Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler AppleTV - Three days in.

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.

Interesting... from the sound of it, I'm pretty much on the opposite side of the fence (all things Apple to me are not a good thing ). When I read up on this device I thought it sounded pretty featureless. But I have to say, your review has sparked some interest. If anything just for my own knowledge as HTPC is a hobby of mine and I'd say this sorta falls into that clasification.

Thanks for sharing. I want to see one in action now. Wonder if any retailers would be demo'ing them in store.

Supposedly, Best Buy has exclusive rights to sell the box for the first couple weeks. I'm sure they'll have a demo station.


Or, if you'd be willing to stoop so low... you could always pop into an Apple store if there's one nearby,

I'm going to "stoop" and run by an Apple Store after work today.
I'm not sure that I need it but.... I want it (I think).

Anandtach has an article on the AppleTV. Complete with pics and dissection.

http://www.anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=2951

You can order direct from Apple or go to an Apple Store as well. Here in PDX we have a Mac Store which has been around for as long as there has been Macs. I think there are 5 or 6 around the Northwest. You can check out the ATV there as well.

Inane - no, you are not on the opposite side of any fence. I've never said I love everything about Apple or that I have to have every product they release. Until late last year when I bought a Mini I never owned a Macintosh (although I did previously use them at school and work) and I didn't buy an iPod until the 5G models came out. I have 6 computers running 4 different platforms in my house. I like Macs and iPods, sure. But I also have and like to use Windows, Unix, and Linux machines as well. HTPC's are fine for those who want them, and I might build one someday, possibly, but I don't want to right now. As far as features and such, well, it does exactly what I wanted it to do and does it far better than the other products I've tried. That's the best feature any product can have. And it cost about as much as a high-midrange video card. AND the UI beats the living tar out of Media Center. AND I don't have to centralize media or playlists, so the wife can play her own stuff without fiddling with mine.

As soon as you mention you like an Apple product, you're branded as a dyed-in-the-wool, drank-the-koolaid, über-fanboy by someone with a closed-minded and irrational dislike for all things Apple.

Oops. Did I just post that publicly?

Don't be embarrassed...you've posted much worse than that

Man, after reading your comments, I was "stoked" to find out more, but the more I read, the more I realized that the AppleTV isn't for me...

A few of my comments and opinions.

Box style - Small, clean, great!

Connections - All of the goodies are there!

Interface - Yuck! Yeah, it is fast, which is great, but ugh. I don't like the iPod interface, which is what this is like. Not saying that I couldn't be taught. For those iPodders out there, this is a plus. Again, not a show stopper, but not "gorgeous" that's for sure.

Video - 720p and 1080i. Not bad at all!

Sound - Yeah, optical output, so no problem here.


So, what's my problem, right? (Besides the blah interface which I could learn.) We'll, I don't use iTunes. This thing basically only plays media acquired from iTunes.

What a bummer. I would learn to love the iPod style interface if it was more "compatible" than that, or if it would let me use some of my own media (video mainly). I mean, let's say I want to set up a media library elsewhere in my house, and copy all of my (legal) movies to hard drive, and then be able to select them and view them on the AppleTV, I couldn't. Unless, of course, I encode it in Apple TV-friendly H.264. (yuck)... I don't want to spend a long time converting and re-encoding a movie after I RIP it from a DVD.

I don't have a huge collection of MP3s, and when I want new music, I buy the CD/DVD (I know, so 1990's). Actually, the reason for that is just that we have so many CD players in our house. I know, I could just pay to download what I want and then burn it to CD, but I really don't buy many CDs even. So for me, the big benefit would be the ability to watch movies or TV (including HDTV) which are stored on another PC's hard-drive. I get my HDTV from OTA for "free" so why would I want to start to pay for it?

Anyway, I can only end this by quoting the last line of a review that I found on AnandTech:

"Apple TV does a great job of serving its niche: the loyal iTunes Store customer. Above and beyond that, however, it loses its value."

Here is the link to the full review: AppleTV Review

And just for fun, they took one apart, so you can see what is on the inside...
AppleTV Dissected

But with all of this, just remember, this may be the perfect fun gadget for some people, but just not for me. I went out to research it in hopes that it would fit my needs, and it just doesn't.

Bummer...

I really don't know why anyone wouldn't want to get an xbox360 as a Media Centre extender (it even works with Media Player 10.0)

And the new Black HDMI xbox360 is designed to be an IPTV, beings released next month (rumored) seems like the best option to stream content from your computer. I have been waiting for the 65nm chip and HDMI, I will purchase this year I suspect.

-Hutz

Not to hi-jack the thread, but the XBOX 360 is kinda useless for streaming video content to. No DivX, quicktime, .avi of any sort. Only WMV. And in fact, I have a bunch of WMV files that it won't play for one reason or another (they show up in the menu, but say they're incompatible when I click play). Now, I'm only running Win XP, so maybe Windows MCE playes nicer, but since the 360 is essentially a PC, I don't know why they don't just allow you to load codecs on it to play whatever you want.

Actually, the XBox 360 CAN do some Divx, but you have to force it. Not trying to hi-jack this AppleTV thread, so I'll just say that a search on Google will reveal how.

Egad. I just wanted something that looked good on the rack and worked. Nothing is gonna do everything for everybody. Personally, I just don't care about the formats a certain machine doesn't support. Not anymore. I'm just done with all the format war crap. Enough. I have more important things to worry about in life. I can rip movies to h.264 or MPEG-4 using the Imtoo DVD converter tool. ATV will play ALAC and MP3 which every single one of my songs are ripped to. Done and done. I have no use for an XBOX or PS3 at all. I do all of my gaming on my gaming PC. As far as capacity, I picked up a 120GB PATA laptop drive yesterday for $85. Tonight I will dd the ATV drive to the new drive and be done with that. Damn. All things being equal, the simple way is usually best.

PS: PM, I understand your concerns about the UI, but after 2 minutes I was whizzing around the thing no problem. I like simple interfaces.

Whizzing around the thing, as in marking your territory?

Yerp, absolutely. Can't have other folk sniffin' around my toys!

Rumors of MS supporting more codecs have been floating around... of course just rumors.

Till then you can use Transcode360 to play about anything you want on a 360.

I didn't mean to back anyone into a corner with the apple speak... yes I dislike apple (as many ppl dislike MS) and they just don't offer me anything that I can use.

I do think the Media Center interface is the caddy of HTPC UI's thou... 2005 and Vista's. That's just personal preference thou.

I just get tired of the attitude people have that "if I choose A then B automatically sucks." I mean, plenty of people don't like a certain band, but does that literally mean they suck? Why can't a person just say "they're not my taste" or "I just don't like their music?" Same with anything. I have a cousin who goes absolutely batsh!t insane when anybody he knows buys a truck not made by Ford. Why? I'm not sure he even remembers the genesis of this hatred (I think it's a blood feud - his grandfather was the same way I'm told and his dad still is) of all trucks not built by Ford but it's amusing and not a little disturbing to see.

Thanks for the review. I had my credit card out and ready to preorder one until I read that it won't do SDTV. I haven't jumped on the HD bandwagon simply because there isn't enough content to justify it yet where I live (cable company sucks, can't get locals in HD via satelite, too far away for OTA, etc).

I recently purchased a DLO Homedock Deluxe Rev II from Amazon for $128, and it works very well. This is the new one that was just released a few weeks ago. Navigate songs & video from my Gen5 iPod. It's a great solution for us non-HDTV people.

Apparently is does work on SD sets as long as they have component inputs. Video is squished a little.