[Macworld]

Post your comments for Familiar Apple TV adds 1080p video support here

[chimerical77]

Still a hobby. If I replace my ATV2 I'll look at Roku first.

[rohara]

The issue continues to be the data caps put on by the internet (cable) providers - 250G in the case of Comcast - with Netflix I've had to lower the resolution on the video to ensure we stay within our monthly limit

[muna0001]

chimerical77, on 14 March 2012 - 05:37 PM, said:

Still a hobby. If I replace my ATV2 I'll look at Roku first.

I thought the same thing and actually went a bought the top of the line Roku a couple days ago. I just took it back today. The only advantage Roku has is Hulu Plus but the interface felt clunky and it didnt support very many video formats. I tried watching a movie off a flash drive only to find out that Mpeg4 isnt supported. Thats the format I have all my movies in for my iphone and iPad so there was no way I was going to reincode for another device.

It doesnt connect to home media either so all in all it just didnt cut it.

[pcharles]

My biggest problem with the software update is that I am now stuck with icons for sports channels I have no interest in. Hopefully, Apple will soon add the ability to turn them off.

[mattwie]

The massive white elephant in the room of course, is that it can't play content via USB. For that reason alone, many millions of people won't purchase it.

[lakes98]

There's always Firecore ATV. Maybe they'll figure out how to put apps on it or better yet maybe Apple will just do it for us for free.

[MrEnglish]

rohara, on 14 March 2012 - 06:14 PM, said:

The issue continues to be the data caps put on by the internet (cable) providers - 250G in the case of Comcast - with Netflix I've had to lower the resolution on the video to ensure we stay within our monthly limit

That's interesting to hear (read) because I've exceeded my 250gb limit on Comcast MANY times due to Netflix and never got even so much as a flinch from Comcast. I wonder if they can tell the difference between Netflix and pure downloading abuse. (I'm sure they can via IP) and they'd be hard pressed to issue you a fine or a limit on something that costs you money. Can you say class action? At either rate, the only time I go over is with Netflix and I don't even come close when not in my movie streaming binges and even though my account clearly shows I've exceeded the limit, my speeds and account remain constant.

[Rogeruo7x]

mattwie, on 14 March 2012 - 07:05 PM, said:

The massive white elephant in the room of course, is that it can't play content via USB. For that reason alone, many millions of people won't purchase it.

Why would you want to do that? You appear to have a Mac or PC, put your content there and ATV will play it. That's enormously easier than messing with a USB drive.

If you don't like iTunes you can use the iOS app Air Video to stream virtually any video file from your computer to your ATV under control of an iOS device.

[TracyTaoka]

We'll see tomorrow.....my ATV3 is "in transit" and according to FedEx the scheduled arrival date is tomorrow, 03.15.12. Wish they'd shove my iPad3 in the same box......unfortunately that's still sitting in some FedEx warehouse in Ontario CA (it's been there for a couple of days now).

[classicmacs01]

mattwie, on 14 March 2012 - 07:05 PM, said:

The massive white elephant in the room of course, is that it can't play content via USB. For that reason alone, many millions of people won't purchase it.

And how do you know this? Millions of people don't use the USB ports on TVs either. They don't use them on Blu-Ray players either. How many people carry around USB drives with media content? None?

[classicmacs01]

pcharles, on 14 March 2012 - 07:03 PM, said:

My biggest problem with the software update is that I am now stuck with icons for sports channels I have no interest in. Hopefully, Apple will soon add the ability to turn them off.

You couldn't turn them off before, so not sure why you see this as a problem. You had to scroll past them to get to other content, so not a big issue. The biggest problem is that the 5.0 software constantly drops the link between your host Mac and the ATV. Pretty much makes the box worthless if it can't play content from your Mac consistently. I already reported the bug to Apple, so maybe it will get fixed. Version 4.4.4 rarely lost the Home Sharing link. Streaming content works fine.

[UmarOMC]

Well if I didn't have a Roku box... actually I'd probably get a Roku 2.

[classicmacs01]

You can view file sizes by changing your iTunes Store settings from 720p downloads to 1080p downloads in iTunes. The Incredibles, for example, is 1.6GB for SD, and 3.25GB for 1080p HD. Interestingly enough, the 720p HD version is 3.69GB. So Apple must be using even more compression on the 1080p files. You have to wonder if the 720p version actually looks and sounds better with less compression. The Movies in the Cloud feature does not give you access to "re-download" the HD versions of the film. My only movie purchases came from DVDs or Blu-Rays that included the Digital Copy code, which only downloaded the SD version. Still counts as a purchase because they are available in the cloud. However, they are still the SD versions of the films, as noted by their file sizes in the iTunes Store "Purchased" section.

This post has been edited by classicmacs01: 15 March 2012 - 12:16 AM