Apple TV: Thoughts?

[Prototype]

I had thought about Apple TV for my new home theatre, but I've started to put more media on to my PS3, and using that as a media server. No access to itunes, but I'm OK with that for now.

[Mccree]

http://www.nullriver.com/products/medialink

I think this will give you access to itunes on your PS3

[FanIn80]

Originally Posted by Antithesis

Yeah. Ah well. One can dream!

Yeah, I hear that. I'd love to get some kind of commercial-free service for live television. The problem, of course, is it will only be commercial-free in the beginning, until they get enough customers... then they'll start running very short commercials on the channels that don't get a lot of subscriptions... followed by longer commercials there and the shorter ones on the other channels... then, before you know it, we'll all be paying a subscription rate to get the same TV content we left behind with cable.

The only real way for a person to ever completely control what they watch, is to just download it. Which, or course, is illegal...

This really is a ######ed world we live in, when you stop and think about it.

[FanIn80]

Originally Posted by Mccree

http://www.nullriver.com/products/medialink

I think this will give you access to itunes on your PS3

http://ps3mediaserver.blogspot.com/

- Free
- Open source
- Windows, Mac, Linux
- Supports all media devices, not just the PS3 (ie: Xbox 360, WD HD Media Player, etc etc)
- Streams any format you can throw at it

[KTrain]

I have Apple TV and couldn't see myself getting rid of my cable subscription. I still enjoy "surfing" on occassion and you just can't do that with Apple TV. If you've watched all your shows that's all you've got. Sure you can download some more but if it's a sucky show you've just wasted your money. You could illegally download shows and get them on to your Apple TV but then you'd have to wait for it to download and in many cases you'll still have to convert it.

Don't get me wrong, it's a great device, but until they have a subscription service which will allow you to watch a variety of shows for one price it won't replace cable boxes for most peole. Live TV obviously needs to be included as well.

[sclitheroe]

[QUOTE=KTrain;2515013I still enjoy "surfing" on occassion and you just can't do that with Apple TV. [/QUOTE]

That's what the iPad on the coffee table is for.

Surfing on a TV sucks. You're either too far away to see a website at normal resolution, or up close and getting eyestrain, or surfing to monstrously sized dumbed down sites. I don't see any upside.

[KTrain]

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

That's what the iPad on the coffee table is for.

Surfing on a TV sucks. You're either too far away to see a website at normal resolution, or up close and getting eyestrain, or surfing to monstrously sized dumbed down sites. I don't see any upside.

Sorry, I meant "channel surfing". Flipping through the channels just to "see what's on" isn't possible with Apple TV. Not without racking up a huge iTunes bill anyway.

[Russic]

I suppose it depends how you consume your tv shows. Personally I'm not a big surfer of channels. I do it from time to time, but unless Mantracker is on, I'm not finding anything worth while. The majority of our tv watching is done with the pvr. While I realize pvr's offer the ability to skip channels, after watching a few commercial-free shows downloaded from iTunes I can no longer stand even the short break in the episode to skip the commercials.

One troubling thing I've heard is that tv ad revenue is simply too extreme to ever be fully replaced by a pay-as-you-pay method. For a subscription service to work for them the price would have to be ungodly high. The numbers I've heard are hard to confirm, but they were discouraging.

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by KTrain

Sorry, I meant "channel surfing". Flipping through the channels just to "see what's on" isn't possible with Apple TV. Not without racking up a huge iTunes bill anyway.

Yeah, Youtube would be a poor substitute for channel surfing...

Media companies need to get together and go metered. All content available on demand, billed at a flat rate by the hour.

Consume 3 hours of CBC? CBC gets 3 hours * $0.15 per hour. Flip on 20 minutes of a Fox network show? Fox gets 0.3 * $0.15.

I think this model would work well. In fact, I think you could probably set the cost per hour up around $0.30. Based on a month of viewing 12 hours a day, that would bring the bill up to $108, which is comparable or right in the target zone of a premium cable/satellite package.

[Russic]

Originally Posted by FanIn80

http://ps3mediaserver.blogspot.com/

- Free
- Open source
- Windows, Mac, Linux
- Supports all media devices, not just the PS3 (ie: Xbox 360, WD HD Media Player, etc etc)
- Streams any format you can throw at it

Just looking at the "installation for dummies" thread on the site made my head hurt. Is it hard to set up? I didn't actually read it, just skimmed what appeared to be 30 chapter titles and moved on.

[fundmark19]

I just downloaded it and opened all my files in it and it worked. Not sure if I have it tweaked to the best of its ability because I am a noob when it comes to these things

[FanIn80]

Originally Posted by Russic

Just looking at the "installation for dummies" thread on the site made my head hurt. Is it hard to set up? I didn't actually read it, just skimmed what appeared to be 30 chapter titles and moved on.

There's not much to it. I've never read any of that stuff... just download, install, run.

[Russic]

Originally Posted by FanIn80

There's not much to it. I've never read any of that stuff... just download, install, run.

Good to hear. I'm canceling my cable today hopefully and just going with the Apple TV, but we realized last night that we have a second tv that will be rendered useless. I spent about 20 minutes online pricing out the Western Digital TV unit before I realized my PS3 will do the same.

[Rathji]

So I just got an O!Play Media PC and it made me think of Apple TV.

How are the 2 any different? Will Apple TV let you download directly from itunes while sitting in your living room? Does it have built in internal storage or the ability to connect to an external drive? Will it play multiple (and non Apple compatible) formats like Xvid, divx etc? Does it do 1080p? HDMI?

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by Rathji

Will Apple TV let you download directly from itunes while sitting in your living room? YES

Does it have built in internal storage or the ability to connect to an external drive? YES and YES - through a wireless connection

Will it play multiple (and non Apple compatible) formats like Xvid, divx etc? DON'T KNOW

Does it do 1080p? ONLY STILL PHOTOS

HDMI? YES

The answers as far as I understand it are Bolded.

[Russic]

Originally Posted by Rathji

So I just got an O!Play Media PC and it made me think of Apple TV.

How are the 2 any different? Will Apple TV let you download directly from itunes while sitting in your living room? Does it have built in internal storage or the ability to connect to an external drive? Will it play multiple (and non Apple compatible) formats like Xvid, divx etc? Does it do 1080p? HDMI?

Edit: Damn, beaten to the punch. One difference is that the ATV will not connect to an external drive.


Will Apple TV let you download directly from itunes while sitting in your living room? - Yes

Does it have built in internal storage - Yes but I prefer to stream

... the ability to connect to an external drive? - No. It has a USB port, but it doesn't actually do anything (unless you want to crack it, then it comes in handy).

Will it play multiple (and non Apple compatible) formats like Xvid, divx etc? - No ... Apple formats only. In fact in certain instances it won't even play files that work in iTunes. I have some .M4V files with a 5.1 AAC audio track. They'll play in iTunes on my computer but the Apple TV can't handle it.

Does it do 1080p? - No, I think 720p is all it can handle (for video).

HDMI - Yes

In terms of handling video, the iPad is actually more powerful than the apple tv. I'm sure if it took off in the states it would do more stuff, but because it hasn't apple has left it pretty gimped.

It should be noted that a few of the things you mentioned (playing alternative formats and reading off an external storage drive) can be accomplished by installing ATVFlash on it.

[FanIn80]

Originally Posted by Russic

Good to hear. I'm canceling my cable today hopefully and just going with the Apple TV, but we realized last night that we have a second tv that will be rendered useless. I spent about 20 minutes online pricing out the Western Digital TV unit before I realized my PS3 will do the same.

If you're as picky about quality and as fickle about annoying UI issues as I am (and I'm pretty sure you are), then that WD TV thingy will drive you up the wall.

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by FanIn80

If you're as picky about quality and as fickle about annoying UI issues as I am (and I'm pretty sure you are), then that WD TV thingy will drive you up the wall.

Really? I prefer the WD TV Live interface to both Xbox and Apple TV, with the upside that it does a much better job of streaming/decoding than either of those as well.

1080p actually works! And looks good!

EDIT: The WD remote sucks. A Harmony is the way to go to take away that one annoyance.

[HeartsOfFire]

Originally Posted by Russic

Edit: Damn, beaten to the punch. One difference is that the ATV will not connect to an external drive.

... the ability to connect to an external drive? - No. It has a USB port, but it doesn't actually do anything (unless you want to crack it, then it comes in handy).

Hang on a second...

Out of the box, ATV can connect to external hard drives and NAS's, provided it goes through an iTunes capable machine as an intermediary first.

[Russic]

Originally Posted by HeartsOfFire

Hang on a second...

Out of the box, ATV can connect to external hard drives and NAS's, provided it goes through an iTunes capable machine as an intermediary first.

Well, I'm mistaken then. Could have sworn it couldn't do that. waiiiit a second

Are you talking about plugging an external drive directly into the apple tv or plugging an external drive into your computer and streaming ...