“On March 27, 2014, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals an Apple TV feature that we’ll all like,” Jack Purcher reports for Patently Apple.
“In a nutshell, if you’re watching a movie on Apple TV and want to get some more popcorn and drinks, you may not have to stop the movie,” Purcher reports. “You’ll just sync the movie stream from Apple TV to an iDevice and it’ll allow you to watch your movie while grabbing snacks or doing other duties. Come to think of it, that could have come in handy while watching this year’s iTunes music festival.”
Purcher reports, “In the future, we may even be able to sync our Apple TV content to a future computer band so while you’re grabbing your snacks you don’t have to hold your iPhone. While only time will tell if that scenario ever plays out, for now we just may be looking at a new Apple TV feature that’s coming our way (hopefully soon).”
Much more, including Apple’s patent application illustrations, in the full article here.
Hasn’t DirecTV (or one of them) had a feature like this for some time now? Not saying I wouldn’t like it, just wondering if it hasn’t been thought of.
Never mind. Not quite the same, but similar. http://www.directv.com/technology/wholehome
That’s the first thing that popped into mind also.
Dish also does this.
I guess this is if you just pause the stream?
If I just stop a movie in iTunes and pick up the iPad.. Or vice versa, it resumes where I left off.
Thats not what this is. And no DirecTV, AppleTV and Dish do not do this.
Could you explain how this is different?
Sure. You walk away from the content that is being viewed and watch the same content on a different device at the same time as everyone else. If you pause it everyone waits until you get back.
With the current model you can pause a stream and pick it up somewhere else. Thats great if you are watching by yourself, but not if a group or family is watching and you want to leave for some reason.
Another different, but nice feature would be individual pause points. I sometimes will watch a show and pause it (often don’t have long intervals to watch TV) and come back with the pause point lost because someone else watched the same program.
Netflix already does that.
Netflix on AppleTV does not do that (only way I watch netflix). Only pause and resume on another device.
Sorry. I thought that is what he was talking about. I do it all the time.
If you can’t tear yourself away from a movie long enough to take a shit or grab a drink then, you’ve got issues. Is it so damn hard to hit pause, do your business, then resume?
AppleTV already does this doesn’t it? I’ve started a movie in the living room and finished watching it later that day in the bedroom. How is this new?
AppleTV does not do this. Sounds like you watch TV alone?
“If you can’t tear yourself away from a movie long enough to take a shit or grab a drink then, you’ve got issues.”
+1K
If you’re watching it from your iTunes library this happens already on Apple TVs and watching on your Mac. I wish they would make the Shared Video functionality a bit more Apple TV like on iOS. At least in terms of loading the library. I find my iTunes library takes an age to show up or just plain crashes on iOS devices.
Samsung TVs also announces that on commercials. Apple really must come with innovations cause the barbarians are at the door.
It’s not that easy to prepare popcorn, sandwiches, etc. while holding an iPad or iPhone anyway. Easier (and faster) to just pause it, get your snacks, and get comfy back in front of the TV and continue.
And when you get back the wife and kids decided to watch something else while you were gone 🙂
read the article.
it’s not about pause and resume, it is about simultaneous synchronized streaming to multiple devices
Finally, someone that gets it!
so?
I do that with Plex and the Roku now. Love it.
So with roku you can pick up on a portable device at the current live point in the program while still streaming to the device that was already streaming? Thought it could only pause and resume somewhere else just like everyone else does – but perhaps I am wrong, looked into roku but don’t have one.
Its as simple as hit pause, pick up the idevice and hit resume. I also have multiple Rokus so I can pause on the living room and resume in the theater room. Plex is pretty amazing for what it does, not perfect but getting better all the time.
Thats not wat this article is describing. What you describe is something that my DirectTV DVR and AppleTV do.
How would you do this:
Watch in the theater room with your friends and family and leave for 10 minutes while watching on your device while they still watch in the theater room?
You have a choice with pause and pick up, as you described: Either everyone waits for you to get back or you let them continue and you miss the 10 minutes (just like in a real theater).
What you described is exactly how everyone else implements this and you just confirmed that the Roku box works the same way as the others – not like how this article describes.
This still does not solve the problem that their is very little good content coming out of Hollywood or the TV networks.
ridiculous.
Nevermind that no one has bothered to see how often these patents become reality. My guess would be very, very close to zero. But it makes a good article when you can’t come up with any actual analysis.