iTunes Movie Rentals launches today and will offer over 1,000 titles by the end of February, including over 100 titles in stunning high definition video with 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound which users can rent directly from their widescreen TV using Apple TV.

All in all, that's 601 movies short of their 1,000 title promise. As for "100 titles in stunning HD," Apple fell short here as well, but they at least came close offering 91 films that meet the standard (however, many of those films are not actually in 5.1 surround).

And when counting all the movies you can watch from iTunes—including both rentals and purchases—Macworld found that Apple is still short of any 1,000 movie goal, offering only 770 films total.

Hopefully, Apple will meet their 1,000 rental goal in March. Because while AppleTV's recent makeover was impressive, we'd like to be able to, you know, watch some movies on it or something. [macworld]

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]

This chart makes the damage pretty clear: Apple barely ekes out a 10 percent profit (a single Jackson) on the 40GB model at the new pricepoint, a far cry from its more typical 50 percent margin.

Andrew Rassweiler, iSuppli's Teardown Services Manager & Principal Analyst, says that while the processor is admittedly the "big unknown for us" because it's not an off-the-shelf component, he "doubts it would be anymore expensive than what we've assumed." The bottom line for Apple's bottom line here is that "if they were giving it away before, they're definitely giving it away now."

This is a marked change for Apple: iTunes content has existed to sell the hardware, not the other way around. iTunes income is incredibly minor compared to hardware sales, not least of which because the majority of each track, album, whatever goes back to the label or studio. Apple TV stands to be the first device Apple makes more money off of the content than the hardware.

Conclusion? Apple is getting aggressive about moving into the living room, looking at the long run of establishing that fourth-leg. Besides, it's better to sell a million at a $20 profit than ten thousand at $60. [iSuppli]

Movies are available in HD Dolby 5.1 (finally!), and it does podcasts, audio and video, and photos from Flickr and .Mac direct to the box. HD movies are a buck more than standard ($4.99, so worth it). You can actually preview movies now. Startup even when streaming is fast, under 5 seconds. Yay for search. Photo browser is prettier, though functionally the same. And it's all a free software upgrade. No new hardware required! The cheaper price starts today, software update is available in 2 weeks.

Apple Introduces New Apple TV Software & Lowers Price to $229

Rent High Definition Movies Directly from Your Widescreen TV

MACWORLD SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Apple(R) today unveiled all new software for Apple TV(R) that allows movie fans to rent movies on the iTunes(R) Store directly from their widescreen TV, and lowered the price of Apple TV to just $229. With iTunes Movie Rentals and Apple TV, users can just click a button on their remote to effortlessly rent movies from a catalog of over 1,000 titles by the end of February, including over 100 titles in stunning high definition video with 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound, with no computer required. DVD-quality iTunes Movie Rentals are $2.99 for library titles and $3.99 for new releases, and high definition versions are just one dollar more with library titles at $3.99 and new releases at $4.99. Apple will provide the new Apple TV software free of charge to existing Apple TV owners when it releases the new Apple TV priced at $229 in about two weeks.

"With the new Apple TV and iTunes Movie Rentals, movie lovers can rent DVD-quality or stunning HD movies from their couch with just a click of a button," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "No more driving to the video store or waiting for DVDs to arrive in the mail."

iTunes Movie Rentals feature iTunes' legendary ease of use, which makes discovering and enjoying movie rentals as simple and easy as buying music on iTunes. Once a movie is rented, it starts downloading from the iTunes Store directly to Apple TV, and users with a fast Internet connection can start viewing the movie in seconds. Customers have up to 30 days to start watching it, and once a movie has been started customers have 24 hours to finish it — or watch it multiple times.

With Apple TV, users can also view photos from their computers, Flickr and .Mac Web Galleries on their widescreen TV as slideshows or screen savers, and anytime photos are updated on Flickr or .Mac, they are automatically updated on Apple TV. Apple TV users can now browse and enjoy the iTunes Store podcast directory of over 125,000 video and audio podcasts, view over 50 million originally created videos from YouTube or choose from a selection of six million songs, over 600 TV shows and 10,000 music videos to purchase directly from their Apple TV. Purchases downloaded to Apple TV are automatically synced back to iTunes on the user's computer for enjoyment on their computer, all current generation iPods* or iPhone(TM).

Apple TV easily connects to a broad range of widescreen TVs and home theater systems and comes standard with HDMI, component video, analog and optical audio ports. Using high-speed AirPort(R) 802.11 wireless networking, Apple TV now automatically plays all of your iTunes content without setup or management**.

Pricing & Availability
The new Apple TV software will be available as a free automatic download to all Apple TV customers later this month. Apple TV, which includes the Apple Remote, is available from the Apple Store(R) (http://www.apple.com), Apple's retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers for a suggested retail price of $229 (US) for the 40GB model and $329 (US) for the 160GB model (US and Canada). Apple TV requires an 802.11g/n wireless network or 10/100 Base-T Ethernet networking, a broadband Internet connection and a high definition widescreen TV. iPod(R) games will not play on Apple TV. iTunes Movie Rentals are available in the US only.

*Movie rentals work on iPod classic, iPod nano with video and iPod touch.
**Compatible with 802.11b/g/n. Based on an IEEE 802.11n draft
specification. Wireless video streaming requires an 802.11g/n network.

Back in early December, we saw a rumor that movie prices on iTunes were going up in order to pave the way for having iPod/AppleTV versions of movies on discs. Which studio did we tie to that rumor? Fox, the one that FT is saying already struck a deal. However, this new pre-ripped format is only really useful for people who don't already know how to rip their DVDs, and people who don't have the time to sit there for an hour while their computer does its thing.

As for the rentals, we've seen evidence of it for a long time, and what we've seen points out that it's going to be protected by FairPlay DRM, and is the first time Apple's licensed FairPlay to a third party.

It's also very similar to this Die Hard and Harry Potter deal that has PlaysForSure versions on the discs, and can be played on anything that supports Windows Media DRM. [Financial Times via Valleywag]

First, Jobs talked about how new Macs they have coming up will be "off the charts," and then talked about how they want the four pillars of their business to be Macs, iPods, iPhones and Apple TVs. Right now their focus is on the iPhone, but Apple TV will get its turn later.

Also addressed was an iPod with OS X, which sounds to us like an iPhone without the phone or communicator functions (but with the touchscreen).

Other interesting details he talked about was the 6 p.m. launch time (he didn't want people to take off from work), and the use of EDGE in the iPhone (battery, deployment issues). We're sure the employees were most excited about getting a free iPhone, which probably colored their response to all the other announcements.
Internal Apple Stevenote: iPhone, iPods with OS X, and "off the charts" Macs in the pipeline [Ars Technica]

While making 62 bucks a pop isn't exactly subsidizing them, the 20% margin before marketing costs grossly underperforms the Apple standard of 50% gross margins on products "outside its computer lineup," like iPods.

However, they jump to over 30 percent on the new 160GB model, given the marginal difference in storage costs. It's also entirely probable that Apple's worked out stellar deals on the parts—they have a cozy relationship with Intel and Steve-o's been bargain hunting components since he was a teenager.

In any case, with the iPhone around the corner (which will most likely bank 50 percent) their biggest concern will probably be finding people to count the mad loot rolling in. – Matt Buchanan

What Apple TV Costs to Make [BW]

Apple TV? Not doing so hot. IPTV? Not doing so hot. Apple TV and IPTV together? What makes you think that this will be hot?

AppleTV's main purpose, in our view, is to get Apple's content from your computer into the living room. Whether it's iTunes music, iTunes movies, or iTunes TV shows, it seems like just an extension of Apple's ecosystem.

Now, with the recent addition of YouTube to Apple TV, it seems like Apple's making a bold step in working other content providers into the box. However, by adding IPTV to the mix, it would cannibalize Apple's own TV show section of their iTunes store, which doesn't quite make sense to us.

But, while we're talking about long term predictions, we've also heard that Apple TV's getting a HAL voice chip and a huge red light by 2010. And by 2029, the last remaining Apple TVs will be retrofitted with time machines to send the then recently deceased corpse of Governator Schwarzenegger back in time to veto some more immigration reform bills.

But yes, we IPTV is a nice option to have even if it's lame. Which is why people are looking forward to it on Xbox 360s. – Jason Chen

AT&T planning IPTV for Apple TV in 2008? [Engadget]

Press Release [Apple]

The shaky manifesto wavers a bit into believability, however, when he says that the current geek-heaviness owes to "the average consumer still being confused about different video formats and DRM rights, getting downloaded video onto the TV, and premium content being slow to arrive to the digital market." On that much, he's right.

But is that enough to reason to think paid downloads are doomed to imminent oblivion in the wake of say, Joost? Or a subscription service attached to your 360 or Apple TV? As Ars points out, people occasionally do like to own the content they watch. You know, sometimes. And the market's still in its relative infancy, with potentially lots of room to grow into the proper niches to fit users' tastes.

Have guys paid for a video download? From who? – Matt Buchanan

Forrester: Paid video downloads, Apple TV a "dead end" [Ars Technica]
Image via Flickr

You can't find much wrong with SlingMedia's products that are both revolutionary and affordable—especially considering they were smart enough not to try charging some subscription fee. Wow, I've got nothing snarky to say here at all...heart warming...filling with love...must...stop...writing...– Mark Wilson

Update: Replaced ultra-meta version showing the ad on a TV with the video itself. Thanks, jonny.

Apple TV [Gizmodo]

He says:

Standard ATV OS with a few hacks.

Pretty simple hack to accomplish. Just enabled shh. Then VNC, AFP and USB. Then installed Nestopia and Emulator Enhancer.

Easy only because many people have spent hundreds of hours figuring out these hacks.

Apple TV [Gizmodo]

Apple's just said they did not put a backdoor into the Apple TV and whatever you do with your box is your own business. Just don't come around with a broken Apple TV box running Ubuntu Linux and expect them to fix it for you.

The official word from Apple: "We are not doing anything proactively at thist time, but if users hack their systems, they're voiding the warranty."– Jason Chen

To upgrade the 40GB disk to 60GB costs $195, and the highest it goes is 160GB for $295. Most of that is labor, but you're familiar with that concept with mechanics and doctors anyway. – Jason Chen

Product Page [MacService via MacWorld]

But maybe you're of the mind to actually buy one, and need to do some hard research. If so, bookmark this post that our sexy librarian friend put together for us: Here's a list of the best Apple TV stories on Giz and beyond from the two weeks since Mossberg launched review number 1.

First, Giz. We've covered the bajeezus out of AppleTV. Here's the first unboxing, some surprises upon grope, a couple of pet peeves, the first setup video, a head to head with Microsoft's Media Center and XBox 360. (And unnaturally, Apple TV versus Tivo Series 3.)And a cable buying guide, as well as the mega gallery of hardware and screenshots. Shoot, I almost forgot our review. Verdict: Good, but not going in the Pants...Although we'd consider this one licked by her Munness.

Of course, Giz aside, there's a whole lot of good Apple TV coverage out there. From blogs, to Mac sites, to PC rags, to the daily papers, here is the best of what our others have been saying about Apple TV.

Mossy's Review at the WSJ: We have to start with Sir Mossberg and sidekick Katie B's 10-day scoop on the AppleTV. I even fantasize that the entire ship date was pushed back so he'd have time to check out the hardware and do a review. The power! His video is average, but the review itself is classic Mossberg: Authoritative, fair, and in language your mom could understand.

The NYTimes and Pogue were 24-hours late, but his charming video, and comparisons to both Netgear's HD capable, complex streamer, and the XBox ecosystem make it worthwhile. Did he have early access? Or did he put the review and video together in 24 hours?

CNet: Their review was detailed, and long, but my favorite piece of CNet coverage came from this extended list of every conceivable Apple TV competitor and alternative. And John "Sheriff" Falcone did it before the Apple TV even launched. Interestingly, they posted it under their Crave, not CNet brand.

Jimmy L's pub, PC Magazine, has the deepest review yet, spanning several thousand words that I find no more appealing to read than a college textbook. But if you want the ultimate in authority and depth, no go further than this review.

Wait. Then there's this Ars review.

iLounge: LC Angell and gang are Apple Journo vets. That shows through in these two nice articles, in top 10 form, listing geek factoids and reasons why you don't need an AppleTV. Concise, and topped with a nice Live Sizemodo-ish Gallery of AppleTV with an iPod and Mac Mini. Did I mention those bastards have TWO Apple TVs?

Wired: Wired's newly designed Gadgetlab, a outlying fort in the Wired Universe that I used to command, is looking goood these days. Robby B. kicks off a nicely hedged list that still manages to have the personality of a polarized rant in his short, bitter, and sweet piece entitled, "5 Reasons Why Apple TV Rules, 5 Reasons Why it Sucks".

What's left to read after you make the plunge? A lot of hacks. Most importantly, the ones that put Mac OS X on the Apple TV. And there's the HDD upgrade, easy as pie.
The geeks have only begun to unlock this baby. So, follow the rest of our eternally ongoing Apple TV coverage right here.

Now, excuse me while I swallow my spit up.–Brian Lam

Apple TV [Gizmodo]

Pentium chip and OS X make for easy hacking, huh? We should have known it was too good to be true.
Then again, this rumor is unconfirmed. Maybe they broke the Apple TVs using an errant screwdriver or command over SSH. We shall see. –Brian Lam

Apple vs Apple TV Hackers [Tutorial Ninjas]

Video Clip [Egotastic]

Bonus: Olivia as Wonder Woman here [Egotastic]

Does Apple TV support 5.1 audio?
Yes (and no). Apple TV supports Dolby Pro Logic II surround sound, at least that's what they told me in the demo, but it does not feature 5.1 discrete audio (sorry DTS lovers). Technically, it plays back AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, which is then extrapolated to 5.1 channels. (thanks justsayyes)

What types of video files can I watch on an Apple TV?
Anything you can play on an iPod you can play on the Apple TV, that's the short answer. It does not support every video type that you can play in iTunes (in other words, just because you can watch a clip through iTunes does not mean you can also play it on your Apple TV). More specifically, Apple TV uses the .m4v file extension. QuickTime Pro 7.1.5 includes an option for exporting to the Apple TV format, and so does the latest version of iMovie.

What quality of video does Apple TV play back?
It decodes for 720p at 24 frames per second, with a 5MB bitstream rate (this is what we were told during the demo, although it varies slightly from the official specs published by Apple). The device can scale the video up to 1080i. But the video that you download from the iTunes store, it's worth noting, is still in standard definition.

Apple uses H.264 codec, part of the MPEG-4 standard, for video compression.

Okay, but how does the video look on a widescreen HDTV?
Most movies and TV shows you watch through an Apple TV will look great. But it all depends on your particular screen and settings. On larger screens, especially 1080p models, you might will notice some jagged egdes, crushed blacks, blown highlights. But smaller LCD monitors will make everything look mostly perfect. Apple showed me some videos they shot on an HD camcorder that looked brilliant on the Sony LCD monitor they were using. But the darkest parts of "Pirates of the Caribbean" didn't play as well on a plasma.

If you use an HDMI cable, Apple TV will automatically set your TV to the proper resolution. If you use component cables, Apple TV will ask you to choose from a list of resolutions during the setup process.

What happens if I rig the Apple TV up to my 4:3 screen?
We haven't tried this yet, but chances are the video playback will work just fine. But the interface will be in widescreen mode, making it a bit difficult to navigate. Even the interface scales down to fit the screen. (thanks goeb)

Does Apple TV work with my iPod?
In some ways. Let's say you start watching a TV show on your iPod, and then pause it 20 minutes in. When you connect the iPod to your computer and iTunes, it sends your pause point to the Apple TV. That way when you decide to finish watching the show on the Apple TV it will pick up right where you left off.

Can you connect an iPod to the USB port on the back of Apple TV?
No.

Then what's the USB port used for?
Apple says it's for "service and diagnostics." We can think of lots of other uses...

Does Apple TV have Internet connectivity?
Yes, but it's controlled. Apple TV streams movie and TV trailers directly from Apple, and also grabs upgrades straight from the source. But there is, as of now, no way for you to utilize this Internet connection for your own nefarious purposes.

Does Apple TV work with my iTunes season passes?
This is one of the cooler features of Apple TV. Whenever a new show arrives on iTunes as part of your season pass, it will automatically be pushed to the Apple TV. The episodes you've already watched will be removed from the device (but not from iTunes).

Does Apple TV stream iTunes visualizations?
Not as far as we know.

Does Apple TV still work when the host machine goes to sleep?
You must have iTunes running on your host machine to get started. But once you've synced content to the Apple TV it is copied to the hard drive and no longer requires the host. In fact, you could load an Apple TV with content and take it on vacation with you. It does not require any host computer to play back the material on its hard drive. You will need a host machine for synchronizing and managing the content on your Apple TV. The sleep cycle will not override a synchronization process once it has been started.

What kind of wireless hub does Apple TV work with?
Apple TV works extremely well with an old-fashioned 802.11g speed Wi-Fi connection. It also works with the newer and faster 802.11n specficiation. This difference is only noticeable when you are trying to synchronize big files, like movies. It will take longer to sync on the 802.11g connection (possibly much longer if you're sharing that hub with lots of people).

How hard is it to hook different computers up to Apple TV?
It is incredibly easy. Any machine, PC or Mac, showed up instantly. Connecting them with the Apple TV was a cinch too.

I store all of my iTunes music and videos on a network storage drive (or external HD), will Apple TV pick those up?
Apple TV syncs with whatever is in your iTunes library. So if there's a computer running iTunes that is serving up the content from a network storage device, then yes.

Does Apple TV sync all of my music files on its internal hard drive? Because that's not nearly enough space!
You can stream your music from the host computer, much like AirTunes, or you can sync music on the Apple TV itself. It's up to you, really.

What if I'm running my iMac and Apple TV but also have an 802.11b PDA fired up, won't that cause my 802.11g (or n) network to drop down to 11Mpbs?

In a 2 computer set-up (a MacBook which holds my iPhoto collection, and a PC holds my music and video collection for example), I want to sync my MacBook so I can display photos through the Apple TV and also sync my PC since it has videos and all of my music. Is this possible?
Yes, you can connect up to 5 different host machines to the Apple TV. As long as iTunes is running on those host machines, the Apple TV can stream or sync with them.

If I hook my HDTV to my MacBook using a VGA adapter, will I see any quality improvement by using an Apple TV?
Nope.

–Noah Robischon

In our head-to-head, we took Vista Ultimate and used a 360 as a Windows Media Extender. With this setup, we came to the conclusion that the hulking white box ekes out the slimmer, shorter Apple TV—unless you have a standard XP computer with Media Center, or copious amounts of Apple iTunes DRM'd content. Why?

Setup
Both are easy as pie, quite frankly. Turned on the 360, my Vista Media Center found it instantly. Same for iTunes/Apple TV. One catch here, however, is that if you want to wirelessly stream to your 360, you're going to need a dongle than runs $100 for the official one, which is quite frankly, obscene. Apple TV's lack of cables isn't much better. Both the 360 and Apple TV provide a code for you to punch into your Media Center and iTunes to authenticate, not long after which you can start moving content. Woohoo. The 360 warns you if you're moving content wirelessly on both ends, however, recommending that at least your computer be hardwired to the network.

Interface
Both have attractive interfaces, obviously. Apple TV looks simply fabulous in HD, with crystal clear text and vivid icons. Granted, this is a downside if your album art sucks, as mentioned before. Media Center's no slouch either, with a heavy emphasis on live previews. Text-wise, I prefer Apple TV, simply because I find white text on a black background easier to read than light blue and white on dark blue, which dominates the interface.

Apple TV is also much snappier—Media Center felt sluggish both on my laptop and on the TV itself. When that sluggishness is paired with scrolling in four directions, I found it to be a bit awkward to get where I want to go. That said, both use a modified "folder metaphor" as its major schematic, and I'm not overly fond of it. It takes too long to access content. God forbid you ever have to the onscreen keyboard to get anywhere with either of them. (You don't really, as of yet.) I don't know what the solution is, but surely there's a better way to make content and options more quickly and easily accessible. Live previews are excellent, I do know that.

Moving Content
Media Center lets you customize which folders you want it to "watch" to import into your library. That content you can then stream to your "Media Extender," the 360. If for some reason the 360 won't play a video in your library, it won't give you a thumbnail preview, which is a nice way to let you know. Apple TV, because it syncs (ports content to its hard drive) from your main computer rather than simply streams, thankfully it has a fairly customizable set of syncing options. It still annoys me that you can't manually delete or add content, though. Be warned, just because iTunes will play a video doesn't mean that Apple TV will, as you can see in the screenshot below.

Apple TV plays H.264 and protected H.264, iTunes Store purchased video and MPEG-4, whereas Media Center handles MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and all WMV. Not being able to grab content straight from the iTunes store is a bummer, especially since it pulls trailers from the intertubes directly, so the 360 one-ups it here with its built-in direct access store. So both use proprietary formats in some manner. Bleh. But Media Center gives you more options than Apple TV does, so a check for the 360 setup.

Apple TV also does not stream photos—meaning you can only store them on the drive, you can only pull pictures from your main computer. Media Center, since it only streams, obviously streams photos, but I prefer the way it presents them, actually. No problems loading up my music library, which is comprised entirely of MP3s, and the corresponding album art, on either system.

Playing Content
I find the Apple TV remote to be a little crummy. Sometimes fast-forwarding and rewinding was a little wonky, getting ahead of itself. Using the Xbox 360 controller (not remote) wasn't better, largely because there's no dedicated pause button, though I appreciated using the triggers as FF and RW. Weirdly, when you go back to the menu in Media Center, a live thumbnail preview keeps playing, and there's no easy way to shut it off, which was kind of frustrating when I wanted a video to stop playing.

Otherwise, both played beautifully (if they were able to play the content), with no hiccups when streaming with either, despite using wireless G networks in both tests. (If you'd like to donate to the Giz wireless N fund, let us know.)

Conclusion
If you use iTunes as your primary media software and want to get your content on your widescreen TV, it's not a bad way to do it, but that's all it does (for now). If you already have a 360 and don't mind Media Center, I see little point in blowing $300 on Apple TV if all that concerns you is bringing content stuck on your PC to your TV. You already have a $400 machine that does more than port media, it plays games. Great ones. And soon it'll be an IPTV box to boot.

Apple TV is a bit more elegant in its presentation, I think, and it's slightly easier to get to content with it, but it could do better. More importantly, it doesn't do what it does so much better than the 360/Media Center setup that it warrants a separate purchase if you already have a 360, or even plan on getting one. Value-wise, the 360 is the winner here, at least for now.

But there are better convergence solutions on the horizon, so if you don't need one of these now sit tight, because things are only going to get better. – Matt Buchanan

Apple TV [Gizmodo]

Finally, Pogue's video is here, and as expected, it's entertaining and recommended. Click on to see a full grown man having childlike fun reviewing a gadget. Another nice touch is his comparison to the high definition Netgear streamer, the EVA8000.
The difference? Apple's iTunes won't even supply HD video and those who crave simplicity, while the complex Netgear has compatibility with many formats, in 1080i HD, at the expense of ease of use. Then he compares it to our beloved XBox 360.

For those of you who need deeper reviews — like Mariana Trench deep — PC Magazine has one that'll do the trick. As for the one that tells you to buy it or not, here's our official take: Not quite worthy of an unpantsing.

Rating Pogue's Review:
Timeliness: 8/10
Depth: 8/10
Entertainment Value: 10/10

Rating Mossberg's AppleTV Review:
Timeliness: 11/10
Depth: 7/10
Entertainment Value: 7/10

Rating PC Magazine's Review:
Timeliness: 7/10
Depth: 11/10
Entertainment Value: 1/10

*All get high marks for authority, when you consider their respective target demographics.
Pogue's Apple TV Video Review [NYTimes]

–Brian Lam

that it doesn't come with cables, and that it only works on widescreens. These crits are minor, and I don't mind that iTunes has to be running while I use the Apple TV either—I leave it on much of the time anyhow.

The real flaws that I see in Apple TV are, like many of its best attributes, more complex.

The Rest of Us
One of the mantras being uttered about Apple TV is that it's a PC-to-TV bridge for the rest of us. I'd really like to meet the restofus family, do they live nearby? Because I think the readers of Gizmodo and other blogs, along with thousands of other gadget lovers who aren't bleeding-edge techies, are the restofus. Between digital cable boxes with DVR functionality and TiVo, we are already well aware of what is possible when it comes to managing media on a TV. Apple TV over-simplifies things, and underestimates the base level of expectation that people have about the PC-to-TV experience. The bridge itself is not enough, it's got to be better than the VOD options I already have.

Besides, Apple TV is not really for all those digital movie neophytes anyhow. Let's take my mom as an example—surely, she's part of the restofus family, even if I'm not. Mom has lots of movies in her iTunes collection that aren't going to automatically work when she tries to watch them via Apple TV, like all those QuickTime clips of her grandson that I've mailed or posted on .Mac. When she calls me to ask why she can't watch those home movies on her Apple TV, I'm going to explain to her that those files have to be converted into the .m4v format first. And you know what? I lost her at the word explain.

Identity Crisis
Right now, Apple offers iTunes videos in standard definition that can only be played via Apple TV on my high-definition widescreen TV. The quality of the picture is noticeably shaggy. Be honest with me Mr. Jobs, is this the way *you* want to see "Pirates of the Caribbean"?

Needs Parenting
I love having a huge collection of movies that I never watch, like the entire Planet of the Apes TV series. I love having a trove of esoteric songs in my iTunes library, like Umbabarauma (the Stairway to Heaven of Brazilian samba). I love, most of all, being able to keep adding to my compost heap of pop culture without ever having to look back except when I'm making a party playlist. Apple TV requires management. You will not be able to just keep loading it up. You will have to go back over to iTunes and keep track of what you sync because that hard drive is just not big enough for my supersized entertainment appetite.

Lacks Control
The Apple remote works well enough for Front Row. But it's too minimalist for television. Using Apple TV requires a second remote control to adjust the volume of the audio. Most third-party remotes won't work with Apple TV either (although you can teach a "learning" remote control to work with it). It would have been so easy to update this twee Apple remote to be programmable or add, say, a scroll wheel. Apple usually thinks of everything, but not this time.

As it turns out, Apple TV does have the ability to evolve in a way that would solve every one of these problems. Here are the two ways:

The USB 2.0 port. Ostensibly for "service and diagnostics," the USB port on the backside of the Apple TV could potentially be used for everything from expanding the size of the hard drive to connecting with third-party devices such as TV tuners. Or, what the heck, sync with an iPod.

Direct Uplink Apple TV can connect to the Internet directly and wirelessly. Right now you don't control that connection. This could probably be changed with a simple upgrade. If you're going to give me access to iTunes from my couch, why not just let me buy movies like I do with VOD? Fix this one thing, and Apple TV becomes a lot more valuable.

Apple is mum about the inherent potential of both these features. Let's hope they start talking soon. But let's also be honest here: There isn't much incentive for Apple to improve things. There is no perfect bridge between the PC and the TV yet. The Xbox 360 experience is flawed in its own ways. And everything else I've seen, including Windows, has its share of problems too (much of them related to ease-of-use). Which brings me back to the real question: Should you buy it? While I don't think this is going to be another WebTV exactly, Apple is going to have to do a bit more work on this device before it's something that Jason Chen will want to shove down his pants.
–Noah Robischon

2. Syncing over a wireless G network is slower than you would expect. Not really Apple TV's fault, though. Draft-N FTW. Oh, and pick a short password for your wireless network unless you want to take a half hour punching it in with the onscreen keyboard.

3. Speaking of syncing, it's all you can do regarding content on the Apple TV hard drive - you can't manually manage it. That is, on an iPod, you can add and delete songs as you wish, one at a time in iTunes, but you can only re-sync your Apple TV to change what's on the disk.

4. If you have ugly or tiny album art, browsing through your music collection sucks because of how prominent the art is in the interface.

5. Trailers have to be completely buffered before you can play them if you stream them from the iTunes store, and fast forwarding is a bit wonky on streamed videos. – Matt Buchanan

Hands-On Impressions: What You Don't Already Know About AppleTV [Gizmodo]
Apple TV [Gizmodo]

HDMI: Instead of Best Buy's $105 12-foot HDMI Cable, pick up a $6 dollar cable of the same length at Firefold.

Component: Skip Best Buy's $42 cables and get this $8 set.

Digital TOSLink Audio: Finally, if you're using Optical Digital Audio, instead of Best Buy's $25 cable, pick up a one for $9.

Apple's gear is pricey, and depending on the person, it's worth it or it isn't. (That's for you to decide.)

But as far as cables go, there's a lot of stuff that works for a fraction of the cost that the big boys are trying to screw you for. You're not just limited to firefold.com, either. Monoprice.com has some good stuff, too. The point is, don't fall for Best Buy or Monster Cable's ridiculous pricing. –Brian Lam

AppleTV [Gizmodo]

...but the Apple folks didn't want to get into the specific reasons. I'm guessing that adding a keyboard would have defeated the point of this device. It really is an iPod for your TV.

2. AppleTV will pick up where your iPod left off. Let's say you start watching a movie on your iPod, then pause it 20 minutes in. Go home, plug the iPod into your host machine and then cue up the same film on the AppleTV and it will re-start right from where you paused.

3. Your iTunes season passes are automatically pushed over to your AppleTV's hard drive, and the episodes you've already watched will be removed automatically.

4. Photo libraries are copied to the hard drive and do not stream from iPhoto. Not only that, but AppleTV also does some crunching to optimize the pics for your widescreen display.

5. AppleTV synchronizes in the same order as the tabs on the device menu screen.

6. You can't delete the shows on your AppleTV hard drive through the iTunes interface. So it's not exactly like an iPod either.

More to come...
–Noah Robischon