Apple TV Take 2 Impressions - Gizmodo Comments

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

Rudan — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 10:31:19 EST

Any word about the USB port being activated for external hard drive storage with the ATV2 update?

Rudan

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

madjukebox — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 20:49:19 EST

i am wondering if you can stream stored movies in time capsule from apple tv and also does the usb port on the apple tv works now with the new firmware as a regular usb port where you can connect an external hard drive for extra estorage? any idea?

madjukebox

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

willpower — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 10:39:06 EST

I think the price is still to high for a rental and for the initial cost. I would rather go to a local Redbox and only pay a dollar for a movie. The only good thing would be if I could put my existing dvd's into iTunes and use the @tv to search my library.

willpower

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

robbywil — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 14:25:43 EST

@scotth0: "You usually get a movie on a Friday evening and turn it back in on Monday. "
Then there is me, who usually gets a movie on Friday and returns it somewhere in the range of 2-6 years later, forcing me to do the movie renter's equivalent of filing for bankruptcy, and opening new accounts at video stores who don't have my picture posted on WANTED DOA posters. Maybe with this I wont have to explain to my wife anymore why we need to drive to the video store three counties over.

robbywil

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

Worf — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 13:27:36 EST

@deadlizard: Not really.

Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are 1080p video. AppleTV can only output up to 720p.

Plus, until things change, downloading 25-30GB movies (which are what Blu-Ray and HD-DVD use) aren't practical - forget about the 4-8 GB stuff you can torrent - the Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are much better PQ.

Worf

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

jriga — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 11:58:42 EST

@WatershipDown: iTunes has TONS and TONS more shows than xbox Live. No HD TV shows for either which SUCKS.

jriga

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

jriga — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 11:36:28 EST

@PlasmaMachine: I hate to be the hater, but Live Video Marketplace is a JOKE. Points? Junk Interface? No search function? Typical MS half-assed attempt at something.

jriga

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

jriga — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 11:27:21 EST

@doctorSpoc: This isn't entirely true. Streaming HD photos or home movies will sometimes give a few issues - pauses where it tries to catch up.

jriga

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

jriga — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 11:23:55 EST

@mikerosenthal: THANK YOU! For saying what I've been thinking... not to mention I could plug my PS3 into the gigabit ethernet port on this device if it existed! Granted it would be limited to 802.11n speed - but that's faster than the PS3 can run over 802.11g!!

And my final gripe : why are there no eff-ing TV Shows in HD? WTF!? Dish can't give me locals in HD. Apple won't give me shoes in HD. Do I really have to order DirecTV or Cable for this? OTA antennas are junk... why can't I get shows being recorded in HD delivered to me in... TA DA!! H-freaking-D!??!

jriga

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

mark55 — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 10:33:06 EST

The ATV2 is looking alot better but I can't believe that the DVD quality rentals are only stereo. I can begrudgingly live with the 720p (vice 1080p of blu-ray and hd/dvd) but how can they not have 5.1 on all titles? Who wants to rent a movie for their home theater with only stereo sound? Seems like a no-brainer.

mark55

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

Galley — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 09:47:12 EST

@ALEXPIPERDOTCOM: There is a 480i output option, but it requires a component input on your TV.

Galley

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

jbmccle — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 09:24:05 EST

@exterminat25: It appears that in order to purchase content, you must use iTunes. From what we've seen so far only rentals of HD and DVD quality via AppleTV. Also the quality of movies via iTunes is more designed for iPod use - somewhat less than DVD quality. So as of now we can't buy HD movies-this is a little bit of a letdown for me. I own an AppleTV now and love it - the only problem has been not much HD content. I have about 300 movies in iTunes now and they do look good and stream perfectly to the AppleTV. This is definitely a welcome upgrade. Also don't forget photo streaming - podcasts - youTube- audiobooks etc.

jbmccle

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

ALEXPIPERDOTCOM — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 23:39:59 EST

Question: I have not upgraded to an HDTV yet. Can I use an Apple TV with my standard definition red, white, and yellow inputs?

ALEXPIPERDOTCOM

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

thebear91 — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 21:24:58 EST

Might sell well in places that actually have decent internet. 5 Mbit cable ain't gonna cut it and lesser connections are very common.

Don't compare this to Tivo, Tivo records live TV. Tivo can record while watching something else. TiVo has a built in tuner or two.

Apple TV is more like a glorified iPod.

thebear91

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

exterminat25 — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 21:06:20 EST

hey i just have a question... does anybody know if you can buy movies on the apple tv or is the only way you can do it is through itunes and then transfer it over to the apple tv?

exterminat25

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

nonstopgenius — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 20:14:53 EST

test

nonstopgenius

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

inkswitch — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 19:51:05 EST

Here's the big question for me... can the new version of the AppleTV shuffle music videos? I could care less about DVR capabilities or bigger hard drives, I just want to shuffle my 300+ music videos so I can have my own "Mtv".

Ohpleeseohpleeseohpleese...

inkswitch

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

MacSeven.com — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 19:48:38 EST

I'm very curious how the Dolby Digital 5.1 audio is packaged in the HD rentals since it seems that the MP4 spec does not include options for AC3 audio. Additionally, I hope that it opens up the possibility to convert dvds and files for AppleTV with DD5.1 via tools like Handbrake and VisualHub.

MacSeven.com

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

chaoslink — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 19:00:49 EST

What I want to know is if this upgrade will break my third-party (awkwardtv.org) plug-ins? I assume yes, but a confirmation would be nice.

chaoslink

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

WatershipDown — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 18:29:48 EST

So how does this compare to the Xbox Video Marketplace?

Does AppleTV have more shows and movies? Does Xbox Video Marketplace have HD tv shows? Anyone know?

WatershipDown

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

Rusdude — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 18:19:53 EST

Ergh... I was worried that Apple would do something that would put Vudu in a bad position but aside from price for HD rentals, they haven't. Vudu offers instant (no wait) streaming of SD & HD, more choice (HD and SD), purchase and rent options, less wait on new releases, larger hard drive, etc.

FYI, 24-hour window is standard for major studios. Vudu's the same way except (48 hrs for some indep. studios though).

Rusdude

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

PrefabSproutGuy — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 18:11:34 EST

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?

PrefabSproutGuy

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

drummerjoe — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 18:05:32 EST

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.

drummerjoe

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

Narayan7 — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 17:32:25 EST

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.

Narayan7

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

nonstopgenius — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 17:30:50 EST

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

nonstopgenius

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

scotth0 — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 17:22:51 EST

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.

scotth0

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

toddgarvin — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 17:04:58 EST

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.

toddgarvin

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

stwf — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 16:50:12 EST

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.

stwf

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

fallenturtle — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 16:42:56 EST

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

fallenturtle

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

deadlizard — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 16:41:27 EST

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

deadlizard

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

zombo — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 16:41:21 EST

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

zombo

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

doctorSpoc — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 16:37:21 EST

@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

doctorSpoc

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

Galley — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 16:35:20 EST

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

Galley

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

iSmoteThee — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 16:30:07 EST

@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.

iSmoteThee

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

iSmoteThee — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 16:23:54 EST

What's the reason?

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

iSmoteThee

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

bandit — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 16:17:01 EST

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

There's a reason for that.

bandit

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

iSmoteThee — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 16:08:34 EST

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

iSmoteThee

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

koddos — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:58:23 EST

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?

koddos

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

pab2k8 — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:58:04 EST

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.

pab2k8

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

lianna_g — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:56:12 EST

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!

lianna_g

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

geel — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:56:12 EST

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

geel

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

zombo — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:55:01 EST

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!

zombo

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

adultsupervision — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:54:29 EST

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

adultsupervision

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

mathew — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:54:24 EST

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

mathew

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

iamcrazyed — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:50:23 EST

@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!

iamcrazyed

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

Sanc — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:49:12 EST

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.

Sanc

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

Adidac425 — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:43:40 EST

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.

Adidac425

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

cbandes — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:42:14 EST

@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)

cbandes

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

doctorSpoc — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:40:51 EST

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.

doctorSpoc

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

doctorSpoc — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:36:33 EST

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!!

doctorSpoc

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

Padriac — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:36:19 EST

@PlasmaMachine: that's $229, actually.

Padriac

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

Carbonfly — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:34:37 EST

@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.

Carbonfly

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

DaveExile — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:31:08 EST

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

DaveExile

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

PlasmaMachine — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:30:05 EST

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.

PlasmaMachine

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

doctorSpoc — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:30:03 EST

@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

doctorSpoc

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

cbandes — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:28:51 EST

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.)

cbandes

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

Marcelo — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:28:42 EST

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.

Marcelo

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

genius74 — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:27:39 EST

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

genius74

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

Monty — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:27:10 EST

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

Monty

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

guylicious — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:26:54 EST

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.

guylicious

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

Accordion — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:26:03 EST

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

Accordion

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

Monty — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:26:00 EST

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

Monty

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

Padriac — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:25:34 EST

@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.

Padriac

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

Hiphopopotamus — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:23:14 EST

@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.

Hiphopopotamus

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

yojinbo — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:20:51 EST

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

yojinbo

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

Ron-Mexico — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:18:06 EST

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

Ron-Mexico

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

mikerosenthal — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:13:04 EST

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.

mikerosenthal

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

Carbonfly — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:12:11 EST

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.

Carbonfly

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

nojo — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:11:50 EST

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

nojo

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

deadlizard — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:08:39 EST

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

deadlizard

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

Gmo 4x4 — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:02:16 EST

Still as bad as the first

Gmo 4x4

Apple TV Take 2 Impressions

Husher — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 14:59:45 EST

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

Husher