Who plans to get one (or more) and why? I am trying to shore up an argument for connecting one to 4 TVs in our house.
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Getting an Apple TV 3?
- Thread starter BigSaintDogs
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I pre-ordered one. I have the ATV2 in the living room. I'll put the ATV3 in the living room and the ATV2 in the bedroom. It's a no brainer. $99 - we cut cable due to the ATV. It just works.
Same exact rationale here. I was planning on buying a second ATV for the bedroom, and once I started hearing rumors of a 3rd gen model coming out, I held off. I pre-ordered one (and an iPad) on launch day and can't wait for both to arrive. Between Netflix and a few tv shows we purchase from iTunes, we have no need for cable.
I have 2 720p TV's and 1 1080p TV in my house. I currently have 2 of the ATV2's.
I'll probably hold off. The new UI upgrade went smooth and is pretty nice. We don't do much TV viewing on that bigger 1080p. Mainly just bluray.
I eventually will get an ATV3 for it most likely.
Those that have cut cable above. Don't you find it more expensive to get the Season Pass of the show off iTunes then having cable. We only pay $22 per month for a Dish HD with DVR and 2 TV connections. Most of our TV watching is network TV.
I'll probably hold off. The new UI upgrade went smooth and is pretty nice. We don't do much TV viewing on that bigger 1080p. Mainly just bluray.
I eventually will get an ATV3 for it most likely.
Those that have cut cable above. Don't you find it more expensive to get the Season Pass of the show off iTunes then having cable. We only pay $22 per month for a Dish HD with DVR and 2 TV connections. Most of our TV watching is network TV.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
BigSaintDogs, if you don't have one now, they are fantastic devices jamming all kinds of old, separate AV box functionality into a single little box. For example,
The utility of the little box is crazy great whether one could care less about 1080p vs. 720p vs. SD. $99 is crazy cheap when those (above referenced) jukeboxes used to cost hundreds of dollars and deliver much lesser user experiences.
Bottom line: if you don't have one, it has all kinds of great uses. I see it as a must have device in the AV stack. Just as a CD jukebox replacement device alone, I think it is fantastic.
If you do have one, you buy this one because it's latest & greatest and all it can do vs. whichever one you have. In my case, I still have version 1 because 1080p really mattered to me and 720p capped at 25fps vs 720p capped at 30fps wasn't big enough to move me to buy gen 2. So the jump will be very large for my own purposes.
If someone has version 2, it appears the bulk of upgrade debate is over 1080p vs. 720p max. I could easily see a lot of gen 2 people waiting for version 4 or if other desirable features are added to only gen 3.
The one other consideration would be if you own an iPhone 4s or are buying the new iPad. Their video camera shoots at 1080p. If you have a 1080p HDTV, gen 3 should let you push that 1080p right to the TV at native resolution. Gen 2 is going to downscale it to 720p for that push. I actually think this iPhone/iPad 1080p native video is WHY we even got a gen 3 version.
If you don't have one though, get it. Apple will take it back for up to 2 weeks if you don't find it a great value at $99. If you like really convenient access to all of your media- movies, TV shows, home movies, photo collections, music, etc- this is hard to beat at such a cheap price. I think the last Sony CD jukebox I bought was something like $499... and I can still recall the grinding sounds and long delay between songs when I used "shuffle" to jump around to various songs.
- it wasn't that many years ago that if you wanted all of your DVD's in an on-demand box, you had to buy one of those 200+ disc jukeboxes. Now you can rip all of your movies and have them even more readily available via
TV - it wasn't that many years ago if you wanted all of your CDs on demand and hooked up to the best AV speakers in the house, you had to own one of those 200+ disc jukeboxes too. Now you can import them all into iTunes and have much faster access to them, plus playlists of just the songs you want to hear, etc.
- it wasn't that long ago that the home movies were stored all over the place- on tape, on DVD, on 8mm film, etc. Now, you use a tool like iMovie and you can import them all into iTunes, tag them with details so you can jump right to the ones you want, etc
- it wasn't that long ago that the photo collections were stored in albums. Now you can just store them all in iPhoto and view them on the big screen in the living room when Grandma wants to take a look.
- it wasn't that long ago that a new movie or tv show you wanted to see but didn't have in the home collection required a trip to Blockbuster or similar. Now, you can rent all kinds of stuff right from home.
- Etc.
The utility of the little box is crazy great whether one could care less about 1080p vs. 720p vs. SD. $99 is crazy cheap when those (above referenced) jukeboxes used to cost hundreds of dollars and deliver much lesser user experiences.
Bottom line: if you don't have one, it has all kinds of great uses. I see it as a must have device in the AV stack. Just as a CD jukebox replacement device alone, I think it is fantastic.
If you do have one, you buy this one because it's latest & greatest and all it can do vs. whichever one you have. In my case, I still have version 1 because 1080p really mattered to me and 720p capped at 25fps vs 720p capped at 30fps wasn't big enough to move me to buy gen 2. So the jump will be very large for my own purposes.
If someone has version 2, it appears the bulk of upgrade debate is over 1080p vs. 720p max. I could easily see a lot of gen 2 people waiting for version 4 or if other desirable features are added to only gen 3.
The one other consideration would be if you own an iPhone 4s or are buying the new iPad. Their video camera shoots at 1080p. If you have a 1080p HDTV, gen 3 should let you push that 1080p right to the TV at native resolution. Gen 2 is going to downscale it to 720p for that push. I actually think this iPhone/iPad 1080p native video is WHY we even got a gen 3 version.
If you don't have one though, get it. Apple will take it back for up to 2 weeks if you don't find it a great value at $99. If you like really convenient access to all of your media- movies, TV shows, home movies, photo collections, music, etc- this is hard to beat at such a cheap price. I think the last Sony CD jukebox I bought was something like $499... and I can still recall the grinding sounds and long delay between songs when I used "shuffle" to jump around to various songs.
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BigSaintDogs, if you don't have one now, they are fantastic devices jamming all kinds of old, separate AV box functionality into a single little box. For example,
- it wasn't that many years ago that if you wanted all of your DVD's in an on-demand box, you had to buy one of those 200+ disc jukeboxes. Now you can rip all of your movies and have them even more readily available via
- it wasn't that many years ago if you wanted all of your CDs on demand and hooked up to the best AV speakers in the house, you had to own one of those 200+ disc jukeboxes too. Now you can import them all into iTunes and have much faster access to them, plus playlists of just the songs you want to hear, etc.
- it wasn't that long ago that the home movies were stored all over the place- on tape, on DVD, on 8mm film, etc. Now, you use a tool like iMovie and you can import them all into iTunes, tag them with details so you can jump right to the ones you want, etc
- it wasn't that long ago that the photo collections were stored in albums. Now you can just store them all in iPhoto and view them on the big screen in the living room when Grandma wants to take a look.
- it wasn't that long ago that a new movie or tv show you wanted to see but didn't have in the home collection required a trip to Blockbuster or similar. Now, you can rent all kinds of stuff right from home.
- Etc.
The utility of the little box is crazy great whether one could care less about 1080p vs. 720p vs. SD. $99 is crazy cheap when those (above referenced) jukeboxes used to cost hundreds of dollars and deliver much lesser user experiences.
Bottom line: if you don't have one, it has all kinds of great uses. I see it as a must have device in the AV stack. Just as a CD jukebox replacement device alone, I think it is fantastic.
If you do have one, you buy this one because it's latest & greatest and all it can do vs. whichever one you have. In my case, I still have version 1 because 1080p really mattered to me and 720p capped at 25fps vs 720p capped at 30fps wasn't big enough to move me to buy gen 2. So the jump will be very large for my own purposes.
If someone has version 2, it appears the bulk of upgrade debate is over 1080p vs. 720p max. I could easily see a lot of gen 2 people waiting for version 4 or if other desirable features are added to only gen 3.
The one other consideration would be if you own an iPhone 4s or are buying the new iPad. Their video camera shoots at 1080p. If you have a 1080p HDTV, gen 3 should let you push that 1080p right to the TV at native resolution. Gen 2 is going to downscale it to 720p for that push. I actually think this iPhone/iPad 1080p native video is WHY we even got a gen 3 version.
If you don't have one though, get it. Apple will take it back for up to 2 weeks if you don't find it a great value at $99. If you like really convenient access to all of your media- movies, TV shows, home movies, photo collections, music, etc- this is hard to beat at such a cheap price. I think the last Sony CD jukebox I bought was something like $499... and I can still recall the grinding sounds and long delay between songs when I used "shuffle" to jump around to various songs.
If I didn't know any better, I would sear you're about to make a commission from his purchase of an Apple TV.
But, yes, I agree 300% with your entire post. That little box gives you instant access to all of your media and it does it in an elegant way. For me, remote-controlling it all through an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch is the icing on the cake!
It really depends on your viewing habits and how willing you are to change. I had cable for years, but only watched a handful of shows. I was paying for channels I didn't care about. Now I just queue up interesting things in Netflix and watch that instead. I've purchased two or three season passes for some shows that I wanted to watch before they came out on disc (I also have disc-based Netflix). So for me, it has been a HUGE cost savings.
It is definitely true that people who have a long list of shows that they cannot live without will end up paying the same if not more than they would with cable or satellite. But the whole point of "cutting the cord" is not to replicate older viewing habits by cobbling together other services, but to break free of them.
I'll be getting one. It will be my first ATV. We want to be able to watch Netflix in our bedroom and that's a good enough reason for me to buy one.
I'm interested in seeing how much of its features we'll actually use. I do have secret hopes of it, plus perhaps OTA TV, to be enough for us to cut the cord but that's not really my call here (if it was, I would have cut it years ago)
I'm interested in seeing how much of its features we'll actually use. I do have secret hopes of it, plus perhaps OTA TV, to be enough for us to cut the cord but that's not really my call here (if it was, I would have cut it years ago)
we recently cut cable about a month ago and have been looking to get another apple tv but have been waiting for the update. Will move current apple TV to the bedroom and put new one in the tv room.
I did the exact same thing, except we were given a WD TV Live, which will be moved to the bedroom and the ATV3 on our main TV.
I was impressed with the WD TV at first, but after only four months of use (daily) it requires frequent power cycles before it will recognize media like it used to.
I owned an original ATV and I loved it! I am excited for the upgrade!
yeah i have thought about it for a few years but time warner cable would always give me some crazy deal for us to keep our cable. Before we were paying $68 with tax for internet/digital cable with hd box. prices were "increasing" so new bill was gonna be like $110 or something like that with tax. They would not give us any kind of break even after speaking with retention dept 4 times total. so i cut the digital cable portion and left internet only.
we bought 2 roku's also for hulu+ and amazon VOD. I also purchased a cheap rca antenna and put it in the attic and it goes to all our tv's. We get all the main channels plus have apple tv and roku. Internet only $30/month.
Currently I use my PlayStation 3 and PS3MediaServer to stream video to the living room TV. However, that's going inside an shiny new Arcade Cabinet, along with the Xbox 360 and the Dreamcast.
I was considering the Boxee box as a replacement, but after looking into aTV Flash properly, I think I'll be fine with anTV which I'd rather have anyway.
I suppose it's now just a case of waiting for a jailbreak for the new one.
I was considering the Boxee box as a replacement, but after looking into aTV Flash properly, I think I'll be fine with an
TV which I'd rather have anyway. I suppose it's now just a case of waiting for a jailbreak for the new one.
Yeah, I'm gonna have both my ATV2 and 3 hooked up at the same time, using the older one for XMBC stuff until a JB is released for the new model. Waiting always sucks.
I bought an ATV2 at the beginning of Feb. Recently talked to the local Apple Store and they said they would exchange it for the ATV3 even though I am outside the normal exchange timeframe.
So, I'll be getting one just to have the latest and greatest. I'll move the new ATV3 to the 65" TV and my other ATV2 to the kids 32" TV.
So, I'll be getting one just to have the latest and greatest. I'll move the new ATV3 to the 65" TV and my other ATV2 to the kids 32" TV.
I will pick up 1 for starts and let it sell itself. I would really like to see Apple sign up as a HBO-Go provider too. I really enjoy that service.