO etc. Those, however, require you to have an existing subscription with a cable provider because Disney of course won't let you watch for free just because you have an Apple TV. Things like Netflix and Youtube are definitely a good experience, the Apple TV also has a music app just like the iPhone and if you subscribe to Apple Music you can play all the music iTunes has via your TV or connected sound system. Sighted people may also like the fact that they can access all their photos stored in the iCloud Photo Library and you can of course watch movies and episodes of TV series which you may have bought on iTunes and you can also rent them. As for audio described content that is still relatively rare. Netflix has some and if you have a Netflix subscription you can go to their website, log in and there is a link right on the main page which shows you all the audio described movies they have. In iTunes on your computer or iOS device you can now go to the iTunes Store and do a search for "audio description", "video description" or simply "AD" and it will give you a list of all movies or TV series with audio descriptions. If you are just browsing movies you can listen to the movie description, right towards the end it will give you information if close captioning is available and if audio descriptions are available it will now say that as well. The new Apple TV also has SIRI and you interact with it by pushing and holding a button on the remote and speaking into the remote. You can, for example, ask SIRI things like "Show me movies with Julia Roberts" and it will give you a list of movies which have her in it. If you have Apple Music youc ould say to SIRI "Play me the top 100 songs from 1987" and it will do so. As of the latest update from last Monday you can also dictate in any search field, so for example if you are in the Youtube app and want to search for a particular word or phrase, you can go to the search box and then hold the SIRI button and ictate this instead of typing on the on-screen keyboard which is fairly tideous. Since the latest update you can also connect a Bluetooth keyboard to the apple TV and use it as a remote and, of course, to type into search boxes or to enter user names and passwords when you log in to services like Netflix. Installation is relatively simple, all you have to do is hook up the Apple TV to your TV with an HDMI cable and plug in the power cord. Where it maybe problematic is when it comes to selecting the correct input on your TV which maybe not be the most accessible process. Also, make sure you have an available HDMI port on your TV. Once connected, you can start Voiceover on the Apple TV by triple pressing the menu key on the remote. I won't go into an explanation of the remote which only has 4 buttons and a volume rocker as well as a small touch screen, but just as with an iPhone, you can invoke Voiceover and go through the setup. Should you decide to buy one, I Highly recommend you also spend $19.99 for Jonathan Mosen's eBook on the Apple TV Fourth Gen or you can buy it for $29.99 and get updates up until the end of 2016. Jonathan just pushed out an update to the book because the latest update of TVOS (that is what Apple calls the operating system) has introduced a number of new features which Jonathan added to his excellent and most complete book. Lastly, yes, if you have multiple TV's in the house, you wold need an Apple TV for each TV if you want that. You can get the Apple TV fourth Gen in two variations, a model with 32 Gb of storage for $149.95 US and a model with 64 Gb of storage for $199.95 US. At this point storage is used for apps since you can't actually store music or anything like that on the Apple TV. I think a lot of people do decide to spend the extra $50 to double the storage, but 32 Gb is probably enough for most users. Regards, Sieghard -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Michelle Bernstein Sent: Friday, March 25, 2016 8:08 AM To: viphone <[email protected]> Subject: Basic Questions about Apple TV I have a few basic questions about Apple TV. 1. I have heard that it is a small device which attaches to your television set. Do you usually require sighted assistance to set up an Apple television device if you are someone like me who required help to set up a dvd player to my television set? 2. Do you need a separate Apple tv device for each television in your home? 3. My husband is sighted. How do you set up the televisions that I can watch with described ocntent and he can watch traditional television? 4. How do you subscribe to content on an Apple television? Is it similiar to subscribing to cable television in the United States? 5. Is there enough described programs on Apple tv available in the United States that it is worth the time learning how to watch tv this way as opposed to listening to cable and traditional television? Thanks for any guidance. Regards, Michelle -- The following information is important for all members of the V iPhone list. If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. Your V iPhone list moderator is Mark Taylor and your owner is Cara Quinn - you can reach Cara at [email protected] The archives for this list can be searched at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VIPhone" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/viphone. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- The following information is important for all members of the V iPhone list. If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. Your V iPhone list moderator is Mark Taylor and your owner is Cara Quinn - you can reach Cara at [email protected] The archives for this list can be searched at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VIPhone" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/viphone. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
