Mine will arrive on Monday. Anyone else? Might become this year's iTurd, but who knows. I've got my black turtleneck and clove cigarettes ready for the inevitable anti-Mac slingers.
Have the original one for years. Think its great. Have to stop in the apple store and find out what the difference between the two are? Use it mostly to view family pictures and home videos.
+1 I have the original and I use it to watch movies every other night. Love it. I never understood why the original didn't take off in popularity?? I think it's 100x better than Netflix or renting DVDs and BlueRays.
I've been on NetFlix for many years, but I'm getting tired of scratched media. Sure NetFlix is quick to send replacements, but it's still not "instant". And don't get me started on Blockbuster et. al. That business model is dead.
Surprisingly quiet thus far..... Particularly as it's such an easy product at which to take aim.... I also have an original and other than the heat it generates I love it! My primary uses: - Streaming audio from various iTunes libraries thru the 5.1 rig. - Watching Youtube - Renting/buying movies - Photo album viewing The new version is *tiny* compared with the original - Less than 4" x 4".... Cheers, Ian PS - BTW, I recommend their "Remote" app for the iphone - *Much* better than the remote and a "real" kbd when needed. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Daniel, I have to ask; Would you have even considered this product "pre-Macintosh"?....... Cheers, Ian PS - I forgot, the new version is also ~50% cheaper than the original!
Ouch! I apologize for suggesting their Remote app!.... I guess someone's done one for Androd though (?) Cheers, Ian
Inside: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9188824/Apple_TV_teardown_gives_App_Store_clues_says_analyst?taxonomyId=64
Does everything but allow you to watch broadcast TV. If it had a coax input as well, I would get one now that it does Hi Def. Original one didn't, so I bought a Mac Mini instead. That never worked and I couldn't be bothered to undo all the wiring, extricate it from my AV rack, and take it in. It is what made me hate Apple for so long, until AT&T took up the slack with their incredibly lousy service for the iPhone. I won't be buying an Apple TV, but it seems like a decent enough product at the price point. $50 extra in components, slightly larger size, and it could have addressed the following: No 1080P. Poor codec support Limited sharing options (No DLNA) Tied to iTunes (Ugh, Apple needs to learn how to write windows software, use existing tools and not rewrite their crap services for windows. e.g. Bonjour) Limited content High prices (0.99 rental vs. 0.99 purchase) Rentals don't transfer from the Apple TV What is with that tiny size? It's not a portable device and is intended to sit in an AV closet or a shelf by the TV. Why make it so small that it gets tilted up or moved around by the cables going into it?
I have a few the original apple tvs - not sure about the new one, as I do like having storage inside the device. But maybe it wont matter, not sure yet. One thing I would suggest to "open" the apple tv up and really get full use is get ATV Flash, that prety much unlocks full potential of the appletv, and unlocks it from just itunes. Its $50 and easy to use. I get netflix over my xbox360 today, so i might just wait and see on this one.
Got mine this morning and have it hooked up in the lobby. Pretty darn cool. I need some time to wrap my head around what it's really doing with my Mac, my apple account, the cloud, and my network. The streaming speed is very good and the picture quality is surprisingly high.
OK, so I got the Apple TV home and connected it to the network there. Connection speed was horrible and lots of streaming problems. Surrounded by other AV equipment, I think it struggles to get a good strong signal. I had wanted to relocate our home router anyway, so went ahead and did it. Then, with the Apple TV connected on Ethernet, the performance was shockingly fast. I have a Gigabit router, and I'm not sure if the Apple TV is also Gigabit... but wow! The software on the Apple TV is nice, but nothing remarkable. Clean, simple, intuitive. The ability to grab all of our iPhoto pictures from either Luca's or Mrs. JRR's iMac is awesome. Streaming video content from those machines is a breeze. If the content is on iTunes, it can stream into AppleTV. We easily connected the Apple TV to two different iMac's simultaneously. Whether its a TV show on Mrs. JRR's machine or an episode of "Mega Movers" on Luca's machine, the content quickly (and in nice resolution) came to the Apple TV. It feels like there is a lot less content on the Apple TV "store" or whatever they call it compared to the actual iTunes store. I think if you wanted to search for a movie, you'd probably do it on the iMac (and go ahead and purchase/rent), then watch it on the AppleTV. Maybe this will change over time, but the depth of the catalog on the TV seems quite small. Maybe it's just my perception.... I'll dig into it more this weekend. The video quality is a bit odd, and I can't explain it. The refresh rates seem faster than I'm used to watching, so everything feels like its shot on video, instead of film. I am **not** an audio/video-phile, so I can't really understand this part of it. Stuff from YouTube looks like you'd expect.... but an HD episode of Glee appears to have more "camera shake" and the edginess. I would love to know why. It makes me nervous for some reason. Still playing with NetFlix on the device. In summary? Very cool now. In the future, I can 100% see that Apple will turn this thing into a full blown iTunes client, gaming device, and App recipient. If our media can exist in the cloud, then so can our Apps.
Do you have any other wireless gear there? How far away was the wireless router, and how many walls/floors did it pass through? I'd like to grab one of these, but it has to have good wireless connectivity along with Netflix, Hulu and GoogleTv.
Korr? Really? After crapping on Apple for so long, you are tempted by one of their worst offerings? If you must use an Apple product for media, get a Mac Mini. True 1080p resolution. Storage. Torrents. Media server capability far beyond Apple TV. Of course the price is 7-10x (and they you bleed even more money to Apple if you get your media from them). But that's Apple for ya. How about a Laptop or Desktop running Linux or Win7 with HDMI output? Everything on Netflix, Hulu, Boxee, any other online services. Plus torrents. Plus storage. Plus, plus, plus...tons and tons more. No genius bar though. Is that what the problem is?
On the ethernet wire, the thing is just wicked fast. For me, moving the router was long overdue anyway. Our house is like 100+ years old and near 6000ft2. The walls into our living room (you'll think I'm kidding.... but I'll shoot a picture later) are probably 12 inches thick. Now, with the router directly below Mrs. JRR's office, she gets better Wi-Fi. The AppleTV is hardwired, and my laptop use (very heavy, on the first floor of the house) gets a more consistent connection. -------------------- For WiFi worriers.... when I had it connected in the office on Friday, it was hauling fast on WiFi. We have an "N" router about 3000 feet away from the lobby, and it was perfectly fast. Our building is an old 1910 cotton mill, so I suspect there is all kinds of crap in the walls and such. Everything was however, on a single floor at Ricambi. Maybe that was the difference? -------------------- Anyway, back to the AppleTV.... it really is cool. Last night we rented of Arrested Development, and this morning Luca streamed a MegaBuilders (about the Stone Cutters bridge in Hong Kong) onto the box. Really, for $99 it's a nice little deal. The future is so freakin' clear how this box will be used. It is a Trojan Horse for Apple -- make no mistake about it. I'd suspect in two years or less the platform will morph to a gaming device, App capable, kind of thing. Trojan Horse. No doubt about it.
Question on the old Apple TV you had to check the projects in Itunes (aperture) to sync on the Apple TV hard drive. With the new one will it automatically stream your whole photo library? Thanks for the response.
I simply told it to 'share everything', and it does it without any further intervention. Since there isn't any storage inside the AppleTV, it's streaming everything all the time I suppose.
I've recommended Apple products to others on this very forum. And besides, this isn't for me. It's for someone that needs simple to operate devices. So far it's either AppleTV or this: http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921666261253
