Video: Apple TV menu and interface walkthrough

In case you were still on the fence about this whole Apple TV thing, we did one of our interface walkthrough videos for you. Basically we start at the start (not plugged in) and take you through everything there is to see in Apple's wireless media streamer, including playing back movies, trailers, and music, watching photos, and all those gears in setup and options. Check it out in the player above, or download the full-size (and QVGA) versions below.

[MP4] Download the video (VGA)
[MP4] Download the video (QVGA)
[AVI] Download the video (VGA)
[AVI] Download the video (QVGA)

[Mrmean @ Mar 23rd 2007 9:22AM]

want one!

[Jonathan Keim @ Mar 23rd 2007 9:24AM]

:D Good choice on the music video

White and Nerdy :Thumbsup:

[spaceman @ Mar 23rd 2007 9:53AM]

What's with the white dead pixel in the bottom right?

[Standingfast @ Mar 23rd 2007 10:28AM]

I think thats a power indicator light on the TV. If you look closely, you can see that it is not on the display itself.

[wWw @ Mar 23rd 2007 9:54AM]

wow, that was LAME. A clear sign that something's wrong with this world: Windows Media Center looks more promising than this kindergarten product.

AppleTV, FrontRow -- they're all dumbed-down "media center." And Steve, you keep praising your little 5-button remote. You know you'll have to add the numberpad sooner or later, 'cause your product doesn't deserve to be called "TV" if people can surf any real channels.

I gotta say... I am more impressed by PS3's gorgeous interface + media center features.

[wWw @ Mar 23rd 2007 9:56AM]

*if people can't surf any real channels.

[milrtime83 @ Mar 23rd 2007 10:00AM]

So it does approximately what a $20 cable would do?

[GBaz @ Mar 23rd 2007 10:00AM]

Whats up with the remote. Is it really making click soulds that loud or is it just being held next to the mic?

[jonny.g @ Mar 23rd 2007 10:02AM]

Good choice on the BSS!

[Standingfast @ Mar 23rd 2007 10:14AM]

Its like my ipod, cept. it has HD, I only wish this thing had a bigger hard drive...

[FrankTheCrank @ Mar 23rd 2007 10:32AM]

yawn...

[Johnny @ Mar 23rd 2007 10:48AM]

As a so-called 'Apple Fanboy', I am so disappointed with the AppleTV. I agree that it is for non-techies with money to blow only. For me to be interested, it needs some of those 'Wow, I didn't know it was going to do that' features that you usually get with an Apple device. This does exactly what it is supposed to do, which isn't much, in really crappy quality. HD movies should have been made available at the same time (if not before) the aTV. Also, TV shows on iTunes are overpriced... If I bought all the TV shows I watch, my cable bill would be hundreds of dollars a month more and never in HD.

It pains me to say, but Microsoft is definitely way ahead in this area (even thought the quality of video sucks there too and I'm sure it has lots of illogical MS interface BS). The bottom line, we are still only on the verge of media-less entertainment. I have no doubt it will all improve within the next few years and hopefully will beat out the antiquated sctratching media still used for Blu-Ray and HD DVD.

[Andrew @ Mar 23rd 2007 10:50AM]

Someone really dropped the ball here. Albeit the slash vid/interface is beautiful, the load times are ridiculous on all art. It looks like it was built off of an already bulky iTunes. Where's cable/satellite/antennae input, and more important DVR functionality? This looks like a vehicle for people to buy more off of the iTunes store, and I really hope the average consumer sees this. For once in a long time, I must say Microsoft is in the clear. Then again, I remember LinuxMCE is a good 3 years ahead of both.

I understand skepticism, but seriously check this video out:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4422887272477313460&hl=en

[Eric V @ Mar 23rd 2007 10:53AM]

I'd rather use FrontRow on my Mac Mini. Supports 1080p as well. Only downside is the initial loading time on certain folders.

Kind of a bummer that it doesn't have (or wasn't shown in the video) a visualizer for music.

Also didn't appear to have a movie trailer browser like FrontRow has.

So... why is this a product?

[andrew harrison @ Mar 23rd 2007 6:33PM]

UMM

movie trailer feature was the second one shown in the video

[Jim @ Mar 23rd 2007 11:05AM]

Was the video / cover art skipping and staggering just the fault of the recording? or is playback really that bad?

[Edlanti @ Mar 23rd 2007 11:06AM]

I dont know why people keep talking about the same thing over and over....get over it.....the majority of people in this world does not care about specs that much.....is just like the ipod, is so easy to use that anybody can use it with ease....samething is going to happen with this product watch

[JAmerican @ Mar 23rd 2007 11:14AM]

OMG!! Look at White and Nerdy video!! They changed the PC to a Mac! He was playing MineSweeper on a PC before!!

JAmerican

[Squid @ Mar 23rd 2007 11:23AM]

Yeah the interface is kinda dull. Give it some time and I think it will be better.

[tito @ Mar 23rd 2007 11:32AM]

Really bad nothing extra, my cable box does almost all of it (with a less pretty interface) and Media Center from Microsoft is years ahead. Pathetic !

[adam fuller @ Mar 23rd 2007 11:45AM]

the noisiest remote control ever. EVER!

[Darren Hamilton @ Mar 23rd 2007 11:46AM]

it has HD (720P) but no content other than movie trailers. without content, who cares? I can plug my video ipod into my TV and do all this is doing.

[Chris @ Mar 23rd 2007 11:56AM]

I'm still lost on something - is there any reason I'm not considering why you'd purchase this over a 360 that has all the streaming features PLUS it's a console - for the same price or less??

[t-bone @ Mar 23rd 2007 12:08PM]

Now that we've seen a million pictures of the inside, outside, and interface as well as videos, when will Engadget post the user manual?

[catachip @ Mar 23rd 2007 12:15PM]

Apple already posted the manual earlier this week. http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/AppleTV_UserGuide.pdf

[Mr. Picklesworth @ Mar 23rd 2007 1:05PM]

Please tell me that the ridiculously long intro video can be skipped.

[doctorSpoc @ Mar 23rd 2007 1:11PM]

it's not the remote making that noise the sound is coming from the speakers... it's just like front row when you click on something it makes a noise... click, snap, crackle, pop

i like the concept but the things that are missing are:
1) 5.1 audio.. can't be a replacement for DVD without that.. that's the biggest hole.. how are you going to pay for a movie the same price or slightly less than the DVD and not have 5.1 audio.. that's actually a deal breaker for me... does XBox 360 have surround sound?
2) movie purchases... why the hell not?
3) the remote is not enough.. it's good to try to simplify it, but they've gone too far.. at least put a number pad on it.. maybe even a cellphone like number/keypad (i.e. press number 2 three times to get "C" etc.) or a blackberry pearl like keypad...
4) i think the interface is ok but it's a bit on the lame side

but until they add #1... i.e. surround sound i wouldn't buy it..

[Diego @ Mar 23rd 2007 1:44PM]

Apple TV, Apple i-phone. put them together to create a mighty-morphin' apple BEAST

----------------
Better than adsense http://www.agloco.com/r/BBCR7888

[Rick wilson @ Mar 23rd 2007 2:13PM]

at Macworld not one rep could tell me what HD content I could play on this besides trailers... a Windows Vista media center running through xbox 360 is 10X better than this.

[doctorSpoc @ Mar 23rd 2007 4:17PM]

you can put any ripped HD content ripped to H.264... an apple rep can't tell you that one.. HD tv tuner (on a mac --> miglia, eyeTV etc, etc) recordings.. iTunes HD content is coming... any HD content that you have as long as it's MPEG4 or H.264 or converted to the aforementioned... but, at least with quicktimePro on a dual 2GHz G5 ~2hrs for a 1.5hr recording from my tv tuner... pretty sucky!

[Maximus @ Mar 23rd 2007 3:17PM]

You got to be kidding me! 300$ for 40 gigs and only support for H.264, MPEG4. You should be really stupid (apple fun LOL) to buy that. And what about interface - they discovered menu or what???
My favorite 200$ Mvix MX-760HD.

[john @ Mar 23rd 2007 3:18PM]

I'm a pretty decent Apple fanboy (when I was 6 we were one of the first families in Seattle to get the original Macintosh), but this thing has no appeal to me. I don't d/l anything from the iTunes store (DRM BAD!!!) and this thing doesn't play well with other media.

XBMC FTW!

[doctorSpoc @ Mar 23rd 2007 3:39PM]

actually the more i think about it the more i'm not really liking this... one of the reasons the iPod was so successful was that you could play pirated MP3s on it.. mp3 was the most popular music format.. for video there really isn't a dominant format so in order to have the same kind of appeal they need to support more popular formats AVI, Divx, Xvid... is Apple just greedy and want you to get everything from iTunes store or maybe pressure from movie houses? but conversion to "appleTV" is so slow it's ridiculous.. i tried it from QuicktimePro and the progress bar was going across so slow i just said forget it... they better include hardware code/decode like some of the rumors suggest or this thing might just not make it.. think they really need to start supporting more formats though..

[mrhammerstein @ Mar 23rd 2007 3:51PM]

i don't know what i would hate more. that long and useless intro video (can't imagine having to watch that everytime) or the clicking of the remote. the click is okay for an ipod, but not for home entertainment.

and how long is the startup. my computer is faster.

[airpolgas @ Mar 23rd 2007 4:23PM]

I noticed that the image is stretched, especially on 24, and also on the "blank" album covers during music playback (they're not squares). Even the "gear" for the Settings is squished down. Is that on the Apple TV, the TV itself, or the encoding of the video?

Thanks Ryan.

[Leroy @ Mar 23rd 2007 5:22PM]

Was it just me or did anyone else find it weird that they skipped a "300" trailer for "Blades of Glory." Just an observation.

[kveugs @ Mar 23rd 2007 6:04PM]

Too bad my 360 can do all of that through Windows Live and my computer. The only difference is that I would buy shows from Zune Marketplace. Microsoft and Windows Live are the big gun now...boo Apple...needless to say, a big let down.

[junkie @ Mar 23rd 2007 11:06PM]

I would not buy this now but I do see the value. I think its very simple and very cool and I would recommend it to someone not so technical who wants to see iPhoto on their tv. And you boot you get a music player. And over time you could put your DVD collection on a server. I actually think its a great value for this kind of integration. I have a friend who was building high-end system to do this sort of stuff for $20K a few years ago. Now you get all your music, all your photos, videos - anywhere in your house for $300 per tv. I am sure buying stuff is coming as is better access to live video content. Remember the iPod succeeded compared to other devices because it was simple and everyone could use it.

[Robinator @ Mar 24th 2007 2:36AM]

Apple have done a great job with a nice UI etc but it is a very very limited product ( compared to say XMBC).

Issues :-

(1) Does not stream! (if you have more than 40GB of media on your server - start getting selective!)
(2) Limited video format support (e.g. no DIVX, WMV etc)
(3) No true TV support (no TV streaming, recording, PVR functionality whatsoever)
(4) Limited HD (no 1080p for example)

For the price other greater alternatives exist, however it will still do well due to the Apple name.

[VL-Tone @ Mar 24th 2007 5:57AM]

"(1) Does not stream! (if you have more than 40GB of media on your server - start getting selective!) "

What? It does stream music and videos...

Actually in the video, most of the stuff seen is streamed over the internet, from Apple's servers, but it can also streams your own collection from your computer, out of the box.

When it was unveiled at Macworld they didn't even say it had an HD since the main feature shown was streaming...

"(2) Limited video format support (e.g. no DIVX, WMV etc)"

xVid and DiVX have already been hacked into the Apple TV, two days after its release, just by dropping an already available Quicktime plug-in into a folder, WMV shouldn't be so far ahead. Turns out that the ATV is really easy to hack, so much that it almost seems intentional from Apple's part.

[Jeff Allen @ Mar 24th 2007 8:23PM]

Not worth the $299.00! Needs more features like a DVD player, DVR functionality and direct connect to iTunes.

[Cleverboy @ Mar 24th 2007 10:18PM]

So odd. I've read all of these comments and I'm still rubbing my eyes. This product is really great. Go get a NetGear Digital Entertainer HD and an Apple TV, and put the screens up side by side. Now, which one only makes you look like a NERD and which one looks like a respectable part of your wireless entertainment suite? I don't think Apple TV needed to do much, and they've hit the target with this. Look at how people are already asking why NetGear's DE doesn't play VOB files. Wide file format support is a boondoggle and a complete distraction. At this point, I'm waiting for an announcement that the Apple TV hard drive can be mounted on any desktop machine using the Apple TV's USB connector. A few updates and a reboot, and the little machine will have a platoon of uber hacks, ready to install in the next month. I personally can't fathom why anyone can't create a symbolic link as the Apple TV media folder, connecting it to a network terabyte drive. For hackers and non-hackers alike, this all looks like DVD jukebox gold to me. The price is right.

[Wormwoody @ Mar 25th 2007 8:30AM]

So essentially it does very little that a Netgear EVA700 or a Pinnacle Showcentre doesn't do all ready, though hopefully its software runs a little smoother. Nowt special

[TeamQJ @ Mar 25th 2007 2:48PM]

Apple TV really came in as a surprise during Macworld Expo. however, some people are saying that this can be done with a mac mini and a regular tv set. maybe sales would increase if they lower the price a bit. but we don't mean now, as in now. the product is just new. maybe in the next months or so. uh, Christmas mauybe? lol!

http://www.qj.net/Interface-walkthrough-vid-for-Apple-TV/pg/49/aid/87261

[Zafar @ Mar 26th 2007 9:43AM]

Nice video

[ET @ Mar 29th 2007 4:50PM]

Nothing special, It's more convenient to watch trailers, but what's more? I'll stay w/ windows MCE, much more useful than this.

[harpreet @ Apr 11th 2007 8:12AM]

Its fine.......just not impressive enough like the first ipod