Click here for more information I was a little hesitant about the AppleTV when it was first announced, with the unofficial named of iTV, back in August of 2006. However, once I got one, and have had it for about a week now, I have become convinced. It does exactly what it was was designed to do, does it extremely well, and is utterly hassle free. If only everything were this simple!
Now, I have a huge DVD collection counting well into the hundreds, and I would rather own the movies I like on disc than download them. Then again, working in the Animation and Visual Effects industry, I tend to be very interested in watching all the DVD extras which are not available on the iTunes store. I don't care about watching my photo albums on my living room TV either, but what I DO enjoy immensely is being able to watch the numerous video Podcasts I already subscribe too... In fact, it is so much more enjoyable to watch them this way, I have subscribed to numerous more.
Again, working in the industry, the incredible ease with which one can subscribe to video Podcasts and get them on the AppleTV really struck me. With increased resolution, and better production values, this is the future of TV! Pick your shows, paid, free or ad supported, via iTunes and watch them in your living room.
Anyhow, all that aside... Here are some things to know about the AppleTV.
- The Apple TV is utterly silent.
- It is NOT a game console. If you want to play games, buy a Wii, PS3 or Xbox360.
- It is not a DVD/BlueRay/HD-DVD player. If you want to play DVDs, but a $50 progressive scan DVD player. If you also want to watch BluRay discs and HD-DVD discs, get the LG BH100. it's the ONLY player available that plays all three formats!
- It is not a DVR. If you want to record live TV and watch it later, get a TiVo (don't waste your time with those crap cable and satellite DVRs though - pure garbage)
- You need to buy the cables to connect it. The best connection, because it is digital all the way, HDMI is the best option - If your set has that connector, then get an HDMI-HDMI cable. If your set only has DVI, then get an HDMI-DVI cable. If your set only has component video, get an RCA component (aka RGB) video cable. For the audio, the best connection is the optical digital interface, which is usually not present on TVs, but is fairly common on better receivers. Otherwise, just use a a standard left/right DCA audio cable.
- Contrary to even Apple's own information, you do NOT need to have a wide-screen display to use the Apple TV. It WILL work with 4:3 televisions, though you MUST have component (i.e. RGB) video connections on your TV or A/V receiver (if used). However, it will not function in full-screen mode. It uses a letterboxed presentation style.
- It can support any audio format that the source recording happens to have. The iTunes store programs are all encoded with Dolby Pro Logic II surround sound, which is 100% backwards compatible with two-channel stereo (such as built-in TV speakers). However, if you connect up the optical digital audio connector to a DTS/Dolby Digital receiver, AND the program has DTS or Dolby Digital 5.1 (or higher) surround sound encoding, the AppleTV will pass this through to the receiver to be output properly. Just note that it is EXTREMELY unlikely that programming with digital audio encoding will be available to download from pretty much ANY source in the near future due to it's incompatibility with analogue 2 channel stereo.
- One last thing. If you are a user of a Mac that features Front Row and they are in the same room as the AppleTV, then remember to pair the remote for the AppleTV and Mac independently, so they will not interfere with one another.
Anyhow, all told, I think the AppleTV is really great, and will likely help to change the face of television as we know it. Apple MA711LL/A TV with 40GB Hard Drive
I picked one up the first week they were available but haven't really used it until the past few weeks. I'm sync-ing (inappropriate use of the word for reasons I'll explain soon) with my family room iMac on a 802.11g network.
There are 2 ways to add content sync or stream. Sync will load content to the Apple TV and stream allows you to store content on the computer and access "as needed". I choose to stream (photos will only sync, but once loaded they'll stay on the Apple TV).
I added a 500GB external drive to the iMac solely for media content. I've also started converting my DVDs to a compatible format (takes a while, so I start one before I go to sleep and it's ready when I wake -- not really that dramatic, process takes just over an hour).
My wife loves it because she can play her music through our sound system (if that's all you want to do, the Airport Express will do it with digital output for $99).
Over the weekend we watched a couple of movies on it, with 5.1 sound (you must encode it that way) and it couldn't have been easier. The streaming is seamless, initially it takes about 20-30 seconds to load the buffer and thereafter plays without a hiccup. Is it as crisp as a good DVD, not exactly, but unless you're watching side-by-side it's a very good image on HD.
ONE LAST THING: HDMI cables are available for under $10 online, as are component cables and optical audio. So Apple doesn't include them, big deal. If they threw a 6-footer in there someone would complain that it's not long enough -- or too long. It's a minor added expense that's not worth complaining about.
OKAY, ONE LAST, LAST THING: I have the 40GB model and as I said above I chose not to sync my content, meaning it's all stored on a 500GB drive attached to an iMac. The Apple TV only stores about 5GB of photos right now. I suspect at some point they may add functions that require more storage but for now the hard drive is unimportant and the movies stream so rapidly that I don't even notice that they're not stored locally on the Apple TV. - Multimedia - Appletv - Apple - Itunes
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