MacRumors Review: Apple TV

[stormj]

Bah...no surround sound support??? Why then the optical output?

I'll pass on this one.

My gawd. You people claim to know what the hell you're talking about but completely drop the ball on this. It will play AC3/DTS. And send the digital data to a 5.1 receiver.

Hahahah. EEEEEEEdiots.

The Internet makes fact checking so simple, yet ironically it also seems to make ******** simpler.

 

[echeck]

Have much AC3-encoded audio on your computer, do you? I agree that it's unfortunate that it's not included
.....
It says right up front that a widescreen TV with component video is required.
.....
You'll need an ATSC tuner box in 2009 anyway, and it will definitely have component inputs. You can always get one now and use an AppleTV on your old 4:3 CRT television if you want. But why bother? Lamenting that you're not the market is like wanting a Blu-Ray player for your 4:3 CRT. It would probably put a picture on the screen, but you'd lose all of the worthwhile benefits.

Do you have a video iPod and an old TV? That's about as good as an AppleTV would be on a pre-SDTV.

I wasn't aware that movies on the iTunes Store didn't include surround sound, which is what I would be getting the Apple TV for primarily. I wanted to start purchasing movies and watching them without using my iPod as a medium.

Obviously you don't need a widescreen TV, you just need component in, which my 32" 4:3 TV does indeed have.

What surprises me is why people who want AppleTV etc aren't already HDTV adopters. Good sets cost less than $500 now.

Why do you have to have an HDTV to want the AppleTV? I haven't seen a "good" HDTV for under $500, at least not one that's larger than 32". I paid about $250 for my current 32" set, and it's good enough for me. If I were to get an HDTV, and I will in time, I would go for a LCD flat panel that is at least 40" or larger.

I just don't care to spend that kind of cash on a TV right now, especially since I just bought my wife a new MacBook.

 

[matticus008]

Obviously you don't need a widescreen TV, you just need component in, which my 32" 4:3 TV does indeed have.

Depends where you draw the line for "need." You don't "need" an HDTV for a Blu-ray player, either, but what's the point, otherwise?

If you use component input on a 4:3 television, both the movies and the interface will be squished into the available space. If it won't drive you crazy to watch movies full of skinny faces, by all means, buy one.

 

[Forced Perfect]

LoL read the revieuw Atv does not support any thing only the things you buy from the Istore and you mp3's thats it

mov no
divx no
xvid no
wmf no
jpeg foto's no
Apple is not going to upgrade the software to support this. Thats why Hackers are working on getting codecx suppored. they hacked it so that Divx wil work but you have to take the drive out of the systeem hook its to you mac copy the file and put it back in !

If you live outside the US like me in Europe well the Istore only sells music and short movies from pixar . :S So its basicly one hell of an expensive airport express!

I don't mean to sound like a jerk... but what exactly is the point of this post?

People really need to read Apple's specs for the Apple TV before they complain that it's useless. Of course it supports JPEG photos. "foto's"? Mov files aren't really a format in the sense they're just containers for video. Just as an AVI file can contain DIVX or just about any other type of video stream.

I can't buy videos from the iTMS either as I live in Canada. Handbrake + DVD collection = good. I mean... I don't support doing that.

As for DIVX the only place you find the thing is illegally downloaded videos. Outside that there aren't many places you'll find it. More codecs are better than less, but if you look at it from Apple's perspective they aren't trying to support that sort of activity and are trying to push newer technologies such as H.264 (which is probably going to start overtaking DIVX in the file sharing world anyway).

 

[milo]

My gawd. You people claim to know what the hell you're talking about but completely drop the ball on this. It will play AC3/DTS. And send the digital data to a 5.1 receiver.

Hahahah. EEEEEEEdiots.

The Internet makes fact checking so simple, yet ironically it also seems to make ******** simpler.

Did you actually read that article? It says that it SHOULD play 5.1, but they don't say they've actually got it to work.

So if it works, where's the confirmation of someone actually trying it and it working?

 

[skinnylegs]

'Ya know, I just bought a car yesterday and the damn thing won't fly! I drove it off a cliff and it fell to the ground like a rock. What were they thinking? Why didn't thy put wings on it? These car things are absolutely useless!

 

[chatin]

I've decided to pick one up because of the hackability i'm seeing. A baby mac mini waiting for us to add the features!

I wonder what the CPU is?

 

[aristobrat]

Ack, it might be a little early in the lifecycle to figure out exactly how long it stays hackable. I'd recommend that you'd be happy even if you couldn't hack it, just in case Apple does an update that nukes all remote access...

 

[janstett]

I wonder what the CPU is?

I think I read it's a Pentium M (predecessor to the Core) somewhere around 1.2 GHz. I'm starting to think about using this as a sub-mini myself... People have SSH and remote desktop working, plus Divx, plus larger hard disks... Makes me think.

 

[chatin]

No refurbs for Apple TV yet!

Apple TV just plain rocks! Setup took less than 30 seconds and the quality is better than expected!

I asked about a refurb but the Apple store rep said, they are sending all returns back.

I'm was happy to get a factory fresh one!

TV lover!