South Africa C4 user Posted February 11, 2016 Share Posted February 11, 2016 My dealer added the iTunes driver today and it seems quite cool. A couple of comments and questions: 1. Nice icon! 2. It would be nice if it used the new Media Pricy for choosing albums and movies. 3. There is an option in this driver to "update Control4 movie database". I use the Collection Management driver to link MyMovies to Control4. If I run this option, will it bring the movies I have in iTunes (on a different PC from where MyMovies stores my digital movies) into C4 and merge them with my other movies. Or, will it mess everything up? I am a bit nervous to try this as I have read on this forum that Collection Management is not working properly with the latest version of MyMovies. While I think mine is working fine, I don't want to risk having to rebuild the database and losing everything! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
control4user007 Posted February 11, 2016 Share Posted February 11, 2016 One question I had: can we have more than 1 instance of the driver (all connected to the same iTunes)? But would really love the additions the above comment mentions! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
South Africa C4 user Posted February 11, 2016 Author Share Posted February 11, 2016 2 minutes ago, control4user007 said: One question I had: can we have more than 1 instance of the driver (all connected to the same iTunes)? But would really love the additions the above comment mentions! Interesting question... I will get my dealer to install a second copy of the driver and see if it works... I suspect not but you never know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyknight Posted February 11, 2016 Share Posted February 11, 2016 You can add the driver - but it would be useless. This drivers uses AIRPLAY (and no you can't use Shairbrdige) to send audio to a device (ie WMB or Airport Express) OR uses your computer's own audio outputs. Adding a second driver connected to the SAME computer will NOT give you more than one stream. This is a limitation of your iTunes more than anything. You certain CAN add more than one driver using multiple computers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyknight Posted February 11, 2016 Share Posted February 11, 2016 1 hour ago, South Africa C4 user said: 2. It would be nice if it used the new Media Pricy for choosing albums and movies. 3. There is an option in this driver to "update Control4 movie database". I use the Collection Management driver to link MyMovies to Control4. If I run this option, will it bring the movies I have in iTunes (on a different PC from where MyMovies stores my digital movies) into C4 and merge them with my other movies. Or, will it mess everything up? I am a bit nervous to try this as I have read on this forum that Collection Management is not working properly with the latest version of MyMovies. While I think mine is working fine, I don't want to risk having to rebuild the database and losing everything! 2 - it can't get that info, it's blocked in iTunes, is what I've hear don that account 3 - add movies option is intended for use with the built-in driver for AppleTV ONLY - like music, it will make the iTunes program push those movies to the appleTV. This only affects movies you have 'stored' in that iTunes (or in the NAS it's linked to etc) and will NOT allow you to 'push' movies from your online account. I wouldn't recommend using it in conjunction if I were you. Indeed I wouldn't really recommend it at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
South Africa C4 user Posted February 12, 2016 Author Share Posted February 12, 2016 Thanks Cy. on point 3. I would love to push movies (when played) to my Apple TV but as I understand it, the Apple TV driver linked to the iTunes driver is for Apple TV Gen 1. I use a separate Apple TV driver as I have Gen 3. How do I link the iTunes driver to play movies on my Gen3 Apple TV? That would be quite cool as then movies played from MyMovies would play on the Dune and movies played from iTunes driver would play on AppleTV Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyknight Posted February 12, 2016 Share Posted February 12, 2016 Update the iTunes driver if it isn't, the newer version includes the IP ability for all ATVs (well up to gen3 at least) As far as moving it, it's just that, use that driver instead. As far as the split options - I HOPE that works - I honestly haven't tried that setup as such (ie MyMovies Dune plus iTunes AppleTV). It may well not work, anymore than using two different players (meaning different capabilities for file handling) and C4 'sending' it to the correct one is supported. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
South Africa C4 user Posted February 12, 2016 Author Share Posted February 12, 2016 Thanks! I will give it all a try. I have the latest iTunes driver. I suspect the documentation may be out of date as it refers to using the stand alone Apple TV driver if you have a Gen 2 or Gen 3. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyknight Posted February 12, 2016 Share Posted February 12, 2016 It is, and that's already been passed on. If anything most of the old EV drivers need some doc fixes as they still point to the old EV website for instructions... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
South Africa C4 user Posted February 12, 2016 Author Share Posted February 12, 2016 Thanks again. My dealer got this working (sort of) this afternoon. I think he has some stuff (connections) wrong but he has never used this driver before so it is a case of the blind leading the blind and, to be honest, sitting in front of his PC with Pro up and running, I am not sure which of us was more dangerous :-). We have connected the AppleTV driver to the iTunes driver using the HDMI "video in from Apple TV Video out" on the iTunes driver. Having done this, when I choose Apple TV from the Watch menu, it works as normal (a big plus as we lost Apple TV for a while). We have no connections on the AppleTV OSD sub menu item. The only other connection we have is the video output going into the matrix - this is set equal to the video connection going in for the Apple TV (physical unit). Hopefully that makes sense as not being a Pro user, I am far from an expert here! However, we still have the following problems with the iTunes driver: 1. After much fiddling we got it to play the chosen movie over AirPlay to the AppleTV (as an aside, streaming would be better than AirPlay as this would allow multiple streams); however, the only buttons that work after choosing the movie are pause and play and stop. After pressing stop, it goes back to the AppleTV menu, but has no control and nothing further can be done. One fix for this would be to have an on Stop event that switches the source from iTunes to AppleTV. It seems like I am missing something though and this should not be necessary. Also, I dont have fast forward, rewind, track forward etc. when playing a movie using the iTunes driver but do when playing directly from AppleTV. I suspect that we have something set up wrong? Any ideas? 2. I can get music to play in rooms with a TV, but not in other rooms... Again, I think we are missing a connection or something? I must say that this driver looks quite powerful but we are struggling to figure out how to get it working and the documentation is not great... Understatement! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
South Africa C4 user Posted February 12, 2016 Author Share Posted February 12, 2016 In fact, if after I have started a movie playing using the iTunes driver (from the Watch button), I then use the Watch button to switch to AppleTV, I don't lose any picture / sounds and I get full control... Surely this should happen automaticly if this was set up right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
South Africa C4 user Posted March 4, 2016 Author Share Posted March 4, 2016 Resuscitating this thread with some comments for anyone else who finds this thread and a question that hopefully someone can help me with. I have been playing with this driver and my dealer was here today and we did some "fiddling". My comments: 1. This is a very useful driver although it seems to have some minor bugs (or my dealer and I are both missing something...) 2. The only way that I am getting full control of the AppleTV from my remote when playing via the iTunes driver is to have an if statement when iTunes starts playing which selects the AppleTV as the video device in the relevant room. This is a bit weird as both video and sound come through fine without doing this, BUT the remote (SR 260) control's functions are not there except play, pause and stop. Weird! My workaround works fine but does lose a little in that the app no longer shows the cover art and minutes played in the bottom bar when playing a movie... Not very important as I don't really use my iPad or a Touchscreen when watching a movie. 3. I previously reported challenges getting music to play. Fixed this (actually my dealer did) by running an extra physical connection from the optical port of the AppleTV to a Controller. 4. The action "add videos to control4 database" looks like it could be really good but this is where I suspect there is a bug and my question is am I missing something! The iTunes driver has a sub driver (or option) for an AppleTV OSD (when one clicks on the + to the left of the driver in Composer and expand the tree) . My understanding from the driver documentation and my dealer is that this is for Apple TV 1s. I have an AppleTV 3 and my understanding is that for this I should use the Apple TV IP driver and connect this to the iTunes driver and from iTunes to my matrix. This is what we have done and both iTunes and the Apple TV work fine (barring the above comments and the question / comment that follows). When one runs the "add videos" action, the movies in my iTunes library appear in the Video media section under Apple TV OSD in the media tab of Composer. I think they should actually appear in the iTunes Video media section on the media tab. This does nothing in a navigator under the above setup. However, if we disconnect my Apple TV driver and connect the Apple TV using the sub menu of the iTunes driver highlighted above then the movies suddenly appear in Control 4's MyMovies mixed in with the movies from my NAS. This is really cool and what I want. Choosing a movie that is stored on my NAS plays via my Dune and playing a movie stored on my MacBook (in iTunes) plays via my AppleTV. However, doing this sees my Apple TV becomes useless (other than via the iTunes driver). This makes some sense as we are essentially (I think) trying to use an Apple TV 1 driver to run an Apple TV 3. My dealer is going to speak to Control4 and come back next week. However as this remains a case of the blind leading the blind (not sure which "blind" is me and which is the dealer), I was wondering if anyone knows what we are doing wrong? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyknight Posted March 5, 2016 Share Posted March 5, 2016 The iTunes' built in appleTV driver is NO LONGER only for ATVgen1 - indeed, it was for a short while the way you could get IP control over newer ATVs until a stand alone driver was made. Exactly where things may be wrong in your setup, or if indeed there's a bug somewhere I do not know. I'm not that familiar with the use for movies at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
South Africa C4 user Posted March 5, 2016 Author Share Posted March 5, 2016 2 hours ago, Cyknight said: The iTunes' built in appleTV driver is NO LONGER only for ATVgen1 - indeed, it was for a short while the way you could get IP control over newer ATVs until a stand alone driver was made. Exactly where things may be wrong in your setup, or if indeed there's a bug somewhere I do not know. I'm not that familiar with the use for movies at all. Thanks... Hopefully my dealer is able to figure it out with C4 next week Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Svdmerwe Posted October 27, 2016 Share Posted October 27, 2016 Don't know how far you got with your setup but just a few comments: - you can connect multiple Apple TVs to the same iTunes library and play different movies/movies on each ie you can play movie 1 on the one and movie 2 on the second and music on the third at the same time. I have the following setup: - Apple TV connected to HDMI matrix for movies/music (using Apple Tv driver) - Audio cable from Mac mini that hosts the iTunes library connected to the multi room audio amplifier (using the iTunes driver) - so can then simultaeneously watch a movie in one room and play music in another room from the same iTunes library. (quite convenient if you have kids ?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.