Apple TV vs. Digital AV Adapter

[specialkd24]

I'm a pretty new Apple person (got a 4s in October, wife got an iPad in March) and I want to know the differences between getting an Apple TV vs. simply buying a Digital AV Adapter ... besides the fact one is wireless and the other is hooked directly into the TV.

Here is what I'm looking to do. I want to watch streaming sports content on my TV. I'd love to be able to watch ESPN3 games and I have the WatchESPN app, so hopefully that will mirror either way.

Also one of the main reasons I would get it is I want to watch streaming college athletic games. There is a website provider (SIDEARM Sports) that will be streaming football/basketball games in HTML5 format this fall, so no app or special software is needed, you just have to go to a URL. I want to make sure I could watch these live streams on my TV.

I do have a MLB.TV subscription, so watching them on my TV would be a good bonus. I don't have Netflix (although maybe in the future), or watch much Hulu, but things like that could be a bonus. Mainly just sports.

Thoughts? I really appreciate helping a relative newbie.

 

[TiNuts]

I don't know if both mirror the same, but I will say I'm not impressed with streaming to Apple TV from my ipad 3. Maybe it's my wifi or something, I don't know.

 

[kch50428]

An AppleTV is a great addition to an iOS device family. AirPlay is easy to use, and home sharing lets you play everything in your iTunes library on any iDevice you use... mirroring from my iPad to TV is quite handy, and works very well for me.