Your thoughts on Apple TV?

Forums › Mac OS › Your thoughts on Apple TV?

corksta

2405 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 382

Trusted

Subscriber

#27462 27-Oct-2008 05:36

For people who own an Apple TV, I'm just wondering what your thoughts on it are and how you find it? I'm considering moving from a Windows home environment to an all Mac household, and am still on the fence about Apple TV.

I like the thought of being able to download movies (our nearest video store is a bit of a drive for us), and hopefully TV shows won't be too far away from appearing on there, but wondering if it's worth it overall.

Also, how is the quality of the HD movies?

Thanks!

corksta

2405 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 382

Trusted

Subscriber

#174445 29-Oct-2008 19:37

Surely someone on here owns an Apple TV?!

PenultimateHop

637 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 2

Trusted

#174455 29-Oct-2008 20:42

corksta: Surely someone on here owns an Apple TV?!

Yes. It's the only Apple product I own, actually. I like it.

The UI is slick, very easy to use, and it's incredibly hackable to make watching "internet-ready" media a snap.

Best of all, it's dirt cheap!

EDIT: Forgot to answer your other question. The HD capabilities are OK, but it's 720p only, and the CPU can struggle at times with very intense scenes in 720p. Forget about 1080 - it doesn't have the power.

corksta

2405 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 382

Trusted

Subscriber

#174475 29-Oct-2008 22:12

Thanks PenultimateHop. So when you say the CPU struggles a bit during intense scenes, what exactly do you mean by that? Is that like where there's a bit of stuttering in the playback?

Do you download many movies? What size are they generally?

Plasmaglows

54 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 1

#174968 31-Oct-2008 20:06

I find playback really good. Rentals are great but NZ needs to catch up with the data usage (haven't done HD because of this). I use Mac The Ripper & Handbrake to Rip all my DVD's to the Hard Drive so I don't have to get up and change disc's :)
Handbrake lets you rip 'em with 5.1 channel surround too :-pBeing able to watch all the upcoming movie trailers is cool too.

The difference between an Expert and a Geek? The Expert gets paid!

PenultimateHop

637 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 2

Trusted

#174976 31-Oct-2008 20:36

corksta: Thanks PenultimateHop. So when you say the CPU struggles a bit during intense scenes, what exactly do you mean by that? Is that like where there's a bit of stuttering in the playback?

Yep, that's right.

corksta:
Do you download many movies? What size are they generally?

700MB-ish for non-HD, no idea what size HD movies are as I don't really pay attention to things like that.

gehenna

8667 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 3883

Moderator

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#174993 31-Oct-2008 21:53

I had a play with one before the movies opened up on the itunes store in nz. at the time I said it was a fantastic device but only if you have an exensive itunes library on your pc, and that if we had movie/tv rentals in nz it would be killer. then they arrived and now it really is a fantastic device for on-demand video.

that said, if you have a htpc you can achieve the same thing by installing itunes on the htpc and doing things the old fashioned way.

Geekzone

Want to support Geekzone and browse the site without the ads? Subscribe to Geekzone now (monthly, annual and lifetime options).

RmACK

196 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 27

#175008 1-Nov-2008 00:08

Check out the mac mini as part of your decision making. It's a bit more expensive but is a full blown computer, also has front row (& remote). It will of course depend on your specific needs. If you ever play a file that didn't come from iTunes, and quicktime doesn't like it, you can either use VLC (though the remote control support is rubbish) or install Perian which gives just about every codec under the sun to front row/quicktime. (I use this for my iMac. Only .mkv files can't be played)
I don't think you can put your own codecs onto AppleTV like this. It is a nice system tho.

Mark

1653 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 555

#177267 11-Nov-2008 08:40

I've had one since day 1 of release ... and it's one of the best devices I have in my house!

It'll work just fine with your current Windows environment, in fact it doesn't even need a computer at home but you would miss out on a lot of it's functions if you don't have a machine somewhere running iTunes.

I've copied my DVD collection and CD collection onto my home computer (a Mac Mini in my case) and it's all accessible from the AppleTV ... what ever is in iTunes the AppleTV can see and play.

For rentals .. well it depends on how good an internet connection you have, I have to wait a few minutes before I can actually start playing something I've bought/rented, and while I'm watching the beginning it's trying to download the rest in the background .. being honest I normally catch up with it before it's managed to download it so get pauses, but that's because my internet connection is junk :-( I tend to buy something at night and then watch it later on. Oh yes .. buying things on iTunes is a great way of using all your data plan up! :-)

Quality: Surprisingly good .. sure it's not Blu-ray quality but certainly comparable to DVD and sometimes above it, really depends I think on who did the conversion for them and if they did a good job.
For things I've ripped myself the quality is almost equal to the source DVD .. OSX tools I use are Handbrake and VisualDub (now defunct :-(

You'll get some people coming on and saying how it doesn't do this or it doesn't do that! Ignore them it does what it was designed to do .. if what you want it to is what is written on it's packaging and advertising then it will do it perfectly! And although the update schedule for the AppleTV is quite long, they do sneak in some free feature upgrades every time ... using the iPhone/iPod touch as a remote control is nifty. That said the AppleTV does have limitations, it is locked in to iTunes but if you just accept it what's the issue ?

You'll like it! :-)

Oh yes .. if you are getting one and plan to run it standalone (without it talking to a home computer), then get the 160GB version ... you'll need it .. I have the 40GB version but then all my music videos are stored on the Mac Mini and it's 2TB of disk ;-)
Oh yes#2 ... the AppleTV is one of the few devices I have seen that is able to stream HD video perfectly over a wireless network .. I've never had a single glitch!

Hmm .. spent a bit longer than usual on this reply .. guess I like the AppleTV :-)

Mark

corksta

2405 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 382

Trusted

Subscriber

#177287 11-Nov-2008 09:47

Thanks Mark, much appreciated!