As
promised this morning, we've been spending some quality alone time with the
Apple TV today, and we've got the gallery to prove it. We ran through most all of the options, hit a few bumps here and there, but for the most part had a good experience with the unit. Our favorite podcast, "William Hung Cooking Show" was a no-go thanks to the restrictive codec support, but otherwise our little collection of iTunes media transferred smoothly and played without a hitch on the device. In fact, sometimes it was a bit hard to tell if something had already been synced, or was just streaming off of our computer, or was in the process of both, since for the most part things "just work" with the unit. Setting up syncing was just like working an iPod, so there shouldn't be any worries for the noobs out there in getting this thing up and running. There is one huge caveat, however: TV shows and music videos don't look great after being scaled to 720p. Hopefully Apple has some HD content up its sleeve, 'cause otherwise it seems like waste of money to use this with a decent TV unless you want to look at photo galleries all day -- which look great, by the way. Actual operation and booting of the device is responsive, silent and energy efficient -- the unit is quick to fade the screen to black after going unused for a minute or so. For someone with a lot of cash invested in a collection of iTunes media, the Apple TV seems a solid -- if pricey -- buy, but for most people with more diverse media collections and saner pocketbooks, this is a hard one to recommend.
posted Mar 22nd 2007 4:32PM
I've always been a Nintendo fan and think that the Wii could be the first game console since the SNES that I would regularly play, but nowadays I am much more of an HD fan. 90% of what I watch is in HD, and I love watching HD movies and TV. I haven't made the jump on HD-DVD or Blu-ray despites being clicks away several times on amazon for the HD-DVD player. Then I began to do the math of the upcoming electronics I wanted:
Apple TV: $299
Nintendo Wii: $250
HD-DVD Player: $380 (That was the price when I was about to buy it)
That's $929!!!! I don't understand why people complain about the PS3, it is a great deal for the price and now I really want to get the PS3, even if I'll mainly use it for Blu-Ray and the media center. Sony has really missed the marketing boat on this one. I will probably get a Wii and if Apple comes out w/ a Blu-Ray equipped AppleTV I'll be all over it, but for now the best deal going is really the PS3! Who would have thunk it.. Does anyone have any experience w/ the PS3 interface, like how easy is it to make playlists? What about moving an iTunes organized music collection over?
Yeah I my friend from Apple over last night and showed him all of the stuff the PS3 could do besides play games, he isn't a gamer.
"That's so cool I want one" is the quote I liked best.
The ps3 has almost replaced all my other electronic gadgets. If I could use it to load mp3's on my Ipod and walkman I could toss my PC. If they ever make handbrake for PPC linux I can toss my mac.
So... you come on to engadgetHD to start so ridiculous fanboy rant about the PS3? Let me help you out; http://www.ps3fanboy.com/
See ya!
Notice the Xbox 360 lurking in the corner;)
I wouldn't call those comments 'fanboy comments'. They may not be Apple specific. But they're certainly relevant to the media player concept. IMO, the AppleTV is quite overpriced, for what it offers. And I'm a few days away from owning a MacbookPro. So don't give me any of that 'MS fanboy' junk... Not everything Leonardo Davinci, I mean, Steve Jobs, gives us is the icon he'd like to expect.