“Apple Inc has graced the public with another smooth, white, exquisitely designed gadget, this time aiming at making it easier to play iTunes movies and songs on the living-room TV set,” Peter Svensson writes for The Associated Press.
Svensson writes, “Too bad, then, that where looks really matter – in the quality of the video on the TV screen – the $299 Apple TV comes up very short. It’s as if Apple had launched an iPod that sounded like a cassette player.”
“On the TV screen, the Apple TV projects a very iPod-like interface, commendably clear and easy to use. It also looks great, especially on a high-definition TV. It uses your own pictures as an animated screensaver,” Svensson writes. “It’s surprising, then, that videos from Apple’s online iTunes store look horrible on an HDTV set. The movies and TV shows have the same nominal resolution as DVDs, but look much blurrier, approaching the look of standard-definition broadcast TV.”
“I compared the Apple TV to Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360 game console, which can more or less do the same things, acting like a bridge between a Windows computer and an HDTV set,” Svensson writes. “After having my eyes gently caressed by the Apple TV’s menus, the Xbox interface is like a slap in the face. It’s garish and confusing, and you have to press more buttons to get where you want to go.”
Svensson writes, “But the Xbox does your HDTV justice. Microsoft’s Xbox Live marketplace has some movies in HD, and these look absolutely stunning – better than most broadcast HD, and almost indistinguishable from HD DVD or Blu-ray discs, which provide the best video quality available to consumers right now. [But] the movies can be watched only on the Xbox, while Apple’s movies can be viewed on a computer or iPod screen as well. You only get 24 hours to watch an Xbox movie, which seems unnecessarily harsh,” Svensson writes. “The Xbox is also a bit of a brute compared to the Apple TV. It’s noisy, and its power adapter really deserves being called a ‘brick’ – it’s as large as the whole Apple TV, which doesn’t have a brick of its own.”
Svensson writes, “Of course, Apple will at some point start selling HD video through iTunes. It has to. Will that play on the current Apple TV? Probably, but I’m wary of the result. According to the company’s specifications, the Apple TV can play HD video with a resolution of 1,280 by 720 pixels, but it doesn’t actually seem that well suited to it. The hard drive is small, and the low power consumption speaks of weak processors inside. And since Apple’s standard-definition video looks so bad, I’m not confident the HD video will look good either.”
Full article here.
It’s unfortunate that one man’s opinion – an opinion that doesn’t jive with those of multiple other reviewers’ (see related articles below) – will nonetheless get picked up by hundreds of AP media outlets. Even more unfortunate is his addition of pure conjecture that when and if iTunes Store offers HD content it “won’t look good either” and that Apple TV “doesn’t actually seem that well suited to” handling HD content. Those baseless statements turn Svensson’s “review” into nothing more than a widely-disseminated hit piece.
Apple TV’s iTunes Store current content looks much better than this reviewer’s opinion leads readers to believe – as multiple other Apple TV reviews have stated (see related articles below).
It is incorrect and unfair to blame the Apple TV for iTunes Store’s lack of HD content. Blame Apple and/or the content providers for that issue; in the meantime, see: Where to get HD content for your Apple TV – March 29, 2007
Robert Scoble, former Microsoft technical evangelist and prominent blogger, April 2, 2007: Microsoft’s Mike Torres notes that Apple TV — to his eyes — doesn’t look sharp on HDTV screens (he’s not alone, several of my friends saw them in Apple stores and say they don’t look sharp). I saw one on display that wasn’t set properly. Mine came by default set to something other than 1080i. When I changed the setting to 1080i it got a TON sharper… when I put HD content on my Apple TV it looks just as sharp as stuff coming off of my Media Center/Xbox 360 setup). Full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: Apple TV specs:
• Video formats supported: H.264 and protected H.264 (from iTunes Store): 640 by 480, 30 fps, LC version of Baseline Profile; 320 by 240, 30 fps, Baseline profile up to Level 1.3; 1280 by 720, 24 fps, Progressive Main Profile. MPEG-4: 640 by 480, 30 fps, Simple Profile
• Audio formats supported: AAC (16 to 320 Kbps); protected AAC (from iTunes Store); MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps); MP3 VBR; Apple Lossless; AIFF; WAV
• Photo formats supported: JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, PNG
• Enhanced-definition or high-definition widescreen TVs capable of 1080i 60/50Hz, 720p 60/50Hz, 576p 50Hz (PAL format), or 480p 60Hz
Related articles:
Apple TV USB support is now enabled via hack – March 30, 2007
Digit hands-on with Apple TV: ‘simple to set up, a delight to use’ – March 29, 2007
Newsweek: Apple TV has a lot going for it – March 29, 2007
Apple overriding Apple TV hacks? – March 29, 2007
Hacking Apple TV: Joost successfully run on Apple TV – March 28, 2007
Apple TV software hints at future DVR functions? – March 28, 2007
Ten Apple TV myths – March 28, 2007
Ars Technica in-depth review: Apple TV ‘impressed all those who touched it’ – March 27, 2007
The chips inside Apple TV – March 27, 2007
Analyst: Apple TV is a platform, not a single product – March 27, 2007
Digital Trends reviews Apple TV: 7 out of 10, ‘huge phenomenon will challenge conventional thinking’ – March 26, 2007
Automatically convert video files for Apple TV with Apple’s Automator – March 26, 2007
Apple TV, iTunes, iTunes Store: BusinessWeek’s Wildstrom blows it – March 26, 2007
iLounge gives Apple TV a ‘B’ in hands-on review: ‘recommended’ – March 24, 2007
CNET reviews Apple TV: ‘Very Good’ – 7.7 out of 10 – March 24, 2007
Video: Apple TV menu and interface walkthrough – March 23, 2007
Analyst: Apple TV will change the TV business – March 23, 2007
G4’s ‘Attack of the Show’ host Olivia Munn licks Apple TV – March 23, 2007
Xvid fully functional on Apple TV – March 23, 2007
Apple TV does not require Widescreen TV or HDTV, works with standard TVs – March 23, 2007
CBS looks at Apple TV on ‘The Early Show’ (with video) – March 23, 2007
Scoble: ‘Apple TV rocks’ – March 23, 2007
Apple TV hard drive upgrade works – March 23, 2007
Apple TV dissection photos – March 22, 2007
Apple posts Apple TV User’s Guide online – March 22, 2007
Enderle: ‘Apple’s attractive and well packaged Apple TV likely to set the pace’ – March 22, 2007
David Pogue demos Apple TV in humorous NY Times’ video – March 22, 2007
PC Magazine review gives Apple TV 4 out of 5 stars – March 22, 2007
NY Times’ Pogue: ‘Apple TV offers a gracious, elegant, effortless, delightful experience’ – March 21, 2007
Mossberg hands-on with Apple TV: ‘beautiful design, easy-to-use, classic Apple: simple and elegant’ – March 21, 2007
Apple TV projected to surpass TiVo, Netflix – March 20, 2007
Former Microsoft ‘Enthusiast Evangelist’ Gartenberg looks at impact of Apple TV – March 20, 2007
Apple TV ships – March 20, 2007
I run HD content from computer to tv, looks like the original. The reviewer needs to realize that you can’t expect HD “clarity” if iPod-format video files are viewed on a 50″ plasma. If you want HD, run HD files through it. Demo on my set-up here:
http://web.mac.com/soonerdean/iWeb/Sooner Dean/Apple TV Demo.html
I don’t see where there is a valid arguement in favor of this guy. It’s a hack, a hit piece. Apple TV I’m sure looks as good as my Macbook, which we connect to the TV via VGA. Fantastic. And it’s not like that’s my opinion, no one who has seen compressed video played thru my computer to our HDTV 42″ has had anythin to say other than “Wow.” So where this guy gets off writting a scathing review I don’t know. You can say it’s his right to an opinion, but I have an extremely strong suspicion there’s more to this one than meets the eye (it’s a paid hit).
These reviewers are confusing the device and the content played on it. Do they complain that regular DVDs look bad when played back on an HD set? Actually, I’m quite impressed with the video quality on my appleTV connected to my Sony Bravia 32″ LCD. Even the few shows I downloaded from iTunes so far — a couple of episodes of “Heroes,” a couple of the Sundance short films — look great as far as I’m concerned. Are they HD? No, they aren’t, but they’re easily better looking than the SD programming that comes through my cable. Perhaps it’s my Sony Bravia which can help upsample SD content and has mpeg softening. It’s the same model Bravia that Apple is using in their stores. But I’ve also edited some of my own HD content in iMovie HD as a test and streamed the resulting 1080i movie to appleTV and it looked gorgeous! Frankly, there isn’t that much HD content out there available for download. Once there is, and once iTunes starts carrying it, the appleTV will really shine for these guys. The real key to apple TV in my opinion is having everything accessible through the Front Row-like interface. I can easily put together my own short film festival with films streamed from my Dual G4 in the office. Since streaming works so well, I can’t understand why anyone would want to sync anything other than photos and a little background music for slide shows.
Our store got one TV and one Airport Extreme Base in our Sunday shipment, they were both gone within one hour!
MW = sense
these Anal-ysts have no sense of what ppl want.
I agree with the writer. I was in the Apple store the other day and looked at the Apple TV. It is not ready for watching movies or tv shows from the iTMS. There are a lot of artifacts. You will be much better off with a DVD for now.
But podcasts may be a different story. Especially with Canon getting ready to introduce a 1080p camcorder for $1100. This will make it a whole new ballgame. I can see using the Apple TV to stream 10 minute 720p podcasts. This will be incredible.
this article is totally spot on. Why does MDN have to be so defensive? FACE IT – The AppleTV is a WASTE OF MONEY AND IT SUCKS.
I think Svensson was being kind. ALL of the SD content from iTunes looks like crap. It’s OK if you missed an ep and absolutely
must see it.
Buying movies there is a joke. Why would you pay for such poor quality-with no extras-when for slighty more you get a physical copy in much higher quality that won’t disappear when your hard drive crashes?
iTunes sold like 3 miilion movies in 4 months? And PIRATES 2 sold 8 million DVD copies in 4 days.
As for HD, the movie trailers look OK, but it takes as long as 15 minutes to download a 2 minute trailer! It would take days to get a movie!
In its current incarnation Apple TV is a waste of money. It will soon be piling up in warehouses once the 3 people who have a need for it buy them. It is so limited it’s pretty useless.
Even more unfortunate is his addition of pure conjecture that when and if iTunes Store offers HD content it “won’t look good either” and that Apple TV “doesn’t actually seem that well suited to” handling HD content.
While the first part is only partly conjecture, the second most definately is not. As for the iTunes Store offering HD content, the author is basing this assumption on Apple’s past performance. The quality of Apple’s music downloads have long been woefully bad (only since the EMI announcement have they been as better than “near CD” quality), and their movie downloads haven’t been any better (“near DVD” quality??). Now, while I understand that the movie thing has more to do with download size, we’ve long passed the point at which Apple should have started offering high quality (Apple Lossless) audio downloads. As to the second claim, the small hard drive, low power (read: SLOW) processor, and 1280 x 720 resolution limitation do, in fact, make the Apple TV not well suited for handling HD content.
Just because you don’t like what someone says doesn’t make it conjecture. Oh, wait. This is MDN.
uhhh… a casette tape has higher fidelity than most digital files. It’s just the nature of magnetic media.
I don’t even bother watching SD on my HD set because, quite frankly, it looks worse than watching it on a regular TV. I’ve tried watching DVDs on my HD set as well, same issue.
I watched a movie via my son’s X-Box the other night. He already has the online account stuff. The points method of payment is, to me, distasteful and has the smell of deciet. The movie library is very slim (a lot of old movies that you see on TV all the time), but so is the ITS list. That said, the movie streamed in flawlessly and was viewable within 5 minutes and looked great our 54″ HD screen.
I checked out Apple TV in an Apple store, and the videos didn’t look good. I’m sure they look great on an iPod, but on a big screen, it looked pixelated and blurry. But for photos, and music, it worked amazingly well.
I haven’t actually bought any movies from iTunes (just a few music videos), so it’s not a huge concern for me. I’m much more interested in what it can do with photos.
Oh My God!!!
Make more Kool-Aid quick!
MDN, launch into action! Who knows how many people may be influenced to not buy something as pointless and retarded as the AppleTV as a result of this naysayer!!!!
I have to second the opinion that the SD video files that are available for the AppleTV look HORRIBLE on it. And I am the biggest Apple apologist of all time.
I was in the SoHo store the other day and it too was crowded everywhere else except the AppleTV section (which was large).
I think they rushed the AppleTV out to gain leverage with other studios in making deals for the iTunes store. But the loser is the consumer. You’ll get the best video quality hooking up an iPod to a standard def TV over RCA cables.
This will change when they upgrade movie files to 720p. Which they better do quickly.
“how is 640 x 480 HD content? for itunes to match the potential quality of their device they would need to provide higher resolution files….”
“These reviewers are confusing the device and the content played on it.”
Nail on the head.
“As for HD, the movie trailers look OK, but it takes as long as 15 minutes to download a 2 minute trailer! It would take days to get a movie!”
Exactly, Do you really think at this point in time you’re going to be able to download a movie in full HD quality? Think again. Blu-Ray and HD DVD hold like 30-50 GBs. That’s a looooooooooooooooooong download.
This is very early in the game. Apple will surely address Apple TV shortcomings. Unfortunately Apple can not address the idiocy of all that defend a mediocre offering. As it stands I will not buy an Apple TV, once the resolution and renting issues have been addressed, I will consider one. But for now, it’s simply to early and laking to consider one.
My AppleTV looks fantastic on my HDTV. Well worth $300. I love it. Does that mean Apple won’t come out with a 1080p version at some point? I’m sure they will, and it will probably cost more too. But when will that be? How many people actaully own a 1080p HDTV now? Not many. It’s still several years off. Meanwhile, Apple is slowly getting the content, giving us a pratical way to experiance the concept, and basically paving the way for the future.
There is a logical evolution to these types of technology. Two years from now everyone who ponied up $300 for their AppleTV will rush out and buy the new and improved version of it to work with their new 1080p set they just got around to buying to replace their old 1080i set.
Look at how Sony is stuggling with the PS3. Why? Because most people are not yet ready for 1080p or willing to pay for it. It’s ahead of it’s time. Sony has the right idea, but the cost of a true 1080p exeriance: the console, the player, the TV, is too expensive for most people right now.
If Apple were to do the same thing the AppleTV would cost more, the movies would cost more, and you would need a HDTV capable of displaying 1080p. How much would all that cost you? Too much. And the AppleTV concept would most likely fail. Apple probably couldn’t get 1080p content right now anyway. So, by getting the movie industry on board now with lower quality content, by letting people experiance Apple’s TV concept now, with the TV they already have, will make it possible for Apple to offer higher quality content later and give the whole AppleTV concept a chance at success.
Although I agree that the AP author made a handful of ridiculous statements, the bigger issue is what is Apple’s strategy here?
Apple has no HD movies at the iTS. So why did Apple release an AppleTV that pretty much demands being hooked up to an HDTV (yes, I know it can be hooked up to a non-HD widescreen)? Why not wait until at least some HD content was available? (Note Apple didn’t release the iPod with video until they had TV shows ready to go at the iTS.)
The best explanation so far is the chicken and egg problem, namely, Apple can’t get any studio to offer HD content unless they demonstrate that they have a market, and that it’s secure (or at least as secure as the Xbox-to-media center connection). So they release the AppleTV to establish that leverage. But then, why not first release an AppleTV usable on an SDTV so that its 640×480 iTS content looks good?
The other explanation is that the HD content is imminent. But then, why not hold back the AppleTV just a bit so as to have a joint big-splash announcement?
What color is Apple TV? Looks grey in ads. Writer says it’s white?
I have seen the TV in action and have played HDTV through my TV and what I have seen is significantly better than x-box 360 (or any other quantity of those things)
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” /> I read thisi artile in PhysOrg Newsletter and felt this guy was being paid off by M$ but who am I to even consider that a journalist would be in the hip pocket of a corporation. How dare I even think such a thing. Hurmph!
My experience with TV is good enought to where I am now in my multimedia room more than my office – watching, listenting while reading a book. Teh only consideration I have is that I will now have to have one for each tv in the house. because I have seen TV and have found it to be more than I expected.
In all fairness I am sure Svenssen of the AP didn’t know he adjust the resolution to coinside with his settop box and his HDTV. So if he has a lousy “HD” resolution playing on his HDTV then he will have a lousy TV experience. It’s all in the settings, Peter.
All you have to do is read the direction there, Peter. Or better yet – since all of it is actually contained within the menu operations of the TV display – just press uttons untilyou have that high quality HDTV experience – unless you feel that you need ot maintain your loyalty with X-BOX – how much were you ‘fronted” to do your personalized research?
MDN = seen
the symbol is found by typing simultaniously option – shift and he the letter “k” –
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” />
shift+k = K
Sorry, did not read all. I’m sorry!
This is the biggest gripe with push media: no accountability. The so-called writer is probably a made-up name. There’s no way of knowing, so you have to assume that. These days, any reputable journalist online or in a newspaper includes their email address. Unless AP starts doing that, you have to assume their reviews are full of crap and paid for.
This Svensson is a complete fool. He probably hasn’t even actually seen TV in action, contrary to what he claims because he clearly has no idea what he is talking about.
I own an HDTV and when I fired up my very first ripped movie on TV, the quality blew me away. I don’t believe this guy understands that TV is only a delivery system and is only as good as the quality of the video it plays.
Hey Svensson — take a lesson: if you rip music to an MP3 at 80kbps it won’t sound as good as at 190kpbs. Duh.
I rip video at the highest resolution using Cinematize Pro (a great product by the way) and the quality of it’s iPod video setting is amazing. Some of it actually rivals HD content from Time Warner Cable here in NYC. Certainly better than standard TV and definitely better than DVD output.
As far as the 40G HD, who needs it? My new Aiport Extreme streams content at “n” so fast that I don’t even use the TV hard drive.
For those of us who actually understand video and own and use an TV, we have seen the future. This guy is an idiot and just proves that you cannot believe what you read — because guys like him can print anything, no matter how uninformed or wrong they may be — and people will still believe it.
How sad for people like him and those who accept his crap as fact.
Here’s a fact for you — TV rocks. Period.
“As for HD, the movie trailers look OK, but it takes as long as 15 minutes to download a 2 minute trailer! It would take days to get a movie!”
Every trailer I tried played within about 40-60 seconds.
“In its current incarnation Apple TV is a waste of money. It will soon be piling up in warehouses once the 3 people who have a need for it buy them. It is so limited it’s pretty useless.”
Only while the iTunes Store doesn’t sell HD. The aTV is awesome, the iTunesStore videos are the weak point.