AppleTV 3

[DS-21]

Anyone else getting one?

I'm getting one as soon as they come out. Not because I think it offers any material improvements over the ATV2 in my living room, but because the AirPort Express in my bedroom died yesterday. That's not Apple's best-designed product. (Though from their perspective it is a great little cash cow: great functionality, and the same since like 2008 or so, so when the power supply pops off in a couple years people are apt to just spring for a new one.) Since the ATV runs a lot cooler than the APE, I think I'll put the ATV2 in the bedroom, and pick up that Monoprice HDMI->component+analog stereo DAC to feed my bedroom zone.

(Alternately, if someone has a recommendation for a >100USD box that takes AirPlay over wireless and outputs an analog stereo audio signal that I can feed to my bedroom integrated amp from another brand, lemme know. I don't care about the video features, as we don't have a TV in the bedroom.)

I do like the new app-style interface better than the old one. The new interface is available on the ATV2 through an update, though my installation didn't go smoothly for some reason last night - sheer number of updates requested? - and I had to find a micro-USB cable to hook my ATV2 to my Mac to restore it. Hopefully that's an isolated occurrence and not a harbinger of the post-Jobs epoch, because it's very un-Apple.

 

[lsiberian]

Anyone else getting one?

I'm getting one as soon as they come out. Not because I think it offers any material improvements over the ATV2 in my living room, but because the AirPort Express in my bedroom died yesterday. That's not Apple's best-designed product. (Though from their perspective it is a great little cash cow: great functionality, and the same since like 2008 or so, so when the power supply pops off in a couple years people are apt to just spring for a new one.) Since the ATV runs a lot cooler than the APE, I think I'll put the ATV2 in the bedroom, and pick up that Monoprice HDMI->component+analog stereo DAC to feed my bedroom zone.

(Alternately, if someone has a recommendation for a >100USD box that takes AirPlay over wireless and outputs an analog stereo audio signal that I can feed to my bedroom integrated amp from another brand, lemme know. I don't care about the video features, as we don't have a TV in the bedroom.)

I do like the new app-style interface better than the old one. The new interface is available on the ATV2 through an update, though my installation didn't go smoothly for some reason last night - sheer number of updates requested? - and I had to find a micro-USB cable to hook my ATV2 to my Mac to restore it. Hopefully that's an isolated occurrence and not a harbinger of the post-Jobs epoch, because it's very un-Apple.

You might consider something like a Roku or even the Xbox 360. I've seen apple TV products and they truly are overpriced IMO.

 

[DS-21]

You might consider something like a Roku or even the Xbox 360. I've seen apple TV products and they truly are overpriced IMO.

I'm certainly not going to allow some loud, obnoxious video game machine into my home! Besides, for the bedroom I don't need anything video, because there's no TV there.

I also don't see how you can say the ATV is overpriced. For just $100 it lets us stream all of our music, movies, and photos from our Macs and iPhones (we have no lesser machines in our home) or our iCloud, and listen to internet radio and stream Netflix. We can also use our iPhones to enter in data, such as Netflix searches.

And unlike the AirPort Express that I had been using in the bedroom (which has a wireless router, too, but we don't need that because we have an Apple Time Capsule handling routing) the ATV runs fairly cool. The APE just doesn't last more than two years before the PS goes pop from overheating. I'd go so far as to say that the ATV is the best source box out there, at any price!

Do you know of another device that does all that for $100? The Xbox, as mentioned above is (a) more expensive, and (b) would never worm its way into my home. The Roku is marginally cheaper (seems like $80 for equivalent streaming functionality to the ATV3) but mentions nothing about what I'd actually need for the bedroom, which is AirPlay compatibility.

The next cheapest new box of which I know that offers the functionality I require is a Mac Mini, at 6x the price or more. If there is a cheaper option that has AirPlay compatibility and a stereo audio out, I'd consider it. I do know that having to hook a computer or phone up to the Picoforte with an analog stereo interconnect is not a viable long-term solution. (Yes, we're that lazy. Also, the kittens have a special appetite for 1/8"-1/8" wires...)

So it seems like the best option for someone in my shoes is to buy an ATV3 for the living room, and move the ATV2 current there to the bedroom, along with a cheap Monoprice DAC to interface with the little stereo setup in there (KEF Picoforte iPod dock driving Tannoy Arena satellites and feeding a DIY sub based on the Peerless XLS12 Application Note).

 

[lsiberian]

Doesn't the Roku give the home user more flexibility than an apple tv. I use an Xbox 360, but I'm a gamer and sports fan(ESPN3).

I've found most apple devices to be very restrictive and geared toward the non-tinkerer. Nothing wrong with having a personal preference though. I was not aware they had lowered the price to 100 last I saw they were much more expensive. Not having Hulu is a deal breaker for me personally, but obviously not an issue for you. The war between Amazon/Google and Apple will be interesting to watch.

 

[DS-21]

Doesn't the Roku give the home user more flexibility than an apple tv.

Not if one keeps all of her/his music on a Mac in iTunes. Then, so far as I can see, a Roku box can't see one's music. All the flexibility in the world is not useful when it can't satisfy the core function one expects such a box to do: stream music from the home music server.

Can one tinker more with it? Probably. But I avoid tinkering whenever I can do so, because I find it more annoying than rewarding. Sometimes it is unavoidable, e.g. in the positioning and calibration of multiple subwoofers. But it's still to me a chore, not a pleasure. In a perfect world, I'd just think "I want to hear x" and x will come forth into the room in the highest possible fidelity.

I was not aware they had lowered the price to 100 last I saw they were much more expensive.

The ATV2 was always $100. I think the first-gen one with a hard drive was more, but the box didn't look interesting to me at any price until the ATV2 came out in 2010 as a small black box (form factor subsequently and predictably copied wholesale by less imaginative competitors, such as Roku), had HD (720p vs. 1080p strikes me as little different on the 46" LCD I have), and transmitted everything over one HDMI wire to the stereo.

That said, if the new TV dongle for Boxee works well, I may spring for one of those alongside the ATV2, just to get an on-screen volume display while watching OTA HDTV. (We don't have or want cable, and my TV is from 2007 so it doesn't return audio over HDMI, even though my Anthem AVR will support that.)

 

[lsiberian]

Not if one keeps all of her/his music on a Mac in iTunes.

I was honestly surprised it was 100 dollars. Most apple products are more expensive than comparable brands. They seem to be reducing that margin nowadays except on the iphone.

 

[audiofox]

I've got one of each, and the ATV (2) is the clear leader relative to utility. The Roku feels like a marketing tool of the services that are compatible with it, which could also be said for the ATV (ie, an Apple marketing vehicle), but at least the ATV2 will play back audio and video source material that you already own, something that the Roku cannot do.

 

[ratm]

Im getting one for sure. I have 2 ATV2's and one of them will be going into my sons room.

 

[Adam]

If the Apple TV would play Hulu and Hulu Plus, I might be all over it. My PS3 plays Netflix and Hulu Plus great, and my MacBook plays Hulu great, but both have relatively loud fan noise. I wouldn't mind a quieter video player.

 

[DS-21]

If the Apple TV would play Hulu and Hulu Plus, I might be all over it.

How to Watch Hulu on Apple TV 2

Presented with the caveat that I've not personally tried it, nor have I ever used Hulu on any device.

 

[BMXTRIX]

After owning an AppleTV, I have zero interest in ever buying their Apple Centric product ever again. As an audio box, it is as good as your computer which is on, and running iTunes, allows it to be, and your collection and playlists and everything else pretty much need to be set up. It can do that well.

But, it's not a iPod, it's AppleTV - The TV part blows compared to the competitors out there. Their demand for MP4 video exclusively, the lack of direct drive connectivity and scanning a network and acting, you know - as a media player, seems just silly to me.

To make it useful, it must be hacked, which can be done, and makes a lot of sense... Or, you buy something different to begin with which does what you want.

Maybe the ATV does what you want and you buy everything download related from Apple and have your PC on all the time running iTunes and ready to go. But, I switched from ATV to a stand alone media server which can pull music from my network and pull videos from my network without issue and play back whatever videos I have on my network regardless of where I buy them from and pretty much regardless of what format they are in.

In 2 years of owning an AppleTV my family never liked it and my entire family never enjoyed using it or the headaches and failings of the product to act as a stand alone MEDIA server. It did pretty well for audio, but so do iPods.

In the year since I bought my home media server I ended up having to buy a second unit just to keep the fighting about who gets to use it to a minimum.

 

[bradsmith]

I personally love my Apple TV. I use AirPlay from my iPhone or iPad quite often to mirror the screen, stream movies, or stream audio. I do Netflix all the time (far better interface than on most devices). Also, with iTunes Match you can access all your music without your computer being on. It can also be hacked to do other things (like Hulu) if you want. It's a good option if you have a lot of Apple devices and don't want a noisy, bulky, more expensive gaming device in your setup.

 

[MidnightSensi2]

It's 100 bucks. hehe, I'll buy it just to play with it. I like some of the new Apple features. I mean, I downloaded some music last night off Beatport, tossed it on the Apple cloud and at work I had it playing off my iPad through an AppleTV. I know the technology isn't all groundbreaking, but the interface is. I too like AirPlay and think that's pretty trick. I've even started using AirPlay at work (I'll download to my iPhone and then run a presentation off an AppleTV).

For movies off harddrives though I still prefer the Western Digitals because of a few reasons:
1. Plug in a USB and your done (or it can read over a network)
2. Plays just about everything, it's like the VLC player of boxed units.
3. The new one reads Journaled formatted stuff (great if you use OS X or Linux and want to play a file over 4GB, which fat32 doesn't support).

...Interface on the WD isn't as sexy though.