“Those who scoff at the AppleTV as being a closed system or too simplistic are missing the point. You don’t typically pick up one of these things as a standalone media center; it would be next to useless compared to the alternatives. However, if you’re already reasonably committed to an Apple universe -in particular, use of iTunes for media management, iPod(s) and an Apple computer of some description- then the AppleTV isn’t taking the easy way out so much as an taking advantage of a well honed multimedia ecosphere. Everything just works (mostly), and that appeals to the systems design geek in me much more than constructing a box myself ever would,” Moon reports.
“There’s also something inherently cool about buying a piece of hardware that has continually expanded its capabilities over the past few years through software updates instead of leaving early adopters behind with multiple new hardware iterations,” Moon reports. “And for someone without cable, the ability to buy and rent movies and TV shows on demand is extremely useful… And if the rumors that have been flying around about Apple offering subscription TV services pan out, it may be even get even better.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
Agree with article – still love mine and awaiting the next version.
The next version of AppleTV will be on my shopping list. I get over the air TV which is fine for the little TV I do watch. But I’d like to enjoy the content contained on my iMac on my TV.
Still holding out for the next hardware revision. 1080p support would be nice …
Apple TV is a fantastic little box of tricks have got 100’s of films and 1000’s of TV episodes all stored on 5TBs attached to my iMac would not be without my ATV just wish you could surf the web without having to buy some flash software ( which I have not done )
With my old Powerbook G4 pulling iTunes server duties and a 1TB hard drive attached my Apple TV gets more action that over the air broadcast. My kids love that they can pull any of their movies a million times and not running the risk of scratching up a disk. Although not Blueray the HD content is much better than cable and satellite.
You just got a lump of coal.
iSteve – The next version of AppleTV will be on my shopping list. I get over the air TV which is fine for the little TV I do watch. But I’d like to enjoy the content contained on my iMac on my TV.
For $50 you can buy the ATV Flash hack and really open up an Apple TV or for $80 you can buy a WD TV or the WD TV Live for $100 from Western Digital. If all you want to do is play downloaded media this little box has the Apple TV beat hands down as it’s 1080p and plays all the formats the ATV doesn’t.
Add an EyeTV 250+ & a Turbo 264HD to your Mac and the Apple TV is complete. You can schedule the EyeTV to record & export to iTunes which can be configured to auto add or stream to the Apple TV.
The Turbo 264 HD also converts DVD video to Apple TV.
Finally, if you have an iPhone you can remotely schedule your EyeTV from anywhere on the fly and have the content waiting on the Apple TV when you are ready.
Really don’t understand the push for 1080p. Can’t talk myself into thinking I can see the difference, and don’t really want to have to buy that much storage. IMHO.
1080p or no, the Apple TV is one of the best purchases I’ve made for my HD entertainment system.
You who would have purchased one but didn’t due to the ‘egregious omission of true 1080p support’ are fools and have really missed out.
I love my Apple TVs
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Buggy as heck. Menu sometimes slow as molasses going through the menus, as a party group waits for a selection. 50% chance of the Apple TV not working when waking from a few days inactivity. Unplugging the power cord and waiting two minutes to reboot is a fail.
I can’t imagine my motorola cable box having even one hiccup, while my Apple TV is buggy and weak. Apple called it the 4th leg of the company, but that was dropped and now no one there gives a shit.
I got a HDX 1000 media tank for Christmas (made in HK). Sure it can play a zillion kinds of file formats and do it in HD 1080 to boot, but if it requires 8 hours worth of effort to try and get it to play nice with my Mac ecosphere, than no thanks. I still have not gotten it to work and will be returning it. I’ll take an Apple TV anyday.
“Add an EyeTV 250+ & a Turbo 264HD to your Mac and the Apple TV is complete.”
I wish that were the case. I bought one to do just that, but it’s just sitting there unused. No one ever tells you the one huge problem. If any of your cable channels are encrypted, EyeTV can’t view or record them (and almost every channel I want to record is).
AppleTV is a great product, not perfect, but still great. I’ll probably buy two more in the next year. It’s way too easy to share iTunes content. The biggest problem that I have is not Apple’s issue at all. I have DirecTV and a TubeStick w/The Tube software on my MacBook Pro. I can record anything that comes out of the DirecTV receiver, but not directly from the Satellite signal, and there is no integration with the channel guide. I’m in a rural area, so cable (which I hate anyway) and over-the-air are not even options. DirecTV offers no Mac integration. If Apple adds subscriptions and internet access to AppleTV, I might just drop DirecTV. We’ll see what 2010 brings. The subscriptions would have to have plenty of content available, but I’m open to a new alternative. I just hope that my bandwidth can keep up.
Apple Inc, 3 screens and the clou— whaaaaa?
When todays children are told that they should think themselves fortunate, as all their grandparents used to get for Christmas when they were children themselves was an orange and an apple, current kids believe that their grandparents actually got a cell phone and a computer for Christmas.
@Mugwump. Completely agree with you. Apple TV is very buggy, slow and prone to losing connection/crashing. About 50% of the time sounds right in my experience. And no hard off-button, WTF?
It needs a much faster processor, hard off-button, rock solid stability and yes – a remote with more buttons (sick of spending endless time trying to navigate around the thing on a designer remote which lacks the essentials). Oh, a 1 or 2 Tb hard drive would be nice too. These things are essential if it’s to become a mainstream product.
Apple TV could be a great product, in terms of what it does it’s fine for me although I would love it to do more, but as others have said, it’s too slow and unreliable for mainstream adoption.
AppleTV is great for TV shows as 720p is good enough, but I’ll stick with my Blu-Ray Player for HD movies.
For you 1080p fans, here is a guide as to what screen size, viewing distance and what your eye can see.
http://carltonbale.com/1080p-does-matter
Most rooms are 12′ wide by whatever. Sitting 8′ away, you would need about a 65′ screen to see the difference between 720 and 1080. If you have a smaller screen, you are just wasting drive space and bandwidth for 1080. The human eye just can’t see the difference.
Don’t take my word for it, read the article.
…need about a 65″ screen…
inches not feet. MDN, need an edit button!
Really Apple TV is a fantastic little box of tricks have got 100’s of films and 1000’s of TV episodes all stored on 5TBs attached to my iMac would not be without my ATV just wish you could surf the web without having to buy some flash software…
r4i software