Apple TV - Anyone try one yet?

[BMXTRIX]

I spent a few minutes last week playing with one of these units and it seems like THIS is what the future of home entertainment is all about.

It's a step shy of a fully blown media center PC, without any of the issues related to a HTPC. No configuration crud, and all the outputs and connectivity you expect from a home theater product including HDMI and component video HD otuputs.

Now, I didn't spend enough time with it to really understand it, but it sure seems like it is right on track for what people want.

Video playback? Check!
Music playback? Check!
Photo browsing? Check!

Easy control (I think it's a 5 button (or so) remote) - Check!

It does a bunch more in there I think, but it really does seem to be what the home theater PC often fails to be. A basic interface between the PCs in your home and your nice home theater setup. With a price of.. what is it? $250 or so? Not exactly going to kill many of us.

I really wanted a good interface to play my 'home movies' from the hard drive on and this may be the ticket!

 

[avaserfi]

I got to see one in action and they are pretty neat toys. I would love one if I had money to blow. I plan on getting into an apple store to play more soon. I do agree though. These little things or something like them are going to be the wave of the future.

 

[Desert Toad]

I currently have a new imac that has the same report and works somewhat similiar to the itv, very easy to use. I plan on getting an itv to play my qt movies, idvd movies I've made with imovie, all my music from itunes, and I think it will run iphoto like a slideshow as well.

As soon as anyone gets one, I hope there is a review here!

 

[emorphien]

Any thoughts on the video quality? I've heard it's not great. I personally find HTPCs pretty easy to set up and use, but this will probably appeal to some people.

Based on its capabilities though I think I'd personally spend $100 more and get an XBox, does much of the same stuff plus allows me to play games.

 

[j_garcia]

My buddy works there (iPod group), and he is coming by my place tomorrow night. Let me ask him what he thinks about it. He mentioned it briefly last year when it was in development, but couldn't say a whole lot about it.

 

[Matt34]

Let us know Tomorrow, I'm also interested in this.

 

[jcPanny]

Apple TV

If this device could download content directly from iTunes and use an external USB harddrive then it could easily replace a PC media server for a fraction of the cost.

 

[emorphien]

That's one thing that kills it for me, the dependence on iTunes.

 

[jonnythan]

It only plays videos from your iTunes library.

No DivX. No XVid. No .VOB files.

Kinda kills it for me. I'd be seriously considering one if I could watch HD DivX and XVid rips.

 

[j_garcia]

No, they said they were talking about allowing other formats to be played once they figure out how to make money off of it.

 

[emorphien]

As far as I'm concerned the product is weakened by design and their greed. For $300 I'd consider one to play videos off my computer (I have a lot of legal video content in varying formats, no, not porn). They likely won't catch up on all formats for a while and I wonder if the Apple TV has the horsepower to handle many of them anyway.

Not to mention the restriction to iTunes, which I have never used for much more than MP3 playback on my mac and have absolutely no desire to use more. Someone else is likely to come up with a better alternative sooner or later (some would say it exists in the Xbox) and of course a Mac mini or other small, inexpensive computer is capable of doing everything and more and for only a couple hundred more (although at that price point you'll still be restricted from playing some of the newer formats because the computer just won't necessarily be powerful enough).

 

[jonnythan]

I won't hold my breath while Apple figures out how to make money off of letting me watch DivX rips of HD content.

 

[Rock&Roll Ninja]

Does it allow the watching of HD material, or just TV shows you buy from iTunes?

 

[jonnythan]

It does do HD material.. but only HD material you can watch in iTunes.

 

[emorphien]

I assume it can do 720P, what about 1080P?

 

[zildjian]

720p yes, not 1080.

 

[BMXTRIX]

It does do HD material.. but only HD material you can watch in iTunes.

More specifically, it may only do videos that are iTunes compatible which leaves a heck of a lot of videos out of that option. Most notably, standard DVD rips. Since I'm trying to move my DVD library to hard drives, the lack of iTunes to be able to recognize the DVD rip makes it completely worthless to me.

GRRRR!!!!

 

[avaserfi]

Give it a year max or so and a new version of itunes will be released that will have more compatibility when they finally realize that more equipment savy users want it. Apple seems to be a very smart company who slowly releases what people want, even the more specific things, to gradually increase their user base.

 

[j_garcia]

Talked to my friend last night and he says it is good, but maybe not entirely live up to the hype at this point. One interesting point I read about it that I agree with: OK, so you want this thing to stream 720p (presumably for movies) then WHY would you want to stream crappy web videos to it? Becuase of this unit, I am certain they will begin to expand content on iTunes also, as well as announce partnerships with other sites that have protected content.

 

[jonnythan]

Because sometimes, even with shitty web videos, you want to show other people, and the TV in the living is a way better method than crowding around the desk in the computer room.