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I am probably the minority but I think Apple finally got it RIGHT with the AppleTV. I could care less how big the internal drive is, it will not support my library which is over 2TB now. So having a HD on the AppleTV is pretty much useless since I can only have a fraction of my library on it, and even so then its duplicated across multiple devices which is something I do not want. Streaming everything from my Mac Pro is fine as its on 24/7 as I work from home, so streaming for me personally is a win/win. I get ALL my library at once, streamed over 100bt. Yes you could stream with last AppleTV, but shows were too expensive and I was never interested in buying TV Shows as I only watch them once. However with this model I can rent EVERYTHING for $1, watch it be done and move on. To each their own, but I really think Apple did a great job on this product...I can finally cancel Cable and have my Tivo HD for OTA shows and AppleTV for the rest...and I will save a ton of money by saving $80 a month that I would have spent on cable.

... Hate to burst your bubble but unless your media is .mp4 or an apple supported format, you will be **** out of luck when it comes to streaming media.

That's why most people are marking it off as an underwhelming unit from apple.
 
I agree for the most part but there are two caveats. Firstly, there are too many devices (including TV sets) that already allow people to stream the movies. It makes perfect sense to have this functionality elsewhere rather than in dedicated box. You have to have DVD player anyways (and some families have to have game consoles). Those can do just everything ATV can. The second point is that content providers do not like vertically integrated companies (of which only one left really and it's Apple). So you are much more likely to rent the same movie for less some place else (Amazon VOD being a primary candidate).

There is not a single fact-based statement in that entire rant. As usual, it's made up of nothing but the myopic opinions of a dedicated Apple hater.
 
My wife and I watch 0-2 movies per week, usually on a Sunday night. Apple TV is $99 and will stream my Netflix to my TV/surround system. And it has some other extras.

I have no desire to hoard movies or TV shows on a hard drive somewhere. I watch a film and then go on to do something else. Not everyone is a collector or dedicated to saving every downloaded bit to disk. I watch films for enjoyment, not an obsessive lifestyle choice.

Not every person is like you. I think Apple TV is doing the right thing here.

I know I am in the minority, but I travel a lot and my iTunes library stays at home. One of the convenience of the original :apple:TV was that before leaving I could load up the HD with videos and TV shows to watch while in hotels on the road.

With the new on, maybe not so much.

Will I buy one of the new ones? Perhaps but my old one will be kept as well. May even buy another old one as well.
 
I know I am in the minority, but I travel a lot and my iTunes library stays at home. One of the convenience of the original :apple:TV was that before leaving I could load up the HD with videos and TV shows to watch while in hotels on the road.

That is a good idea. I think uses like that are really the only reason to complain about the new Apple TV.

As for everyone else, I intend on buying one, but not renting things on it. If I were to purchase something, I think the intent is that you do it on the computer, keep it there, and stream it when you want it. The hard drives on previous Apple TV versions have been puny, especially with HD content, so it only makes sense that your computer be a "server" for content, along with things like Netflix and the iTunes Store's rentals.
 
... Hate to burst your bubble but unless your media is .mp4 or an apple supported format, you will be **** out of luck when it comes to streaming media.

That's why most people are marking it off as an underwhelming unit from apple.

Well ALL of my media is in mp4. When I started using iTunes as my main source for music/media I made sure to rip it all into MP4. So every season of Seinfeld, Simpsons, Family Guy, 100 Movies, 500 Concerts, etc. will all stream to the AppleTV. No worries here.
 
Amazon has drop the prices of TV shows from Fox and ABC to $.99 just like Apple. Difference is that those prices are to purchase shows, not just rent, from Amazon. Will Apple follow suit with purchase prices?
 
Seydlitz- see post #28. Complain away!

rather disingenious considering the earlier posts (including you) with the general gag line: "if you don't like it don't buy it"

I and many won't buy it.. that doesn't mean we still have the complaints.

My point is you're complaining about the wrong thing. ATV is being marketed as a simple, cheap plug-and-play device. That's it. Pointing out various features it's "missing" to you is beside the point. It doesn't have those "missing" features on purpose.

I'm sorry but first off, consumers are rarely as helpless as you make them out. Secondly, devices are hardly so complicated as you claim. And thirdly, most importantly, things like 1080P are mainstream and are major selling points. Walk into any tv store and it will be imprinted in you. it obviously works as even lowly 32" tv's are being sold in droves with 1080P, while in that case you need to be about 1.5 meter away to see it (barely).

Might as well complain that Apple computers don't ship with Windows installed. After all, far more software and games that are attractive to the average consumer would be available to the average consumer if those MacBooks were running Windows, right?

Apple's and pears :0

The comparison would be if OS10.7 takes out media capabilities "because you can use an iPod or ATV for it". Keep in mind that the missing features are part of ATV1. I do not need to buy a windows machine, right now any mac, even the lowly Appletv, can do these media tasks.

And quite frankly, the netflix rave is nice, but keep in mind that a PS3, WII or XBOX can do the same thing. And the XBOX/PS3 have quite extensive other mediaplayer features.

And trust me, these are mainstream items that can be used by a lot of people. They are quite easy to use ;P

About Price: A console is just a tad more expensive and has added game and media features. And that is without just talking about current market-penetration.

To add insult to injury. My cable provider offers a HD online video rental service for at least three years for comparable prices. The settop box is included in the subscription.

Ovenall, this is why I have a hard time being enthusiastic about the ATV. It works if:

1. I need to live in the USA to fully use it
2. I do not have a PS3/XBOX
3. I need to stream my own media through a second machine, which is quite a lot more complicated than just plug and play. (Yes, you need to create a server, where is the ease of use again?)
4. Or I don't have any own media to play
5. Don't need cable.
6. I don't have cable provider who offers similar features.
7. I need to be so tech-savvy to understand that 1080P isn't neccesary.

I'm sure it will sell, but I don't see it becoming a huge success. Whereas other Apple items add features or convenience, this item seems to miss out. Even the convenience is questionable (more clicks needed than before) considering legacy devices have been around for a while now with decent UI's. We aren't talking a Windows-OSX jump.
 
So let me get this straight. If I want to buy a movie with my current AppleTV I can do so from the comfort of my living room couch, browsing the catalog on on my THX Certified 52" Plasma, watching the trailers with my family, as we select a movie.

With the new AppleTV, I now get to get up off my fat butt and go into the home office, turn on my computer and use iTunes to buy the movie instead. The whole family can follow me in there, and we can all huddle around the 24" LCD and look at little QuickTime clips to help us choose. After we buy one, we can "stream" it to the new AppleTV! That's WAY better! Who woulnd't want that! :confused:

And please don't say that if I don't like it I don't have to buy it. Everyone always says that like it means you can't ever criticize anything! I love Apple, I love my AppleTV, but I won't be buying the new one. Renting movies is fine, but I like to buy, too.
 
So let me get this straight. If I want to buy a movie with my current AppleTV I can do so from the comfort of my living room couch, browsing the catalog on on my THX Certified 52" Plasma, watching the trailers with my family, as we select a movie.

With the new AppleTV, I now get to get up off my fat butt and go into the home office, turn on my computer and use iTunes to buy the movie instead. The whole family can follow me in there, and we can all huddle around the 24" LCD and look at little QuickTime clips to help us choose. After we buy one, we can "stream" it to the new AppleTV! That's WAY better! Who woulnd't want that! :confused:

And please don't say that if I don't like it I don't have to buy it. Everyone always says that like it means you can't ever criticize anything! I love Apple, I love my AppleTV, but I won't be buying the new one. Renting movies is fine, but I like to buy, too.


100% agree!!

and since when are people not allowed to complain?? is this fanboy.com?

Another point that I would like to raise is that while "cloud" based products may be the way of the future in the US/Canada and most of Europe while you are in your county where you have internet access, how does this would when you are traveling?? also, what advantages are there for people that don't live in the US? In a lot of ways the new :apple:TV is a step back especially for those that don't have access to netflix
 
I know I am in the minority, but I travel a lot and my iTunes library stays at home. One of the convenience of the original :apple:TV was that before leaving I could load up the HD with videos and TV shows to watch while in hotels on the road.

With the new on, maybe not so much.

Will I buy one of the new ones? Perhaps but my old one will be kept as well. May even buy another old one as well.

That particular use case is probably better served by an iPad.
 
So let me get this straight. If I want to buy a movie with my current AppleTV I can do so from the comfort of my living room couch, browsing the catalog on on my THX Certified 52" Plasma, watching the trailers with my family, as we select a movie.

With the new AppleTV, I now get to get up off my fat butt and go into the home office, turn on my computer and use iTunes to buy the movie instead. The whole family can follow me in there, and we can all huddle around the 24" LCD and look at little QuickTime clips to help us choose. After we buy one, we can "stream" it to the new AppleTV! That's WAY better! Who woulnd't want that! :confused:

And please don't say that if I don't like it I don't have to buy it. Everyone always says that like it means you can't ever criticize anything! I love Apple, I love my AppleTV, but I won't be buying the new one. Renting movies is fine, but I like to buy, too.

No actually what you would do is watch the trailers on the new apple tv like you do now and then once you have decided, just whip out your ios device and buy the movie while your "fat butt" is still on the couch. Then just click the Airplay button on your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad to pop the movie over to your new apple tv and the video is now playing on your hdtv in the living room just like that.

And what's even better than your current apple tv is if you all start getting sleepy you can take the iPad with you to the bedroom and finish watching it on the iPad in bed or even use Airplay to select the bedroom apple tv. It would be impossible to share and switch between screens and devices so fast and easily with the old syncing solution. This solution is much sweeter in my opinion.
 
I know I am in the minority, but I travel a lot and my iTunes library stays at home. One of the convenience of the original :apple:TV was that before leaving I could load up the HD with videos and TV shows to watch while in hotels on the road.

With the new on, maybe not so much.

Will I buy one of the new ones? Perhaps but my old one will be kept as well. May even buy another old one as well.

That particular use case is probably better served by an iPad.

Wrong, that particular use is better served by the :apple:TV.

Hell you could just have well said ......

That particular use case is probably better served by an iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad.

And you'd still be wrong, but that's OK it's you opinion and you have the right to express it. Everyone has the right to be wrong! :lol: :D


My kids like the old :apple:TV, often times they go off to spends a weekend at a friends house. We load up the :apple:TV with the movies they want and off they go. By the way we do own two of the original units. One stays at home the second it the 'travel unit'.

Personally I think Apple missed the mark, but I know why they did. It was intentional and they are trying to push the market to a model they want and I know many will go where they are pushed, but I cannot do that.

Apple no longer wants you to own media, they want you to rent it. Want to watch it again? Rent it again.

Look at they TV Show Pricing.

Buy:
SD - $1.99
HD - $2.99

Rent:
HD -$0.99

For many shows renting it enough, but there are many shows that are worth keeping to watch many times. I am talking about the shows that actually teach you something, like Power Block TV where they are always showing projects on vehicles from complete tear down to full restoration. Lots of good info from those shows but they are not the only ones.
 
If someone hacks it so that I can play anything through it then I might be interested. I have to look and see if the someone has extended (hacked) the itunes app to play (pass through) the mkv codec - then I may buy it!

Yeah it's really difficult to convert media from one codec to another! :rolleyes:

I have yet to come across anything that I have not been able to play on my old :apple:TV.

Handbrake is a fine utility, doesn't cost any money and nothing needs to be HACKED!!!
 
I agree for the most part but there are two caveats. Firstly, there are too many devices (including TV sets) that already allow people to stream the movies. It makes perfect sense to have this functionality elsewhere rather than in dedicated box. You have to have DVD player anyways (and some families have to have game consoles). Those can do just everything ATV can. The second point is that content providers do not like vertically integrated companies (of which only one left really and it's Apple). So you are much more likely to rent the same movie for less some place else (Amazon VOD being a primary candidate).

My wife and I have not had a DVD player in our house for over 2 years. We have been using the old Apple Tv for over 2 years. So your statement about you have to have a DVD player anyways is just plan wrong.
 
What about those of us who only have Macbooks? Wife has MacBook, I have MacBook Pro, we don't have a desktop. So, if we want to watch a movie on the new AppleTV, we have to have a laptop open and running to stream. How is that in any way convenient?

As for the AirPlay option on an iOS device: yeah, I guess you could do that but then it requires me to sync iPhone with MBP first. Seems a bit redundant. In fact, it seems a lot redundant. I hope my original AppleTV doesn't kick the bucket on me, it's looking better and better.
 
I have a strong feeling one of the reasons Apple decided to drop the hard drive and focus on streaming (other than the low price and ease of use) is because of that huge new datacenter and rumored plans to store and stream your itunes library over the internet.

With that, you possibly won't even need a computer or a hard drive. The new Apple TV already offers mobileme integration for photos.

I really do think affordable thin client hardware with an internet connection and able to stream is the wave of the future when it comes to entertainment and media. The hardware is easy. The main focus should be on the UI and content. The new Apple TV should be positioned well for this.

I have a strong feeling this will NOT be the case. It makes too much sense and lately, Apple has gone against pretty much all common sense. Besides, do I really want all of my purchased media relying on a network connection (let alone an Apple-run network connection)?? Hell no.

Make it an option, not a requirement. And if Apple is, indeed, going this route, wait until all that stuff is sorted out before releasing the product.
 
Wrong, that particular use is better served by the :apple:TV.

Hell you could just have well said ......

That particular use case is probably better served by an iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad.

And you'd still be wrong, but that's OK it's you opinion and you have the right to express it. Everyone has the right to be wrong! :lol: :D

Actually you are quite wrong. The apple tv has never been marketed as a mobile device. The iPad has specifically been marketed as a mobile device you can load up with content and take it with you when you travel. It even offers it's own 3G connection so you have access to other content on the go.

Manufacturers even make cases that allow it to be attached to car seats so the kids can watch on the road. The iPad also comes with it's own screen and is able to play video resolutions the old apple tv can't too.

It's yours so use it any way you want. But just because you use the product in a non standard way does not mean it's the best device for that purpose.
 
What about those of us who only have Macbooks? Wife has MacBook, I have MacBook Pro, we don't have a desktop. So, if we want to watch a movie on the new AppleTV, we have to have a laptop open and running to stream. How is that in any way convenient?

As for the AirPlay option on an iOS device: yeah, I guess you could do that but then it requires me to sync iPhone with MBP first. Seems a bit redundant. In fact, it seems a lot redundant. I hope my original AppleTV doesn't kick the bucket on me, it's looking better and better.

Airplay does not require a pc or Mac. You wouldn't have to sync unless you wanted to but that's no different than your current one.

As for having laptops on and open, you can keep them closed and they will wake on demand in snow leopard but I think it's a feature of apple routers. Not sure if other routers will work.
 
For me the new Apple TV is just okay, I'm not on any 'big brother' alerts though.

To me the ideal situation would be the New AppleTV with the ability to BUY as well as rent, i.e. if you buy/stream a given video, and to AppleTV and have the video added to your queue for download on your mac, or have the studios relize this is where media is going (i.e. cloud)...

Anyway for me I'll get one, but it'll be my mobile video/stream solution, and my two existing AppleTV's will be getting used just as much if not more than they are now.

***
By the way, I do have 'some' media synced but over 90% of my library is streamed from a G4 MDD
 
I've got a 40Gb appleTV that gets some use, but not loads, mostly for kids films. The UK looks like it's not going to get TV rentals anytime soon, which is a bit disappointing but not a real issue as I get the impression we pay a lot less for satellite/cable subscriptions than in the USA (and less adverts in the UK too?)

The reason I ordered the new appleTV is purely for the AirPlay functionality. The link between the iPhone 4's still and video cameras to a big screen TV without having to connect any cables up is very appealing.
If I 'm watching a movie on the bus, being able to switch the movie stream from my phone to the TV when I get home is also pretty cool.
The potential for streaming from iOS devices really shows future app store functionality to me, and the USB port on the new appleTV might mean third party ingenuity can add further functionality for us geeks!

I think the new appleTV is meant to be the missing link in the chain, so that the living room TV is easily connected to any other content you may have access to, and I'm sure Apple intend to be the main source of that content.
 
So let me get this straight. If I want to buy a movie with my current AppleTV I can do so from the comfort of my living room couch, browsing the catalog on on my THX Certified 52" Plasma, watching the trailers with my family, as we select a movie.

With the new AppleTV, I now get to get up off my fat butt and go into the home office, turn on my computer and use iTunes to buy the movie instead. The whole family can follow me in there, and we can all huddle around the 24" LCD and look at little QuickTime clips to help us choose. After we buy one, we can "stream" it to the new AppleTV! That's WAY better! Who woulnd't want that! :confused:

And please don't say that if I don't like it I don't have to buy it. Everyone always says that like it means you can't ever criticize anything! I love Apple, I love my AppleTV, but I won't be buying the new one. Renting movies is fine, but I like to buy, too.


It's ok. You don't have to buy every Apple product.

Apple went a new direction with the new ATV. Doesn't mean you have to like it, but I mean you have to recognize it's a new flavor. It's not strawberry. IT's chocolate now.

Jobs outlined their plans pretty darn clearly. And those plans were based on what Apple heard from its customers.
 
and since when are people not allowed to complain?? is this fanboy.com?

People can complain without being Apple haters and other people can disagree without being fanboys. Those who like the new aTV have explained why. Those, like the OP, who do not fall into 3 categories:

Don't like the new model and:

1. Own the old model- congratulations, you made the right choice.
2. Will now buy the old model: congratulations you saved $150
3. Had no intention of buying the old model and have even less intention of buying the new model: you have also made the right choice (for you) but you are invisible to Apple.

Apple cares about the people who vote with their money not their mouths. Apple may be wrong about the appeal of the new aTV but they won't know that until they see how it sells. They are sure to sell some to a new group of people who had no interest in the old model. Apple is betting that there are more people who want a simple, inexpensive experience than people who want to rip DVDs with Handbreak or hack the box to run Plex. They are probably right.
 
I think that main problem current owners have with the new AppleTV is that we were expecting an update. Instead, we got an essentially new product with the same name. The AppleTV we use and love has been discontinued. Oh, well... :(
 
NEWS FLASH: YouTube just announced that they are taking a cue from the new AppleTV and changing the way their service works. Instead of storing videos on their own servers, YouTube will henceforth only store links to the videos, which will be physically located on the computer of the original author. When you select a video to watch, it will stream it from the author's computer directly to yours! This requires that the author's computer be on at the time, but that is no big deal.

This may have the added benefit of shielding YouTube from all those nasty copyright lawsuits!
 
What they need to do is add about 16 gb of flash storage like in the 16 GB iphone 4 for storing apps.

now there might be some flash storage in the new ATV but we will need to have a ifixit teardown to make sure.
 
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