Apple Store“Today our Apple TVs have finally arrived and I’ve been testing them out,” Paul Kafasis blogs for Rogue Amoeba.

Kafasis discusses some Apple TV surprises and his impressions:

• The AppleTV doesn’t ship with any connection cables

• The AppleTV doesn’t require a “Widescreen TV” or an HDTV: Let’s dispense with one myth right now – the AppleTV does not need a widescreen TV. AppleTV does have a 480i mode, which works with standard-def TVs. My guess is that Apple would rather lose a few customers than confuse everyone. Only standard-def TVs made in the past few years will have component inputs, so most of the fifty years worth of standard-def TVs out there still won’t work with the AppleTV. By referring to Widescreen TVs, they may prevent people with standard-def TVs from buying only to find out they need a new TV. But if you’ve purchased a new, non-HDTV in the past few years, the AppleTV will work for you (provided you have component input jacks).

• The AppleTV works pretty well with your music library

• If iTunes can play it, AppleTV might be able. Or maybe not: Certainly, AppleTV can play any audio or video you purchase from the iTunes Store. However, iTunes uses QuickTime for playback of videos, while AppleTV does not. If you try and sync unsupported video content from iTunes to AppleTV, the files won’t sync over.

• Video playback, including streaming, works well

Full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Fred Mertz" for the heads up.]

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