move da F*** outta the way old man!

Looks like we're soon going to have a loser of the HD DVD Vs. BlueRay format war: Both.

This is just a guess, but if Amazon set up a demo at a major trade show, it would probably be faster.

i love the update, but I still don't know if I want to buy one. The storage on the apple tv still isn't as much as i would like. Why can't they update to the same amount as the time capsule. I'd be all over a 1TB AppleTV for 499.

is there any reason(short of time and money) why appleTV and Time Capsule aren't one product? a 1tb backup airport xtreme that can plug right into my tv and stream movie rentals and itunes content seems to make a lot of sense to me.

Looks pretty slick. I wouldn't read squat into buffering though until it gets out in the real world.

Now if it would only hit Divx off my home ReadyNAS...

@Carbonfly: Since they won't actually let us buy new releases via iTunes, hard drive capacity isn't a make or break issue for me... yet. That said, I would gladly welcome the ability to buy HD movies from iTunes from all the studios - at which point I will be screaming for a bigger Apple TV.

For now, I can't fill 1 TB of rentals in 24 hours.

@Carbonfly: I can seriously honestly vouch that streaming the AppleTV over 802.11 N works pretty much just as good as having things on the hard drive. In my opinion the 160GB version is just a waste of money.

Help me out here. The BR definition of HD is 1080p. What is Apple's?

wouldnt the ability to sync to ipod/iphone straight from the Apple tv make this much better?

Looks great! Can't wait till 2023 when it might finally come to Canada...For now, I don't think I want to drop over 200 dollars to watch "Corner Gas" in HD.

(I ask because the quality I have seen previously on Apple TV looks much worse than 480p DVD quality.)

@Monty:
720p... that's the max for the @TV

Obviously one should wait until it goes into the wild, but this update is REALLY good. If I connect it to my router via cable as opposed to wireless I would definitely use it. And I dunno, I don't feel like I would need more than the 40GB of space. I don't plan on buying any digital movies.

Storage on the AppleTV is a nonissue because streaming even over 802.11g is extremely robust. I keep my library on a few drives connected to my MacPro, and I have never had a problem with playback or access speeds.

My real question is whether the AppleTV will remain hackable after this upgrade - there's so many good apps out there in the AwkwardTV project that I would hate to lose, even though "rentals" seem very promising (a lot better than my cable company's VOD service.)

@Carbonfly: Actually the storage for AppleTV is limitless... you just keep adding external storage to your Mac or PC and stream content from there. there is not reason at all to store anything on the actual AppleTV at all... i have 1.5 TB devoted to content for my AppleTV remember the 802.11n connection is faster than a 100 base ethernet connection

the only thing i have on my AppleTV is photos

I'd be all over it if I didn't have to spend $299 to watch it on my TV.. I already have HD-DVD, Blu-Ray & Xbox video marketplace.

If only the wii wasn't stuck at 480p........

@doctorSpoc: @cbandes: Thanks for the info. I knew that appletv could stream content. I just didn't know how reliable it was. I might order one right now....lol. Buy now, explain to the wife later.

@PlasmaMachine: that's $229, actually.

finally.. finally... Dolby 5.1 and proper search when you have a movie library over 100 movies or so just a flat list was just not cutting it.. the Dolby Pro Logic II was an alternative to Dolby 5.1 to get 5.1 surround, but now we get the exact audio that the director intended.

Rentals are good from time to time... have to see about the selection to know if it's going to challenge my cable provider in that department.

All in all Nice!!

the big thing missing is bluetooth keyboard support.. using a remote to enter in text really sucks pretty bad.. other than that i'm pretty impressed with the upgrade. than new apple blue tooth keyboard is tiny and thin and wouldn't be alien in the living room at all.. they should make it work with AppleTV.

@Carbonfly - She'll love it too, the ATV is one of my only "geek" purchases that my GF loves as much as (if not more than) I do. It has completely changed how we watch TV, even more than a DVR - and all this before the itunes rentals happened. I think it's a bargain at $230. (Especially if it remains hackable)

I was an early adopter of Apple TV- I will be updating my box as soon as it is available. I am pleased to see that Apple is continuing to develop Apple TV, and I bet we will see more evolution of this format in the months to come.

Video playlists -- that's all I'm looking for. Please, someone at Macworld please make a video playlist on the Apple TV and report whether it plays the videos back-to-back.

You'd think it would be able to do this, right? The video iPod does it just fine, but the Apple TV does not. This is the great untold story of the Apple TV's junk factor.

@guylicious: NO KIDDING! Stinking CRTC...
You can get HD movies through xBox live right now, though, so it shouldn't take more than 5 years to get rentals up here!

If there's an easy way to get it to play XviD and DivX, I'll be all over it. Otherwise... meh.

I may have missed a step, but is AppleTV v1 definitely firmware upgradable to the new jam?

So let me get this straight...

Apple TV does support streaming from my Mac or PC? So if I have iTunes loaded up with a ton of movies I've ripped, I can watch them on Apple TV, streamed? I don't have to sync first and fill up the hard drive? I don't want to sync and store it on the hard drive at all... I have too many movies!

Its still missing 1080p and a DVR Funtion when it gets both of these options then it will be really worth it

It's probably good you leave Netflix out of the equation here. There simply haven't been, in my experience, ANY delays in delivery of streaming media. As it ramps up with it's UNLIMITED viewing, along with the 3 movies at a time deal, all for $17 ... who knows? I can see why you'd want to keep them out of the comparison picture though ... Apple tv suffers.

More uncharitably, given I have only 24 hours to watch said content ... and it costs $4-$5 per movie and I do have to outlay $230 for the privilege ... I'm thinkin' there better NOT be any delays, but I'm also thinkin' a big NO for now. Of course ... this will change as Apple gets an actual movie collection established (1000 is a cute number, isn't it?) I'm wondering if the applets who bemoaned the "crappy 60,000 titles" available on Netflix will weigh in? (Actually, I'm not wondering-they won't).

As Apple gets more competitive (and they will) this will be great for consumers. As always, real competition results in real rewards for real customers. Until then, my thanks to all the early adopters who will blaze the way to more economical offerings from Apple. Your efforts are appreciated!

What?! C'mon Gizmodo...you had a chance to turn off the tv there with your TV-B-Gone! Oh you are so biased! You turn off Motorola's TV presentation but not Apple's.

So how does this Apple TV compare to the upcoming SlingCatcher? Can you view any video in Itunes or just videos purchased/rented from the Itunes store?

Good update for the Apple TV, but I would have been ECSTATIC if they would have incorporated DVR functionality.

@ismotethee: I can't currently DVR a TimeWarner On Demand movie. Can you?

There's a reason for that.

What's the reason?

All I know is that my wife and I hate our TimeWarner HD DVR user interface.

@bandit:

And by the way, I don't really understand what you mean when you say "DVR a movie".

I'm just talking about being able to record programming that's on television.

Refurbished models are selling for $179.00 at Apple.com.

@zombo: you can stream all content from mac or pc.. no reason what so ever to sync even one file...

i have bought a bunch of cheap 500gig USB drives and attached to my computer... you can add as many as you'd like. and it's supper fast 802.11n to the appleTV.. that's faster than 100base ethernet... i don't even know why the 160Gig version of appleTV exist.. the 40Gig is even a waste.

you can even stream from multiple computers or from multiple itunes on the same computer for different users (as long as they are logged in).. my wife can access her stuff and i can access my stuff and vise versa... our kids not old enough be he could access his stuff when the time comes too

That's bitchen... just ordered one. I wish I knew this before... I would have ordered it before the update today!

I agree, 1080p and a DVR would make this a clincher. Change the name to something sexier, like "iConsole" wouldn't hurt either.

@deadlizard: Not if Apple is the only company allowed to make devices that will download HD movies from the Apple Store.

Problem with DVR is that it would require CableCard to really work. Having just gotten a TivoHD set up with 2 cablecards I know this is not how Apple products work, it was a nightmare.

They'll release it when that process is simplified.

As for 720p vs 1080p its been my experience the compression used is more important. I'm looking forward to seeing if its really better than watching from Amazon Unbox.

But overall the 24 hour limit is a deal breaker, good movies I like to watch twice and bad movies sometimes require 2 sittings to get through ;-). So I rarely use UnBox.
While I might buy an AppleTV now to stream my existing video, I doubt I'll use the video rental for more than novelty purposes.

One thing that no one is mentioning here is that Apple isn't controlling the rules this time. The movie industry is calling the shots on this one. Without coming to that kind of agreement, Apple wouldn't have any studios on board and therefore no movies for you to rent. Remember NBC? So although I agree that NetFlix isn't going anywhere (i'm a member too), you can't blame Apple for the movie studio's shortsightedness. I'm sure their just getting their feet wet to see how this online/streaming/rental process is going to benefit them.
I do agree that 24hrs is WAY TOO SHORT for us family guys to watch a movie. 48 hours would work better. With that said, I don't understand why am I limited to how long I have to watch it once I start. Blockbuster gives you 5 days for an actual disc. Why am I only allowed 24 hours for a file that they can delete at any predetermined time? The movie industry needs to catch up to the technology. Hey, at least their trying. By this time next year, we'll probably see a whole new ballgame.

They should have tried to match the existing rental store timing. You usually get a movie on a Friday evening and turn it back in on Monday. You may want to watch it a couple times over that period, but not within 24 hours. 72-96 hours would have made more sense.

Apple is going to merge Apple TV + Time Capsule and Airport Extreme in 6 months and we will be left with redundant hardware.

I would have liked to have seen the ability to stream my desktop to AppleTV. I can stream my desktop across the world with screen share, why not across the room? That would make this a must have product for me.

I have to wait 2 weeks for my software update? Arg. At least it's free!

I love my AppleTV. I get HDTV OTA channels for free, and then I supplement them by purchasing the cable shows I like on itunes. The only thing really missing is live events, but I can go to the bar to get my sports fix that aren't on broadcast.

So I'm a little confused; I thought that in addition to renting movies from AppleTV, you could rent them directly from iTunes (bypassing AppleTV), but I just downloaded iTunes 7.6 and I don't see any rent option on iTunes as of now. Or will the iTunes version that will allow you to rent movies come out at the same time (two weeks) as the new AppleTV software? Any ideas?