[richpurcell]

Currently I’m paying Comcast about $200 per month for internet service and premium channels which I don’t watch as often.



If I were paying about $50 per month for a high-speed connection I could conceivably spend about $125/month in iTunes video content and still come out paying less than I do for Comcast’s premium service. For $125/month in iTunes content I could rent about 29 movies per month (3.99 8%) or purchase about 58 episodes (1.99 8%) of my favorite TV shows or some combination thereof. All downloaded to my ATV without commercial interruption. This is in addition to all the commercial driven OTA HD broadcast channels I can get for free.



True, I would give-up the ability to surf the premium channels and I’d have to find an alternate means of discovering new shows that I like. However, I’m not sure it’s worth $200 a month to maintain the ability to surf through 150 shows to find the one that I like.



So tell me again why do I need premium cable service?

[smith.dan]

richpurcell said:

So tell me again why do I need premium cable service?

ESPN and CNN.

That's what I miss about my (basic) cable service, anyway. I traded it for a monthly iTunes Store budget. There are a lot of plusses to using Apple TV, and digital over-the-air TV is better than cable for local channels, but I do miss my SportsCenter and College GameDay.

[chr15w0ng]

My issue with ATV is the fact that HD content purchased on one ATV is not transferrable to another. I have a whole DVD library right now that we can start watching in the Kitchen and finish in the Bed Room or Living Room etc. simply by transferring the disc from one player to another. I know I can move the ATV box around.. but the fact that I can't transfer my content from one ATV to another ATV at a different location in the house is troublesome to me.

[Xenu]

Please tell me I'm wrong, but . . .
(1) If I want to start watching a rental movie on my TV and finish watching it on another device, I have to download the movie on my Mac not the Apple TV. Any movies downloaded on the Apple TV, are stuck on the Apple TV. Yes?
(2) You can't download an HD rental movie on your Mac. You can only download an HD rental on Apple TV, and once you do, there's no way to transfer it and finish watching it on another device. Yes?

[chr15w0ng]

As far as I know after talking to Apple reps at MW expo.. both are true.

-In order to transfer content from one ATV to another or from ATV to Mac.. the content needs to be originally downloaded on the Mac. Essentially, content downloaded to the ATV is locked into that box.

-There is no way to download HD content to the Mac.

Thus, there is no way to transfer HD content from one box to another nor is there a way to transfer content downloaded directly to one ATV to another device (ATV or Mac)

-Chris

[JimG]

switchtoamac says:
Thu Feb 21 09:58:53 PST 2008
Re: Apple TV, Take Two
I'm looking to purchase an Apple TV in the near future. I would like to build a large library of resources from music and movies to old recordings that I have made on cassette tape. Anyone know a tool that I can use to convert my cassette tapes into digital files that I can eventually import into my iTunes library?

---

There is a wonderful little program called "Wiretap Studio" that can capture any sound happening on your Mac. Obviously you need to take an output from your casette player to the mic/line input on your Mac. You should turn the volume way down on the player at first so you don't overload the input -- true with any audio connection made for the first time.

Here's a link to the home page of Wiretap Studio:

http://www.ambrosias...lities/wiretap/

[Xenu]

Has anyone noticed that when you are synching a rental movie from your Mac to your Apple TV, Apple's wireless mouse starts responding very sluggishly? When I turn off bluetooth the trackpad works fine, but not the wireless mouse.

[JimG]

In many ways the Apple TV is a closed box in that its primary purpose is to buy content and use the device to access that content. As the iPhone is a completely closed box that requires you to use a premium pay service to use its main features the iPhone should be free, and so should the Apple TV. At the very least, if you pay $230 USD for an Apple TV then at least the first $230 of content you buy should be "free."

To make the Apple TV acceptable as a pay-for device it needs to be able to access the users already-existing content. The iPod plays a good number of audio codecs such as MP3 and thus justifies paying for the device since you are not tied to buying content from anyone in particular. The Apple TV likewise should allow access to a variety of video codecs if they expect a wide audience to purchase and embrace it. At the very least it should mimic the divX capabilities of many dedicated DVD players today.

I'll stick with using my MacBook and VLC Player outputting to my Sony Bravia as my main entertainment system for the time being. I recommend others get a Mac Mini and a good external drive to feed their main TV and audio system.

I want an Apple TV, but I demand that it play the thousands of .avi files that I have collected over the years without requiring me to convert them.

[George76]

ckmills said:

While I can certainly agree with most things said in both the review and the comments posted here, I think a lot of people are missing the 'big picture'. Of course there are things that we wish were different or were improved; that can be said about any product. But for very short money (less than many iPods, iPhones, Mac Minis, etc.) one gets an entirely functional and pleasurable device that truely compliments and enhances the home theater environment. If you look at a typical home theater set up (TV, Receiver, Sat/Cable, and DVD player) think about what Apple TV adds :

1) Access to your complete music library
2) Access to the digitized part of your video media library
3) Access to all your digital photographs
4) Access to others digital photos (via .Mac and Flickr)
5) YouTube access
6) Podcast Access
7) Movie rental with leaving home or waiting for something to come in the mail
8) Catching up on missed TV show episodes via a purchase from iTunes

etc...etc...etc.

That is a lot of additional functionality for only $230, and while it has not replaced my DVD player or my cable company's On Demand and DVR service, it certainly adds to the overall home theater experience.

One of the big problems is right in your last sentence: "...it has not replaced..." It's yet another box with yet another remote (and a pretty crappy one at that). A TiVo can do items 1, (with a lot of work) 2, 3, 7 and 8 but it could also replace your cable box on top of obviously being a DVR (so you wouldn't miss a show in the first place). Likewise, a PS3 can do items 1-6 (4 is iffy) and replace your DVD player along with being a Blu-Ray player and gaming system and providing web access (it could also be used for voice/video chats). Unless I'm willing to abandon cable television, the Apple TV is a divergence device instead of the convergence device I would hope for.

[Dan Frakes]

flybynight said:

Dan Frakes - why use the Airport Express now that @TV has AirTunes built in?

Sorry, I meant that we'd installed the AirPort Express long ago because of the lack of decent music navigation on the Apple TV; we haven't yet switched to the Apple TV for AirTunes functionality (and there isn't much incentive to, to be honest).

[Dan Frakes]

mario_capo said:

My 2 biggest beefs with the Apple Tv are

1) 720p is the highest resolution available. While my tv isn't 1080p, I still prefer to watch my content in 1080i.

How big is your TV, and how far away do you sit?

I ask because many people don't realize that when it comes to 720p vs. 1080i/p, most people have TVs that are too small, or sit too far away (or both), to actually detect the difference in normal video-watching.

[mario_capo]

Its a 42" sony lcd projection, and I would say I sit about 6 to 7 feet away from it. Thanks for your help.

[deasys]

rogerr said:

I just can't see a lot of people dropping $300 for this. Maybe on take 3?

In that case you're in luck: Just for you for today only, the price is $229. No need to wait for take 3.

[ckmills]

I think you missed my point. So what - it's another box (and a small one at that). I wish my TV had a built in microwave so that I would not have to go to the kitchen to fix a bag of popcorn, but that does not make me avoid buying a TV until they make a "convergent" one. And if you have a good universal remote control, as I do, it is not another remote lying around.

I agree with you that ther other ways to do the things I do with my Apple TV , but I have 3 Macs, 3 iPods and 2 iPhones in the family, and being able to serve media to all of them with the same basic mechanism as the AppleTV is golden to me.

And that is my real point. To me, and this is strictly a value judgement, $230 is small money for what I get out of the device. And yes, if they make one with a blu-ray DVD player, game console, DVR, and that allows general internet browsing, it would be a better device, and I would buy it the day it came out. In the meantime, I use the AppleTV for all that it is worth.