I am sorry but whats the big deal with this new update?

cenetti said:

you guys are waiting eagerly? whats the big deal about it?
tv does what's it designed for "perfectly"...stream your itunes lib to your living room...

now all this waiting is for what? movie rentals?...you guys dont have cable tv? movies on demand? PPV? or something?

or is there something else coming with this new update that I dont know about?

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For me it is movie rentals, especially HD rentals. I got rid of my mini for an apple TV after the rental announcement (I wasn't fully utilizing my mini) and have been holding off some Unbox rentals (which don't look particularly great) for these rentals.

Definitely the movie rentals...

cenetti said:

you guys are waiting eagerly? whats the big deal about it?
tv does what's it designed for "perfectly"...stream your itunes lib to your living room...

now all this waiting is for what? movie rentals?...you guys dont have cable tv? movies on demand? PPV? or something?

or is there something else coming with this new update that I dont know about?

Click to expand...

For me, it is the support for 5.1 audio. As soon as this update is released, Handbrake will be updated so that I can rip/encode all of my DVDs to enjoy streaming movies from my Mac Pro in beautiful discrete surround sound.

The rentals are nice too (but I may not use that feature all that much).

Hickman

Apple fanboyism. Waiting for Apple updates has become a mass psychotic addiction.

nsbio said:

Apple fanboyism. Waiting for Apple updates has become a mass psychotic addiction.

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Thats what I'm talking about.

cenetti said:

you guys dont have cable tv? movies on demand? PPV? or something?

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Nope, just the free over-the-air HD feeds from my local stations.

aristobrat said:

Nope, just the free over-the-air HD feeds from my local stations.

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Seconded! It's amazing how much BETTER the over-the-air channels are, isn't it? Every time I've seen my buddy's HD cable or HD satellite I am just appalled at the difference in quality.

I'm looking forward to the update because I'm hoping desperately that I'll be able to sort my own movies in some other fashion than an alphabetical list. I REALLY want to be able to sort by genre, year, etc. ON the TV. If not that then maybe movie playlists? I'm hoping for SOME mechanism to better sort the content.

nsbio said:

Apple fanboyism. Waiting for Apple updates has become a mass psychotic addiction.

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Ahem.

I think the key for me is that it downloads right to the Apple TV, no need to sync with a computer. You just set it up, and off it goes. The appeal of never having to leave my couch is a big one.

parental controls so I can get my porn on there

All about the 5.1 for me.

TiVo still beats Apple TV

cenetti said:

you guys are waiting eagerly? whats the big deal about it? :

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Couldn't agree more - until it can do all the things a TiVo can do, I won't be buying one anytime soon!

Brian Hickman said:

For me, it is the support for 5.1 audio. As soon as this update is released, Handbrake will be updated so that I can rip/encode all of my DVDs to enjoy streaming movies from my Mac Pro in beautiful discrete surround sound.

The rentals are nice too (but I may not use that feature all that much).

Hickman

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So the current Handbrake Apple TV settings that include 5.1 won't work on the Take 2 software, or is this just a guess?

It is rentals for me. I bought it just to take advantage of this! I love the idea of renting directly from the TV. I no longer have to go out to the video store or have to remember to return them! I hate the netflix service, i never know what I want to watch or when I am going to watch it. I have an 18 month old daughter and there are many nights that after putting her down for bed my wife and I are too tired to really do anything except snuggle up on the couch to watch a movie. We do not know when that mood will strike us. So it will be great to instantly get HD movie rentals.

nsbio said:

Apple fanboyism. Waiting for Apple updates has become a mass psychotic addiction.

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Agreed. I was ecstatic when Apple released 10.5.2

I think one reason why this is a big deal is that Apple could possible update ATV to the leopard os (currently based off of tiger). There are some major enhancements with core graphics, etc with leopard.

JW008 said:

So the current Handbrake Apple TV settings that include 5.1 won't work on the Take 2 software, or is this just a guess?

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Just a guess right now. Won't really know until Take 2 is available. It might just be changing the settings and creating a new "Apple TV" profile.

But, I am not encoding anything else until Take 2 is out.

Hickman

paulbradley said:

Couldn't agree more - until it can do all the things a TiVo can do, I won't be buying one anytime soon!

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As someone who has a TiVo, I can somewhat agree. However, I can see the appeal of the Apple TV. Currently a TiVo can only play video from your Mac or PC that is either a .TiVo file or an MPEG2 file; The Apple TV plays MPEG1, MPEG4, and H.264. Currently a TiVo can only play MP3s from your computer; an Apple TV can play all the music in your library. A TiVo can view images from your computer or Y!Photos (and soon Flikr); the Apple TV can view photos from you computer or Y!Photos. The TiVo can get movies from Amazon UnBox (sometimes free or $.99 movies are available), which can be deleted an redownloaded if purchased; Apple TV can rent or purchase movies from the iTunes Store (and need to be backed up to a computer). UnBox Movies are in SD; Apple TV movies are available to rent in HD. The TiVo is ment to be a DVR; The Apple TV is ment to be a set-top box.

Personally, I have rented content from both Amazon and iTunes (watching the latter on my TV via my iPhone), I'm torn between the two services. The biggest advantage for the TiVo is the ability to record and transfer from, but the Apple TV has better use of your existing library. Really they are in two different worlds, and they should always remain in two different worlds (Unless Apple buys a portion of TiVo and integrated the Apple TV features into the software).

TEG

hualon said:

Seconded! It's amazing how much BETTER the over-the-air channels are, isn't it? Every time I've seen my buddy's HD cable or HD satellite I am just appalled at the difference in quality.

I'm looking forward to the update because I'm hoping desperately that I'll be able to sort my own movies in some other fashion than an alphabetical list. I REALLY want to be able to sort by genre, year, etc. ON the TV. If not that then maybe movie playlists? I'm hoping for SOME mechanism to better sort the content.

Click to expand...

Having seen a demo of the new software I will have to disappoint you. All we get is this alphabetical list....

The browse by genre option is only for the iTunes Movie Store, not for your own movies

Actually the new update (apart from rentals) brings Dolby Digital Support (hopefully) and thats the only real feature that's new

Brian Hickman said:

For me, it is the support for 5.1 audio. As soon as this update is released, Handbrake will be updated so that I can rip/encode all of my DVDs to enjoy streaming movies from my Mac Pro in beautiful discrete surround sound.

The rentals are nice too (but I may not use that feature all that much).

Hickman

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This is not accurate. The people over at Handbrake do not expect to be able to add 5.1 because AC-3 cannot be embedded in a m4v file. They were hoping Apple would use AAC-5.1 and have the Apple TV transcode to AC-3 on the fly, but that does not appear to be the case. You never know what Apple will do, but do not aspect anything from Handbrake. The newest feature they are adding is Anamorphic encodes to iPod files (similar to what Apple and Visual Hub are doing now)

petvas said:

Having seen a demo of the new software I will have to disappoint you. All we get is this alphabetical list....

The browse by genre option is only for the iTunes Movie Store, not for your own movies

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scheiße.

mr_matalino said:

Agreed. I was ecstatic when Apple released 10.5.2

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Ah. I would not be surprised if Apple software updates will soon be considered either illegal or controlled activities: "Do not update and drive"; "Please update responsibly"

its not just an update to me

the update overall updates the stability of apple tv and it fixed bugs which were present on the old version. I found that on my tv the apple tv was more responsive and alot more clear. The 5.1 is a great addition to the apple tv. Movie rentals, yes i have on ppv or cable but apple offers a wider range of selections and also most movies on cable ppv or dish cost around 3.99 and most are not even codded in 5.1 audio. I like the idea of playing songs from a computer to a apple tv, this is an amazing addition for me because we have alot of parties and im having to go to the apple tv while the party is going on and change the song using the remote. Now i can just sit in my room and dj from itunes (im hoping 3rd party software will let me use other applications soon). The overall look is alot better along with the clear cut ease of the menu's. Remember this is only 2.0 imagine the next update? some say the usb on the back shows no connection to diagnostic use...? who knows what apple has in stock. But for those who say they are not upgrading idk why you would not want to! Its a better apple tv and a better user-friendly machine full of new features.

The ability to get content directly from the AppleTV is pretty slick. Downloading a new podcast to watch can be done from your sofa instead of your desk chair. I've already update to software version 2 and so far I like it.