Apple TV -- now due mid-March
By Ryan Block 
posted February 26th 2007 4:57PM
posted February 26th 2007 4:57PM
Looks like the Apple TV took a little longer to put the spit and polish on than Apple initially thought. According to Apple PR Director of Mac products Lynn Fox, "Wrapping up Apple TV is taking a few weeks longer than we projected, and we now expect to begin shipments mid-March." Odd, being that Apple first showed this thing off last Fall -- and bummer for everybody waiting for their product. But you'd rather have it right than have it all crappy-wrong-first-gen, no? That was the silver lining for Vista's delayed launch, anyway.P.S. -For those who just got a pang of sadness on what you're missing out on, maybe these pics of the Apple TV we took at Macworld 2007 will cheer you up.
Wow that's uhm really unimpressive, and to whom ever posted the link comparing this at $299 to a media center pc at $1000, that link forget one thing, you'll still have to buy a damn pc/mac for this thing to even work.
Duh! The Apple TV assumes you have PC or Mac already. Same concept with MP3 player.
The point the article was that why buy another PC or Mac for over a grand. They guy is bias like myself against Micrsoft. So you have to read between the lines.
But if you are in the market for a new PC, then great. Go buy a Window Media Center PC.
But if you just want stream or sync music, photos, movies, tv shows from iTunes libray on your PC or Mac to your HDTV, then the Apple TV is a solution and not the only one.
And ya... I ordered an Apple TV. I don't do it blindly. I looked at the overview and the tech specs. The things I asked myself, was
1) Does it offer something I want? Yes. I have looked at similar devices like UPnP media clients, iPod docks with A/V connections, Mac Mini computer, etc...
None really seemed worth while.
2) Can I afford? Easily.
3) How does it fit into my home theather system setup. Very well.
If I had an Xbox 360, PS3, or Wii; then Apple TV would have been a no go (unless until it got a better A/V Receiver).
Now that the reasonable people know that the AppleTV is a complimentary device for media on your computer(s), and not a replacement for your cable/satellite, DVR, and DVD player, lets delve into the reason for this blog.
Why was Apple unable to make it's self-imposed deadline? We've known about the deivce for about 6 months now. It's not difficult from a hardware perscpective.
I'm guessing that the software to allow seamless streaming from the Window's side still had some major issues.
Maybe something with iTunes itself and not the AppleTV.
You can stream media from Mac to Xbox 360 -- Connect360 does the trick pretty nicely.
However, I think AppleTV will be pretty elegant a solution, if the iPod/iTunes model bears out.
It does appear that video is limited to MPEG-4 Parts 2 and 10 (H.264/AVC), and 720p is limited to 24fps -- at least according to the tech specs page. I wish 720p would be 30fps or better. :(
AppleTV = Xbox or Xbox360 without the gaming capability and streaming of HDTV. Of course Apple commercials will make you think its the greatest thing ever. They should if M$ is too shortsighted to actually let people know they can do such things with their Xbox. There are millions of Xbox units out there. For M$ not to take advantage of this is a crime. They should be arrested.
Wheres the tape go? Don't tell me I'd have to throw out my vhs tapes. Will it do laser disc?
"Most people love Apple and an Apple tivo device would sell millions"
That's so utterly wrong, no one outside of the tech world gives a shit about Apple.
I disagree with you 100%. I guess you are about to tell me that the Ipod offers more features for a better price than some competing products? No. Don't get me wrong, the Ipod line is awesome. But many other flash mp3 devices offer more features for less money.
Don't kid yourself - many people buy Ipods because they are made by apple. Apple spends a lot on marketing. People like to be seen wearing those earbud headphones. It is a status symbol as much as the product is a good one. That being said, don't be foolish and think that people don't buy goods on the name alone.
As for the DVR comments, many of you have twisted my words rather than answering my criticism of the product. I know that the Apple TV is a complimentary device. I get that. What I said was that if Apple really wanted to take over the living room, they would have released a DVR - not an extender. And I know, whatever your name is, I know that Apple could have made one if they wanted to. Taht is my point. The technology is there and contrary to what has been posted here, it isn't expensive to make. Aplle chose not to make one. I believe that they made that choice because they would rather sell you shows a $2 a head than make you pay a flat fee for a tivo like device. That is a choice that the company made and all I was saying is that you, the consumer, don't win in that scenario.
And by the way, I paid $100 for my tivo unit. It offers DVR capabilites and allows me to not only record programs on its 40 gig drive, but also allows me to stream mpegs (like movies of my kids) from my computer via tivotogo. It also lets me play my mpegs and look at the pictures on my computer. I got all of this, dvr recordings and all, for a total of $400 (100 for the unit and 300 for lifetime service).
This is not meant to be a tivo is better than apple tv. You are right to suggest that they are different. They are. Tivo offers a better solution - one that apple could have adopted.
flame on.
I know how they both operate. Haven't you seen the YouTube video of it : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJebZ_JwnBk
It pretty much looks like WMC. Works just about the same way. But it's still new, so there might be bugs, MSFT was first, and it's a bit too pricey for what you can get with buying an OS that includes it, and a top-selling gaming console as an extender for it. You pretty much get a better deal buying a Windows OS with Media Center, and an Xbox 360, then just buying Apple TV for a ridiculous price. Sure it cost less than buying the Windows OS + xbox 360, but it's a more better deal to stick with Media Center.
There was a rumour that it would stream your desktop to any TV it was hooked up to in the house and they were keeping this quiet till Leopard launched, if this isn't exactly hidden then maybe part of the reason it's delayed so much is it's aligning itself with a release of leopard. if it did indeed sport the ability to give you your main computer in each room, not like a mac mini accessing shared drives over wifi, actually let you use your computer as if you were in front of it but from TV's around your house then I reckon it would be very impressive. As it currently stands it doesn't sound all that exciting especially due to it's inability to handle a lot of common video codecs.
TiVo partnering with Netflix and offering on-demand downloads of Movies from the Netflix catalog has already made AppleTV obsolete. I'm sure TiVo will be working out similar deals with the television networks too...
XBOX Live also offers similar on-demand functionality and it doesn't require someone to have another box sitting in their living room.
I currently have a D-Link media player which already plays all formats of video in 1080 using HDMI. I can use any media server I want too.
I think AppleTV is a good mass market idea because it simplifies things for Joe User; however, I think it just came a little too late.
There are already better alternatives and more on the horizon. AppleTV is actually playing catch up here.
Well, it's coming, but it's as useless as ever.
Ok, where to start...
1. "instead of streaming over the internet to portable devices, its streaming content on your itunes to your HDTV. It's all about encouraging people to buy itunes content"
And to think people accuse MS of monopolistic tendencies. If you use any platform of computer, you are supporting some kind of greedy pig corp (except maybe Linux); therefore, any Mac user accusing MS of extending its tentacles everywhere is a hypocrite. Same goes for MS fanboys like myself accusing Apple.
2. "when you get beyond the 25-26 age threshold, you don't want to be using an Xbox controller to fast forward anymore"
Surely, you can get a DVD remote for the 360. When the system first came out last year, they were also selling harmony remotes (the super universal remotes with LCD screens and all that useless crap). Even if you can't get one of those, couldn't you just get a normal universal remote and use Code Search to find whatever heck brand a 360 is?
3. I guess I only have two comments first this page. I'll come back after I browse the ther pages...
Apple TV delivers very poor video quality using compressed mpeg4 files that is not even up to VHS standards. Huge step backward from HiDef TV. Tack on expensive and tedious downloads, and the fact that it's more expensive than better quality alternatives.
It's criminal that the payola Apple ponies up to get featured as "news items" on MSNBC, CNN, Good Morning America, etc. works. It just proves that the American media have no integrity and Apple certainly takes advantage of it.
Only a fool would buy Apple TV online without comparing it in the store next to the signal coming back from a (cheaper, faster, better) hi-def video recorder like Tivo.