How good are they?
Thinking of getting one
Dark
I strongly suggest everyone stay away from Apple products. They are
outdated when you remove them from the box, and obsolete in a couple of
years. Look at the obsolite PPC Macs - you can't even give them away.
Though it was given a software upgrade to version 3.0 in October, Apple TV
sales have remained relatively flat over the past 12 months. Similarly,
sales of AirPort base stations have struggled to gain momentum due to
higher-than-average price points, resulting in minor share declines.
more.....
They do what they are advertised to do extremely well. Think of it as
an iPod for your TV and you would be more right than wrong.
I am gradually ripping my owned DVD collection to my iTunes library on
my iMac, which then makes it available to the AppleTV. Same with music,
photos and other things. Also the purchased stuff from the iTunes store.
The current model will hold more than mine, so if I had it, much more of
my library would be synced onto the AppleTV. They are drop-dead simple
in operation and of course, they look pretty good too.
The problems come when you try to make them do what they aren't designed
to do. Like AVFlash and boxee and such. Those do not work well as they
have to work around not having the graphics card specs to take advantage
of the GPU. That makes the CPU have to do too much.
> Any one have one.
Bought one of the first ones shipped back in '06
>
> How good are they?
In my opinion, it's the best entertainment purchase I've ever made. With it,
I can:
* Rent or purchase High-Definition movies without using the computer
* Purchase individual TV shows or entire seasons, again, without the PC
* View my more than 10,000 digital photographs in HD, and even run slide
shows with music.
* Access my entire music collection with an outboard DAC to my high-end
stereo system using TOSLINK.
* Access U-Tube from my easy chair complete with searches and without my PC
being involved.
* Access hundreds of internet radio stations directly, again without using my
PC.
* Stream content directly from the internet, wirelessly over 802.11n
(de-riguer for streaming movies - luckily an 802.11n router can be had pretty
cheaply these days).
* Sync music (again wirelessly) from iTunes on my computer.
It's not perfect though. One has little control over the presentation of
photos. Not being able to rotate them or zoom in or out is my biggest
complaint. I don't like the dinky Apple Remote either, and wish that AppleTV
could be used with a REAL wireless keyboard. Typing-in search criteria with
the pick-a-letter-from-the-list-and-select method is a PITA. But I must say,
most things are menu selected hierarchically, and that works OK.
Another draw-back is the HDD size. Buy the big one (not available when I
purchased mine). There is no expandability port to add more capacity, and
while it IS possible to replace the drive with a larger one, it's not an
operation for the faint of heart.
> Thinking of getting one
You could do a lot worse. It makes a great music server, and it's wonderful
not having to remember to mail NetFlix movies back.
> Dark
>
>
>
> "Dark" <Da...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:4b3cf9a7$0$5011$607e...@cv.net...
>> Any one have one.
>>
>> How good are they?
>>
>> Thinking of getting one
>>
>> Dark
>
> I strongly suggest everyone stay away from Apple products. They are
> outdated when you remove them from the box, and obsolete in a couple of
> years. Look at the obsolite PPC Macs - you can't even give them away.
zara, I strongly recommend that you go to hell. You haven't the slightest
idea of what you are talking about (as usual). You don't own an AppleTV and
haven't the slightest notion of what it can do. I do own one and love it.
> In article <4b3cf9a7$0$5011$607e...@cv.net>, "Dark" <Da...@hotmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Any one have one.
>>
>> How good are they?
>>
>> Thinking of getting one
>>
>> Dark
>
> They do what they are advertised to do extremely well. Think of it as
> an iPod for your TV and you would be more right than wrong.
I'll agree with that.
>
> I am gradually ripping my owned DVD collection to my iTunes library on
> my iMac, which then makes it available to the AppleTV. Same with music,
> photos and other things. Also the purchased stuff from the iTunes store.
>
> The current model will hold more than mine, so if I had it, much more of
> my library would be synced onto the AppleTV. They are drop-dead simple
> in operation and of course, they look pretty good too.
Pretty invisible too. Small, silver colored, no fans or controls on the
box....
>
> The problems come when you try to make them do what they aren't designed
> to do. Like AVFlash and boxee and such. Those do not work well as they
> have to work around not having the graphics card specs to take advantage
> of the GPU. That makes the CPU have to do too much.
Like you said, they do what they were designed to do VERY well. They're not
perfect, but they are a great video and music and photo server and that's
what they're for.
> Any one have one.
I do. Got one of the first shipped back in '06.
>
> How good are they?
It is, in my opinion, the best entertainment purchase I've ever made. I can
rent HD movies, view trailers for upcoming films on demand, when *I* want to,
Buy episodes of TV programs directly, have access to my music collection with
my high-end stereo system in the living room, using the AppleTV as my local
music server, view all of my over 10,000 digital photos on my TV in HDTV,
access U-Tube from said TV,
Two responses touting the same nonsense. What do they call that? Short
term memory loss? Cranial obesity?
I had one. The operative word is "had". I have a better system in place
now.
How many other systems have you had? Make up a lie, you're good at that.
What better system?
How about accidentally hitting the return key prematurely and sending an
unfinished post?
I wouldn't touch one with a ten foot pole. Yes the Mac Mini is $599
(actually I bought mine from a friend for $350) but it's a lot more
capable.
But why did you all respond to Zara?
Get yourself an XBox and use Connect360. Better still, get a Mac mini
and use it as a multimedia device. A tad more expensive but very versatile.
I have one and gave up on it. Every time I want to use, seems that
something goes wrong. I use it mainly for displaying pictures on my flat
screen for family and YouTube.
I find it buggy but it has improved with newer iterations of the software.
One thing I absolutely hate about it is that it doesn't do all video
formats and that it can't stream pictures. So when it goes south, you
have to resync all your pics all over and it can take time.
A side step!
> Dark wrote:
> > Any one have one.
> >
> > How good are they?
> >
> > Thinking of getting one
> >
> > Dark
> >
> >
>
>
> Get yourself an XBox and use Connect360. Better still, get a Mac mini
> and use it as a multimedia device. A tad more expensive but very versatile.
I had a PS3 for BluRay and used Playon Media server to serve up other
internet video. Got tired of that setup as the PS3 was very noisy when
playing DVDs or BluRay discs. Other than that, it worked flawlessly.
I still don't understand why Apple didn't just make another version of
the Mini with HDMI for audio/video and badge it AppleTV. Would've made
more sense, been more flexible, of course at a higher price than the
AppleTV.
> I have one and gave up on it. Every time I want to use, seems that
> something goes wrong. I use it mainly for displaying pictures on my flat
> screen for family and YouTube.
>
> I find it buggy but it has improved with newer iterations of the software.
>
I've not had a single glitch with mine except when I was trying out some
of the hacks.
> One thing I absolutely hate about it is that it doesn't do all video
> formats and that it can't stream pictures. So when it goes south, you
> have to resync all your pics all over and it can take time.
I didn't know this. But I don't use it for pictures at all.
He didn't respond to zara.
I don't think this is true unless the HDD goes south. Then it would be.
OTOH, I've had mine for almost 4 years and I love it. NOT a glitch and it's
very easy to use. Like I said, it's not perfect, it could use some upgrading:
an External HDD port, either Firewire or USB. It could give the viewer more
control over the way it displays digital photos. And it should allow one to
transfer movies and TV shows PURCHASED from iTunes to be transfered back to
the host computer, rather than stored locally. BUT, it does what it's
intended to do and and does it well. It sure makes one of the best and the
cheapest music servers available, that's for sure. Now, if it only supported
hi-res music downloads (24/96 or 24/192).
Don't purchased movies sync with your iTunes library when you get them
from the AppleTV?
I generally purchase from my iMac and I know that those done that way
sync with the AppleTV just fine.
I ordered one.
I was at one of my friends and he showed me the Apple TV, it was great.
He is a Mac guy and he told me that the Apple TV runs on OSX.
By me buying an Apple TV ..... does that make me a trader to the cause
> By me buying an Apple TV, does that make me a trader to the cause?
You misspelled "traitor."
You misspelled "trader"
> "Dark" <Da...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
I don't know about 'trader', but traitor maybe :)
Now you'll have to cuss Dell, buy an iPhone and iMac!
I have three iPhones and an iMac. I just hate using them.... well the
iPhone is ok.
You don't know what's being traded, however, so maybe it was correct.
It's a trap. Soon we'll be hearing one complaint after another, much as from
Edwin years ago who (seemingly) couldn't get a darn thing to work on a Mac.
No, not if you buy/rent them directly through the AppleTV unit.
> I generally purchase from my iMac and I know that those done that way
> sync with the AppleTV just fine.
Yes, but you don't actually need iTunes or even to have your computer running
to download movies and TV shows from the Internet.
Mine loses it's connection to iTunes and then needs to be resynced with
a library. When this happens, all pictures (all 6000 of them), need to
be re-transfered to the ATV.
I didn't know that, thanks for the info.
> > I generally purchase from my iMac and I know that those done that way
> > sync with the AppleTV just fine.
>
> Yes, but you don't actually need iTunes or even to have your computer running
> to download movies and TV shows from the Internet.
I knew that, but I also am ripping my owned DVD library to iTunes with
Handbrake and use a 1TB drive for my iTunes library. It is handy and
works fine.
Get em used on e-bay for $50 Bucks.
paranoia........
You misspelled "traitor" but I think you'll enjoy your Apple TV anyway.
Edwin, meet Steve De Mena; Steve De Mena, meet Edwin....
I've never had that happen (thankfully).
Costco has pallets of them collecting dust. I think they'll give you
one if you ask nicely just to get the pieces of shit off the floor
finally.