Apple TV

knymohan

Hi all just watched the keynote live and Steve Jobs indicated more countries were being added before the end of the year with regards to film oand tv show rentals.Anybody know if Ireland is any closer to show rentals etc

Sad Professor

We can't even buy tv shows on iTunes yet, so I doubt it.

Feidhlim

Irish Apple store just says 'Rent Films' so very limited.

Unless you can make it think you have an American IP - but I dunno how to do that

EDIT: Even then I'm not sure it would work either

Stuxnet

Can't beat the old apple tv modded, makes an awesome media centre that fits nicely under the telly, gutted no storage option in new model, usb even ? Not worth modding new model for anything now :-(

banquo

He did mention that the iTunes movies (etc) was coming to more countries later this year, so maybe we'll get upgrade to 'deserving of basic services' status.

I'm getting an Apple TV in launch week, it's perfect for my needs.

tonylee

movies already in Irish iTunes store , but no TV....

yllw.ldbttr

Handy as a small slick media streamer though? My NAS can act as an itunes server and has 1TB of movies/ music on it so it will work nicely for that until we get a better streaming service for Ireland.

Dman001

In fairness even if Apple released TV Shows on the Irish Store tomorrow, I would still use the US Store. They have a great selection of content which the Irish Store wouldn't be able to top.

tonylee

I watched the live stream of the Apple event on my iPad today , it was very very impressive apart from a few glitches at the end. One of the best live streams (both image and sound) I've ever seen I think, hopefully a taste of things to come as they were probably testing things out. Certainly a very long way from old Quicktime streams!

wayne040576

banquo wrote: »

He did mention that the iTunes movies (etc) was coming to more countries later this year, so maybe we'll get upgrade to 'deserving of basic services' status.

I'm getting an Apple TV in launch week, it's perfect for my needs.

Don't get your hopes up. It's easy enough to setup a US Itunes account. That's what I use for the ATV.

Eire Go Brach

I could never see myself paying to Dl tv episodes anyway. I don't see the point when there free. The xbox has done movies for ages now. There just way overpriced.
Apple have never been great to support Ireland. In order for Apple Tv to be a success. They need to support us and and other countries better. I suppose thats the hard part. With all the license laws in the Eu. But now that they are selling more music than cd's. Or soon to be. There next step is to do for video, what they have done for music.

wayne040576

Eire Go Brach wrote: »

I could never see myself paying to Dl tv episodes anyway. I don't see the point when there free. The xbox has done movies for ages now. There just way overpriced.
Apple have never been great to support Ireland. In order for Apple Tv to be a success. They need to support us and and other countries better. I suppose thats the hard part. With all the license laws in the Eu. But now that they are selling more music than cd's. Or soon to be. There next step is to do for video, what they have done for music.

When did tv episodes become free?

jeromeof

I beleve this is a very poor product unless you are living in America. In America, for $99 you get a nice collection of video/tv rentals + netflix. Here for Eur119 (+ you have to pay extra for shipping since it is less than Eur121), you get a couple of crappy movies to rent, no TV and no Netflix (or equivalent).

The lack of storage means it is fairly useless as a video device (even with a hack). I was hoping this was going to be an IOS device and that they would open it up to third party developers. AirVideo or equivalent could have been ported over, then it could at least be made useful. I also believe you have to run iTunes on some computer that you have your content on to stream it locally and obviously convert any video to MP4 etc. to get it to stream to the device. While I do have music in iTunes, video is too much effect and I hate having to run iTunes just to keep the Apple TV happy.

Looks to me like that other than the price which might attract users in America, they have dropped the ball on this one. I for one will wait for a Google TV device which will no doubt have a set of third party applications + the ability to add more, support for USB storage and much better streaming capabilities.

wayne040576

jeromeof wrote: »

I beleve this is a very poor product unless you are living in America. In America, for $99 you get a nice collection of video/tv rentals + netflix. Here for Eur119 (+ you have to pay extra for shipping since it is less than Eur121), you get a couple of crappy movies to rent, no TV and no Netflix (or equivalent).

The lack of storage means it is fairly useless as a video device (even with a hack). I was hoping this was going to be an IOS device and that they would open it up to third party developers. AirVideo or equivalent could have been ported over, then it could at least be made useful. I also believe you have to run iTunes on some computer that you have your content on to stream it locally and obviously convert any video to MP4 etc. to get it to stream to the device. While I do have music in iTunes, video is too much effect and I hate having to run iTunes just to keep the Apple TV happy.

Looks to me like that other than the price which might attract users in America, they have dropped the ball on this one. I for one will wait for a Google TV device which will no doubt have a set of third party applications + the ability to add more, support for USB storage and much better streaming capabilities.

I don't think a Google device would offer any content to Irish users at all. When you consider that I still can't get paid apps for my android phone without putting a UK sim card in it.

jeromeof

wayne040576 wrote: »

I don't think a Google device would offer any content to Irish users at all. When you consider that I still can't get paid apps for my android phone without putting a UK sim card in it.

Thing is I don't want paid content or at least I would rather not pay Apple or Google for content. I have lots of content which I have *cough* acquired over the years and I would like to easily make that available via a nice TV interface.

If you look at how say the Sky Sports App works (which is only IOS), it doesn't cost anything, but has its own internal mechanism of getting you to sign up for a subscription. With an IOS device (or Android) a developer could easily develop similar apps. By not allowing developers develop for this TV platform Apple have lost a potential advantage over Google. The advantage being that it might be easily for developers to port their iPhone/iPad app over if they had the opportunity.

wayne040576

jeromeof wrote: »

I beleve this is a very poor product unless you are living in America. In America, for $99 you get a nice collection of video/tv rentals + netflix. Here for Eur119 (+ you have to pay extra for shipping since it is less than Eur121), you get a couple of crappy movies to rent, no TV and no Netflix (or equivalent).

The lack of storage means it is fairly useless as a video device (even with a hack). I was hoping this was going to be an IOS device and that they would open it up to third party developers. AirVideo or equivalent could have been ported over, then it could at least be made useful. I also believe you have to run iTunes on some computer that you have your content on to stream it locally and obviously convert any video to MP4 etc. to get it to stream to the device. While I do have music in iTunes, video is too much effect and I hate having to run iTunes just to keep the Apple TV happy.

Looks to me like that other than the price which might attract users in America, they have dropped the ball on this one. I for one will wait for a Google TV device which will no doubt have a set of third party applications + the ability to add more, support for USB storage and much better streaming capabilities.

I think the US price is about $110 when you include sales tax. The UK are really getting shafted at $152 (£99).

wayne040576

jeromeof wrote: »

Thing is I don't want paid content or at least I would rather not pay Apple or Google for content. I have lots of content which I have *cough* acquired over the years and I would like to easily make that available via a nice TV interface.

If you look at how say the Sky Sports App works (which is only IOS), it doesn't cost anything, but has its own internal mechanism of getting you to sign up for a subscription. With an IOS device (or Android) a developer could easily develop similar apps. By not allowing developers develop for this TV platform Apple have lost a potential advantage over Google. The advantage being that it might be easily for developers to port their iPhone/iPad app over if they had the opportunity.

Is there a release date (even estimated) for Google tv or is it still in early development?

jeromeof

wayne040576 wrote: »

Is there a release date (even estimated) for Google tv or is it still in early development?

I think logitech are going to be the first guys with a device, probably before Christmas:

http://www.logitech.com/en-us/1005/7099

But like early Android phones it might take a while before it get perfected. The key point I was trying to make was Apple had a chance to "open" up the Apple TV to developers but didn't. The Apple TV will probably sell more than the Logitech box, but when 10-20 different Google TV boxes are available it will make sense for developers to have Apps ready. With an SDK available smart developers will be looking at the Google TV, while they have no opportunity to target the apple TV. Without Apps the Apple TV is rubbish in Ireland, but the Google TV might have the opportunity to get better, so is probably the better investment.

talla

jeromeof wrote: »

Thing is I don't want paid content or at least I would rather not pay Apple or Google for content. I have lots of content which I have *cough* acquired over the years and I would like to easily make that available via a nice TV interface.

Convert the acquired content to MP4 with a program like handbrake, import into an itunes library on a PC and stream over the network.

Have the OLD Apple TV with A US itunes account and while the TV shows aren't worth it, you cannot beat the convenience of the movie rentals in the US Itunes store. Sure you could acquire the movie elsewhere, but you can't beat the convenience of browsing through thousands of trailers and then selecting the movie you watch to watch and it being avialable to watch in seconds.

For those that keep going on about the Irish Itunes store, it takes 5 minutes to setup a US Itunes account. It has been documented numerous times on this forum how this can be done. You can purchase your ITunes vouchers online at anytime to top up the US account. The US account can then be used for the Appstore and sits side by side with any Irish account on any IOS device.
Really there is no excuse for someone not to have a US account.

akadesign

yllw.ldbttr wrote: »

Handy as a small slick media streamer though? My NAS can act as an itunes server and has 1TB of movies/ music on it so it will work nicely for that until we get a better streaming service for Ireland.

Can an independent NAS drive stream movies without the use of a running copy of iTunes. Please educate me.

Johnmb

jeromeof wrote: »

Thing is I don't want paid content or at least I would rather not pay Apple or Google for content. I have lots of content which I have *cough* acquired over the years and I would like to easily make that available via a nice TV interface.

If you look at how say the Sky Sports App works (which is only IOS), it doesn't cost anything, but has its own internal mechanism of getting you to sign up for a subscription. With an IOS device (or Android) a developer could easily develop similar apps. By not allowing developers develop for this TV platform Apple have lost a potential advantage over Google. The advantage being that it might be easily for developers to port their iPhone/iPad app over if they had the opportunity.

I wouldn't be so sure that Google TV will be as open as you think it will be. They have to make their money somehow, and the content providers aren't likely to make it any easier for Google than they have for Apple. In fact, if they thought that Google were making it easy for users to acquire content from "unofficial" sources, they'd put an end to it pretty quickly.

wonky79

tonylee wrote: »

I watched the live stream of the Apple event on my iPad today , it was very very impressive apart from a few glitches at the end. One of the best live streams (both image and sound) I've ever seen I think, hopefully a taste of things to come as they were probably testing things out. Certainly a very long way from old Quicktime streams!

what do you think of your ipad? liking it? i'm considering investing in one

justindublin

So assuming that Apple TV works the same as iPhone, where all models (regardless of country) are identical at purchase and only designates itself settings at activation, in this case first online connection.

I reckon if I head up to Belfast, buy myself an Apple TV come back down here and stick it on my UK VPN i'll have access to UK Store, Rentals and TV Shows

What ya reckon?

Inquitus

Considering you can buy the complete lost on Bluray for the same price you could rent it episode by episode on iTunes / Apple TV, and this holds true for nearly all TV shows, why would you bother?

Johnmb

Inquitus wrote: »

Considering you can buy the complete lost on Bluray for the same price you could rent it episode by episode on iTunes / Apple TV, and this holds true for nearly all TV shows, why would you bother?

I think the point of the TV shows is that (in the US) you can get them fairly soon after they have been shown on TV. So, in the longer term, the plan would be that instead of paying for a cable subscription, you'd simply rent what you wanted to watch, when you wanted to watch it. That would suit me, once I can use the US iTunes store! But I think it will be a flop outside the US due to the complete lack of options available, something I doubt will change for a long time. Although, if the licence holders find themselves making more money in the US this way than via cable, then they might be more willing to change their international licences eventually to allow this model in the rest of the world.

Sad Professor

Yeah, obviously it's not good value for renting an entire series, especially when that series is over and available on DVD/Blu-ray as is the case with Lost. But I guess if you just missed an episode, or was watching a current series every week, a Euro might seem okay. Apple need to work on the content providers some more, but it takes time.

However, Apple are definitely on the right track here. The future of digital downloads is in renting/subscription services, not buying. For anyone looking to own a film/tv show, Blu-ray/DVD will remain the best option for a long time to come.

Wookie

justindublin wrote: »

So assuming that Apple TV works the same as iPhone, where all models (regardless of country) are identical at purchase and only designates itself settings at activation, in this case first online connection.

I reckon if I head up to Belfast, buy myself an Apple TV come back down here and stick it on my UK VPN i'll have access to UK Store, Rentals and TV Shows

What ya reckon?

it doesn't need vpn etc, just setup a us itunes account. your phyiscal location never comes into it.

Oafley Jones

Amazon US has just announced ABC and fox 99cent to own available now.

wayne040576

Inquitus wrote: »

Considering you can buy the complete lost on Bluray for the same price you could rent it episode by episode on iTunes / Apple TV, and this holds true for nearly all TV shows, why would you bother?

Not everyone wants to buy blu ray or dvd box sets. I have too many now at this stage. I have close to 2000 cds and don't know how many dvds/blu ray. It's at the point were I've nowhere to put them so digital purchase/rent of a tv show soon after the US release is ideal. I currently have the old ATV and purchase some US shows.

For example, I just watched the final episode of Rescue me a day after the US air Date. The only channel here that still shows that is RTE and they will probably show it at 2am on a Tuesday some time next April. I bought the season pass in HD for $16.99 with the ATV.

wayne040576

Wookie wrote: »

it doesn't need vpn etc, just setup a us itunes account. your phyiscal location never comes into it.

+1
just type it in to google.

http://www.google.ie/search?hl=&q=how+to+set+up+a+us+itunes+account+without+a+credit+card&sourceid=navclient-ff&rlz=1B3GGGL_enIE311IE311&ie=UTF-8&aq=2&oq=how+to+set+up+a+US+it

Johnmb

Sad Professor wrote: »

However, Apple are definitely on the right track here. The future of digital downloads is in renting/subscription services, not buying. For anyone looking to own a film/tv show, Blu-ray/DVD will remain the best option for a long time to come.

Now if only Steve would a accept this and start putting Blu-ray drives onto the Macs so that I can watch some of my movies on my Macbook Pro while travelling....

wayne040576

Well I just verified it. The TV rentals won't work with the old ATV. Itunes won't transfer the file onto it.

yllw.ldbttr

I did some more reading on the spec, codec support etc, and decided to cancel my Apple TV order. Gonna wait for the Boxee Box (due out November) instead, 100 dollars more but looks every bit as slick as Apple TV, supports 3rd party apps and has far superior streaming support.

Eire Go Brach

wayne040576 wrote: »

When did tv episodes become free?

Sorry Wayne your right.But what I meant was, the average person will have there tv license, some sort of tv subscription and broadband. So you can watch your tv or a catch up service such as RTE player etc. Or download it.

Downloading episodes that have aired in America are mostly in hd so it's better quality than my upc cable.

So for me in this sense, paying to rent one of episodes is a waste of money.

wayne040576

Eire Go Brach wrote: »

Sorry Wayne your right.But what I meant was, the average person will have there tv license, some sort of tv subscription and broadband. So you can watch your tv or a catch up service such as RTE player etc. Or download it.

Downloading episodes that have aired in America are mostly in hd so it's better quality than my upc cable.

So for me in this sense, paying to rent one of episodes is a waste of money.

I knew what you meant. I was in cranky smart arse mode

Lockster

I have a US itune account and I am seriously considering buying the new Apple TV for streaming content to the TV and movie rentals. Can anyone talk me out of it or is there anyone else considering getting the new model?

fifth

Also considering an Apple tv, I regularly hook my laptop up to my TV for music (parties) tv shows and films I've downloaded. This can be a bit cumbersome fiddling with itunes remote and a bluetooth mouse, Apple tv looks like it would be a great replacement. Also the OH would find it easier to use too.

rivalius13

If it weren't for Airplay I'd be all over TV for shindiggery and general loud music playing.

fifth

Could Apple TV ever be updated to support apps? Possibly with some USB drive support via micro usb to usb adaptor? Probably not though?

I've got a US itunes acc, I guess I can just sign in with that and use vouchers to buy stuf instead of my irish credit card?

banquo

Yup, that'd work perfectly.

Nemanja91

Has anyone got the new Apple TV and if so what are your opinion's on it?

rivalius13

Nemanja91 wrote: »

Has anyone got the new Apple TV and if so what are your opinion's on it?

Not out yet.

banquo

Pre-ordered!