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Early Apple TV Sales Estimated at 1 Million Per Quarter
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So what then, nudity? That would be pretty sexy.
Personally I enjoy the minimalist look, although I won't mind some newness at some point. I envision that when they bring out the big guns, like an App store, we will probably see a re-vamped UI. I just hope they keep the really fast menu navigation. There is nothing I hate worse that my TiVo when I am trying to access on demand video and it literally takes 3-4 seconds to register each button press. It's horrid.
We've had our Apple TV for a little over a week now and it is really nice - anything that's in my iTunes library will stream to it and Netflix really does look good on it. If we were using it on our 1080 main TV I'd probably wish that the ATV was 1080 as well, but as we have it hooked up to our 720P set in our bedroom, all is good for now. Besides, Netflix HD is only 720P and it looks really nice on our 52" TV running through the PS3.
Would they be able to change the output to 1080 at all in the future with a firmware or software update?
Would they be able to change the output to 1080 at all in the future with a firmware or software update?
I think a lot of people don't know that cable and satellite aren't 1080p. On my new 46" LED Samsung, iTunes downloads look better then DirecTV. The other night I watched the show The Event and then downloaded the free pilot episode over iTunes. Over DTV there was very noticeable blockiness in many scenes. The ATV version looked crystal clear.
The only thing that provides better video quality then ATV is Blu-Ray, and even then you can only notice the difference if you are really trying to. That's my opinion after comparing on pretty much the best quality (not biggest) TV screen available.
I'm aware that you can have iTunes point to a NAS volume where your media library will be kept, but I'm looking for a solution in which the computer doesn't need to be on at all.
The Boxee Box (and most other media streamers, including my PS3) have the ability to stream video and music from my NAS over DLNA. Apple unfortunately does not support this.
You can get the original Apple TV to stream direct from your NAS using XBMC or Boxee. You'll have to wait and see how the jailbreak develops if you want to use the new model.
I only wish they would deliver my Apple TV... Pre-ordered on 9/15 and my delivery date is 10/21. Local Apple store has been getting them in on a daily basis (albeit in small quantities). 
ATV Flash provides a non-streaming option if you have the time and patience to transfer your movies to a multi terabyte USB drive attached to your Apple TV.
Can't pull the trigger
I pre-ordered an Apple TV at my local store and I got a call yesterday that my Apple TV has arrived.
I am having second thoughts now because I can't see how the Apple TV will be solving anything for me. I have all my music, photos, videos, movies on my NAS. I sync my idevices to my MacBook Pro where I have my iTunes library (for client device sync purposes). However I have an HTPC (Windows 7 desktop) hooked up to my HDTV as well. I am already having serious trouble maintaining two sets of playlists on my MacBook Pro and on my HTPC. I haven't found any solution to this problem. Ideally I want _one_ iTunes library (with all the playlists etc) across my house. I can sync to only one computer but recreating playlists on multiple computers just doesn't seem efficient. If someone has a solution please let me know. I tried Super Sync, mytunes etc but they are real bad.
Coming back to Apple TV, it looks like if I have to stream my media from my NAS then I can do that only via an iTunes library running somewhere? So if I want to watch a movie then I have to turn on my HTPC, open iTunes and then the Apple TV can see media in _that_ iTunes library? How is this efficient? Right now I use the Windows Media Center on my HTPC to stream everything to my telivision and it doesn't need an intermediate library/application to do that streaming for me. It is actually more efficient.
I am really impressed with the Google TV capabilities especially the browser overlay on a running program.
Please point what am I not seeing with this Apple TV.
Thanks
I pre-ordered an Apple TV at my local store and I got a call yesterday that my Apple TV has arrived.
I am having second thoughts now because I can't see how the Apple TV will be solving anything for me. I have all my music, photos, videos, movies on my NAS. I sync my idevices to my MacBook Pro where I have my iTunes library (for client device sync purposes). However I have an HTPC (Windows 7 desktop) hooked up to my HDTV as well. I am already having serious trouble maintaining two sets of playlists on my MacBook Pro and on my HTPC. I haven't found any solution to this problem. Ideally I want _one_ iTunes library (with all the playlists etc) across my house. I can sync to only one computer but recreating playlists on multiple computers just doesn't seem efficient. If someone has a solution please let me know. I tried Super Sync, mytunes etc but they are real bad.
Coming back to Apple TV, it looks like if I have to stream my media from my NAS then I can do that only via an iTunes library running somewhere? So if I want to watch a movie then I have to turn on my HTPC, open iTunes and then the Apple TV can see media in _that_ iTunes library? How is this efficient? Right now I use the Windows Media Center on my HTPC to stream everything to my telivision and it doesn't need an intermediate library/application to do that streaming for me. It is actually more efficient.
I am really impressed with the Google TV capabilities especially the browser overlay on a running program.
Please point what am I not seeing with this Apple TV.
Thanks
Get a USATV and set up a USA iTunes account, get prepaid cards from reputable ebay sellers. This set up will allow you to get TV shows like house and lie to me before Sky airs them.
How do you get "House" the TV show on your new Apple TV?
I use home sharing to keep my 3 iMacs in sync for music, movies, and apps. It works very well.
I only wish they would deliver my Apple TV... Pre-ordered on 9/15 and my delivery date is 10/21. Local Apple store has been getting them in on a daily basis (albeit in small quantities).
Why not try to get one at the store and then cancel your pre-order if you find one? Of course there are no guarantees like there is with a pre-order, but most stores seem to get small shipments in daily sometime between 11:00-1:00.
I called my store Saturday morning at 11:00, and they said they were out but to check back at 12 or 1. I called at 12:15, they had some, and I went down and grabbed one. I will freely admit that had I been about 15 minutes later I wouldn't have gotten one. So yes, it can be difficult...but it's worth it.
why would i want cable, when i can stream my existing stuff for free and rent what i missed? and watch netflix? and youtube? and pandora? and whatever else they open up in the future? all on my receiver/tv... yeah dude, sign me up.
sure the selection needs some improvement, but thats a short term set back. case in point: Netflix just spent a billion dollars to get all of MGM and two other studios new stuff.
Apple never adopted streaming-from-a-NAS model. According to Apple, the iTunes library should reside on the Mac (or PC) locally. If you have your Mac or PC running at all times, the new Apple TV can stream your iTunes, iPhoto, Aperture, and other content at any time. Even though it may seem inefficient to you (or me) because we use NAS devices at home, the majority of people do not understand why they should have a NAS at home. Because Apple panders to the masses, Apple has decided not to put a NAS into this equation.
I do not necessarily like the Apple's paradigm of not allowing the new (or old) Apple TV to stream directly from a NAS device, but if we want to remain in the Apple's ecosystem, we might have to adjust. I, for one, am contemplating the replacement of my MacBooks and MacBook Pros with iPads and getting an iMac with Intel i7 and 16 GB or RAM. I will be using all of my serious computing (content creation) on this iMac and will keep it running 24x7 so that I can stream all of my content from this iMac to the new Apple TV. I will use my iPads for content consumption, including Web browsing, email, social networking, etc. I will have to relegate my NAS to hosting the Time Machine backups from the iMac (and maybe from my iPads if Apple comes out with Time Machine for iPads).
Except Home Sharing only syncs native iTunes content. If you ripped a CD into iTunes, Home Sharing will not sync CD-originated content across several Macs, and you will have to do this manually, which is a pain. I think people will have to rethink how they do home computing at this point. I believe the only answer is to have a powerful Mac at home that is always on, which will host all of the content and can be used for content creation, and to replace all other Macs (MacBooks and MacBook Pros) with iPads.
What? Not true (unless I'm misunderstanding you). 99% of my iTunes library is from my CD collection and all our Macs share using Home Sharing.
If you have a collection of movies, I see the point in streaming directly from a NAS. But what about viewing pictures? What application will you use to store pictures on the NAS? I guess you can point your iPhoto or Aperture to store their libraries on the NAS, but from what I hear, this does not work very well. You may be able to get this working with Picasa, but then you are outside of the Apple ecosystem. Like it or not, Apple is killing the NAS, which I resent myself, but I think we should consider adjusting. The NAS can still be utilized as the Time Machine backups repository of the content stored locally on the central Mac (iMac or Mac Pro) which will have to be running 24x7.
HomeSharing works really well for keeping all songs on all computers. However, I do not know of a way in homesharing to move playlists back and forth. So you might have to unfortunately recreate those on each computer. Unless someone else here knows better.
Of course, if you are wanting to keep everything on a NAS then, this doesn't really help you, as iTunes has to be running on a Mac in order to stream to ATV. There is no current way to stream from a Nas.
There are two ways to share. There is Sharing and there is Home Sharing.
Sharing allows you to see the content that is shared by another Mac. You can stream content from another Mac if that Mac shares its library on the local network (iTunes-> Preferences -> Sharing).
Home Sharing physically replicates content across multiple Macs that have Home Sharing enabled with the same iTunes account. To enable Home Sharing, you should go to Advanced -> Turn On Home Sharing and specify the iTunes name and the password of the iTunes account you want to use for Home Sharing. This does not work with content not downloaded from the iTunes store (at least it does not work for me). I have read somewhere on the Internet that Home Sharing works only with native iTunes content. If you are able to replicate music ripped from CDs via Home Sharing, I would love to hear how you did it (step-by-step).
Edit: With the new Apple TV, these two ways to share are getting blurred because the new Apple TV does not replicate anything locally, yet it uses Home Sharing for streaming from a Mac instead of using Sharing. Apple has botched up these two concepts IMHO.
Well I initially agreed with this, but now I am questioning my memory. 80% of my iTunes library is ripped from CD, and so is my wife's library. And I believe that we have homeshared both purchased and non-purchased music between our macs. Now I am going to have to test this tonight when I get home to make sure.
But this setup will work only if you sync your idevices to your always on computer (your iMac). In my case I don't want to walk to my HTPC every time I want to sync. I want to sync to my MacBook Pro and that's where this whole thing stinks.
I only have Home Sharing on. I have "Show: Items not in my library" selected so as to not duplicate music I already have on a machine. My wife wanted a Robert Plant track from the "Band of Joy" CD I just bought - she went to my library Home Share from her computer, selected it and clicked "Import". Any more step-by-step than that I'll leave to you to figure out, as it's not hard at all.