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Awesome tips from Reddit users on how to get the most out of your Apple TV

Updated Dec 30th, 2013 2:39PM EST
Apple TV Tips And Tricks

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Flipping through the back pages of “the front page of the Internet” often yields some real gems, and a recently posted thread packed full of tips and tricks for new Apple TV owners certainly fits the bill. When a Reddit user who received a new Apple TV as a Christmas gift posted a message to the Apple subreddit looking for “cool tips,” Redditors answered the call. The thread had more than 280 comments at the time of this writing and it is packed with plenty of great tips and tricks that new users and even some longtime Apple TV owners will find useful.

Here’s a collection of some of the best tips from the thread:

  • “Holding down the menu button will get you back to the main menu faster than clicking menu 100 times.” –Confucius_said
  • “Holding up during playback shows info about the video. Holding select while the info bar is up gives you audio options (closed captioning).” –37b
  • “Also, in Netflix, press “play” on the episode in the summary episode-list page to play it directly. Most people press “select” to go into the episode detail page and play it from there.” –Oysterous
  • “If you go to the settings, you can hide apps from the main screen, which is nice if you know you’re never going to touch a lot of things on it.” –notzak
  • “If you wish to organize your home screen more, you can select an icon and hold down on the center button until the icons start jiggling and move it wherever you want.” –ThirdFromTheSun
  • “Configure your display settings to ensure you’re getting the best resolution for your TV size. I noticed that when I first set mine up on our 52″, it wasn’t even pushing HD quality by default.” –nittanygeek
  • “iFlicks is worth every penny. You’ll want to format your movie collection so they’re optimized for streaming to your Apple TV, especially if you’re working across wifi on both systems. iFlicks will automatically format the video and gather the metadata for the video too.” –nittanygeek
  • “If you have an iOS device, particularly an iPad, download and setup the Apple Remote App. It’s much easier to type on your iOS device than using the remote to move letter to letter. Or pair a bluetooth keyboard. It will save your sanity.” –nittanygeek
  • B4MPER notes that Beamer, a $15 app that lets you stream any movie from a Mac computer to an Apple TV, is “worth every penny.”
  • “You can put the Apple TV to sleep immediately by holding play/pause on the main menu.” –Defragged
  • “If you own blu-rays with digital editions, these can be added to your iCloud movies.” –entropy5225 (click that link for instructions)
  • “Take some duct tape. Get your TV remote, get the Apple TV remote. Duct tape that little bastard to the back of your TV remote.” –captainloverman (DrInMyMind notes that using tiny velcro squares is probably a better idea)

There are plenty more great tips and tricks in the Reddit thread, which is linked below in our source section.

Zach Epstein
Zach Epstein Executive Editor

Zach Epstein has been the Executive Editor at BGR for more than 10 years. He manages BGR’s editorial team and ensures that best practices are adhered to. He also oversees the Ecommerce team and directs the daily flow of all content. Zach first joined BGR in 2007 as a Staff Writer covering business, technology, and entertainment.

His work has been quoted by countless top news organizations, and he was recently named one of the world's top 10 “power mobile influencers” by Forbes. Prior to BGR, Zach worked as an executive in marketing and business development with two private telcos.