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Anybody thinking that Apple TV will be upgraded soon?

CyberBob859

CyberBob859

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 13, 2007
589
456
My thoughts:

  • There is a rumored "Media Event" on March 24
  • Apple TV was originally introduced on March 21, 2007 and updated to Take 2 a little over a year ago.
  • Tom's Hardware rumored that Nvidia Ion would be used for a "Mac Mini". (Not true.)
  • Nvidia mentioned that "a major PC manufacturer" will introduce an Ion-based machine in the Spring.
  • Apple is working on Leopard 10.5.7 with emphasis on MobileMe and syncing (among other things)
  • Apple Just released an update to iTunes (8.1)

I know that event is rumored to be for software, but I just wonder if Apple would put on a big show for pro software. Announcing new deals with media companies (Hulu?) and new Apple TV hardware (Ion?) would seem to make more sense for an event.
 
Sky Blue said:
Not happening.
Click to expand...

So if I go and buy it today - can I come knocking on your door if it's updated?!

Could someone explain why I should by the larger capacity ATV? Surely it's mainly dependent on the size on the HDD on my Mac. Isn't it?
 
suburbiton said:
So if I go and buy it today - can I come knocking on your door if it's updated?!

Could someone explain why I should by the larger capacity ATV? Surely it's mainly dependent on the size on the HDD on my Mac. Isn't it?
Click to expand...

You sure can. Or you could take it back to Apple as it'd be in the return period. If you don't want to stream, the bigger hard drive is better.
 
I'm happy streaming - but can I keep my current iTunes library on my Mac but, as I start to add movies to it to play on ATV, can I add those on an external drive and have both my internal and external drive work with the same iTunes library?

Or will I need to move my entire iTunes library to the external drive before I add to it and always need to plug-in the external drive to play music, sync my iPhone etc.?
 
hmm, not sure.
I have my music, applications and podcasts on my internal drive. All my movies are on an external, which isn't usually connected, if that's what you're asking.
 
So, if your external isnt connected, do they still show up in iTunes (but you just can't actually play them)?
 
Yes, they still show up in iTunes. If I was to play one, it'd give me the "can't find file" dialog.
 
Sky Blue said:
Yes, they still show up in iTunes. If I was to play one, it'd give me the "can't find file" dialog.
Click to expand...

What you do is hold "option" when adding a movie file from your external HD to your iTunes library. It then adds the image of the movie to your iTunes library, but the actual file stays on the external HD. You just have to then sync iTunes to Apple TV while your external HD is powered on. Once the sync is over you no longer need to have your external HD on in order for Apple TV to play the movie as it's now been copied to the APple TV HD.
 
Personally, I think the next major update to Apple TV will again be software. I expect a newly redesigned interface and I'm hoping 720p at 30FPS is on the horizon.

Apple really has no reason to update the hardware in the Apple TV. They aren't going to start offering 1080p content anytime soon, and the Apple TV already scales 720p content to 1080p.

The only hardware updates I think we'll see in the foreseeable future are forced upgrades. For example, if the supply of Intel's Crofton runs low in favor of a slightly newer processor or 40GB IDE hard drives dry up.

The Apple TV is almost a kin to a gaming console as far as updates are concerned. It may get slight internal improvements, but nothing that would offer anything drastic over the original model.
 
pablol said:
What you do is hold "option" when adding a movie file from your external HD to your iTunes library. It then adds the image of the movie to your iTunes library, but the actual file stays on the external HD. You just have to then sync iTunes to Apple TV while your external HD is powered on. Once the sync is over you no longer need to have your external HD on in order for Apple TV to play the movie as it's now been copied to the APple TV HD.
Click to expand...

Yes, that's exactly what I do.
 
I agree. Using SATA drives instead of IDE would be nice, and would open up the drive size considerably.
 
jaw04005 said:
Apple really has no reason to update the hardware in the Apple TV. They aren't going to start offering 1080p content anytime soon, and the Apple TV already scales 720p content to 1080p.
Click to expand...

Umm... air vents so it runs cooler, an 'off' switch or some sort of standby mode, volume controls on the remote...
 
It just feels like they have to update the hardware soon. It's past due, and the competition (Netflix and Amazon especially) are taking things up a notch, getting their services installed on tons of TV's, set top boxes and Blu Ray players.
 
arnette said:
Umm... air vents so it runs cooler, an 'off' switch or some sort of standby mode, volume controls on the remote...
Click to expand...

The ability to actually shut the thing off without having the wrestle the power cord out would be great. The ATV is a power hog in standby. As for the remote, I wish they would ditch the thing altogether and come out with something more ergonomic and functional. A scroll wheel would be awesome, rather than having to either click the down or up button a gazillion times (or hold the button down and whiz right by the title you want to select). I tossed mine in a box and use my iPhone instead.

The UI is pretty straightforward now, but it is ugly. I wouldn't mind something nicer.
 
1080p
option to hook up external drives to increase capacity
and wider codecs acceptance.

That would be fantastic.
 
I spoke today with a person in charge at the local apple representative in Greece where i live, as i have made an order, which amongst other, contains a 40Gb :apple:TV.
What he told me is that everything else would be shipped, but as for the :apple:TV, they have several orders, but for the moment at least, there aren't any available.
He also told me that apple has told them that this would be the case for a while.
And he finished by saying that this usually happens when they drop a model.
Which would mean, that either the 40Gb edition will not be available anymore, or that :apple:TV will get an update.
I am not suggesting that the latter is the case.
Most probably, it's just a temporary thing,and everything will get back to normal.
I definitely wouldn't mind getting an updated model though...
 
Well, it is overdue...

Next update will likely contain:

Atom based hardware - leopard based OS (or it if takes long enough, snow leopard based os).
1080p.

What I wish it would also contain:

BluRay (I know, not gonna happen, but it just means I'll end up with a dedicated player anyway).
HDMI-CEC (apple remote is ridiculous in the living room - just let me use my TV remote - and for Pete's sake, go to standby mode when I turn off the TV).
Official Plugin support for additional content providers, or if you can't do that at least support some of the obvious providers like Netflix or Hulu (I know this won't ever happen, but it should).

What would be really killer:

Release the AppleTV software so I can install it on any mac I want. Keep the AppleTV hardware box (atom based) because it is very inexpensive. But how am I hurting Apple's bottom line by running the AppleTV software on a mini?
 
What would make the Apple TV a really great device is if Apple released an Apple TV SDK, so 3rd party software developers can develop great Apps for it. Would it not be great if we could play games on this thing?

But what would really make me buy an Apple TV is a small external VFD (or LCD) display. I don't want to turn on the tv every time i want to listen to a song. I'm thinking of a nicely designed small display that's connected to, e.g. the USB port of the Apple TV. This would make me sell my Squeezebox immediatly.
 
They should sell the ATV with 4-8gigs of flash on it and drop the price by $80.

Keep it hollow and make it slightly larger so it is a user upgradeable ie add your own hard drive. O/S is on the flash and will format the hard drive. Otherwise it's a streaming device only with enough flash to cache.

OF course Apple doesn't want to deal with the support headaches from all the morons out there and need a 40% operating profit margin.

I agree too that the remote is lacking especially as you add files. But if they lower the price by that much then a Touch as a remote becomes much more affordable.

Support for Hulu and lower content video content pricing is needed as well.
 
I can see them adding a 32GB SSD for those who plan to stream everything. ATA hard drives must be getting hard to come by new. If they go to 1080p now, I can't see that standard being eclipsed in the next 5 years so a hardware upgrade now would leave the video-playback power sufficient until 2013 or so. If the aTV userbase grows soon, will Apple want to make them buy a new box in a year or so? Not really as that would alienate the crowd and most of the money from the itunes store rather than hardware.

A user-upgradable hard drive would be awesome (think 8 GB flash for the OS and a removable drive for the media - keeps everything neat) - can't see it happening though. Failing that, an esata or usb expansion option would do.

Obviously more codec support and the ability to stream from network shares, but again it goes against the Apple philosophy.
 
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