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Apple TV Review by Walt Mossberg

neven said:
Can somebody paste the relevant paragraph from the original article? I find this hard to believe. The remote has volume up/down buttons. Why wouldn't this work?
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I imagine what he meant was that the remote does have a volume up and down button, but it does not turn the volume on the TV up and down no? Otherwise yeah that would be stupid.

Honestly I still think it's stupid the remote they have. It's great for my MBP and what not but not for a Living room TV area. I still think it'd be better if it came with a better updated remote perhaps a few more buttons so that it could then be turned a universal remote for the TV and :apple:TV...

What would be cool if Apple did:
If they made a rental service upon the buying service on iTunes. And you made a queue like blockbuster, and then at night it downloaded a couple of your top picks or something. Once those were deleted then you got another couple. (it wouldn't have to be downloaded at night, it could be downloaded right at that moment, but also at night while you were asleep)
 
Reads Like Mossberg Works For The Apple PR Department

Talk about a whitewash. :rolleyes: This guy is owned and operated by Apple Inc. :confused: :eek: :apple:

But I can see the niche Apple is going after and for that limited market of early adopters it's definitely a winner. :)
 
1080p

Grimace said:
it's going to need a lot of good reviews to get beyond the lack of 1080p support
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1080p? For who? It only makes much of a difference if you're buying a TV that's 60" or larger. Ok, so that's already a small segment of the population.

But maybe it would be worthwhile if all those 60+" owners are out there sitting on tons of 1080p video footage. Except there really ISN'T much 1080p footage available anywhere.

Why should this device have a feature that virtually no one will be using anytime soon? That's certainly a feature that can be added later once it has some use for more than a handful of people.
 
Small White Car said:
1080p? For who? It only makes much of a difference if you're buying a TV that's 60" or larger. Ok, so that's already a small segment of the population.

But maybe it would be worthwhile if all those 60+" owners are out there sitting on tons of 1080p video footage. Except there really ISN'T much 1080p footage available anywhere.

Why should this device have a feature that virtually no one will be using anytime soon? That's certainly a feature that can be added later once it has some use for more than a handful of people.
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I agree with you. I have an HDTV, and it's just 720p. I think most people still don't even have that, do they?

A future Apple TV will have 1080.
 
I'm almost certain that high deff content will come to the itunes store; it's just a matter of time. Why else would apple make the apple tv only compatible with TV's that have component and HDMI interfaces? (Connectivity that supports high deff)

So the apple tv might not seem like a bargain now, but just wait, once iTunes starts selling high deff content I think that the apple tv will seem more attractive to buyers.

Ken
 
A good first review, but I want to wait for some mods, if it's possible, as 40GB while still being a decent size, isn't what I would want at this stage.

Does anyone know if, when playing music through it, it has a visualizer for some extra eye-candy on your HDTV ? That'd be a really cool feature.
 
IJ Reilly said:
No, but the output from the Apple TV could be adjusted. But Apple apparently elected to go with line-out audio, just like a DVD player, VCR, etc. Nobody expects their DVD player to have a separate volume control. Why should the Apple TV have one?
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Well, part of the interest is that the Apple TV would be a media hub, including music, podcast, etc. So all this media will unfortunately have different volumes. Besides if the remote has 6 buttons I would expect all of them to work... at least for music. Hope that is fixed in the shipping release.
 
i hope leopard will bring all the extra stuff that the :apple: TV has to front row (like the updated interface). However, I still think a mac mini would be more useful.
 
garzaroger said:
Well, part of the interest is that the Apple TV would be a media hub, including music, podcast, etc. So all this media will unfortunately have different volumes. Besides if the remote has 6 buttons I would expect all of them to work... at least for music. Hope that is fixed in the shipping release.
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There's only one volume level I touch... my receiver's. Everything going into it is line-level from each respective source. The consequence of this is that I've tried programming a universal remote to do everything but the fact of the matter is that my individual remotes have so many unique functions that no one universal remote can be programmed with all of them... so inevitably I'm using multiple remotes anyway.

If the Apple remote is a standard remote then here's your answer to the multiple remotes...

Program the Apple remote functions into a universal remote that also controls your TV and, if applicable, your receiver.

That's the right way to do it.

But... if you're really antsy, let me just say that I have a very, very strong suspicion that the iPhone will serve as a "universal remote" to AppleTV using CoverFlow via multitouch as your content navigator and possibly some programmable functions.

As for people worried about not having all the functionality they want in Rev 1 of AppleTV, I'd relax... The hardware is quite sufficient and it's largely just a matter of software updates which will come. Based on the hardware specs, I don't think rev 1 of the AppleTV hardware will need to be replaced for some time.
 
arn said:
This is not a big deal for home-theatre folk. Those people will program their Apple remote into their universal remote and throw the Apple remote away. :)

arn
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Yeah, it makes sense. I was surprised to find the Apple Remote listed on some Universal Remotes like one of the programmable Logitech ones. I'd like to save one of those remotes from the trash hehe :D

tk421 said:
A future Apple TV will have 1080.
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A future Apple TV may...but 1080i resolution downloadable content would be another big step to take. Well...unless you're just downloading movie 1080i HD trailers :p, or saving your own 1080i content...wow that would be a big file! :eek:
 
skellener said:
AppleTV will NEVER have DVR functionality. Get over it. It is what it is. Sure they may introduce new features as the device matures, but recording television will NEVER be one of them. Apple wants to be your source of content. They want to kill cable and satellite and DVD. Downloading content from iTunes is their business model. Period.
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Skellener seems right in his assessment. Those wanting a DVR solution should look to El Gato to come out with some product to integrate the capability.
 
skellener said:
AppleTV will NEVER have DVR functionality. Get over it. It is what it is. Sure they may introduce new features as the device matures, but recording television will NEVER be one of them. Apple wants to be your source of content. They want to kill cable and satellite and DVD. Downloading content from iTunes is their business model. Period.
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They won't be killing Cable and Satellite then.
 
1080p

All of those whinning about 1080p, where are you going to get your 1080p source; PS3 games, HD-DVD or Blu-ray?

AppleTV has nothing to do with any of those...
 
IJ Reilly said:
No, but the output from the Apple TV could be adjusted. But Apple apparently elected to go with line-out audio, just like a DVD player, VCR, etc. Nobody expects their DVD player to have a separate volume control. Why should the Apple TV have one?
Click to expand...

Well mine does. The fact that people would not "expect" this is INSANE! For $300.00 it had better control my volume. I'm really lost on this product, much hype and little delivery. So what your saying is that for $300.00 you get a lil box that does nothing more than stream content that apple has dubbed streamable and nothing more. Something dosent seem right about this. This man has had this thing for 2 weeks, prior to them shipping directly from japan. Think maybe he had a test unit that was not fully finished?
 
1080i/p May Be Overkill For Internet Delivery Of HD Content During This Early Stage

LimeiBook86 said:
A future :apple: TV may...but 1080i resolution downloadable content would be another big step to take. Well...unless you're just downloading movie 1080i HD trailers :p, or saving your own 1080i content...wow that would be a big file! :eek:
Click to expand...
720P might be the right place for this application exactly because of the reasons LimeiBook86 explains. 1080i/p might be overkill. Some producers think 720P is better than 1080i. So it's not an inevitability that AppleTV will EVER be 1080i/p until a lot more and inexpensive bandwidth (fiber to home) is commonplace in most households.

OR

:apple: TV could be 1080P real soon but the downloads would remain 720P and the module would be interpolating all of them up to 1080P as well as your own non-iTunes 1080i files up to 1080P. That would make sense. I might buy that model if I wasn't directly connected to my 40" HDTV already. ;)
 
savar said:
Good to hear a favorable review. I can't wait to see what people here think about it.
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I don't think Walt has ever given an Apple product a bad review. He's like an Apple whore.

If he ever wrote anything less than positive about an Apple product, Apple would probaby stop sending him products to review.
 
Grimace said:
it's going to need a lot of good reviews to get beyond the lack of 1080p support and streaming of only iTMS material....
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While the latter is a real limitation, 1080p is quite marginal problem. Yes, there are 1080p televisions for sale. But overwhelming majority of televisions are NOT 1080p. And if you compare install-base, 1080p is TINY. Maybe next year 1080p will sell as much as 720p, but it will take a LONG time before it will reach the sold number of 720p.
 
skellener said:
AppleTV will NEVER have DVR functionality. Get over it. It is what it is. Sure they may introduce new features as the device matures, but recording television will NEVER be one of them. Apple wants to be your source of content. They want to kill cable and satellite and DVD. Downloading content from iTunes is their business model. Period.
Click to expand...

And this sucks. they should give free this box for play their content on my tv. m:apple: ·nop·o·ly
 
Pants Dragon said:
I love how the main criticism of a device made for people with nice TVs is that it only works with nice TVs. :p
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I guess it's because there's no reason it shouldn't work with other TVs.. :)
And how do you know it's made for people with nice TVs? Because :apple: uses nice TVs in their ads?
 
I'll be buying oe

I'll be buying at least one, even though it won't support any of my TVs full resolution. I see it as a great way to control my iTunes library (Videos, Vodcast, Music) from my other rooms. It's only $299 - so even if it just turns into a toy for gatherings it'll be worth it.

I must say though, I'm shocked at home many people complain that they would need to update their TVs. I can see people having the old 1080i TVs, but having a TV that doesn't accept the old component hook-ups, come on people! If you can't afford a decent modern TV, you don't need to be dreaming of owning an Apple TV, you need to be taking night classes to increase your skillset and increasing your income with a better paying job. Flipping burgers at the local fast food isn't going to afford you extra toys like the Apple TV. Just my 2 cents - I'm sure many will complain how I don't understand how hard it is to go to college, how all the "good" jobs are taken, etc.

But back to the Apple TV - it's cheap, it looks like it's cool and easy to use, would make a great interface from the computer to your TVs during gatherings or parties at the house. What's not to like? If you want a DVR buy a DVR - don't moan about how expensive a $299 box is that doesn't do all these other things.

James
 
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