I don't understand the hate for Apple TV. I think it is a great box ( I have 3 of them). They are great at streaming video from my home media mac. I have all my video and audio in iTunes on a central iTunes mac box and then the apple tv boxes connected to 3 differnet tv's in our house. I really don't see the need for the local disk to be more than 40gb which all mine are. The only value of the local disk is if you buy something from the itunes store via apple tv. Once a purchase is completed it is synced up to the connected itunes and then sent it available to the other apple tv's all without any intervention from me. Whether the video or audio is streamed or local is completely transparent. I also have eyetv record tv if needed and it gets converted and added to itunes automatically. I previously had dlink media players connected to a media server and this setup was complete crap. The appletv boxes are just plug in power, connect to tv via hdmi and then wifi connect to my mac. I for one love the ease of use.
I can see great value also in the Apple TV, I like the idea of having local storage, so that you don't have to have a PC/Mac or NAS turned on all the time... better for the electricity bill, fire risk and noise.
I don't own one at the moment, because I have a PS3, the only reason I haven't sold the PS3 and bought an AppleTV is because the PS3 can view and record live Freeview TV in the UK (via PlayTV). I rarely use it for games, it's more of a DVR/media hub than a games console for me.
The PS3 is currently missing online HD film rentals which frustrates me, but I understand that it is due this year in the UK.
If Apple TV became a DVR for Freesat or Freeview I'd snap it up in an instance. The advantage it would have over the PS3 is the format issues, a film or TV programme I buy on the Apple TV can be sync'd back to iTunes which I can then sync to my iPhone automatically. I don't have to worry about transcoding eveytime, having multiple copies of files for each device I want to view on, plus if the videos are DRM'd then I can I have a happy little Ecosystem of Apple Products that all work together and don't cause conflicts.
I used to have a PSP but I sold it when I bought an iPhone.
Also, I have tried the DLNA/TVersity approach before, and just didn't get on with it. Too many headaches. Local copies is by the far the best way of sharing media.
I can imagine Steve Jobs, a few years ago, throwing a Buffalo NAS out of the window shouting "Damn, there's got to be a better way than this"
"I don't own one at the moment, because I have a PS3, the only reason I haven't sold the PS3 and bought an AppleTV is because the PS3 can view and record live Freeview TV in the UK (via PlayTV). I rarely use it for games, it's more of a DVR/media hub than a games console for me."
Easy now - I am trying to justify getting a PS3 and this is what I need to hear!? I'm not a big gamer (WipeOut fan only) but I would love to use it as a media hub type thing. Do you have any links/info. on this?
Completely agree. I have one and love it. I'm not expecting it to be a DVR or anything else, just a way to listen to my music over my Yamaha receiver, and watch/rent films occaisionally.
I used to have an XP Media Centre that was a pain in the ass. I upgraded it to Vista, but it was even more of a pain in the ass then. There seemed to be so much fiddling around just to get stuff where I wanted it when I wanted it.
The beauty of the ATV is that it just fits into the whole iPod/iTunes ecosystem with no faffing. I just don't have the time to mess around with my gadgets anymore. I gladly go for fewer features if it also comes with massively increased ease of use.
Agreed. I have one at home and we really find it convenient. We use it to rent movies fairly often because it's easy to use and the playback interface is much better than our cable company's on-demand service. And we use it to play music over our home stereo system. I do like the local storage space for music because both my girlfriend and I have notebook computers that are not always turned on or in the house.
Totally agree with all you've said, if ATV does what you want, I think it's a great little media box.
I also own both a PS3 and the X360 and they complement each other really well, but since 90% of the time I listen to music, put on a slideshow of photos or listen to a podcast, the iTunes/Flickr integration and the fact that it's completely silent makes it the best option. The iPhone/iTouch remote software makes it a snap to control it from anywhere in the house too.
Let's face it, all these products have flaws. I didn't buy the ATV for movies or MKV files playback. The X360 is noisy, doesn't have Blu-ray nor wireless LAN. The PS3 doesn't have Netflix/Zune marketplace and the interface isn't as good as Xbox NXE.
If any of these products was doing everything perfectly for everybody, we wouldn't have this discussion. ;)
The Triumph proved to be one of the better looking and performing pre-paid handsets we'd had the pleasure of holding in our sweaty mitts, but we had one major hangup: the name.
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I don't understand the hate for Apple TV. I think it is a great box ( I have 3 of them). They are great at streaming video from my home media mac. I have all my video and audio in iTunes on a central iTunes mac box and then the apple tv boxes connected to 3 differnet tv's in our house. I really don't see the need for the local disk to be more than 40gb which all mine are. The only value of the local disk is if you buy something from the itunes store via apple tv. Once a purchase is completed it is synced up to the connected itunes and then sent it available to the other apple tv's all without any intervention from me. Whether the video or audio is streamed or local is completely transparent. I also have eyetv record tv if needed and it gets converted and added to itunes automatically.
I previously had dlink media players connected to a media server and this setup was complete crap.
The appletv boxes are just plug in power, connect to tv via hdmi and then wifi connect to my mac. I for one love the ease of use.
I can see great value also in the Apple TV, I like the idea of having local storage, so that you don't have to have a PC/Mac or NAS turned on all the time... better for the electricity bill, fire risk and noise.
I don't own one at the moment, because I have a PS3, the only reason I haven't sold the PS3 and bought an AppleTV is because the PS3 can view and record live Freeview TV in the UK (via PlayTV). I rarely use it for games, it's more of a DVR/media hub than a games console for me.
The PS3 is currently missing online HD film rentals which frustrates me, but I understand that it is due this year in the UK.
If Apple TV became a DVR for Freesat or Freeview I'd snap it up in an instance. The advantage it would have over the PS3 is the format issues, a film or TV programme I buy on the Apple TV can be sync'd back to iTunes which I can then sync to my iPhone automatically. I don't have to worry about transcoding eveytime, having multiple copies of files for each device I want to view on, plus if the videos are DRM'd then I can I have a happy little Ecosystem of Apple Products that all work together and don't cause conflicts.
I used to have a PSP but I sold it when I bought an iPhone.
Also, I have tried the DLNA/TVersity approach before, and just didn't get on with it. Too many headaches. Local copies is by the far the best way of sharing media.
I can imagine Steve Jobs, a few years ago, throwing a Buffalo NAS out of the window shouting "Damn, there's got to be a better way than this"
@ GlynC
"I don't own one at the moment, because I have a PS3, the only reason I haven't sold the PS3 and bought an AppleTV is because the PS3 can view and record live Freeview TV in the UK (via PlayTV). I rarely use it for games, it's more of a DVR/media hub than a games console for me."
Easy now - I am trying to justify getting a PS3 and this is what I need to hear!? I'm not a big gamer (WipeOut fan only) but I would love to use it as a media hub type thing. Do you have any links/info. on this?
Ta.
Sorry - I should have searched first. I thought this as some sort of hack or user created ad-on ... turns out it's a feature!?
Cooooowell
Completely agree. I have one and love it. I'm not expecting it to be a DVR or anything else, just a way to listen to my music over my Yamaha receiver, and watch/rent films occaisionally.
I used to have an XP Media Centre that was a pain in the ass. I upgraded it to Vista, but it was even more of a pain in the ass then. There seemed to be so much fiddling around just to get stuff where I wanted it when I wanted it.
The beauty of the ATV is that it just fits into the whole iPod/iTunes ecosystem with no faffing. I just don't have the time to mess around with my gadgets anymore. I gladly go for fewer features if it also comes with massively increased ease of use.
Agreed. I have one at home and we really find it convenient. We use it to rent movies fairly often because it's easy to use and the playback interface is much better than our cable company's on-demand service. And we use it to play music over our home stereo system. I do like the local storage space for music because both my girlfriend and I have notebook computers that are not always turned on or in the house.
Totally agree with all you've said, if ATV does what you want, I think it's a great little media box.
I also own both a PS3 and the X360 and they complement each other really well, but since 90% of the time I listen to music, put on a slideshow of photos or listen to a podcast, the iTunes/Flickr integration and the fact that it's completely silent makes it the best option. The iPhone/iTouch remote software makes it a snap to control it from anywhere in the house too.
Let's face it, all these products have flaws. I didn't buy the ATV for movies or MKV files playback. The X360 is noisy, doesn't have Blu-ray nor wireless LAN. The PS3 doesn't have Netflix/Zune marketplace and the interface isn't as good as Xbox NXE.
If any of these products was doing everything perfectly for everybody, we wouldn't have this discussion. ;)