I finally received the unit Friday morning after pre-ordering in January. This will be a quick synopsis:
Reason for buying - bad luck with previous streaming media units. Don't really want an HTPC at this time. The wife and I are both iPod addicts and have everything imported to iTunes already (including the complete series so far of "The Office").
Setup - box opening to first music playing in under 10 minutes. The setup starts automatically and runs you through setting up the TV (I'm using 720p via component until I get a 2-1 HDMI splitter from Monoprice), the network (for me 802.11G wireless. The box found 6 networks in my neighborhood and it doesn't even have an antenna. It's getting a full-strength signal), and other preferences.
How it works - After it successfully connects to a network, it sends a query to any computers running iTunes 7.1 or higher. After finding one or more, it displays a 5-digit sequence of numbers. You go to the computer you want to be your main "syncing" machine and look for AppleTV under Devices. Click the AppleTV, then enter the numbers, and syncing starts immediately. It will sync everything in your library, or if more than 40GB (by my count more like 37) it will sync as much as possible with preference to video, as video takes more bandwidth if it is streamed. You can force syncs at will when you update your library. Next, from the ATV you can add up to 5 more sources. These sources will stream only and not be cached. After selecting to add a new source, you go the that machine (iTunes running!) and put in the 5-digit code the ATV displays. Now you can select in in the sources menu on the ATV. You can stream photos and music from secondary sources but not video.
Interface: Slick. Gorgeous. Fast and responsive. 100% Apple. When scrolling through menus like say your entire library of 8000+ songs the longer you hold the scroll arrow down for example the faster it goes. The remote is tiny and only has menu, select, and NEWS arrows. That is and indication of how easy the interface is to use. Like an iPod, each click of Menu takes you up one menu level. To switch sources, go to the main menu, select Sources, then select the source. If you select AppleTV, you are accessing the cached media stored on the ATV's hard drive ("synced" media).
Looks - a tiny 8" by 8" by 1" aluminum box. The power light is a tiny, bright blue/white LED. Looks like a current generation Mac Mini, for example. Makes just the slightest HDD whirring sound that you can't hear from more than a foot away. No exhaust vents (?!). A cool rubberized grip bottom so your cables or what have you don't pull the device out of place.
Sound - sounds pretty good. Not bad at all actually. Optical out so the Denon is decoding anyway.
Video - The Office in 720P looks fine. Maybe not as super-duper crisp as digital cable HD but worlds better than SDTV and actually passably close to The Office via digital cable HDTV. The other units I had could barely do 320x180 .wmv's at standard def, much less 720P HD full screen.
Gripes - as far as I can tell, you only get DD 5.1 if you use HDMI for video and audio. I'll just bet this is a concession to the Big 5 studios. You all know the score as far as DRM and user rights, I'm sure. I kinda hate to see this. That's about it.
This little box is a very nice looking, easy to configure, easy to use piece of engineering with a beautiful and flawless interface. The little things like a carousel of album images when you highlight "Albums" are pretty freaking neat as well. It solved all the previous problems I had with other units I tried. At $299USD plus $13 for 2 day shipping it cost as much as the other 2 units I've had combined and $100 more than the Roku Soundbridge M1001 which I've played with but didn't buy. So far it is worth it.
