Apple TV

who_ru

Hi All,

i had a look at the new apple tv product - and to be honest it seems like a potentially handy device.

of course before making a new purchase i was wondering if any of you out there have it and what your thoughts are.

apparently you can download the remote control app to your iphone/ipod touch and use it to control the device. but wouldn't they just ship a remote with it anyway?

the price is 119 euro. so is it a good product?

thanks.

Sad Professor

It comes with a remote. The iPhone app probably just gives you more control over it.

banquo

HDMI cable needs to be bought separately!

Type 17

Sad Professor wrote: »

It comes with a remote. The iPhone app probably just gives you more control over it.

The advantage of the Remote App is that your Apple TV doesn't have to be in view of your iPhone/iPod Touch, just on the same Wi-Fi network, whereas the infrared remote that comes with the Apple TV needs to have (close to) line-of-sight of the Apple TV to work.

akaspike

Quick Question.
With the release of the new Apple Tv units and a rental only model what will happen the itunes store in regards to the older models with the hard drives. Do you think they will phase out the option to buy?
Or can you purchase a film on the new atv and it will syncs to you desktop?

Sad Professor

akaspike wrote: »

Quick Question.
With the release of the new Apple Tv units and a rental only model what will happen the itunes store in regards to the older models with the hard drives. Do you think they will phase out the option to buy?

No, that would be a pretty severe crippling of the device. The old ATV will remain as it is but probably won't receive any of the new ATV's features.

You can't purchase content on the new ATV. But you can purchase it on your desktop and stream it to the ATV.

Type 17

akaspike wrote: »

... Do you think they will phase out the option to buy?

You can still buy to download and keep on a Mac desktop or laptop, so the old ATV will continue to be able to do so too.

The Aussie

on a mac mini forum i was on the other night i think someone posted a link on how to jailbreak the ATV
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/09/appletv-runs-ios-already-jailbroken/
I dont quite know how this will pan out but interesting none the less.

Mods, if posting this link is not cool please delete.

who_ru

hope people are getting good info from this thread, but nobody has actually reviewed the ATV itself yet.................

Type 17

who_ru wrote: »

hope people are getting good info from this thread, but nobody has actually reviewed the ATV itself yet.................

I doubt many people have used the new one (and not many have used the old one either!)

I recently went through the entire menu system on one in the Apple Retail Store in Chicago, but obviously, it was only for a few minutes. I watched a few uTube vids, but I didn't get to download and watch a film, but it was a lot faster than the old version (which I've used in the Ice House Hotel in Ballina) and, also factoring in my experience of renting films through iTunes, I'd say that it looks like a good buy - I'd have bought one then, but I have yet to upgrade my TV to a HDMI-compatible one, but when I do, I'll be buying an ATV.

To make the best use of it, I recommend a US iTunes account - more details in other threads on here.

Sad Professor

Not many people have one yet. It only got released at the start of the month and it takes up to 7 business days to ship.

There's a few early reactions from Boards users in this thread:

http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056053362

ashleey

I've got one. I have a 3mb vodafone dsl connection and HD films won't work. It takes too long to build a buffer. SD films are fine and linking to my iTunes library on my mac is flawless as is using the iPhone remote app. It is not a solution to easy HD movie rentals. Stick to blu ray or sky hd if you can afford the subscription.

nesf

Got one, no problems with streaming films, but then I'm on a 30Mb line from UTC.

The only problem I'm having is a HDMI handshake problem that Apple will need to patch. The colours go wonky on the screen every 20-30minutes and it can be fixed by changing HDMI channel and changing back again. It's definitely annoying but such is the price an early adopter pays for buying gear on the day it launches!

Streaming media from my Mac works great, I'm really looking forward to AirPlay being implemented in iOS 4.2 for the iPad and HD Youtube shows on a 40" screen is wonderful really.


For just over 100 quid it's really a very handy device and in a patch or two once Apple have ironed out the kinks I'll probably buy one for my mother.

Red Alert

I don't think Airplay will work on the old ATV's or will it?

nesf

Red Alert wrote: »

I don't think Airplay will work on the old ATV's or will it?

It won't. It's based off the new OS being used rather than the old Front Row based system.

J-blk

Does the streaming only work with files that iTunes natively supports (I would assume so)? You can get avi, mkv, etc files into iTunes by messing with the file type flag or creating a QuickTime reference file and these do play in iTunes (if Perian is installed) on a Mac though obviously do not transfer to iDevices. I'm curious if something like that would work for streaming but really, really doubt it...

whippet

mine just arrived !!! I haven't opened the box yet, but it's tiny !!