What does Apple TV do?!

It syncs or streams movies from your computer, to get them on there you need to either buy them from iTunes or rip your own DVDs on your computer.

It has a 40GB HD in it, you have the option of either syncing files from your computer to the HD, like you can with an iPod just it is wirelessly, or you can stream the files wirelessly to your TV from your computer

You hook this box up to the TV, and it connects to your wireless network, allowing you to play the content that is on it's internal hard drive OR play content on ANY Mac or PC in your network, wirelessly of course.

majordude said:

I must be the only one on the forum who doesn't know what Apple TV does. Is it an iPod for the TV?

It sounds like it will play movies stored on an internal drive. How do they get there? Do you load a DVD and it converts it and stores it?

What's the point?

Sell me one!

Click to expand...

All answers can be found here: http://www.apple.com/appletv

If this isn't a troll post, it certainly sounds like one.

"So... instead of ooking up my MBP to a screen with a $30 cable, I buy this block of plastic for $299?"

Right. Just like you buy an iPod instead of carrying around a MacBook with headphones plugged into it.

I've had three different computers connected to my TV via cable; it made for a profoundly annoying experience. You have a cable running between two usually distant locations (unless your TV is right next to your computer, which I doubt). All your windows will get messed up each time you switch to the TV output because the TV resolution will be much lower than your computer display's. You have to click through iTunes, which is not at all enjoyable from your sofa. Or you could use Front Row, which doesn't do podcasts, TV shows, and won't stream from your other computers - all this provided that, again, your computer is in the same room with the TV. This is for people with nice living room home theater setups. Otherwise, just watch the darn thing on your computer - what do you have a TV for?

Whatever argument you use against AppleTV, skip "I could just hook it up via cable".

Sergent Bilko

majordude said:

I must be the only one on the forum who doesn't know what Apple TV does. Is it an iPod for the TV?

It sounds like it will play movies stored on an internal drive. How do they get there? Do you load a DVD and it converts it and stores it?

What's the point?

Sell me one!

Click to expand...

Come in Majordude......your time is up.

majordude said:

I thought that the thing had an HD. No?

So... instead of ooking up my MBP to a screen with a $30 cable, I buy this block of plastic for $299?

I still don't get it.

Click to expand...

I thought the same thing as you do...until I actually got one. What if you want to USE your laptop while you're watching your movies on your TV? I have my MBP linked to my iTunes library wirelessly which is a 500GB external hooked to my Airport Extreme N station, with all my movies and music and tv shows on it. I can sit on my bed, and have AppleTV stream all my media from my wireless hard drive while not being tied down to my projector or an external hard drive.

Although I don't own one yet, the main attraction for me is the simplicity.

Right now when I want to watch a video file on my tv, I have to:

1) Copy the file from my desktop to my laptop
2) Bring a TV-Dinner table next to the TV
3) Put laptop on TV-Dinner table
4) Move power adaptor from desk to TV area
5) Find the mini Hdmi to S-Video adapter from my box of entanglend wire
6) Fins s-video wire from above box of entangled wire
7) Find Audio wire from said box of entangled wire
8) Plug everything in
9) Set TV to correct input
10) Select file on laptop and drag it on player icon
11) Adjust volume balance between Application, laptop and TV
12) Select "Full-Screen" mode
13) Turn laptop around so I don't see the mirrored video on the laptop screen.
14) Hope I don't need to get up to fast forward, rewind, pause.
15) Watch video
16) Trash duplicate video file from laptop
17) Put everything away until next time

(Mileage may vary if you have a more recent laptop with front row/remote)

If I had the Apple TV (Waiting for it to support subtitles in some way), It would be much simpler, especially with my universal remote:

1) Select Apple TV activity on the remote
2) Select video file
3) Enjoy

There is also the added bonus of the very nice and simple user interface.

majordude said:

So basically, you rip your DVD collection onto your HD (or is it into iTunes?) and then you stream that video across the room to the Apple TV?

And you can stream music from iTunes over to your TV?

I have a MBP, does my little remote work the Apple TV too?

Click to expand...

Basically.

You can also download content from the iTunes store. (I personally will be waiting for the service to be available in Canada and for HD content)

To me, Apple TV is like Airport Express, but for video, with a nice and simple interface.

Your Apple remote would work with the Apple TV but there is one included in the box. (Apple remotes can be paired with devices to avoid sending commands to multiple nearby Apple products at once)

majordude said:

So basically, you rip your DVD collection onto your HD (or is it into iTunes?) and then you stream that video across the room to the Apple TV?

And you can stream music from iTunes over to your TV?

I have a MBP, does my little remote work the Apple TV too?

Click to expand...

Yes you can rip your dvds to your hard drive on your macbook pro put them under itunes which then you can send them to your apple tv. The apple tv comes with a apple remote which is the same as the one that came with your Macbook Pro. You can send your music to your apple tv aswell as your tv shows and photos.

neven said:

Or you could use Front Row, which doesn't do podcasts, TV shows, and won't stream from your other computers

Click to expand...

This is incorrect. Front Row can playback podcasts and TV shows as well as stream from other computers. These can be found inside the Video section.

One key difference between the two is that Front Row can only play back DRM'd content that the computer it is running on has been auth'd for. Apple TV does not burn an auth.

Kevin

Apple TV is great, i enjoy it daily

Hey, i just got my Apple TV and it is just great! I do not see it as an iPod nor an Airport or anything you ....mentioned. It is a clear iTunes interface for HDTV. It can only play iTunes content. Not avi videos , just what you have in iTunes. I have an iMac G5 hooked up with a 500GB external firewire HD , in which i have all my music(25GB), my TV shows(40GB), my movies (12GB). So since apple Tv has a HD of only 40gb it would be imposiible to sync it with all my stuff. I use stream all the time (for those of you, that you don't own an Apple TV, believe me it is extremely fast you don't even have to wait for the movie to load). The only bad think in the case is that iTunes only plays mp4, m4v, mov files but no avi. So i had to convert a huge amount of tv shows and some movies from avi to m4v(export to apple tv from quick time). But now i feel great that i can have all my iTunes with nice interface in my great brand new HDTV, in my lovely bedroom.........Everything works great!!!!!!

majordude said:

Two more dumb questions:

1. Does TV only work with HDTV? I'm still in the dark ages with my old skool Panasonic from 1988 (no lie!).

2. I own VisualHub and it has a mode for converting movies into iTunes apple:TV format).
a) Can I view these videos on my iPod?
b) Do they look good in HD (since they must be compressed like nuts)?

And I confess that I am just a little puzzled about this still... is TV all about convienience? I mean, if I own the DVD, why not just play the DVD instead of ripping it and storing it on a drive (at a lower resolution)? I can see now that TV might be cool if I had a bunch of downloaded movies or paid money to iTunes Store for something... but most of my stuff is on real DVDs. Maybe I'm too old for this stuff!

Click to expand...

1. there are a few threads on here that discuss this, i think the answer is yes you can hook it upu but its not going to look very good. ATV was made for widescreen HD.

2. encoding using visualhub with the appleTV settings gives you an mp4 thats pretty much DVD quality. Depending on your bitrate a normal movie is between 1 and 2 gigs.

To your final statement, that question has been brought up alot here. and the best answer that folks give is that, why convert all your CDs to mp3 and bring them into iTunes if you can just put a disc in... Its the same thing, its more convenient to have instant access to all your media.

All this information is on the product page at apple.com. You're asking very simple questions in individual posts. If you spent 5 minutes reading the product page, you would have answered all of your questions.

Why do you want to be sold on something that 1) you don't know what it does, 2) you cant benefit from owning one with your lack of purely digital content from iTunes 3) you don't have an HDTV (widescreen)?

I download TV episodes I miss for various reasons using iTunes and watch them using the TV and my 42" HDTV. During my middle daughter's birthday party I played music in the background via the TV on the HDTV (I coulda used the iMac, which has decent & powerful external speakers, but the other way was "cooler").

If you cant think of a reason to get one, you probably shouldn't bother getting one.