Sell me on AppleTV please.

You can buy or rent movies, TV shows and music direct from your TV with just a few clicks.

You say you dont want to rip DVDs but the convenience of having 100s of movies (after months of ripping ) at your fingers tips that start in an instant is great. The worst part is choosing what you want to watch.

I will admit I have had a few problems with mine but it turns out that the network wasn't configured correctly and so the ATV kept playing up. Now everything seems fine.

There isnt much else you can do with it apart from view your photos and surf YouTube from your couch (great for parties) but it is a very good device. And everyone who asks "Whats that under your TV?" come away mightily impressed.

BrianDavid0523 said:

Ok guys....I've read all the promo material from Apple on the Apple TV, but still don't understand why I would want or need this.

Basically, if I don't wanna buy TV shows from iTunes, or rip DVDs to a HD, then what else would I do with this thing?

I dunno - I think I'm just not "getting it"?

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Apple tv is not for everyone.

Here are the main thigs you can do

1)Buy tv shows.
2)Buy/rent movies.
3)You can aslo have your music and podcasts stores on the apple tv unit.

BrianDavid0523 said:

Basically, if I don't wanna buy TV shows from iTunes, or rip DVDs to a HD, then what else would I do with this thing?

I dunno - I think I'm just not "getting it"?

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No, I think you're getting it. It's just not aimed at how you do things.

BrianDavid0523 said:

Ok guys....I've read all the promo material from Apple on the Apple TV, but still don't understand why I would want or need this.

Basically, if I don't wanna buy TV shows from iTunes, or rip DVDs to a HD, then what else would I do with this thing?

I dunno - I think I'm just not "getting it"?

Click to expand...

nothing else really. to me it's benificial 'cause i rent bluray and regualr movies from my local shop. i've been always hit by late charges so my bill added up in time. being able to use it for the first time last night, i was amazed on how easy it was to rent HD movies, and the picture quality was there, enought to brilliantly show on my 150 inch projector screen.

i don't plan of buying movies at the moment. i have my own bluray collection going together with my hd-dvd's...i know, it's a dead format but hey, my titles arent available on blu and the quality is the same.

youtube is just what it is, but being able to watch it so conveniently on ur tv is a different experience...and the picture quality didn't suck as bad as i expected.

being able to stream my subscribed podcasts and watching them on tv is another different and better experience.

the APTV to me is simply my own personal video store. other than that it's just a gadget sitting on my entertainment unit.

oh, and did i mention that i am a sucker when it comes to HD trailers, and there's tons of them to download from APTV.

i hope this helps.

reidjr said:

Apple tv is not for everyone.

Here are the main thigs you can do

1)Buy tv shows.
2)Buy/rent movies.
3)You can aslo have your music and podcasts stores on the apple tv unit.

Click to expand...

You can also play your own movies or downloads form the net by adding some additional functions.
I just LOVE my ATV, I also use it to display my photography. much nicer than a 7inch digital picture frame...

aristobrat said:

No, I think you're getting it. It's just not aimed at how you do things.

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Its not for everyone. In its very basic form, whatever you have in your iTunes and iPhoto libraries you can view, listen, play, on your TV. And now you can buy and rent movies, TV shows and music. Its more of a convenience thing than a must have gadget.

If you don't want ALL of your media at your finger tips, then don't buy it.

ayale99 said:

If you don't want ALL of your media at your finger tips, then don't buy it.

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If you want ALL your media at your finger tips, buy it and hack it

At one time I was seriously considering buying a 3.2 x 8 Mac Pro just so I could rip all my DVD's to it faster

MacboobsPro said:

Y

You say you dont want to rip DVDs but the convenience of having 100s of movies (after months of ripping ) at your fingers tips that start in an instant is great. The worst part is choosing what you want to watch.

Click to expand...

Agreed! I have a hard time deciding what to watch as well. 275 rips makes it hard to choose.

I wish there was a way to see what movies you haven't watched yet. OR a way to view which movies were "recently added" to your library. I know it sounds stupid but once your library gets to 275+ movies, the one column AppleTV list gets quite loooong.

ayale99 said:

I wish there was a way to see what movies you haven't watched yet. .

Click to expand...

This is available in ATV Files and in nitoTV.

The biggest advantages for me, besides a digital movie library, is having my music and photos available at any time on my tv and sound system.

Others like Youtube and podcasts on their tv's, though I really don't use those features much.

tom1971 said:

This is available in ATV Files and in nitoTV.

Click to expand...

*Hint, Hint* Are you making a lot of money with those Patchstick hacks?

buy one...

If you have a good digital A/V receiver, and an HDTV, and a wired or wireless network, then the AppleTV will plug in seamlessly. It acts as a bridge between iTunes, the internet, and your entertainment center. If you want to bring those together, the AppleTV is for you. Apple will be updating the software to add new features (hopefully Safari on AppleTV). In the meantime, there are some good third party hacks that offer added functionality.

Um, why "sell you" ? If you like the idea of what it does and can afford one, then go buy one. If not, then don't. *confused*.

Access to 17,000 tracks of lossless audio.

tom1971 said:

This is available in ATV Files and in nitoTV.

Click to expand...

...and Sapphire
----------------------
I bought mine because I like toys and I wanted a way to have an audio jukebox for my music. Just for that it was a winner.

Then they added YouTube with the higher rez videos than what you see on the web. Like another poster said, this is great fun at parties.

Then I wanted to have my movies online so I started ripping 'em and now I'm addicted watching them on there.

I also had some other content not supported by the original ATV so I hacked it. When Jobs said the ATV was a hobby this is what he meant. It's been like a science experiment playing around with the different hacks and trying to get them to work but I've had a geeky blast doing so.

Best reply below.

I no longer want to go to movie theaters to see a film. never mind the video store.

The biggest problem I now have is too much content, have to make decisions what to watch, instead of having the decision made for me the way it used to work with TV.

A huge part of the decision for me was that I don't care to listen to music or watch media on my Mac in my den. With Apple TV, I listen to my music in the living room with 5.1 Surround Sound, and can switch in an instant to watch TV or a movie or a podcast, or You Tube, or see my photos.

dbwie said:

If you have a good digital A/V receiver, and an HDTV, and a wired or wireless network, then the AppleTV will plug in seamlessly. It acts as a bridge between iTunes, the internet, and your entertainment center. If you want to bring those together, the AppleTV is for you. Apple will be updating the software to add new features (hopefully Safari on AppleTV). In the meantime, there are some good third party hacks that offer added functionality.

Click to expand...

dbwie said:

If you have a good digital A/V receiver, and an HDTV, and a wired or wireless network, then the AppleTV will plug in seamlessly. It acts as a bridge between iTunes, the internet, and your entertainment center. If you want to bring those together, the AppleTV is for you. Apple will be updating the software to add new features (hopefully Safari on AppleTV). In the meantime, there are some good third party hacks that offer added functionality.

Click to expand...

Check http://www.brandon-holland.com/ for Couchsurfer

Don't buy one

From your description an TV is not for you. It looks like you understand it completely, but it just isn't suited for you. I really enjoy mine, but I don't mind converting all my movies.

BrianDavid0523 said:

OK now this interests me - how does Apple TV allow me to play my iTunes music thorugh my sound system? That is something I would love to be able to do.

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If you TV has surround sound then your music will play through that (albeit in Stereo).

If you are just looking to play music through a set of speakers maybe look at getting AirTunes or Airport Express whatever its called.

BTW: To set your movies as 'unwatched' right click on the file in iTunes and click 'mark as new' then when you view it in ATV it will have a blue dot next to it. This also helps towards ATV auto syncing 'unwatched' content.

MacboobsPro said:

BTW: To set your movies as 'unwatched' right click on the file in iTunes and click 'mark as new' then when you view it in ATV it will have a blue dot next to it. This also helps towards ATV auto syncing 'unwatched' content.

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Great tip! I had not known that, thanks.

I bought an Apple TV last week ... generally, good concept. But I have to say, the 24 hour window to watch a movie once you start absolutely pisses me off. I have 11 month old twin boys at home ... I rarely have two uninterrupted hours to do ANYTHING. Last week I rented an HD movie, watched about half of it ... then got interrupted, it got late, I went to sleep. By the time I was free to watch the rest, too late, 24 hours were up. This is going to be a regular issue for me.

Can't they, at least, offer some kind of $1 per day "late fee" on these movies, so I can pay a bit more to finish it? The damn movie was removed from Apple TV and the only way I can watch it is to pay for a full price new download.