after 1/2 a day controlling the appletv with my harmony 550 i'm pretty happy. the appletv seems to go to sleep when not in use, so i guess an off/on command really isn't a big deal afterall. i may still explore this but certianly not a worry.
i converted a couple ripped dvd's to mpeg4 via handbrake and added them to my imac itunes. they synced with the appletv nicely, though really, i can stream them direct from the imac with no problems (i'm using ethernet). that will probably be my usual method as i can store alot more movies on my imac (and it's external drives) than i can on the 40gb appletv hard drive.
i guess my biggest complaint is that you can't stream photos, they have to reside on the appletv (via sync).
also, itunes needs to start selling some hd content, i'm not going to buy much if it's all sd.