Apple TV now shipping

We're getting reports from readers this morning that Apple's newest living room contender -- the Apple TV -- is now shipping. After months of pre-order agony, eMails are arriving in the inboxes of the faithful detailing shipments and tracking numbers. Of course, you know what this means don't you? The first unboxing ritual is just days, if not hours, away.

Update: Apple's website updated to show new orders shipping in 3 - 5 business days.

[Thanks, Mark A. and everyone who sent this in]

[michael @ Mar 20th 2007 7:19AM]

I still think that Media Center and Xbox 360 extender is still the best you can get out there. Apple TV just seems sublime compared to it. Not that it's bad, but you get a whole lot more with Media Center + Xbox 360.

Plus, how are we sure that there won't be bugs in this first product? Anything can happen you know.

[Hammo @ Mar 20th 2007 7:43AM]

Does the MC+XB360 cache local content for use when the PC is off?

[XiozTzu @ Mar 20th 2007 8:26AM]

Thanks Mr Gates. I think I will wait until the iTV is actually out a few months before I make that decision.

[Rick Lyon @ Mar 20th 2007 9:04AM]

Thanks Mr Gates but I don't want to run anything you make because I like my privacy, my data and my time not wasted during reboots.

[jon.leopold @ Mar 20th 2007 9:10AM]

I don't think sublime means what you think it means.

[Kurt Heumiller @ Mar 25th 2007 2:03AM]

michael, sublime -"I do not think it means what you think it means."

I think the Apple TV is going to be below most of the people who read this site, we want more, DVR and other things... this is more for the average crowd who don't know how, or don't have the time to set up a media center computer or use an xbox. Would I buy one? No. Personally I think Apple's gonna sell a lot right of the bat, then it's gonna die down, and they'll have to make something better. Compare the first iPod that came out in 2001 to the 5G or the iPhone, there's been quite a jump. And before anyone one else jumps in about how great the Zune is, keep in mind the Apple TV should push more companies to make more adaptable and user-friendly media center solutions, much like it pushed Microsoft to develop the Zune.

[mr_joneses @ Mar 20th 2007 9:43AM]

"Does the MC+XB360 cache local content for use when the PC is off?"

uh yes. And it can also download content directly from the Internet, unlike the Apple TV.

[John Harding @ Mar 20th 2007 7:55AM]

Mine has shipped at last! (UK Order). Due to arrive by the 30th.

[Bob @ Mar 20th 2007 7:57AM]

What is the next post going to be:
"Our Apple TV has shipped" followed by, "Our Apple TV is now at the UPS sort facility" and "Our Apple TV in on the truck for delivery"

[Nick @ Mar 20th 2007 7:58AM]

Email has an uppercase M now?

[J @ Mar 20th 2007 8:52AM]

I need a mini-review of this thing, not just a pron-like unboxing. Visualizer?!?!? Must. Know. Now...

[Fabs @ Mar 21st 2007 8:28AM]

You should fucking learn english

[XenoPhage @ Mar 20th 2007 9:14AM]

So do I buy this *and* a Tivo? I already have a DVR for my dish...

I think we're headed back to having a million devices on our entertainment stands.. Honestly, I want ONE device. I want ONE DVR style device that supports both the TV tuning and internet playback. The ultimate would be a combination of a DVR, Slingbox, and an iTV style device..

*sigh*

[Rick Lyon @ Mar 20th 2007 9:41AM]

You'd only need that for premium channels, otherwise, this is a bridge only. You use your mac as a storage, turner with EyeGato and record on your mac, then access those OTA recordings. This is just the first incarnation and it's a bridge between your mac and HT at the moment and a way to buy movies/TV shows without leaving the house. Unless I'm mistaken about something, that's what I'm planning/hoping to do.

[mcepat @ Mar 20th 2007 1:04PM]

@XenoPhage

Then you want Vista Media Center, can use unlimited about of standard and HD tuners with a thirdparty tool (default is 4) and get this? you get the content for free with antenna or from your cable provider with no addtional cost, you don't have to buy shows from locked down itunes and media center lets you transfer recorded tv to your laptop, your zune or ipod to alot of places, not sure if DRMITUNES is gonna allow that.

and if you use webguide http://asciiexpress.com/webguide/

you get all sorts of remote features without buying a slingbox and any other hardware
WebGuide allows you to remotely view live and recorded TV programs and to remotely schedule and manage your recorded television programs, music, pictures and videos on your Media Center or Windows Vista PC. Install WebGuide on your Media Center PC and access it from any machine that has a web browser, including your cell phone or mobile device.

HD cable Media centers ae coming as well, but you can get HD OTA and record it, I did not here the 2 letters HD anywhere with ITV? (its 2007 apple?) and you can stream all this 2 5 XBOX360's or V2 extenders coming out and IPTV is coming to leapfrog the cable company costs

so if your looking for a all in one its already here its Media Center, the UI blows away ITV UI

what does ITV do? oh ya, purchase everything through ITUNES for extra cost

ya no thanks Apple

[Reid Sorenson @ Mar 20th 2007 2:06PM]

@mcepat - why does everyone seem to think that the Apple TV can only play things purchased from the iTunes Store? Just like an iPod, you can play MP3s or other MPEG-4 videos from any source. iTunes is just the software used to organize and transmit your files to the Apple TV.

Have a TV tuner for your PC or Mac? Just transcode your recordings into MPEG-4 format and import them into iTunes. Lots of TV tuner cards have MPEG-4 encoding built in, but for those that don't there are plenty of free software encoders that will do the trick.

That said, I totally share XenoPhage's wish for a combination DVR, SlingBox, and AppleTV-type device. One box that records my TV programs, and streams video either to or from my computer. Actually, I think that's what a TiVo does, but the damn HD version is so expensive!

[Rick Lyon @ Mar 20th 2007 9:19AM]

Looking forward to reviews as I've been waiting for these.

[Chris @ Mar 20th 2007 9:54AM]

Ummm use a media center (i find vistas the sexiest but xp's is fine) and if you want remote access aswell install orb.com tada local and remote play with extender capabilities :)

[Joslyn @ Mar 20th 2007 10:15AM]

I'm wondering how successful the Apple TV will be. With Joost coming out -- and others to follow -- will anyone actually want to pay for it? For most people, I doubt it.

Ad-supported online TV is eventually going to come on strong. If you read about internet TV from an advertiser's perspective, it seems pretty clear. They spend $70 Billion on TV ads, and will expect to spend that money on internet TV, once the logisitcs get figured out.

Shelly Palmer's article is pretty convincing:
http://advancedmediacommittee.typepad.com/emmyadvancedmedia/2006/10/tvvideo_web_inv_1.html

I want one of these, but feel like it's not where the market is headed. Apple may have gotten it on music -- but music has never been ad-supported. TV always has. Why would that suddenly change?

- Joslyn

[Modano @ Mar 20th 2007 11:09AM]

I hear what you're saying but I hate watching ads and I think that hatred is driving the adoption of DVRs. AppleTV and other similar solutions should appeal to the commercial-skipping DVR crowd.
Also, TV is not entirely ad-supported: my cable bill is $200/per month (including internet and phone). At that price, I can afford a whole lot of iTunes TV season passes.

[Dave @ Mar 20th 2007 11:30AM]

Because Joslyn, Apple understand what people want, which from me it's: To watch movies anywhere in my home. (laptop, computer at desk, tv in living room) if i want to watch a dvd i take it to that device and watch it. now i can have all my dvds on one device, include the tv shows i bought and do not have to watch worthless commercials(thank whoever) So I rip my dvds to my computer, which ive already done, put a reference to them in itunes, then i have over 400 movies available on my computer and my tv in my living room, i can always connect to the desktop with my laptop if i wanted to watch the movie on the laptop. and with apple 802.11n it runs great on a core 2 duo machine or any machine you've upgraded to .11n. And wait, you want to sit there for how many minutes everytime something interesting happens on the tv show.... wait and you arent taking those minutes to spend to yourself being productive or spending with family? Television programming is designed to make your ASS HUGE! Let's all do nothing for 5 minutes and get pelted with turbo-mercials shall we? And because Apple chose a good business model, and they knew people like me exist who are willing to pay $2 to not have corporate vomit in my face all day. And yes, I ignore apple commercials too. Not too clever, still annoying. So obviously Apple is not trying to get rid of commercials. Can you see every file you bought: tv show, movie, or music video that starts out with some bullshit like "news" sites have attached to their feeds: "enjoy the power of HP while you watch this 'far-from-entertaining' news cast. What makes me feel good is that according to you, "They spend $70 Billion on TV ads" which means they officialy spend more money trying to make me puke then they will ever receive from me. Sounds kind of...like buying up a whole bunch of tiny software companies, then branding their product as your own, then wondering why in the heck it doesn't work. Bottom line:
1) no advertising will not go away on TV.
2) yes Apple TV will sell because I pay to avoid vomit and others will also.
3) heeeere come the cable TV fees. remember because you wanted to spend that money to watch commercials and get charged for it.

[John Proffitt @ Mar 20th 2007 12:07PM]

And good news -- I just ordered mine on Sunday (3/18) and it STILL shipped today (3/20)! So go ahead and place your orders even if you've been waiting.

[Kichigai Mentat @ Mar 20th 2007 12:48PM]

You know, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that XBMC is better. Networked access to anything with Samba/Windows Networking, DVD-ROM drive, Can read stuff off most USB drives (up to 4 GB partitions, though multiple partitions are supported), plays games, can store things on the internal hard disk, DOES NOT require Windows MCE (eat it X360 MCExtender), support for most video codes and almost every video container (including Matroska), and support for (with MPEG-4 ASP) up to 1280x720 (720p), upscaling for all media up to 1080i, killer visualizations, and it can stream media from TiVo, ReplayTV, (with a plug-in) MythTV, and the Internet.

Let me know when someone else comes up with a box that can do all that for less than $129.

[Carlos @ Mar 20th 2007 1:10PM]

@Kichigai Mentat, I must aggree with you... they only thing that i'm going for my XBMC is the wireless remote control...

Any body knows if this thing play Xvid? or DivX ?

[Ian Mah @ Mar 20th 2007 1:36PM]

Let the Hacking begin ! Hate having anything with any sort of processor in it that I can't reprogram .. anyone have a site/ or info on this ???

[Carnaval13 @ Mar 20th 2007 3:38PM]

What people buy is convenience. Apple TV/iTunes offers another perfect integration of software and hardware, like iPod/iTunes. A simple click to buy, a simple click to sync, a simple click to play... It's simple. Sure you can do better and more sophisticated with other solutions, but for most people it is not simple enough.

[doctorSpoc @ Mar 20th 2007 3:38PM]

but xBox 360 doesn't have 802.11*n* so it's going to be pretty useless at HD video and probably even going to stutter doing SD video... so it basically means that xBox 360 is going to have to be wired to get appleTV like video... meaning it's not in the same ball park as appleTV

[sethmo @ Mar 20th 2007 4:15PM]

For what it does, Id rather just have a WMC PC. $299 is a good price, but it seems pretty limitted at what it can do outside of its TV features.

[Ian Mah @ Mar 20th 2007 5:06PM]

Let the Hacking begin ! Hate having anything with any sort of processor in it that I can't reprogram .. anyone have a site/ or info on this ???

[dynamius @ Mar 20th 2007 5:20PM]

this is probably the biggest rip off apple has ever offered... for the same price you get so much more with a media center PC and an Xbox 360...

[neal @ Mar 20th 2007 7:09PM]

no XVID/DIVX no purchase!

[Nathan Brown @ Mar 20th 2007 7:14PM]

Any news on when it will hit Apple stores? Can we rely on historical web-to-store trends to predict when it might?

[wes v @ Mar 20th 2007 8:19PM]

I think this is a great solution for the mac/itunes consumer. And I just hope PC vendors respond with something more powerful. But a look at the specs of the iTV reveals 640x480 is it's highest resolution for video. Thats a long way from HD.
Yes it will connect with hdmi, component and support h.264 but it still VGA.
I will never be a customer as my solution although wired plays at 1168x680. Plays all the most popular codecs and has a remote much more powerful than iTV.
But was as much trouble to set up as it is powerful.

[Martin Barrett @ Mar 20th 2007 10:50PM]

Apple TV's file formats supported: H.264 and protected H.264 (from iTunes Store): 640 by 480, 30 fps, LC version of Baseline Profile; 320 by 240, 30 fps, Baseline profile up to Level 1.3; 1280 by 720, 24 fps, Progressive Main Profile. MPEG-4: 640 by 480, 30 fps, Simple Profile.
I have converted some DVDs to mp4 placed on my hard drive following the guide http://www.appletvconverter.com/tutorial.html , then put them onto Apple TV once I received it. ;-)

[jon.leopold @ Mar 21st 2007 9:06AM]

And you should learn to use a dictionary...

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sublime

[MrWhite @ Mar 22nd 2007 11:19AM]

Who says you have to use Apple only downloads. :| I use an app called HandBrake to rip "my" DVD's for my iPod and PSP and there are also other media outlets that allow you to download video and such, and of course the illegal ways as well.

I plan using "my" own content, movies I made using iMovie, pictures I have taken and music I have ripped from CD's I own.

Not everything needs to come from media outlets and the internet to enjoy Apple TV.

and from I have heard the Xbox360 is limited in what it can do as well. This is all new, I'd rather buy an Apple TV since I don't plan on buying an Xbox360 ever.

[Kailie Quinn @ Mar 25th 2007 1:45PM]

*thinks it's hilarious apple is being sued for stealing the iphone name from Cisco*

[Kailie Quinn @ Mar 25th 2007 1:45PM]

Agreed with a few comments. If it can't play xvid, or a mounted iso, I don't really care to use, as that's 90% of my video collection. I can't be arsed to spend weeks converting terabytes of video to some apple friendly format. If they were smart they would have just gone the all codecs route.

[Ryan @ Mar 27th 2007 5:13AM]

I think this is just nothing but a HUGE 300 dollar iPod that just sits in your living room.

[starkruzr @ Mar 28th 2007 2:02AM]

Perian and xvid work now.