Well I love the Apple TV, and while I could certainly think of some ways to improve it, I totally get it. I suspect those who don't get it, or think it's a failure, don't have one, and have therefore not used one. When I first got mine back in March, I did the typical thing and loaded all my music and pictures and a few movies on it, and it is a great way to enjoy all of that stuff, but I have come to realize, at least for me, what it is really all about. I have since taken the music off, as while it is all well and good to be able to listen to your music through your TV, I don't do it that often and I have a good sound system hooked up to my iMac, so I just don't need it there. The pictures are nice to have for the screensaver, but the rest I dropped as well, as I don't tend to sit in front of my TV watching pictures... I do that on the iMac. The great thing is the movies, though... Home movies are good, saved videos from the web, YouTube, etc., are all nice things to have available with a few clicks. The real gem, though, is having full-length DVD movies. The Apple TV IS like the iPod for movies. I have kids that like to watch movies, and my wife and I like watching movies with them, and on our own, and I have a huge DVD collection. The biggest pain is finding the movie, switching DVDs in and out of the player, and if one gets scratched by the kids' mishandling, then we'd have to replace it. The ATV is like a movie juke-box, letting me select whichever movie I want, and it loads immediately, and plays back beautifully. Of course, an app like Handbrake is needed to convert them, but it does such a beautiful job, and takes less time than the movie is long to convert, so if you convert them as you get them, it's a piece of cake. The only limitation I have on my ATV is storage, and I am convinced that Apple will open up that USB port on the back to allow an external HD. When they do, I can convert the rest of my collection. Everyone that comes over and sees the setup loves it and thinks it's awesome. Sure you can do pretty much the same thing with your Mac and some cabels and/or converters and whatnot, but none of it would be as clean and simple as an Apple TV. You've got the AC cord, and the HDMI cable, and that's it! The interface is beautiful on my HDTV and I am always getting drooling comments by people who see it, which further leads me to believe that those who knock it, simply haven't tried it. Now if a future release of iTunes would include DVD-ripping as good as Handbrake, it truly would be the one-step simple solution.

Playing the Sony side of the devil's advocate, I've also been very happy using my PS3 as a media player (although I wouldn't suggest it without investing in the Bluetooth remote). I actually just rip CD's right on the PS3 instead of streaming music, but I like that the PS3 has an actual visualizer (instead of staring at album art and song info) and the new Earth visualizer they just added in the last update is beautiful to watch. And if I want, I can hop on the internet and do a little web surfing instead (with Flash support). Plus, the PS3 has wider video codec support, so there's less need to convert internet video to get it play.

And of course, there's the ability to play Blu-Ray movies in beautiful 1080p and discrete surround (as my collection of 50 discs attests to), and I guess it plays games too. I'm just a little bummed I don't know anyone else with a PS3 to use the voice/video/text chat capabilities it has.

Then there's the ability to easily upgrade the internal hard drive (man, I wish Apple would take note of this for the iMac and AppleTV), plus add external USB hard drives for storage.

Now if it would just add the PSP's internet radio feature, it would be even more awesome. And maybe if Nullriver would roll out at PS3 version of the Connect360 software.

On a last note, I'd like to add that Jobs didn't call the AppleTV a "hobby" until it had been on the market for over 4 months, which makes me think his comment was just an excuse to cover the less than stellar sales (or at least the less than expected sales).

hehe Just don't tell you insurance agent. No lie. I was shopping for home owners insurance the other day at an independant insurance agent, that represents several companies. He asked me if we owned an XBOX 360 during the assessment. I answered that I didn't and a few questions later I stopped him and asked about the 360. I asked if people were breaking into houses or something to steal them. He said no that's not the problem, it's that one of the insurance companies he writes for considers you at a higher risk for a fire damage claim if there is an XBOX 360 in the house.

With my four irreplaceable children in the house I'll just keep my AppleTV and Wii, and you can keep your 360

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I am a stranger in a strange land, waiting on my King to come and establish His Kingdom. Even so. Maranatha!

Yes, Nullriver confirmed to me that they're working on a PS3 equivalent for the Connect360 software. But they're a very small developer with limited resources, so when it will happen is something that only they know, and I presume will talk about when the time is right.

"...Re DVD's, exactly. We have bought a huge pile of kids DVD's but they get scratched, trashed, kids don't treat them as they should ... now I just put 5-6 of the current favorite kids movies on Apple TV (or at east on the itunes machine (I stream) and my 8yr old just grabs an Apple remote and watches the movies. When they get tired of those I change them."

Can you share what method do you use to transfer your DVDs to iTunes? I am looking for something other than HandBrake since I did not have much luck with Hand Brake. Thanks

Too little too late for Apple T/V. Frankly, Apple screwed up by providing the hardware before the content. As far as getting my iTunes to my stereo. I use my Airport express for that. My Xbox 360 downloads movie's, games,tv shows, and plays purchased games on CD. Plus being a DVD player upgradable to HD DVD. I just can't see even a Apple fanBoy being so blind as to buy such a handicapped, over priced hardware like the Apple T/V. Im sure Steve Jobs thanks you though!

I think it's funny people are so big on the 5.1 issue. Much of the older movie content and definitely television content was not originally surround sound, but Dolby Stereo or mono. Only when it was "remastered" on DVD did some of the content get the surround sound treatment. If you're buying Mission: Impossible III, then yes, the sound is an issue; If you buying something like Blacula (which was mono), then iTunes version should be just fine. Don't get me wrong, I like surround sound, but if I'm using an iPod with headphones or the built in TV speakers like the majority of iTunes users are (I'm not saying Apple TV users, just people buying content on the iTunes Store), then the stereo mix is fine.

What I would like to really see is HD content. If Apple offered movies in 720p, it would be small enough to download in a reasonable amount of time (and not too large of size) and would not compete with the retail market's HD DVD and Blu-ray sales. And if they can do 5.1 at the same time , that would be great too.

I agree that 5.1 surround must be available! Who wants to download a movie to watch it on a HD tv with a surround system only to realize their is no surround? Plus, I have the question about downloading HD. Does anyone realize how big a file a HD movie is? Do you know how long it can take? I am thinking that Apple will not offer these movies in any HD format and it will probably be standard definition. Too bad if that's true. This is not just a Apple problem but others who are trying the movie download thing are having bandwidth troubles too. Until American upgrades it's archaic internet system. We are limited as to what we can do.