Apple TV looks Wack!

[rneglia]

I have a Sony Blu-Ray player that already does Netflix. I just heard that the XBox 360 does Netflix. My neighbor's TV does Netflix without a box!!

Basically, TV is only for people who don't have any sort of Netflix box.

I'll give them this though...the optical audio port was a nice touch.

 

[edk99]

What is the point of your post?

 

[rneglia]

my point

What is the point of your post?

My point is, the AppleTV is cheap because there are already a ton of things that do what it does.

I think Jobs missed the mark when he said "people want Hollywood movies and TV shows".

Maybe some of us want Bollywood movies and old TV shows like Mary Tyler Moore.

Maybe I want to watch something in 1080p?

Maybe I want to catch up on the stack of New Yorker Magazines in my apartment!!!

 

[Darth.Titan]

You apparently do not understand the purpose of the AppleTV, and judging by your tone it would be useless to try to explain it to you.

You are of course welcome to your opinion.

 

[rneglia]

tone

I'd be willing to change my tone at this stage.

What's the purpose of Apple TV?

 

[almostinsane]

You apparently do not understand the purpose of the AppleTV, and judging by your tone it would be useless to try to explain it to you.

You are of course welcome to your opinion.

Going by past sales of the ATV, consumers can't figure out the purpose either.

 

[CalMin]

I'd be willing to change my tone at this stage.

What's the purpose of Apple TV?

Here you go.

http://www.apple.com/appletv/

 

[steviem]

Maybe I want to catch up on the stack of New Yorker Magazines in my apartment!!!

The people who write for the New Yorker do not have anuses... They said it in Family Guy, thus it is true.

However, what bearing does that have to Apple TV versus your BluRay player? I have a PS3, never put a BluRay which wasn't a game disc into it, tried streaming my content to it, not so reliable and its organisation is nowhere near that of the Apple TV's.

I can't even get Netflix where I am, guess I'm wasting £99 on a useless 'wack' black box....

 

[Imsuperjp]

I never thought once about buying the old apple tv, and I have 3 new appletvs on pre order now. May be "whack" to you, but fits my needs perfectly

 

[emptyCup]

I have a Sony Blu-Ray player that already does Netflix. I just heard that the XBox 360 does Netflix. My neighbor's TV does Netflix without a box!!:

For good or ill most people are not like you. Many people, including me:

1. Don't want physical media. We already have shelves full of books or CDs or vinyl records and we don't need collections of anything else.

2. Don't want subscriptions. It's bad enough we have to deal with the mortgage and the utility bills and the phone bills. We don't want Netfilx or Hulu+ or anything else that we have to pay for forever.

3. Think anybody over the age of 16 who owns an XBox or PS3 is strange (although I know people like this). Watching Netflix or DVDs is not an inducement to buy a gaming console (see #1 and #2).

4. Don't want to rip DVDs in OGG whatis or XMBwhatever and then huddle around the computer to watch them. None of us live in a dorm room and few of us are very technical.

What we may want is something cheap that easily attaches to our TV. Something that lets us inexpensively watch stuff that we may occasionally want to watch but can't now. I realize the people you listed don't need an appleTV. Neither do people who spend $100 / month on cable.

I am not sure yet that I want one, but this comes closer to what I want than anything else so far. Best wishes.

 

[rneglia]

I never thought once about buying the old apple tv, and I have 3 new appletvs on pre order now. May be "whack" to you, but fits my needs perfectly

Alright, alright! I'll order one and see if it's a "game changer".

I still think a $150 Sony Blu-ray player with Netflix/Amazon/Hulu/YouTube is a better buy.

 

[d21mike]

I see this kind of thread all the time. Is it so hard to understand that AppleTV's main purpose is to connect to iTunes? The video content that you purchase on iTunes is encrypted so you need an Apple device to play it. If you do not purchase anything on iTunes then you have a number of choices to play your content. To me it is pretty simple. The fact that Apple has added NetFlix is an added bonus and I hope they add more. But if you have iTunes Content that will only play on Apple Devices you really have no choice. Am I missing something?

 

[Panch0]

Netflix is not the point of AppleTV

I have a Sony Blu-Ray player that already does Netflix. I just heard that the XBox 360 does Netflix. My neighbor's TV does Netflix without a box!!

Basically, TV is only for people who don't have any sort of Netflix box.

I'll give them this though...the optical audio port was a nice touch.

Netflix streaming is a really nice addition to the new AppleTV, but it's not the main point. Maybe having it allows you to get rid of another box (in my case, the PS3 is probably going away).

The point of AppleTV is streaming your iTunes content from a computer to a TV, and with the AirPlay Update streaming from iOS to the TV. IF (and it seems to be a big if) you have bought into the iTunes store as an alternate to physical discs and especially if you have ripped existing DVDs into a compatible format, the AppleTV interface is excellent for browsing and playing your media.

The iTunes store has movie rentals for usually $1 less than VOD through cable providers. Netflix streaming can be cheaper since it's all you can eat, but new releases are not available for streaming as early as they are through other services. AppleTV lets you use your exisitng library, the iTunes Store for rentals, as well as Netflix streaming; all this with a very nice and consistent interface.

 

[aristobrat]

I still think a $150 Sony Blu-ray player with Netflix/Amazon/Hulu/YouTube is a better buy.

Until a [Sony Blu-ray player, XBOX 360s, TVs] can provide an easy, decent solution to stream your music, movies and photos from any computer or iOS device to your TV, I think that a lot of people are going to find value in having both a Blu-ray player (that may or may not stream Netflix) *and* an Apple TV.

As someone said, it's essentially an iPod that connects to your TV that oh-by-the-way does Netflix too.

Why people focus on just the Netflix function of the Apple TV, as if it doesn't do anything else, I just don't understand.

 

[Irishman]

My point is, the AppleTV is cheap because there are already a ton of things that do what it does.

I think Jobs missed the mark when he said "people want Hollywood movies and TV shows".

Maybe some of us want Bollywood movies and old TV shows like Mary Tyler Moore.

Maybe I want to watch something in 1080p?

Maybe I want to catch up on the stack of New Yorker Magazines in my apartment!!!

Then buy a Mac and create a HTPC

 

[aonflux]

Apple Tv is not going to only be for itunes and movie streaming.
Imagine streaming an app from your iPhone or iPad. Airplay is going to be huge. Gaming and apps are going to be huge.

 

[sjsharks13]

For good or ill most people are not like you. Many people, including me:

1. Don't want physical media. We already have shelves full of books or CDs or vinyl records and we don't need collections of anything else.

2. Don't want subscriptions. It's bad enough we have to deal with the mortgage and the utility bills and the phone bills. We don't want Netfilx or Hulu+ or anything else that we have to pay for forever.

3. Think anybody over the age of 16 who owns an XBox or PS3 is strange (although I know people like this). Watching Netflix or DVDs is not an inducement to buy a gaming console (see #1 and #2).

4. Don't want to rip DVDs in OGG whatis or XMBwhatever and then huddle around the computer to watch them. None of us live in a dorm room and few of us are very technical.

What we may want is something cheap that easily attaches to our TV. Something that lets us inexpensively watch stuff that we may occasionally want to watch but can't now. I realize the people you listed don't need an appleTV. Neither do people who spend $100 / month on cable.

I am not sure yet that I want one, but this comes closer to what I want than anything else so far. Best wishes.

 

[bruinsrme]

I was in the camp of the new ATv is a waste, stupid and jobs is smoking something.
Then I have two friends that have tvs that do not have wireless built in
The USB adapters run about 80 bucks.
A wireless atv runs 99.
I think this is far more potential with atv than the USB LAN adapters Sony and samsung are peddling.
I am warming up to atv and I do thing it will be a good device for many people.
Keep in mind not everyone can or wants to run cables to their tvs. Atv offers a wireless solution with some unique features when coupled with an ios device. Jmho

 

[DJinTX]

Going by past sales of the ATV, consumers can't figure out the purpose either.

On the contrary, I think the low sales figures of the original ATV says consumers understand the purpose just fine and decided it was not for them. Obviously some disagreed and bought the machine, but I don't think anyone was confused on it's purpose, unless they were the village idoit.

It's purpose was clear, but very focused/limited, and this purpose didn;t fit a large number of users. And the new ATV may also not fit many users, but the formula has changed some. With the much better hardware, the adoption of iOS, and the possibility for apps/widgets, this could really take off. It just depends on what Apple envisions long term, which we won;t know for awhile yet. Netflix appearing on the ATV isn't a huge deal by itself, however, it signals Apple realizing that some third party content will help make it more versatile.

Should be an interesting year for ATV.

 

[DJinTX]

Alright, alright! I'll order one and see if it's a "game changer".

I still think a $150 Sony Blu-ray player with Netflix/Amazon/Hulu/YouTube is a better buy.

Just so I understand...you think the ATV is whack, and that the Sony Blu-Ray with the stated features is a better buy than the ATV, but you are going to go against your beliefs and buy an ATV anyway?

What the hell? This seems ridiculous and I'm starting to think you might be trolling for attention. You sure did change your tune quickly on this.

 

[Batt]

I'm going to buy two ATVs and dump both HBO and Encore in favor of NetFlix and iTunes.

 

[BoulderBum]

I have both a PS3 (Blu Ray) and an Apple TV.

I use Apple TV for movie rentals, TV shows, video podcasts and YouTube mostly. Apple's interface is the best of the media streamers, in my opinion, I like that it's tied to my iTunes account (and any gift cards I may receive) and it's cool to be able to control it with my iPhone and take purchased content with me instead of leaving it on TV.

The other day I was hiking with my toddler in a carrier when she tired/bored and started crying until I calmed her down by handing her an iPhone so she could watch "Princess and the Frog" on the way back to the car.

If I want to watch a movie to get the full HD experience, I'll buy the Blu Ray (because even 1080p content from the internet is too compressed to pack a similar wallop), but I often use the Apple TV for the convenience of on-demand rentals of new releases and easy navigation of my iTunes movie library.

 

[DJinTX]

I use Apple TV for movie rentals, TV shows, video podcasts and YouTube mostly. Apple's interface is the best of the media streamers, in my opinion, I like that it's tied to my iTunes account (and any gift cards I may receive) and it's cool to be able to control it with my iPhone and take purchased content with me instead of leaving it on TV.

I totally agree. Somehow Apple just knows how to do great UI. Meanwhile so many competing companies have no clue in this area. Some of them like Boxee and Plex are doing pretty good, but none do as well as Apple.

My only concern with the new ATV right now is storage. I'm sure we will find out that it has a 16GB (maybe 32) flash memory inside to store the OS (and eventually apps/widgets), but I'm not sure how I will adapt to the non-storage philosophy. Of course it seemed weird to get rid of floppy drives too, but that worked out pretty well. I guess it all comes down to what Apple plans to do with their billion dollar server farm in North Carolina.

 

[jas1973]

i will be sold if i can stream MLB At Bat to my Atv!!!!!

 

[dukebound85]

3. Think anybody over the age of 16 who owns an XBox or PS3 is strange (although I know people like this). Watching Netflix or DVDs is not an inducement to buy a gaming console (see #1 and #2).

I am 25 and have a ps3. You have an issue with that? The fact that it does netflix is an added bonus

PS: Many people in their 20's and 30's own game systems.... probably more do than dont