MacRumors Review: Apple TV

[odedia]

Bottom line:

This thing can barely do anything that my fifth generation iPod + Universal Dock can't do. Plus, my iPod has 80GB of capacity, comes in a smaller, portable enclosure (take your iTunes library to your friends house to watch a movie!), plays nicely with standard definition TVs, AND it has an S-Video port for the folks without component inputs.

So it doesn't do 720p. So what? Anyone has 720p content from any iTunes store at the moment?

Oded S.

 

[artpease]

I disabled the "let iTunes organize files" setting so that I could add movies to iTunes while keeping them on external drives, so I guess iTunes is already doing some reference file, but now I have to manage files manually.

Would making reference movies by myself allow me to let iTunes manage my files but yet have my real movie files on two external drives? How do I make a reference movie? Will iTunes accept file aliases? Will it organize the aliases and not the actual files?

Apple TV behaves similar but not exactly the same as iTunes. Apple TV does NOT recognize .mov files, iTunes does.

You make a reference movie by loading the .mp4 or .m4v file into QuickTime PRO and save as reference movie which creates the .mov file. Then import the .mov into iTunes. I repeat though, Apple TV will not see that .mov file.

But you don't need to do that. You can continue to let iTunes organize files. After it copies the movie where it wants, move it to your external HD and re-point in iTunes if necessary,

 

[gkarris]

Reviewer - Please Correct Article!

You need to correct the price of the PS3. It's 60 Gig in capacity and $599.

There is no more $499, 20 Gig model...

 

[outlyer]

The only problems I'm finding are software related, and hopefully given feedback, will be fixed in the next firmware revision.

1. Television Episodes

This should behave like it does in FrontRow and on the iPod; if there are multiple seasons, they should be ordered as such and you should be able to specify the sort-order to episode number rather than "most recent." I don't care about watching movies via the unit, but it's ideal for sitcoms,etc. Having 9 seasons of Seinfeld easily tagged and categorized would be killer.

2. Sync priority

I plan to use this for music about 95% of the time, and television/video much less. Shouldn't I be able to prioritize music->photos->television->movies rather than movies first, and so on as is the default?

Other than that, I've found it very nice to use. I've got it running with my Harmony remote and it's elegant, fast and very quiet, which is more than I can say for any other solution I've tried (MCE, XBOX360,etc.)

 

[Yvan256]

[...] You can continue to let iTunes organize files. After it copies the movie where it wants, move it to your external HD and re-point in iTunes if necessary,

My Mac mini has a 80GB drive. My movies are on two 250GB external drives. I can't let iTunes consolidate the files, there's not enough room. I'm guessing iTunes needs a way to store files on multiple drives while still letting iTunes manage the files.

 

[surferfromuk]

Bottom line:

This thing can barely do anything that my fifth generation iPod + Universal Dock can't do. Plus, my iPod has 80GB of capacity, comes in a smaller, portable enclosure (take your iTunes library to your friends house to watch a movie!), plays nicely with standard definition TVs, AND it has an S-Video port for the folks without component inputs.

So it doesn't do 720p. So what? Anyone has 720p content from any iTunes store at the moment?

Oded S.

Well here is the intro.mov from the box itself...720p!

http://www.mcwiggin.com/AppleTVHacks/movie.htm


The speed this thing is being hacked it's probably going to become the most sought after piece of apple kit ever...

 

[outlyer]

Apple TV behaves similar but not exactly the same as iTunes. Apple TV does NOT recognize .mov files, iTunes does.

It recognizes mov files just fine. I just added two trailers, and watched them on the Apple TV and both were mov files (not MP4). The codec is what matters I think.

 

[balamw]

Two glaring omissions

I've already posted this elsewhere, but I think it bears repeating:

There are two key omissions from this device that make it less useful than I had hoped.

1) Parental controls. Apple has parental controls everywhere else, why not on the Apple TV? I want to be able to let my kids loose on the device, but can't keep them out of any potentially inappropriate content (Since they are 5 and 3 there's plenty of content in that category.)

2) Subtitles/Closed Captions. Apple is usually very good at providing accessibility. I often watch TV at low volumes or when the kids are making lots of noise, so I usually turn on subtitles/captions just in case. TV doesn't support captions/subtitles.

All in all, I'm still more positive on it than the MR review and would give it a solid B, and might even make it a B+ after using the thing for a while.

B

 

[Carniphage]

sure, 1st why do you need a hard drive?
I have the avellink player...
It has a usb port which allows you to play movies off any usb device.
It has a network jack so I can stream from any computer on my network
It has a dvd player if you want to drop in a DVDR

Does it crash or stutter?
I have had no issues with this...neither has a friend of mine that has the same product.

It is cheaper.
The only codec it really won't play for me is wmv


Is this the perfect solution? no. Is it a better value than the appletv? I think so. So my original statement as to the appletv cannot be a perfect value is correct in my opinion.
The other option on the avellink front is the SRDVD-100U (branded under JVC now)

OK - so you are saying that the Avellink is a better product that Apple TV?
I am having a hard time seeing the betterness.

It has no hard drive. Apple win.
Half of the posts on this group are complaining that a 40GB drive is not big enough - but the Avellink has NO hard drive. Perhaps Apple should have removed this feature?

It has no WiFi - While the AppleTV has 802.11n. Apple Win.

It has a DVD drive. Cool - But I can get a DVD player for $20. Avellink win.

The USB port is a good feature - but the Apple can stream from a server. No win.

The retail price is the same or less? I found it for $299. Perhaps you can find it for less.

It does not appear to support 1080p output. No Win.
Max bit rate for DIVX 1.5mbs - Isn't that 3 times slower than Apple TV? That has to be wrong.

Video output described as "soft" by several commentators. Apple's 720p is supposed to be quite crisp. Apple win.

It does seem to pass audio data straight through to the optical out. I am still confused why the Apple TV can not do this. Avellink win.

The interface seems crude. Apple Win.

All in all this seems Ok. But this is not a clear winner. I trust Apple to refine and improve the product over time. With these small Taiwanese manufacturers anything could happen. Including a revision to the hardware accompanied by abandonment of the older machine.

C.

 

[theheadguy]

Glad to see my feelings about even the most basic of cables excluded from the package was validated.

Enough about "passing the cost on to us"... That's such utter BS. Apple is certainly not about being cheap and passing the value to the customer. If they wanted, they could include cables W/O raising the price. Period.

 

[sminman]

Apple TV Looks Great!

I don't know how people can say the quality of the Apple TV looks bad.

Here is what the quality looks like on me TV and it is perfect:

Do your movies, photos, and TV shows look like this? Do you guys consider this bad quality?

 

[Frisco]

I don't know how people can say the quality of the Apple TV looks bad.

Here is what the quality looks like on me TV and it is perfect:

Do your movies, photos, and TV shows look like this? Do you guys consider this bad quality?

Looks good to me! I will be getting an Apple TV when I get my new TV.

I think Apple TV is going to be good for television manufactures. They must love Apple's decision to only support new TVs

 

[mangis]

Apple Got It Wrong

No one has mentioned the biggest problem: There is no way AT ALL to connect this to an analog TV. WTF.

The biggest waste of space on this machine is the Component connectors. This is OLD technology. Apple should have skipped the component connection in favor of either s-video or composite so those with analog connections could use the damn things. That would leave space for several other interesting connections or ports. Use your imagination.

The Hard Drive? Waste of space. You think a flash memory card would't fit in there? The Hard drive is superfluous at all.

My set-up is very up-to-date. A $4000 TV in Japan with a $1500 bose sound system attached. The TV has only one HDMI-in port, and no other digital input ports whatsoever. This leaves me with no choice. I will have to plug the apple TV into it, then watch DVD's over an analog connection. What will I choose? Not to buy Apple TV.

I want one, but the interface is inadaquate. Unless I can stream a DVD from my computer. Is this possible? NO, because I won't be able to hear the sound over my bose system. Well, I could, but it will be reduced to an analog signal.

2 HDMI ports are standard now, but they weren't when I got my flat screen. And component video? Please. Talk about yesterday. And they never were in any TVs in Asia, and I'm guessing the same fro Europe.

These boxes will not sell well in Japan as they are.

The bose has no Digital input, however it does have a composite input.

The biggest problem here is that there is no analog output on Apple TV. This would make it backward compatible with nearly all systems. Even if analog technology is even older than component connections, the need for two digital outputs is the dumb. Plus the waste of space due tot he size due to the THREE plugs required for component? Only Americans have component connectors.

 

[digitalbiker]

What will blow your mind is when I tell you that I streamed this 720p trailer from a 933MHz G4 Quicksilver (Apple's minimum recommendation is a 1GHz G4, as per the TV manual), over an 802.11g network in an apartment building with steel framing and 10 nearby wireless base stations interfering with the signal and aside from one initial buffering delay it played through without a single skip or jitter.

I have a Sony WEGA XBR HDTV (34" CRT) and I have to say, I'm more than impressed with the 720p playback. I had some initial concerns about proper representation of the HD color gamut, but the Spidey trailer looks identical to every other instance of it... broadcast, HD, I'll even say pretty close in perceptible clarity to theatrical projection (taking into account the difference in display size). The color, clarity and contrast are stellar.

What disappoints me is that at the Apple Stores, their demo units are loaded with low resolution files worse than the 640x480 ones. Add to that the entry-level Bravia LCD TV's they're using in which even the menus look considerably worse than on my XBR (LCD's are considerably inferior to CRT's yet)... and you have a recipe for marketing disaster. If they do not fix this problem soon, they're not going to attract nearly the numbers of users they could if they had one floor demo unit with a kickass display and 720p demo content.

As it stands, I could sell more AppleTV's from my living room than they'll sell in all 4-5 stores in the Minneapolis area. But I guess that's not surprising with regard to retail. If you walk into most retail stores carrying HDTV's, the picture on the floor units is never calibrated and the source is almost never an actual HDTV feed (usually just SD cable in stretch mode).

But I do expect more from Apple Store retail... they've done every product launch pretty well thus far. They're risking blowing it on the most significant product to be released by Apple since the iPod.

Don't you think that Apple is using less than 640x480 content because that is all that they currently have available for purchase from iTunes. Apple doesn't sell 720p content so they don't demo it.

 

[GadgetDon]

No one has mentioned the biggest problem: There is no way AT ALL to connect this to an analog TV. WTF.

The biggest waste of space on this machine is the Component connectors. This is OLD technology. Apple should have skipped the component connection in favor of either s-video or composite so those with analog connections could use the damn things. That would leave space for several other interesting connections or ports. Use your imagination.

The Hard Drive? Waste of space. You think a flash memory card would't fit in there? The Hard drive is superfluous at all.

My set-up is very up-to-date. A $4000 TV in Japan with a $1500 bose sound system attached. The TV has only one HDMI-in port, and no other digital input ports whatsoever. This leaves me with no choice. I will have to plug the apple TV into it, then watch DVD's over an analog connection. What will I choose? Not to buy Apple TV.

I want one, but the interface is inadaquate. Unless I can stream a DVD from my computer. Is this possible? NO, because I won't be able to hear the sound over my bose system. Well, I could, but it will be reduced to an analog signal.

2 HDMI ports are standard now, but they weren't when I got my flat screen. And component video? Please. Talk about yesterday. And they never were in any TVs in Asia, and I'm guessing the same fro Europe.

These boxes will not sell well in Japan as they are.

The bose has no Digital input, however it does have a composite input.

The biggest problem here is that there is no analog output on Apple TV. This would make it backward compatible with nearly all systems. Even if analog technology is even older than component connections, the need for two digital outputs is the dumb. Plus the waste of space due tot he size due to the THREE plugs required for component? Only Americans have component connectors.

Actually, I have two LCD TVs with Component input but not HDMI. No, they aren't $4000 TVs, they are bargain brands. So I guess I should get stuck with composite?

Also, why does Nintendo make a component input for their Wiis but not an HDMI, if Japan hates HDMI.

The value of the hard disk? If you don't want your computer to need to be on running iTunes. Yes, instead of an expensive flash drive, they went with nice standard cheap laptop drive.

BTW, component isn't digital. It's analog. Much higher quality analog, splitting the signal apart, but it's analog. That's why you'll see some CRT TVs with Component but without HDMI.

 

[arn]

The biggest waste of space on this machine is the Component connectors. This is OLD technology. Apple should have skipped the component connection in favor of either s-video or composite so those with analog connections could use the damn things.

S-Video and Composite can't carry a high definition signal.

Component can.

arn

 

[digitalbiker]

I don't know how people can say the quality of the Apple TV looks bad.

Here is what the quality looks like on me TV and it is perfect:

Do your movies, photos, and TV shows look like this? Do you guys consider this bad quality?

Quality is relative. If you are used to satellite or cable 720p or 1080i content then the content that is sold over iTunes looks like real crap.

However if you compare it to ntsc broadcast TV it looks perfect.

If you have an HD TV you will be amazed at how addictive the quality can be. I used to think my old standard definition satellite signal was as good as it gets. But now since I have been watcing HD for the past 4 years I can hardly stand to watch the standard def anymore.

 

[sminman]

Quality is relative. If you are used to satellite or cable 720p or 1080i content then the content that is sold over iTunes looks like real crap.

However if you compare it to ntsc broadcast TV it looks perfect.

If you have an HD TV you will be amazed at how addictive the quality can be. I used to think my old standard definition satellite signal was as good as it gets. But now since I have been watcing HD for the past 4 years I can hardly stand to watch the standard def anymore.

I completely agree with you on once you watch HD, everything else looks like crap.

The two movies (Forrest Gump & Wedding Crashers) are not movies from iTunes. I ripped these movies from HandBrake and they are superb quality.

I have my Apple TV to display at 1080i and it is crystal clear, almost hard to tell them from HD qaulity clear!

 

[k2k koos]

Apple TV

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

I'll pass on this one.

That is nearly what I'm thinking, I accept the TV for what it is, and would like to have one, but HD video output, without a decent equivalent audio is plain silly, and a HUGE oversight on Apple's part. Hope they clean up their act pretty quickly, what about movies from iTunes, do they even have surround sound? (Being in the UK, we can't buy any movies from that store yet, apart from some Pixar short movies, and some music video's)

 

[candykane]

its a rip off

Apple tv is just over hiped (looks like the pizza mac)
Any way i've bin streaming my content for 4 years now so this thing is not realy opening my eye's

Internet dvd player
Come on if you dont support the formats used xvid divx ect ect what good is it?

300 dollars what if i tell you you could do all this for 50 bucks?
There is 1 thing 1 wrong with apple Tv its called XBOX (no not the 360)
It can do all the things Apple tv can yes .. and it can do a lot more 2

What this revieuw forget or not tell is that a hacked X box can do all this and more for years now. + loads and loads of people do it .
Oke it has nog hdmi out so what?
moost people have a normal TV . Me I got a nice big wide screen sony tube tv. the picture is so sharp unlike the crapppy lcd screens
Any way it has scart/av like all the other tv's in europe.
It supports all the formats out there on the net . I just look and click download 24 ep 14 dont realy care in what format it is i just stream it from my mac to de box and watch it on my tellie.
Not wires Oke mine has a utp cable but you can fix that , there is stuff to make i wireless like a airport express .
Its cheap yep realy cheap xboxes are being dumped all the kiddy's want the new stuff like ps3 or the 360 so you can get them elcheapo

Did i tell you a xbox can play dvd's and games and has a 3 1/2 ' hardrive that you can upgrade way cheaper and bigger than the notebook drive in apple tv ?

Easy to use
Well once you have in stalled it is easy to use just like apple tv
its is a bit more work to install true there are some great guides there on the net do just have to look for them
But come on only cost 50 bucks tv cost 300 so for 250 saved think a lot of people will toy a bit

In my eye's looks great but is not that great.

 

[k2k koos]

2 HDMI ports are standard now, but they weren't when I got my flat screen. And component video? Please. Talk about yesterday. And they never were in any TVs in Asia, and I'm guessing the same fro Europe.

These boxes will not sell well in Japan as they are.

The bose has no Digital input, however it does have a composite input.

The biggest problem here is that there is no analog output on Apple TV. This would make it backward compatible with nearly all systems. Even if analog technology is even older than component connections, the need for two digital outputs is the dumb. Plus the waste of space due tot he size due to the THREE plugs required for component? Only Americans have component connectors.

Correct, apart from a few export models, I've not seen any component video on most TV's available in the UK, or mainland europe, having TWO HDMI connectors is more and more the norm, and doesn't cost that much either anymore. Although I still think that 2 is a low qty, considering the size of that connector, nothing stops manufacturers from adding 4. One for the satellite TV box, one for the Apple TV, one for the DVD, and one for whatever else you may have, camcorder? See? Even 4 is no luxury

 

[spicyapple]

Uh... you are aware that the original commentary that you're modeling your phrasing after (Slashdot's CmdrTaco on the original iPod: "No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame.") is so often quoted because it's seen, in hindsight, as having been so laughably missing the mark, right? Because it doesn't seem like that's how you're using it...

I'm poking fun at all the individuals who say they won't buy the AppleTV because it doesn't do 1080p and would rather not even have a very capable 720P device. And those who bitch about no HDMI cable, yet by not including it, Apple was able to hit a low price point, a price they'd still bitch about no less if Apple raised it by $50 to include such a cable.

 

[russellevance]

The Photo navigation/lack of thumbnails like on an iPod needs to be fixed.

Why aren't more people complaining about this? If an iPod can do it, then why can't the ATV? Lack of random access to individual photos is kind of a drag.

Same goes for controlling volume with the apple remote, instead of having to switch to the receiver/tv remote.

I hope these features become available via a software update in the near future. I like the fact the Apple TV works well at what it does (for now) and am willing to wait for features to be added by updates.

 

[ericdano]

Some thoughts

I like the Apple TV. It works great, even over Wireless G. I've noticed that mine runs really hot. Anyone else notice this?

Also, it would be great to see Apple support some sort of idle client to use the CPU power when you aren't using it. Something like Setiathome....

 

[macrumors12345]

Apple TV DOES support surround sound

Despite Apple's inclusion of digital audio output, Apple neglected to include support for surround sound. This is a HUGE oversight for a product wanting to be the DVD player of the Internet age.

This is totally false - Apple TV supports Dolby Pro Logic II (aka "surround sound"). What it does not support (at this time) is Dolby AC-3 (aka "discrete channel surround sound"). It looks like the "HUGE oversight" here is made by the MacRumors review.