Well now we know that iTV has officially become Apple TV. It's real folks: we got 802.11 b/g AND 802.11n, USB 2.0, Ethernet, WiFi, HDMI, bunch of standard outs, plus a 40GB hard drive -- all powered by an Intel CPU. So resolution is only 720p -- looks like a few folks are gonna be out of luck, but TV manufacturers are sure gonna be happy to sell all those new sets. Not just one, two or three but five computers can connect to the Apple TV box, making a true hub for all your PCs. You can watch content stored on your rig -- movies, TV shows, photos, etc. -- and you can also pull streaming vid directly off sites like...Apple.com! Plus, the box will even grab content from PCs outside of your house -- finally, we can watch all the great swag that our rich friends can afford. Interested? You'll be able to grab one immediately for $299.
posted January 9th 2007 12:15PM
bishopdonmiguel: You can play the DVD buy putting it in your computer and streaming it to the AppleTV. No need to rip it and put it on the hardrive.
Joe: Your set-up is clearly an expensive and fun hobby for you. I'm sure as you typed all of that, you understood that you were describing a system that only a handful of people actually take the time to plan and execute... Why else would you feel the need to describe it in such tech-porn detail? More power to you, but you are a part of a small subset, as is the audience for this product. Neither your type of set-up, nor AppleTV is going to change the overall landscape of home entertainment. It's an interesting product that's testing the waters; it may stick, and if it does, Apple rolls out more models, maybe even a higher-end device that will support whatever standard you needed to rip out your walls to upgrade to.
Plus, iPods have from day 1 supported AIFF and WAV uncompressed audio. It's just not an effective use of space on a portable player's hard-drive, as well as succumbing to skipping due to the files being larger than the buffer. But it is POSSIBLE.
And KayGee! That's some mighty fine "Apple Death-knell Erotica" you wrote there... But I've been reading it for years. I'm bored. It's all over the internets, every January. Results always the same: Apple still around after June.
@illingist trooper: You can play the DVD buy putting it in your computer and streaming it to the AppleTV. No need to rip it and put it on the hardrive.
Hmmm... I don't think so, although I'd like to be proven wrong. There is nothing on the Apple Store that implies you can stream whatever you like. It specifically says anything in your iTunes library plus photos and home movies. iTunes doesn't support DVD MPEG-2 format, nor does Quicktime which is the engine for FrontRow.
If you are correct, I might buy several of these. Unfortunately, it seems Apple focus is on extending the iTunes library -vs- providing a universal media player for the TV. I'm not really interested in buying any movies from the iTunes until they are unprotected, full dvd quality, and support 5.1 surround sound.
Tech porn? Jeez-- you sound like a typical Apple Fanboy who's never seen the insides of a computer if you think that the words "gigabit" and "ethernet" qualify as tech porn.
And expensive? Total cost is less than wireless (and faster and rock-solid reliable).
I ripped out walls? Fishing cable isn't difficult-- pretty easy, in fact. There wasn't a single hole that wasn't made for a port.
There's only a handful of people who have this? Follow my link; it's common, and what I have is rather tame.
And iPods play wav files? You brought up skipping. 'Nuff said.
Now, can you solve me this-- can the media library be streamed without being logged in on the server, i.e., can you stream without iTunes running 24/7?
The Apple TV is going to be amazing. I found a community already, if your going to get one check it out. www.appletvusers.com
I do not know much about 1080 or 720, exept it is far superior to anything previously. However even if it could play Divx, it would be fruitless to expect a quality picture on either one. I think it would be much like playing a mono record on a stereo player. Anyway I like my eyehome, it does almost all formats and right from my computer and the price was right.
THe reason i will buy this product ( if the price goes down ) witch it will because apple will most likely come out with a 80gb model in another mounth or somthing haha. Is because i only have macintosh computer in my house hold. Now i have the xbox 360 and using the connect 360 i can stream all my music and photos from my mac, witch is amazing. But for video it only suports wma files and all the content downloaded on a mac is in mpg, mpeg, mp4 formats so i can not use all the movies i rip from the net. Witch is why apple tv is great for macintosh users, its seems completly useless for windows users because they can infact just get an xbox 360.
So If any body can find a great video converter that will put my mpg into wmv so i can stream my files from my mac to my xbox 360. That would save me the 300$.
This is sweet, http://www.buffalotech.com/comparison-charts/multimedia/
have you ever compared 720 progressive to 1080 interlaced? your find 720 P to be superior. There is a world of difference between 1080i and 080p..don't confuse them. 720p is the best you'll get from an broadcast for years to come