There always seems to be a few people who claim that the Apple TV has absolutely no value. I think the Apple TV is a great device that will offer me quite a bit. Allow me to demonstrate:
Music
- I can eradicate all physical CDs and CD players and instead deal with digital files (all my music is ripped as high bit-rate AAC or Apple Lossless). Loading and unloading a CD is simply barbaric in this day and age and having to plug in your iPod has several shortcomings in terms of storage and interface.
- I have access to *all* my music from my nice home theater set-up via a very simple and clean interface. Pure digital files via pure digital connection (HDMI) = high sound quality.
- All my music is already in iTunes and this works seamlessly with that library.
Video
- I can rip all my DVDs to disc and not have to deal with physical DVDs or DVD players but instead can browse and watch my entire movie collection without having to leave my chair (Thank you, Handbrake).
- Should I be so inclined, I can purchase and view iTunes TV shows and movies form my living room (probably won't do this much, but the ability makes iTunes purchases much more tempting).
vs. "mac mini"
- I don't have to set-up, configure, or maintain a separate, dedicated computer.
- I can keep all my media on my main computer as always (nice and simple). No dealing with synchronizing content, dedicated media networked drives, and other complications.
- Save $300 vs. the Mac Mini alternative (I don't really need a full computer in the living room... the web browsing provided by the Wii/PS3 already fills my limited needs there).
And the hard drive in the Apple TV is a fancy cache useful if you have a slow wireless connection. draft-N and even G should be fine for streaming pretty much all but high bit-rate 720p content without the need for any local (to the Apple TV) storage. The Apple TV essentially has unlimited storage (as it just grabs content from your computer and you can add as much storage as you want there).
My entire CD and DVD collection at my fingertips in my living room via a nice Apple interface? $300 seems like a fair price for that. Is there something I'm missing here?