Apple TV Orders Being Charged to Credit Cards

good news! hopefully they'll be shipping soon

Does anyone think that Apple will announce 720p downloads soon, to coincide with, or jumpstart, the sales of ATV?

nightowl said:

Does anyone think that Apple will announce 720p downloads soon, to coincide with, or jumpstart, the sales of ATV?

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i sure hope so

I started a thread on this earlier. Anyway, I had reason to call Apple about this earlier today, and was told specifically that AppleTVs are shipping March 20th, but I was also told that my card wouldn't be charged until my order shipped. It was charged just an hour or two later. So we'll see...

This is great news! I can't wait to start reading the reviews. Oh yeah... and the unboxing photos... [drool]...

Will the Apple TV really "change the way we watch TV?" Time will tell.

Yay! Maybe we won't have to wait for next week!

B

How long will it take to download a movie in 720p?

donlphi said:

How long will it take to download a movie in 720p?

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At the 5Mbps the AppleTV supports? A bloody long time I would think.

A DVD converted to AppleTV format via Quicktime kept it's native resolution and was encoded at 2.5Mbps in H.264 and it was massive.

AppleTV is the only viable option right now for savvy consumers who want to view their high definition home movies on their HD sets.

I'll buy the moment it comes out. I did some test exporting some HDV footage to AppleTV 720p video and it looks really good. I'm excited by this.

Chundles said:

At the 5Mbps the AppleTV supports? A bloody long time I would think.

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This is high definition at DVD bitrates. Really amazing considering 720P has about 3 times the resolution of 480P.

AppleTV Charged tonight at 8:00 EST

My AppleTV that I ordered in mid-January has been charged to my credit card as well. After the announcement of the delayed shipping last month, I called Apple and switched the shipping to overnight for free due to the delay. Now I'll have the AppleTV by Wednesday at 10:30 AM.

Bring on the 720P! I'd probably even pay a dollar more. The quality of some of the tv shows on iTunes leaves a lot to be desired.

Thank you Apple!

Schill359 said:

Bring on the 720P! I'd probably even pay a dollar more. The quality of some of the tv shows on iTunes leaves a lot to be desired.

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i agree. i'd definitely pay $2.99 per show for hd content. if only it didn't take so much space!

Why doesn't Apple offer a 1080p version of tv at a premium price? People who spent lots of money on a nice true 1080p TV probably won't mind, as long as it works...

Chundles said:

At the 5Mbps the AppleTV supports? A bloody long time I would think.

A DVD converted to AppleTV format via Quicktime kept it's native resolution and was encoded at 2.5Mbps in H.264 and it was massive.

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I have 6MBPS broadband so I am right...if they actually decide to sell these downunder

Me too!

My account was pre-charged as well. Usually this would mean shipping with 3 business days (the charge will fall off if not finally authorized by then).

Also, Next Day shipping does not mean one should expect it literally the next day. Many Apple items come IP Direct Distribution from China. (Usually a 3 day transit time for me here on the east coast.)

as far as I remember, it is illegal to charge a credit-card in the UK until the goods actually ship from the company.

now, I haven't checked my credit-card, but if someone in the Uk sees a charge from Apple then it does indeed mean they are about to leave the factory..

here's hoping!!

nig.

spicyapple said:

AppleTV is the only viable option right now for savvy consumers who want to view their high definition home movies on their HD sets.

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And that is.. because you say so or because Steve Jobs said so?
The XBox 360 also supports HD streaming (WMV HD), btw.
But.. oh, I forgot.. if you buy it you haven't got much SAVVY!

siurpeeman said:

i agree. i'd definitely pay $2.99 per show for hd content. if only it didn't take so much space!

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How many minutes of HD content would one be able to save on the 40GB HD of the Apple-TV?

weg said:

And that is.. because you say so or because Steve Jobs said so?

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Because Steve is our saviour and his word is golden.

The XBox 360 also supports HD streaming (WMV HD), btw.
But.. oh, I forgot.. if you buy it you haven't got much SAVVY!

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I'm not a gamer, will never own an Xbox and I'm not really interested in anything to do with MS or WMV.

spicyapple said:

I'm not a gamer, will never own an Xbox and I'm not really interested in anything to do with MS or WMV.

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I'm not a gamer either, but have the Xbox 360 because it's a much more capable Media Center Extender than an Apple TV.

Not liking MS doesn't justify pretending that they don't exist.

I know there isn't currently any 720 content from itunes and I'm sure there would be eventually, but I wish they would have some 1080p content one day. I'm sure it would take months to download but it would solve my HDDVD or bluray dillema

Order has been pre charged too!



Ship baby, ship!

It's all kicking off now! I'd be interested to see how these go, but no SCART output? No buy from me

spicyapple said:

AppleTV is the only viable option right now for savvy consumers who want to view their high definition home movies on their HD sets.

I'll buy the moment it comes out. I did some test exporting some HDV footage to AppleTV 720p video and it looks really good. I'm excited by this.

Click to expand...

Er, how are you recording HD home movies? Presumably whatever is recording them can play them back, no?

Anyways, we'll see how the AppleTV does, but I'm not really sure it's going to be a smash success like the iPod is. It seems a bit limited, and the pricing of the whole thing is off, for me. $300 for the box. $2 for TV shows, maybe more if they go HD. $10+ for movies, no rental (which I maintain is a mistake).

TiVo has pledged to produce a more affordable HD recorder this year, so assuming they can get down to that $300 price (from the $700 it is now) you could get an HD DVR that plays back purchased AND rented content (via Amazon) and had a terrific UI (TiVo's UI is one of the best, although it has stagnated in the last few years). Amazon could EASILY launch an HD TV and movie service to go with the new TiVo HD DVR as well.

The 360, as mentioned, has plans to offer more streaming premium media, and does at least an adequate job of it (I've not used it, so I can't say if it's a great setup or not... but it at minimum gets the job done).

We'll see, but I think Apple needs to do something that separates it from the pack if they are going to succeed here.