[MajorDoIt]

I am so disapointed with Apple not only is the Apple TV more expensive in the UK it's sold unfit for purpose!

I have had mine now for 2 months all I can view are movie trailers - I'm going to consult a lawer to see if we can bring a class action as it does not do what it says it can do on the box! i.e. play movies as we can't rent or purchase them!

I have always been a big fan of Apple my first bit of Apple kit was the Apple IIe I have purchased almost everything Apple over the years but I really feel let down over this.

[elCapiton]

LOL, good luck with that. It says USA only if you actually read Apple's website instead of complaining. I'm sure Apple is intentionally leaving out other countries because they don't want your money. /sarcasm.

[SSGoku]

cbh said:

Same in Canada, unless you count the miniscule, lousy listings of half baked programs currently offered.

Miniscule: yes
Half baked: no

Even though there is little content on the Canadian iTunes Store, there is in fact some great content on it. One very very good example is Corner Gas. It's a wonderful TV show. In some ways, it's even better than most programs listed in the US Store.

[willem]

my Apple TV is still in the packaging, waiting for the movie store coming to Europe. this really takes too long now guys!!

Apple should change their 'first serve the US and the rest of the world will wait' go-to-market strategy.
same goes for the iPhone. Here in the center of Europe, we're still waiting for the device.
too bad, especially if consumers want to give Apple their money. and on top of that, the local Apple branch have no clue when, where or how much.

[Grapho]

Well I am ripping all my DVD collection on to my Mac. I have over 100 movies, which is a meager collection by any standard. But If I buy something, it's because I will want to see it again in the future. Some stuff in my collection is older, so it's easy to rip, but the newer stuff, boy what a hassle. I got little kids too, so not having to deal with physical media is great.

[adamuchan]

New Zealand & Australian ISPs are stopping the development of online content. I live in NZ and I have an apple TV, the reason why the online movie system will never work for us and most of the Australians is that we pay shockingly high prices and only get 20-30GB allowance per month, That equates to us first buying from Itunes store at a cost, then paying for it again through being capped on our internet. Its far easier and cheaper to pop down the road and grab a dvd, that way it costs us once.

[greenlit]

I just bought AppleTV (160GB). Let me tell you that it is amazing.
I waited more than 1 year to buy it. The first generation i think did not have enough features.
Being able to synch your music, photos, movies, Podcast from iTunes to it is great.
What is even better is:
- being able to rent/buy movie but also watch previews !!
- being able to watch youtube (although quality sucks)
- being able to watch Video PodCast. That's a great feature. All these free video podcast from Cooking lessons to PhotoShop tips. This is a brand new market right there. Producing HD Video PodCast !!
- being able to SEARCH. You type "philippines' and you end up with some "Philippine Radio Podcast".

I have not tried "connecting to" Flickr.

I downloaded my first HD movie (want to C how long it would take).
If you start downloading a movie and then decide to Synch some music, the download will pause.
I believe if you do anything else (watching photos, music) after you start downloading it pauses but i could be wrong.

When download reaches 40%, AppleTV ask you if you want to start watching the movie.
It took maybe 1 hour to reach 40%. I'm connected via wireless (another nice feature, wireless or Ethernet).

I was really worried about the quality AppleTV would be able to play movies i ripped (Handbrake).
HAndBrake has a AppleTV preset which i have used for movie such as "Ratatouille".
The quality playback is very good.

I think Apple is on the right track. DVD are nice but like Tape, CD, they take space.
The best place for all these media files are HD. You can move them around quickly, and with a portable firewire drive, i'll let you imagine the rest.

What's missing?
- A infra red keyboard. Using the tiny remote to enter text can be painful sometimes.
- Interface with DVR (Tivo, Warner DVR)
- Being able to plug additional Drives, although you can always archive it to HD.

What i like in iTunes is it tells you how much space each media (music, video, podcast etc...) takes.

I can't wait to watch "The Brave" in HD. I wonder about the sound (5.1?) and if it also download subtitles, different languages etc....

[Grapho]

I am with you 100%. I also took a long time to buy my Apple TV. I have had mine for less then one month. I love it.

I just wish the studios would ether place an iTunes copy of the movie within a spacial edition of their specially marked DVDs or something to help aid the transfer. Having the consumer jump through hoops to make a legit copy of a movie that they own the license is simply immoral. But putting some kind of DRM that the Apple TV could interpret and you would still have to register the copy would be better then this backdoor hacking, trial and error system that has been created by failed attempts of curving piracy. I rip only movies that I own. I don't have a problem with buying stuff through the Apple TV, but I do have a problem buying something that I already own on DVD. I already paid the piper. I would not mind paying a bit more for such special edition disk, specially if the iTunes copy was at least 720p.

I bought an Apple TV 40 Gig, I am going to get a second one with 160 HD, so my MacPro doesn't have to be on all the time. The 40 gig will be in my bedroom, for me and the wife, the 160 can be in the family room with all the kids media. Both backing up to my MacPro with 1 TB disk to store and backup all the media.

[greenlit]

Grapho,

I thought, during Mac World SF, one of Studio Exec came and told the audience that they would release special DVD that you could purchase for iTunes. It would have a DRM on it but when you enter the code, you would be able to extract the movie.

I'm sure Apple is working with Studios to make some deals. They managed to have new released available on AppleTV on the same day as DVD Rental releases. (that's bad for NetFlix and BlockB).
No need to take the car, arrive their and being told the movie is rented out !!
With AppleTV is always available.
I don't know if you can download the movie for rental, than after buy it.

I too plan to update my desktop (imac G5). Probably with new Imac.
Maybe the new AppleTV will have a DVD player. (BluRay). That would be a nice feature.

[Grapho]

I remembered the announcement, but I hope this can be widely adopted by all the studios involved. I know that this kind of offering would certainly motivate me to buy this special edition.

I had to upgrade my G5 Mac with a MacPro. I am doing a lot of 3D work, and I had to have the processing power. One of the side benefits is that Handbreak is amazingly coded. This last revision takes full advantage of my 8 cores like no other software to date. I can encode a full featured film in about 17 minutes. Simply fantastic. Whomever is behind this software development is a genius at multithreading because no other application that I have, runs so efficiently on my Mac.

[podnecky]

Maybe I am stupid but I did not find the way how to transfer my TV Shows

that I have paid for to the computer. I can get only the podcasts but it does not

tranfer the TV Shows. Also I did not find a way how to edit or delete files fron Apple TV.

To make it worse, I have called Apple and they said that Ican transfer only

from computer to Apple TV but not back. Please let me know how to tranfer it.

[Grapho]

Do you currently have your Apple TV linked to a Mac. Not shared, but linked.

This is how it works. You can share content form any Mac limited to music and video. But then you can also link your Apple TV to your main Mac (the one with the big media library). This is the Mac that will keep a backup of everything you have on your Apple TV. Once you do this, content purchased on the Apple TV will get automatically moved to this Mac's iTunes hard drive directory.

The only way to delete stuff from your Apple TV is the same way you delete stuff from your iPod or iPhone, you simply not sync it back and it will delete such content. In other words. Lets say you have X movie. You simply uncheck it from the sync window in iTunes and it will get removed next time your Apple TV syncs to iTunes on that linked Mac.

I hope that helps.

[podnecky]

Yes, I have one Mac linked the other 3 are shared
and I am planing to share one PC there too,
after this is solved.

But it will only transfer files to ATV, nothing
back to the Mac.It will even start-like after
I use the "transfer purchases from ATV"
or the "sync ATV" in Itunes of the linked Mac
but it will stop in a second without transfering anything. I can not even watch any
of the purchased TV Shows on any of the Macs,
only on ATV.
I would have so many questions about this ATV
but I do not want to bother you too much.

I am missing a manual - I mean a service manual,
or something more detailed than the Apple bucklet.

For example:
.. can I link more than one computer ?
.. can I change the linked computer ?
.. can I sync ATV with comp. from the ATV ?
.. I am using the same Itunes acc. on all
the machines, but do I have to ?
.. I am thinking of using the "Factory Restore"
since I have upgrated to the latest software 2.0.2 already (and it did not help) but than I will loose all my paid
videos, right ?
.. how do I know that I have bought the latest model? Yes, I have bought it new but not from
APPLE but from a local computer store.
If I go to menu "Settings" on my ATV than
the new window on the right will show:
General
Sceen Saver
Audio
Video
Computers
Downloads
is it correct, or am I missing something there ?
... I have authorized all 4 computers with Itunes
and it did not helped.
.. is there any way how to use my external HD
attached to the AirPort Extreme for storage etc.?

I very rarely even read the User Manuals but this Machine is getting on my nerve.
I love APPLE and my first computer was
APPLE 2+ in 1985 and I am an Apple fan since.
Through all the changes I have here medium sized
museum of Apple products.
But I was expecting from ATV much more.
Watching TV on Mac or Mac on TV is very old
story to mac people and networking as well !!

This new trend of simpler and more simpler
and now even without Manuals and with the technical support people who do not know anything, just sale, sale, sale is not good.

I understand that average people like everything
just with one button ON/OFF.
But people like me who like to know more details about the products and are not pros are zoned out.

I have also bought the aTV Flash 2.2 to be able to watch DivX, Xvid and esp. AVI media files on ATV but if I do not solve the basic operations first maybe I will send it all back.

Please advise, if you can.
Thank you

[Grapho]

podnecky said:

Yes, I have one Mac linked the other 3 are shared
and I am planing to share one PC there too,
after this is solved.

But it will only transfer files to ATV, nothing
back to the Mac.It will even start-like after
I use the "transfer purchases from ATV"
or the "sync ATV" in Itunes of the linked Mac
but it will stop in a second without transfering anything. I can not even watch any
of the purchased TV Shows on any of the Macs,
only on ATV.
I would have so many questions about this ATV
but I do not want to bother you too much.

I am missing a manual - I mean a service manual,
or something more detailed than the Apple bucklet.

For example:
.. can I link more than one computer ?

No, only one is allowed at this time.

Quote

.. can I change the linked computer ?

Yes, but you will inadvertently delete anything on your Apple TV. Be cautious until you can get your purchases backed up.

Quote

.. can I sync ATV with comp. from the ATV ?
.. I am using the same Itunes acc. on all
the machines, but do I have to ?

Yes.

Quote

.. I am thinking of using the "Factory Restore"
since I have upgrated to the latest software 2.0.2 already (and it did not help) but than I will loose all my paid
videos, right ?

You will need to reapply the patch.

Quote

.. how do I know that I have bought the latest model? Yes, I have bought it new but not from
APPLE but from a local computer store.
If I go to menu "Settings" on my ATV than
the new window on the right will show:
General
Sceen Saver
Audio
Video
Computers
Downloads
is it correct, or am I missing something there ?
... I have authorized all 4 computers with Itunes
and it did not helped.
.. is there any way how to use my external HD
attached to the AirPort Extreme for storage etc.?

I very rarely even read the User Manuals but this Machine is getting on my nerve.
I love APPLE and my first computer was
APPLE 2+ in 1985 and I am an Apple fan since.
Through all the changes I have here medium sized
museum of Apple products.
But I was expecting from ATV much more.
Watching TV on Mac or Mac on TV is very old
story to mac people and networking as well !!

This new trend of simpler and more simpler
and now even without Manuals and with the technical support people who do not know anything, just sale, sale, sale is not good.

I understand that average people like everything
just with one button ON/OFF.
But people like me who like to know more details about the products and are not pros are zoned out.

I have also bought the aTV Flash 2.2 to be able to watch DivX, Xvid and esp. AVI media files on ATV but if I do not solve the basic operations first maybe I will send it all back.

Please advise, if you can.
Thank you

Sorry I have to leave, If I have time I will try and answer more of your questions.