AppleTV

Terry wants to buy a device to cast to his home office TV. Would the Chromecast work or should he buy the FireTV Stick? Leo says that the Chromecast is a great device, but it doesn't stand on its own. He'll have to navigate to what he wants to watch on a phone and then cast to the Chromecast device. Stand-alone devices like Roku and AppleTV can act as their own independent devices. As for FireTV, Leo says it really serves as a portal to sell stuff from Amazon, so he's not much of a fan. Leo says ROKU Ultra is a better choice all the way around and will also stream in 4K.

David wants to know how he can project his mobile device to a portrait sized monitor. He wants the monitor to have the same aspect ratio as the phone.  Leo says that they tried to do that at TWiT, and you can, but it's quite expensive. One solution is to buy the Apple XDR monitor for $5K and the $1,000 stand. But there are other options out there. David has a monitor that will flip to portrait. Leo says that most operating systems can tell when the aspect ratio changes and adjusts. Apple has an emulator mode, where you can run an app on a Mac and it will look like it's on a phone. 

Bruce upgraded to an LG C7 TV, and it's been the best TV he's ever owned. He has an older generation Apple TV, not the new 4K version that's out now. He's wondering if it would be better for him to get a Mac Mini instead. He wants to know what the difference would be between Apple's tvOS and macOS. Leo says the new Apple TVs support UHD and high dynamic range (HDR). One of nice things about using an Apple TV is that it's automatic, Bruce would just have to plug in the HDMI cable and everything would work. The other thing it does is Dolby Atmos sound.

Brian has two Apple TVs that stream music from his computer and iTunes, but lately it just stops after a few minutes. Apple says that it's a corrupted library, but Leo disagrees since it doesn't happen when he streams music on his computer directly. Leo has a hunch it's the router. Using AirPlay, he could be dealing with buffering issues. He also should make sure nothing else is connected to his AirPlay device. It could also be an issue with home sharing and his router configuration. It could be a blocked port issue.

Matt's 4K Apple TV runs for an hour and then shuts down. Leo says that it's possible that the TV is overheating and it shuts down as a protective measure. So Matt should make sure there's plenty of airflow. He can also use canned air to blow out any dust accumulation. There could also be a memory leak that's causing it to crash. Leo really recommends making a Genius Bar appointment at the Apple store to tell them it's overheating after an hour. Since it's still under warranty, they could just give him another one.

Nathan discovered a new app called CTV Global Go on his Apple TV that he can't get rid of. He keeps resetting his Apple TV to get rid of it and it keeps coming back. Leo says that it's possible his internet carrier is doing it, but that would be odd since the app is a competitor to Rogers Cable. His mobile carrier could do it. It's possible that if the app is on his iPad or iPhone, it could sync over. He should check settings on the Apple TV for syncing apps. He should disable that, then reset the Apple TV again.

Ted's dad is going to be in the hospital for a month and he wants to know how he can watch TV from his TiVo at home. Leo says he can use TiVo online and watch it from a tablet where he is. TiVo could play on an Apple TV, but it would have to be AirPlayed from an iPad.

Don has an Asus router and he has a USB in for connecting an external drive to it. Can he put a hub on it? Leo says sure. He can take up to 255 devices on the USB chain, but it may confuse the router, so he should look at the settings to see if it will support it.

Tim's wife has an iPhone that doesn't see the Apple TV through the remote app, but his iPhone does. Leo says he can have multiple remotes in the devices section, but he may have to have home sharing to use it. He's worried that if he uses that, purchases will be a problem. Leo says it used to be easier than that. But with home sharing, Apple seems to have linked it. Home sharing, though, really shouldn't be an issue. Tim should check out this iMore article on it.

Tom uses his AirPods with his AppleTV and after a recent tvOS update, he has no volume. He called AppleCare and they said he shouldn't have that capability in the first place. But Tom says it worked just fine until the tvOS update. Leo says it sounds like Apple broke the connection in the update. That's terrible. It may be that he'll just have to re-pair them to the Apple TV. He should try another set of Bluetooth headphones or a speaker as well. If that works, then it should work with the AirPods since they use the same Bluetooth standard.