“With deals in place with all major movie studios and the promise of HD and standard-content options, Apple seemed poised to deliver a user-friendly device that could be used to rent high-quality movies over the Internet and deliver them to a TV rather than to a computer,” Ryan Faas reports for Computerworld.
“That promise has still not been realized. Despite a commitment of 1,000 movie titles as rentals by the end of February in Steve Jobs’ Macworld keynote, a recent inventory conducted by Christopher Breen at Macworld indicated that fewer than 400 were actually available. Many of those are not available in HD,” Faas reports.
“For those movies that are offered in HD, the quality is rather good, as is the Dolby surround sound support. It may not quite reach the level of Blu-ray, but it does come close enough that most viewers won’t see a noticeable difference. It also tends to exceed the quality of many HD video offerings from cable providers,” Faas reports.
“While there might not yet be that much in the way of selection of movie rentals through iTunes, the mechanism for renting and watching movies from the Apple TV is as simple as everything else about the device. It is, in fact, easier than most cable on-demand services and features similar pricing and time limits. Of the choice between an iTunes rental over the Apple TV and video on demand from my cable company, I would choose Apple TV,” Faas reports.
“After renting movies, buying music and TV shows, picking through podcasts, and browsing photos of friends and friends of friends, I have to say that the new Apple TV has more than lived up to my early expectations and truly blew away my previous experiences. The iTunes Store integration (even with its small selection of movies) has brought Apple TV where it should have been from the get-go and has transformed it into both a spectacular entertainment device in its own right as well as an even better nexus of technology and entertainment,” Faas reports.
Much more in the full review here.
It’s only a hobby.
With Comcast On Demand, once you are past the 24 hour mark, if you stop your movie it is gone. With the Apple TV, you can still pause and stop it after 24 hours as long as you don’t get through all the credits.
That is one major bonus for the Apple TV.
I only wish that TV wasn’t locked into using iPhoto for viewing photos.
I prefer iView Media Pro, now Expression Media, because I have control over where and how my photos are stored. iPhoto takes control away.
If anyone knows of a workaround…
One little mentioned feature that I LOVE about it is the AirDisk support. Most people have their stereo system based in the living room connected to their TVs. Now you can play music from iTunes through that sound system (and any others connected directly to your Mac or indirectly via Airport Express) simultaneously and in perfect sync throughout your home!!!
You can even control iTunes on your Mac from the Apple Remote via TV (if you set prefs accordingly).
Very nice!!
though i was among the first screaming zeder and mordio in february when it was clear apple will never reach that 1000 movies goal in time, they now have more than 400 movies to be fair. how much exactly? we dont know. they axed the possibility to actually count them because the “all rentals” list is gone from the apple tv and the genre-lists are inclomplete, missing a lot of the movies you find elsewhere (new to the store, search). the “all rentals” list on itunes has 398 movies though for instance three of the alien-movies are not in that list. you find them when you search for “alien”. so it’s a pretty mess. what kind of people are working there? otherwise an mazing device.
Digital distribution is the future. To hell with shiny spinning disks.
In the future people will store all their movies on ssds connected to their computer which will be connected to their tvs. The video store is obsolete and so is bluray. If the internet can kill cds it’ll do the same to dvds and bluray discs.
Add optional DVR capability via the USB port and lights are out for the competition. Or partner with third party developers for that piece. Yes, a third platform for developers. Three Golden Gate bridges!
The family and ‘i’ have enjoyed Apple TV tremendously! From streaming HD movies to our 1080p LCD panel, to streaming iTunes music and radio streams to our connected stereo system, to streaming YouTube video, to streaming video pod casts, to watching our own self-produced videos, to watching our photos one-by-one, or letting them float by in screen-saver mode, we have MORE than enough video content to keep us happy.
Add to that mix “legacy” DVDs played on an up-converting DVD player, as well as HD broadcast TV received over the air.
We don’t have cable TV though. Guess what? Don’t really need it! Don’t really miss it either. (Except, of course, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, which is available for $2.00 per show. Still a bit pricey for us. How about subscription serial TV anyone?)
So, yes, we thoroughly enjoy our Apple TV 2.0! What could version 3 bode? Streaming LIVE TV perhaps?
Stay tuned. . .
Gotta love the FREE video pod casts. Check out some of the HD pod casts. Very nice.
Not a hobby anymore. The HD PodCast are just stunning. There is so much content to access.
Apple has less content for sale now than before the re-launch. Most of the new movie content is RENT-ONLY. Why should I rent for 24 hours for $3-4 when I can buy for $10?
Steve Jobs BS about people only watching movies once just will not fly. Explain Blockbuster, Netflix, HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, The Movie Channel, Starz, American Movie Classics, Turner Classic Movies, etc.
It doesn’t add up.
The truth is that Hollywood is holding out for RENTALS on Video and SUBSCRIPTION music. It’s heavy-handed cartel-like activity that wouldn’t be tolerated if we had a real Justice Department that wasn’t busy carrying BushCo’s water.
BTW- The 2.0 interface sucks and I’m not the only one to notice. The sync method, more similar to an iPhone rather than an iPod also sucks very hard. Finally, the HW is sluggish.
Not only have the movie studios not provided enough content, they are using AppleTV as a dumping ground for fifty years of cinematic lemons. Take a few minutes to browse the content and you’ll see a long list of Hollywood misses:
The Golden Child
Alien 3
Congo
Speed 2
Best Defense
Solaris
etc.
This is not to mention the list of truly awful content that even TNT won’t show on a rainy wednesday, like Sandy Duncan in “Star Spangled Girl” or almost any Ben Affleck movie.
There is a lot of good content, too, but it seems like the studios are going to dump a lot of trash on us before we get a respectable iTunes film library. Maybe they want AppleTV to fail?
well, atleast zoolander is there for me…
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How do you pay for the movies? Is it all credit/debit card? Can you use an iTunes card?
The “it’s only a hobby” comment was a dead give away it’s a very big deal down the road for Apple.
The number pulled in this article uses information conducted at the end of last month. How many are there today when the article was actually written? This is lazy writing, with the author unwilling to conduct their own research. Finding out how many movies are available is relatively easy to do folks.
The Apple TV has become my favorite and most used component of my home theater system
If they end up putting a camera on it for chat and/or give it some gaming capabilities, it will become a best seller for the holidays. But even as it is, it’s darn good stuff.
@Mr Reee
iView, or to give it its Microsoft name “Expression Media” is rubbish ever since MS took control. The product was good 7 years ago but I would give it a miss today if I were you…
I love the IDEA of appleTV but there is not currently any “there” there. What is the value of apple TV with the content currently available? Perhaps I can answer a question with a question.
What is the current value of an HD DVD player.
When there is content I love it and will buy one, until then it is an expensive way to get your kids pictures on your television.
Those of you who think AppleTV is all about movie rentals are clueless.
It extends anything in your iTunes library (podcasts, music, photos, RIPPED DVDs). Jesus Christ, wake up and learn what this device does.
I didn’t buy ATV for renting movies. I bought it so I could digitize all my media and enjoy it in my home theater.
I agree with mactivist. There are so many uses for AppleTV.
The rentals are great and work flawlessly but using AppleTV with EyeTV is a great way to record and watch content from my computer located in another part of the house and wirelessly
and seamlessly accessed by my AppleTV.
He’s right learn what the the device does and then come up with some more uses.
@ IONLYUSEOSX
I don’t see DVR capability coming to Apple TV.
It’s just not in Apple’s DNA to have media set to show at a certain time, and create software to record it. They will be very stubborn on that point.
What’s the difference between recording a show via DVR, or downloading it? Not much if they get more content… Then the files will be uniform in quality, all using Quicktime, etc…
However, I see them adding commercials to the TV shows and making them free.
It’s an iPod Touch for your TV, and they will keep the simplicity of the iPod user experience on the Apple TV.
Mr. Reeee,
I hope you’ll give iPhoto another chance. It still has some of the limitations you lamented, but now you can use it with iPhoto Buddy, and it becomes supremely elegant and easy. Add iPhoto Library Manager and you have the total iPhoto solution package. And it is no longer limited to particular locations (although you can only use one location at a time).
Here’s something that is on it’s way for sure… A while back someone had created an iPhone app that controlled the functions of music software (I think it was Logic)… All the slider bars and such were on both his iPhone and the monitor, and what ever he did on the iPhone was done on the monitor.
So, how about your iPhone becoming an extremely advanced remote control for Apple TV?? It could show the info about a movie right on the remote (iPhone), including the Movie artwork, chapter selections, elapsed time, etc… It would reduce the amount of steps required to, let’s say, choose a different chapter since you don’t need to look at the remote, then the TV, then the remote, etc…