I got an Apple TV
I've been interested in the notion of downloading all of my entertainment content from the internet for a while now. It makes sense. Cable TV sucks - I don't need most of the channels that they give me, and even the channels themselves really don't provide value: why do I care what channel "Heroes" is on? I want to watch the show.
I've tried a lot of these media players over the past few years. The Apple TV is the latest, and I decided to get it because it sounds like it got a lot better with the new software update. Here are my thoughts:
Out of the box: where are the wires? They don't even supply the basic wires necessary to use it. I have a box full of spare wires, and there are multiple ways to connect the Apple TV to your TV, so I'm not sure where I shake out on this. Probably good to not include the wires since I don't have to pay for wires I don't need. That's just for me though.
Once hooked up, it asked me to sync with my iTunes, so I got out my laptop and entered the code, and it started cranking away. The preferences seemed reasonable out of the box, except for trying to copy all of my music. Too much.
Video that played was nice, and generally looked good. Videos I already had on my laptop played nicely. The Apple TV only supports H.264 video, which is kind of annoying because almost all of the stuff I already have is in the DivX or XviD format, so I'm going to have to figure out how to convert it.
I was able to buy a TV show from the iTunes store, and it downloaded and sync'd to Apple TV automagically, so that was cool.
I thought you could buy/rent movies right from the device? If you can, I don't know how to. I RTFM, and I still don't know how to. I see there are movie rentals in iTunes when I browse it on my laptop, but even that is not very clear. Renting movies is one of the things I really wanted to do. Bummed that it's not clear, and the selection is pretty poor too. Movie trailers were pretty cool - I liked being able to browse them right from the remote. Music playing is pretty sweet too. My Airport express was never reliable enough, I think the Apple TV will work.
It's too early to tell whether the Apple TV is going to supplant my 3 year old networked DVD player from Japan, but it's possible. We'll see.
Update: It turns out that they shipped the new Apple TV with the old software. There is no indication of this anywhere. So, now I'm sitting around waiting for the new release.
I've tried a lot of these media players over the past few years. The Apple TV is the latest, and I decided to get it because it sounds like it got a lot better with the new software update. Here are my thoughts:
Out of the box: where are the wires? They don't even supply the basic wires necessary to use it. I have a box full of spare wires, and there are multiple ways to connect the Apple TV to your TV, so I'm not sure where I shake out on this. Probably good to not include the wires since I don't have to pay for wires I don't need. That's just for me though.
Once hooked up, it asked me to sync with my iTunes, so I got out my laptop and entered the code, and it started cranking away. The preferences seemed reasonable out of the box, except for trying to copy all of my music. Too much.
Video that played was nice, and generally looked good. Videos I already had on my laptop played nicely. The Apple TV only supports H.264 video, which is kind of annoying because almost all of the stuff I already have is in the DivX or XviD format, so I'm going to have to figure out how to convert it.
I was able to buy a TV show from the iTunes store, and it downloaded and sync'd to Apple TV automagically, so that was cool.
I thought you could buy/rent movies right from the device? If you can, I don't know how to. I RTFM, and I still don't know how to. I see there are movie rentals in iTunes when I browse it on my laptop, but even that is not very clear. Renting movies is one of the things I really wanted to do. Bummed that it's not clear, and the selection is pretty poor too. Movie trailers were pretty cool - I liked being able to browse them right from the remote. Music playing is pretty sweet too. My Airport express was never reliable enough, I think the Apple TV will work.
It's too early to tell whether the Apple TV is going to supplant my 3 year old networked DVD player from Japan, but it's possible. We'll see.
Update: It turns out that they shipped the new Apple TV with the old software. There is no indication of this anywhere. So, now I'm sitting around waiting for the new release.
Labels: gadgets
posted by Chris at 8:07 AM
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