Gizmodo
Ever since our Apple TV 1.0 review decided that Apple's thrust into the living room wasn't pantsworthy, we've been waiting for them to step up and make a revision that was. Apple TV 2.0 is their answer. (Let's stop calling it Take 2, please!) It's everything Apple TV should have been when it launched, complete with audio and video podcasts, Flickr and .Mac integration and—most importantly—movie rentals without a computer. At $229, it's an essential part of any iTunes user's living room arsenal.
The New UI:
Gone is the right side text, left side image menu system of the first-gen Apple TV. It's now a two-column affair, with the major categories on the left and subcategories for the selected entry on the right. It may not be quite intuitive at first, but you'll get the hang of it in about 30 seconds. Simple and easy to use is the name of the game in the end, which is more than fine for the 10-foot living room experience, since Apple TV doesn't really have all THAT many functions once you break it down. But the good news is, all of them behave the way they're supposed to.
Movies:
This is going to be the core of your Apple TV experience. Browsing for movies is a fairly easy task, with a Top Movies section listing the most popular movies available right now, along with a genre browser and a search function. Typing in your Apple login and password with the remote is arduous, and you'll want to let the Apple TV remember your password for future sessions (unless you're worried about security, then you'll have to go through the fun of re-typing in your password every time you rent/buy anything). After you accept the EULA, your Apple TV buffers for about a minute before you can start watching; longer if your connection sucks.
It's $3.99 for an SD rental and $4.99 for an HD, then you have 30 days to start watching it and 24 hours to finish watching it once you've started. That's competitive with Blockbuster, Netflix and other VOD services.
There's a limited selection of content right now, despite the fact that Apple has the full blessing of all the major studios, which means that Netflix is still your best bet for the time being in terms of most content for your buck. This is especially true when you account for their streaming Watch Now program, which can now be used directly on your TV via a Media Center PC. If you're talking just HD content, your selection gets narrowed down even further.
Not that it really matters that much in the end, since the HD you're streaming doesn't look nearly as good as an actual Blu-ray or HD DVD disc. But it's still better than SD. If we had to scale the HD movie picture quality of HD on a scale where Blu-ray is a 10, HD cable is a 7 and VHS is a 1, this would be about a 5. It's better than DVD, but it's not "true" HD. Oh, and their 5.1 audio doesn't sound as good either. It's good enough to watch and think you're watching HD, but it's not quite good enough for true HD movie fans.
Podcasts and Movie Trailers
Browsing Podcasts is almost exactly like browsing movies for rentals. You scroll around, find a video (Collegehumor's Street Fighter: The Later Years for example), and hit play or download. Depending on how the podcast you're watching is encoded, you can either make out that Blanka's makeup is splotchy around the neck and beard, or barely be able to tell the difference between Mike Birbiglia and Jim Gaffigan on Comedy Central's two-minute clips. It's usually watchable at the very least, plus it's free, so there's little to complain about. You can also subscribe to your favorite podcasts, which will be downloaded to your Apple TV when you go to your "My Podcasts" screen and click on them.
Movie trailers are pretty much the same as before. Browse around, pick a trailer, then watch it. Incidentally, it's very distracting trying to write a review when the thing you're reviewing throws up stuff like the Dark Knight trailer in your face.
Photos
.Mac and Flickr galleries look fantastic, with slick transitions and soundtrack support. It definitely works better than it did back at Macworld (after which Steve Jobs choked an engineer backstage), and is fairly easy to set up once you go through the one-time process of typing in a contact's name using the Apple remote. I hooked it up to Adam Frucci's Flickr gallery, and boy does his crotch look huge in HD. You can still view your iTunes-synced photos as well, if you're feeling frisky.
TV Shows, Music
Browsing TV shows and Music is essentially the same as what you get on the computer, except clumsier since you have to do everything with the remote. Once you find something you like, you can purchase it directly onto your Apple TV without going to your machine.
YouTube
It's the same as before. Browse YouTube like you would on your iPhone or your computer. Watch amateurs make amateur-grade video.
Random Notes
In case you cared, it took about four minutes for me to download the update, and another 10 minutes to install it.
Verdict
Just like Apple TV 1.0, it's a fantastic way for people to get their iTunes-purchased movies, music and TV shows from their computers onto their living room TVs. What's even better—the "mass appeal," if you like—about version 2.0 is that it doesn't require a computer to function. People can plop down an Apple TV into their homes and rent movies, listen to iTunes music, sync up with their grandchildren's Flickr or .Mac streams, or just waste an hour surfing YouTube.
The only question you have to ask yourself to justify this purchase is whether or not you have faith in Apple to back up their fancy piece of hardware with content—both on the Movie and TV side—in order to provide you something to watch for years to come. It may take a while, and things might not go entirely smoothly (see NBC's iTunes departure for example) but I think they'll get there. And for the new, lowered price of $229, it's not even an expensive gamble. [Apple]
Comments
Does anyone know if the Apple TV will get movie downloads in the UK?
And maybe a price break? :D You're paying $229, we're paying £200 (just over $400)...
yea UK £ valuation sux0rz... blame the BOE!
This is going to be successful in my estimation. If there are many people in a similar situation (have an HDTV, hungry for HD content, disappointed in lack of HD content on cable, and no Blu Ray rentals at my local Blockbusters), they will rent from Apple iTunes for $5 from time to time. Depending on the speed of the download and the buffering, it is a great alternative to running out to Blockbuster or waiting for Netflix to deliver a video you want to see immediately. I look forward to updating my Apple TV.
I want to see a Windows Media Center vs. Apple TV 2.0 comparison.
Even with some of these nice updates, I still think WMC is better in the other areas, like DVR, works with WMP content, etc.
But it's always nice to have competition. I'm betting MS will bring super updates as well with Win Fiji. or something other.
Can't wait to see what MS has lined up for their updates.
@evilR3: Well no, because other stuff doesn't have a 100% markup over the American price :D
Perfect. Now Apple just start selling/renting content in Canada and the rest of the world. Microsoft has made its move already bringing rental to Canada.
Am I the only one that thinks this whole system is still over-priced? I guess I just figure that since the incremental cost of adding movies to a VoD service is relatively low, the price in comparison to a physical rental should be lower, not on par. I mean, they don't need to have additional copies of every movie, they don't need to pay rent for B&M locations, they don't need to pay employees (the biggest expense) to process customers and restock. All they pay for is bandwidth (which is per customer, not movie) and storage/servers (pretty cheap in incremental cost these days). If B&M stores are turning a profit using the same rental rates, but much higher overhead, there's no reason these prices couldn't be much lower. Someone in this chain is just being greedy, which unfortunately taking a system which could be very attractive to the casual customer base, and making it very mediocre.
The problem with this is, no one really needs it. With BT, netflix, cable/fibre, tivo, etc.. that most people are already invested in, I dont see this getting popular with anyone except a current apple user who is not already heavily invested in one of the above technologies.
I really anticipated this release and I am disappointed... I am by no means old or blind but I find it difficult to read the titles when browsing. I want the good old fashioned list view back because the rentals all suck anyway.
I think the big thing missing here from the review is how your main Mac that is the Mac you'd sync with is now seamlessly integrated into the My Music - or My Movies - you no longer have to switch between what's on the Apple TV and a SOURCE that is sharing from iTunes or iPhoto. The other macs that are not the SYNC MAC - now automatically if there's only one other or show a list under Shared Movies - etc. Really much better and really seamless.
It's a step in the right direction, but I'm still not interested. DVR functionality would definitely motivate me to purchase a unit. However, DVR is a pipe dream as long as the major movie studios are involved.
@Samifumi: that's exactly the wrong reason for people to buy this. The people who are likely to buy this are the ones (like my dad) who don't have a big need for TV because they think (rightly) that most stuff on broadcast is crap, and they'd be happier just getting a limited selection in a simple-to-use way. As a replacement for cable, this might make some sense for folks with limited interest in TV. Unfortunately for Apple that's just not a sustainable market.
"Power users" of TV are going to quickly realize that this is yet another box that does nothing more than allow them to access one online store that may or may not in the future have the best/cheapest content. And even if it does ultimately come through with the content, the stuff they buy won't be portable to any other system. Coupled with the fact that it's hardly comparable to HD I think this is really just going to go nowhere. Call it the Tank 2 instead of the Take 2.
Netflix still has the better offering all-around. If they could manage to get it on a set-top box
If they made this thing into more of a network media player, specifically if it could play DIVX/VOB (and h.264) from an SMB share, I'd be all over it like white on rice.
I don't need a device that will enable me to rent sorta-HD movies for $5 each. There's enough of a limited selection of BD movies as it is and my capacity to watch movies is such that Netflix can provide actual HD content at a low enough price and with fast enough turn around. I'm sure I'm not the only one.
... then all the better. But I'd rather have real DVD and B-Ray discs supplemented with a little streaming vid than this very limited Apple device.
My family racks up hundreds of dollars in video late fees per year. We've tried Zip (netflicks in Canada) and it doesn't work either because we're instant gratification kind of people. Mailing stuff is a pain too (sorry). This is manna to us and a much more usable interface than Rogers VOD.
I could care less about the quality of the HD, it will come. In my view, convenience trumps quality every time.
youtube.. yeah yeah... Let me know when it can handle xtube. :)
@quickboy
do you know a decent WMC that is 229? because If you do (which you probably don't) tell me
Is it possible to use the Apple TV device as my iTunes library for music?
Hm. The prices are competitive with rental, perhaps, but the service isn't. When you rent a video, you get all the various DVD extras, plus, you can run the video as many times as you want during the rental period, instead of just once. Anyone who has kids, or has even been around them, knows that they will watch a movie they like over and over... so for parents, you're paying $5 for 90 minutes of your kid being distracted, as opposed to $5 for countless hours during the rental week.
@goodhorse: No.
I'm a big fan of this update. The ability to stream music to my stereo from my PC via AirTunes makes me quite happy as I was sad to lose that when I went from Airport Express to Apple TV. It doesn't seem like much (after all you can always access that music through the interface), but sometimes I'll be playing music in my office, decide I need to do something in the kitchen, and switching it to stream to my living room next to the kitchen is much handier.
I'm not sure the target audience, but for me the joy is having access from the tv to the iTunes libraries for all my computers in the house (my girlfriends, my pc, my laptop), being able to access our iPhoto libraries from the TV (family wants to see photos, why crowd around the PC), YouTube access for hours of entertainment when you decide you want to see Bowie dolled up like Ziggy Stardust, or kids jumping off of their roofs, Flickr access is great (though I wish you could log in as you can with youTube). TV shows? Movie Rentals? Eh I haven't rented a movie in the last 6 years so that's not my bag. I do watch the trailers though.
Anyway, I'm tickled with the upgrade.
In Canada, AppleTV (ITunes and the iPhone) are fairly useless. We simply don't get the selection of TV shows (no American shows) and no movie rentals (last I checked).
iPhones aren't even offered, as the telecom's, especially Rogers makes so much off obscene digital fees - that using an iPhone up here would be neigh-expensive. They don't want to loose their golden goose - so we're stuck using crappy cellphones with limited capabilities, but enjoy extremely expensive calling plans that most Americans and British would balk at. Just visit their site.
Our Cable options aren't much better... We pay on average over $80 for what would cost $40 in the US for HD cable or satellite.
The net result - no movies on appleTV - a crappy selection of shows (no American or British shows), and still no iPhone. We can thank Rogers for most of that. Oh - and I agree the VOD and general interface of our set top boxes makes an Etch-a-Sketch look like a brilliant interface. I won't upgrade until I hear how this will affect the home-brew aspect of Apple TV - atleast with that - the function of the device makes it worth it's cost up here.
Why bother? My iPhone does a fine job of presenting this content. All I needed was Apple's AV Cable. It looked beautiful on our 60" TV last weekend. I don't have an Touch, but I'd have to suppose it works just as well.
The only downside is that I have to get up from the sofa with the iPhone. But I'll bet some clever hacker can come up with a remote control (blue tooth or wifi) between now and the next version of the Apple TV.
For the money, I'd rather spend the 49.99 for the AV cable because I already own an iPhone and let someone else gamble on the Apple TV.
This experience has made me question why the iPhone can't be a DVR and why a DVR can't fit in one's pocket.
What Apple might well think about is creating an Air-Port device for the TV so we can beam our content from the comfort of our sofas. Anybody else want a 60" monitor? Apple, if you're listening...cut-and-paste first please.
pass. So let's see, I can pay $229 to watch crappy YouTube videos, look at blurry photos that I'll delete at some point anyway, still not find any reason to go to Flickr...oohh, and MOVIE TRAILERS. wow. please, let me hold back my excitement since I can't seem to find those online, on TV, via my PS3, etc. Oh yeah, and for the "competitive pricing" for their rentals - think again. I have the $18 / month plan, which gives me 3 blu-ray movies at a time, with an unlimited number of movies out per month. My average is 3 movies a week (24/month). Which boils down to $0.75 per rental AND, if I get the DVD version, then the opportunity to, ahem, make a backup copy. Via Crapple's plan, I'd be spending $119 per month. Yeah, thanks AGAIN Steve Jobs for bending over the consumer.
Has anyone else noticed how much slower the UI is when you're going through your personal movie list? Its "click" wait 3 seconds "click" wait 3 seconds, etc. You used to be able to click click click your way down the list. I know you can click and hold for a quick scroll, but if your movie is on the bottom of the current screen, it will take you 20 seconds to get to it.
I love the movie rental interface but was disappointed that the personal movie UI is still the same as before (only slower). I was looking forward to seeing a screen full of box art for my movies rather than the old UI.
It's GREAT getting to watch HD trailers now. The difference between the SD Batman trailer and the HD version was amazing. Now we just have to get the Handbrake guys to allow us to transfer our DVD collection with a better picture and 5.1 surround. Then this thing will totally rock.
Since the only functions I care about are VOD, this is like a crippled version of Netflix with a $229 initiation fee. I am a huge Apple fanboy and really want to like this thing, but so far I'm not sold (don't cry Mr. Jobs, you still get an obscene amount of my money).
Almost there with v2, but not quite IMO.
@kingsnake: Although I agree your frustration with the rental pricing and unrealistice 24hr watching period, keep in mind that Hollywood is dictating those terms, not Apple. I agree that Netflix is unbeatable for its service, but if you combine Netflix with Handbrake and Apple TV, you have an unbeatable Movie media center that even the grandparents/babysitter can operate.
"...it's an essential part of any iTunes user's living room arsenal."
Gotta love lines that scream, "Hey Apple! Put us in your magazine ad! Pleez?!"
Honestly, even as an owner of several AppleTVs I don't see why anybody would buy an AppleTV instead of an XBox360, unless they already have a substantial investment in iTunes-loaded content.
Apple's really going to need to do something to substantially increase the functionality of the AppleTV and/or radically reduce the price (like a bundle of the AppleTV and 20 movie rentals for $100) if they want to beat Microsoft in the living room.
Let me know when they come up Netflix kind of all you can eat plan. Than I may trade in my cable for Apple TV
In Canada there are other DSL solutions other than Rogers or Bell. Most have a slightly slower line, but not a dramatic loss of bandwidth. And will support streaming HD content. The iPhone still remains useless until the 3G support is in place and Rogers/Fido can work out a good revenue sharing system with Apple, and hopefully Apple bullies them in reducing the cost of their Data rates.
In the meantime, there options like Odynet and Yak and other service providers for you Residential and business DSL lines.
I went with Odynet because you can get a dry loop connection and a 5-6mbps line for under $50 per month.
I am thinking Apple TV maybe a good option now, does any know if there's a hack, plug in or workaround for playing AVI, DivX and other content from the Apple TV and/or Front Row (in Leopard)?
I've had my Apple TV for a while now, actually I pre-ordered it. I really love it. Instead of paying for cable, I just use a regular antenna and pick up broadcast HD. I get everything else I care to watch through iTunes, or as a last resort of the websites off the networks, but I always check iTunes first - I would rather pay $1.99 and own something high quality than watch it for free in a crappy web player.
This new update is incredible. It simply makes the Apple TV a hundred times better. The ability to browse or search for media and preview it before you buy it is simple, seamless and pretty fun. The first go with Apple TV was good - quality machine that did what it was supposed to and did it well, but it was still sort of a novelty. Apple TV 2.0 is a fantastic media center that's faster and easier to use and provides you TONS of content without having to get off your ass.
To comment on the above: Yes, there are a lot of low quality podcasts out there, but there are also a lot of HD and high quality podcasts, with more coming every day. You can now browse these and watch them without subscribing. This is great for anyone who just has a mild interest in podcasts or is just looking for something to watch (remember, no cable). I watched a few episodes of Ask A Ninja this morning with just a couple clicks on the remote.
I use a laptop, I have a lot of music on it but only a couple TV shows and movies. I store the rest of my media on an external HD. I've been backing up my DVD's to it for awhile now, so I have a large library of movies that I stream to my Apple TV. (I get all the movie info from IMDB and find the movie poster or dvd cover image to use so it all looks seamless with the content I purchase from ITMS). I purchased an episode of Family Guy, after about 15 seconds it popped up and was ready to watch. It also copied it directly to my external drive that was plugged into my laptop and added it to my iTunes library. Super easy, super fast.
This is a big deal. I would now recommend the Apple TV to anyone.
Why would I want to pay $3.99 to rent for 24 hours when I can buy DVDs for sale at Best Buy and Circuit City for $3.99 and $4.99?
I don't get it...
These features are not available as an update to people with FrontRow enabled computer's why exactly? I realize they want to sell some apple tv's but leaving their computer customers out in the cold is insulting.
Even of there was an upgrade fee it would be acceptable.
I ripped my 210 DVDs to an external hard drive attached to an old Mac mini running iTunes and now have my own On-Demand system streaming to our two AppleTV. Quality looks great, even in our home theater. The kids love it, and I love not opening DVD cases anymore only to find that they are empty or have the wrong DVD in them (again, "kids"). I used a combo of Mac the Ripper and Handbrake. I have all the DVDs on a shelf in the back room, so they are readily available to take in the car or to access special features (which I rarely do anymore -- probably could have ripped those too).
This update is exactly what I wanted. I've been using my Apple TV instead of cable for 3 months now, and I really don't miss my cable subscription much at all. With OTA HD for free, podcasts of the major cable news programs, and iTunes TV purchases for my favorite cable tv show or two, I'm good.
@Noobs-R-Us:
There are many reasons, one of which is that I never give money to BB unless I have exhausted all other options.
@europria: Or perhaps the best of both worlds (for people like myself who don't want cable). would be to have a Netflix plug-in for the Apple TV. Obviously wouldn't fly with Apple's "content partners" but probably doable from a third-party/hacker POV.
I HATE this upgrade. The new UI looks like crap. I liked the slidy things. It looked cool, people were impressed.
Now my beloved AppleTV is just a front end for iTunes rentals. Note how the 'My Movies' and 'My Shows' are a the bottom of each list. I watch them 90% of the time, this is very inconvenient.
The HD rentals look no better than an upsampled DVD, and the 24 hour time limit is a no-go. So that will only be useful in emergency situations. I know it isn't Apples fault, but what an amazingly bad selection of movies!
The Flickr integration is OK, but too simplistic to be really useful. And the images look poor. Why can't I see images from all my contacts? Limiting it to just one is useless.
I'm downgrading tonight.
@Noobs-R-Us:
Because you may have guests over and then be like "Hey, we GOTTA watch Ratatouille tonight!" and your choices are:
(1) Drive to your nearest Best Buy/Circuit City, waste gas and time and have the movie ready to watch 1 hour later;
(2) Put the movie at the top of your Netflix cue and have the movie ready to watch in 3 days;
(3) Huddle up around your Dell's beautiful 19in LCD and watch Pink Panther instead (because they don't have Ratatouille for instant watch); or
(4) If you have an Apple TV, rent it for $3.99, start watching it immediately.
At $229, Apple TV isn't necessarily intended to suddenly become become the center of everyone's audiovisual life, but something that would let you do cool things like that in those occasions with ease and finesse. Few people wants (or should want) to spend all day watching YouTube video on their big screen HDTVs. But come on, we've all thought at least once something like "WIsh I could play 'The Evolution of Dance' on the TV to show my guests".
If you're the type that expects, or demands, it to be more than what that money is offering you, then you aren't it's core target.
@Noobs-R-Us: Also, you don't have to get off your couch to rent it. The real problem though is the (lack of) content. But everything else functions well.
I guess many people dont know and this might only be in like newyork and long island where IO is available. but with IO you can just got to channel 1000 or 500 or something or just click the button in the center of ur remote and it will get u to the rental store where it is the same thing as apple tv so? why buy that extra thing right?
@Noobs-R-Us: b/c u can stay at home...
"If you're the type that expects, or demands, it to be more than what that money is offering you, then you aren't it's core target."
Typical Apple fanboy subjectivism...
@Dearhaw: Or you have a xbox 360 and watch it immediately and can then play some games when the movie is done and then extend Media Center to access all the media on your house and internet TV.
I like the new update, because of the new features... rent directly on the Apple TV, pull up podcasts, music videos etc.
However, just like an earlier poster commented. The my podcasts and my videos are at the bottom of each menu. It seems a little more cumbersome to get to these areas.
Also, I pulled up a compilation music album yesterday and was able to preview it - however, it did not show me a list artists / songs as part of the album. And I could not preview individual songs.
Eh, still unimpressed. Poor HD video quality, poor 5.1 sound, and the rest of the features I really don't care about...once we can stream real HD content I might take a second look.
@quantumbits:
Typical windoze rebuttal
I'm probably missing something obvious here ... but how do you figure that this is competitive with netflix? At $4 a movie on AppleTV, 2 movies alone would cost as much $$ as a month of netflix. I could easily watch 10 movies a month for that price.
Factor in that AppleTV charges extra for HD movies and the fact that the unit costs $229 bucks, and this still seems to be an INCREDIBLY expensive option for watching movies.
I love Apple -- had a Mac Plus and never turned to the dark side. But I've had a hard time recommending AppleTV to anyone because of their interface. AppleTV 2.0 helps, but just barely.
If we just had a "Favorites" section where I could place "My Movies," "My Photos," etc. (without having to flip-flop between categories), I'd be happy as a clam.
I take exception to the dismissal of ATV's HD video quality. It doesn't have Blu-ray bitrates, granted, but it's absolutely as good or better than HD cable.
I rented Ratatouille last night on my ATV, from the lazy bliss of my couch. It began playing within 30 sec and looked gorgeous on my 720p, 94" projector. Apple's done a good job of balancing visuals vs. net performance. If 128kpbs AAC music was good enough for the public, certainly 5Mbps video will be.
Now, Steve Jobs, where's my Matrix? ("Revolutions" doesn't count).
@JOHN_NYC
"f they made this thing into more of a network media player, specifically if it could play DIVX/VOB (and h.264) from an SMB share, I'd be all over it like white on rice."
Sounds like you're looking for a Networked Media Tank such as the Popcorn Hour, which is claimed to handle > 40 Mbps H264 (with MKV support.)
The current AppleTV can't handle more than 5 Mbps of H264 video - which is fine for live or nearly-live video over IP, but it's a bit underpowered if you want to watch your Blu-ray rips :)
I take exception to the dismissal of ATV's HD rental visual quality. It's absolutely as good, or better, than HD cable. I rented Ratatouille last night, from the lazy bliss of my couch. It was ready to play within 30sec and looked gorgeous on my 720p projector.
Apple's done a good job of balancing visuals vs. net performance. If 128kpbs AAC music was good enough for the public, certainly 5Mbps 720p video will be.
Now, Steve, where's my Matrix? ("Revolutions" doesn't count)
"Typical windoze rebuttal"
Um, actually I'm typing this from my Safari browser on my MacBook...
You failed to mention that the upgrade now supports 1080p, excellent considering the majority of content on here will be progressive.
Also movie trailers are now offered in HD, where they were not before.