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Goodbye Apple TV, Playstation 3 rules!
- Thread starter petvas
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For those of you who don't own a playstation 3 but do own an xbox 360, you can use a program called 360 connect to do the same thing. Just an FYI.
Until Connect360 gets updated to allow for some type of structure to your video library, it's usefulness is very limited. They say it's coming, but in the time being you might want to check out Twonky MediaServer.
Isn't AppleTv pretty much just Front Row for a TV...plus renting now. I'd rather rip my movies and have them on hand whenever I want to watch.
How is Apple TV better? Maybe I'm missing something.
How is Apple TV better? Maybe I'm missing something.
One question: how do you figure that the ATV and the PS3 are the same price? 229 vs. 500?
I'm glad you are happy with your purchase. Be careful, though, I've heard that the PS3 can cause irrational exuberance.
Did you read the first page of posts where the price was discussed?
The OP clearly lives in Germany for a start. They have a different currency there, it's called the Euro. The AppleTV costs 300 Euro where the PS3 costs 400 Euro. However, he also said that he bought the 160GB AppleTV which costs 399 Euro.
In Australia, AppleTV costs $450, PS3 costs $600. We have our own currency as well.
Lastly the PS3 does not cost $500US.
There is a whole world outside the United States.....
This is the clearest post on the topic!
I don't have an Apple TV for the very reason I don't use podcasts, don't have any movies or TV shows or videos for iTunes, don't have all that much music and I use my iPod for that or listen to it on my laptop with headhphones.
I don't have my PS3 YET, but I will by December and for the very reason for HD movies and Gaming!
Two very different machines...ATV is for a small group that is on the cutting edge of tech right now and maybe eventually it may be for the masses, but I doubt it. Steve himself said it was a "hobbby" if I am not mistaken...something to toy around with and feel the water on this digital age...but not a main source of market leverage...
Seeing as my two AppleTV units don't work right and I can't rent anything (heading to an Apple Store tomorrow to have them checked out and/or replaced), I can't really comment on that aspect of things, but the HD trailers looked darned nice to me (at least as good as cable HDTV). I don't like what I've seen in lower than HD resolution on it (definitely not anamorphic DVD quality from what I've seen). I never had ANY intentions of ripping movies to a hard drive (I'm just not that darn lazy that I can't walk over to my racks of DVDs and pick one out for the next 1.5 - 2 hours), but rather I bought them for two purposes and the PS3 can't do either.
1> AirTunes streaming to the two HiFi rooms I have (one is a high-end music only system and the other room downstairs is a 6.1 channel Yamaha with PSB speakers based home theater with a 720P projector and 93" screen). Why AirTunes and not just using the menu? It's simple. When I'm just listening to music, I don't want to have to turn on a TV, let alone a projector with expensive lamps that only have around 2000-2500 hour lifespans. No way. I bought an iPod Touch and using Signal and/or Remote Buddy (both have their strong points for searching and/or building playlists, etc.), I can control any room in the house hooked up to the AirTunes system and surf through album titles and show album art on it. I can plug it in via an adapter and I won't even drain the rechargeable battery (set up on a coffee table between two easy listening chairs in the HiFi room).
The PS3 can only stream via menus (i.e. a monitor or tv must be on at all times you wish to see what you're doing) and it cannot handle Apple Lossles or even FLAC so you either have to waste 2x as much hard drive space using WAVs (which can't handle TAGs or artwork built-in) or you have use some crappy lossy format like MP3 which suck for anyone that does serious music listening on a decent system.
2> I wanted an HDTV rental system. I don't know about Germany, but I know in the U.S. if you want blu-ray rentals, you more than likely need to use NetFlicks and that means waiting 1-2 days to get your movies to watch. There are no local blu-ray rental places around here. Plus something like 30-40% of all Blu-ray discs (form what I've heard) coming from Netflicks don't play smoothly because little scratches really screw up such a high density discs so it's a very poor rental format (especially one that goes through the mail). My projector is only 720P to begin with so the 720P limit is no big deal. As I mentioned, the HD trailers I saw looked as good as any cable tv HD signal I've seen. True, SOME blu-ray movies look substantionally better/cleaner, but others I've seen look like crap (i.e. bad transfers). You cannot be sure that AppleTV's rental quality won't improve over time as Blu-ray's early discs all sucked to high heaven (some DVDs looked better than their Blue-ray counterparts!). IF I'm renting a movie, I don't care if it's not archive quality. I just want something better than DVD. If I want to keep the movie, I will probably then BUY it on Blu-ray in the future. But for now, Blu-ray discs are too expensive ($25-30+) compared to DVD and many aren't much better looking than DVD so they aren't worth their premium, IMO.
Now that's why I got an AppleTV. That doesn't mean I won't ALSO consider getting a PS3 in the future (I'd like to see one with the features I want for a reasonable price; right now only the 40GB crapola version is reasonably priced). But I don't see why I'd want to get rid of an AppleTV (assuming I can get one that works properly) as I'd still prefer it for music streaming and being able to rent movies the same day (or hour even) that I decide I want to watch a movie, not order a movie and wait 1-2 days to get it in the mail (and of course the post office does not deliver on Sundays in the U.S.)
Petvas, you are sorely missing the point!
You are comparing apples to oranges. The AppleTV and the PS3 are different devices. The AppleTV is a media extender device that can rout video and music to you TV and home theater. The PS3 as you are using it, is a high definition disc player. No one can dispute that Blu-ray and the now defunct HD DVD are the highest quality high definition home formats, easily beating high def cable, satellite or the high def available via the Apple TV.
A more rational comparison would be to use the PS3 only as a movie downloading device or as an extension of multimedia content on your computer. I would submit on that front, the AppleTV is a more convenient and better device.
I have both in my system, and I plan on keeping them for their different functions.
You are comparing apples to oranges. The AppleTV and the PS3 are different devices. The AppleTV is a media extender device that can rout video and music to you TV and home theater. The PS3 as you are using it, is a high definition disc player. No one can dispute that Blu-ray and the now defunct HD DVD are the highest quality high definition home formats, easily beating high def cable, satellite or the high def available via the Apple TV.
A more rational comparison would be to use the PS3 only as a movie downloading device or as an extension of multimedia content on your computer. I would submit on that front, the AppleTV is a more convenient and better device.
I have both in my system, and I plan on keeping them for their different functions.
Which many Americans seem to not understand.
@Sean Dempsey if it was Too long an you Didn't read why bother posting?
You are comparing apples to oranges. The AppleTV and the PS3 are different devices. The AppleTV is a media extender device that can rout video and music to you TV and home theater. The PS3 as you are using it, is a high definition disc player. No one can dispute that Blu-ray and the now defunct HD DVD are the highest quality high definition home formats, easily beating high def cable, satellite or the high def available via the Apple TV.
A more rational comparison would be to use the PS3 only as a movie downloading device or as an extension of multimedia content on your computer. I would submit on that front, the AppleTV is a more convenient and better device.
I have both in my system, and I plan on keeping them for their different functions.
I am comparing the functionality offered by two almost same priced devices (in Europe at least).
Apple TV gives me a great integration with iTunes, supports h.264 videos, can play my purchased iTunes content, and it is a great front end to iTunes. The quality suffers though! Even with the best settings the videos are a bit blurry. The rental offerings aren't that big at the moment and the 24 hour watching window is not enough for the price...
The Playstation 3 on the other hand offers me Blu-Ray playback, Games and media streaming capability (with Medialink on Mac). iTunes Video playlists are being displayed, something that the Apple TV still doesn't do! Streaming works great, much better than with the Apple TV.
The quality is also much better and the video support is better than the Apple TV's....
I want to watch movies at a great quality and the Playstation is by far the best device for the job. Everything else is just an added bonus for me. I can also have my Pictures on the playstation, the only thing I cant do is play iTunes purchased content, but I dont really care about it. The main reason for having the Apple TV was to play movies and organize a large collection. This task can certainly be better accomplished with the Playstation.
As far as rentals go, I can rent Blu-Ray Discs for 1,5 Euro a disc and keep it as long as I want to!!! Videobuster.de has many subscription models, where you pay a monthly fee and then you pay extra for the ones you actually rent...
I agree that the Apple TV has a better interface but that doesn't make me want to go back to it...The problems are much more bigger and I didn't find it logical to keep it since I got the Playstation...
Problems of the Apple TV:
- Streaming suffers if bitrate higher than 3500kbit/sec
- Picture quality blurry, high bit rates not possible! Even 5000kbit/sec dont play well...10Mbit or higher isnt possible
- 720p support only...
- Dolby Digital 5.1 support only with HD rented content (yes I know about Handbrake and Visual Hub)
- no DTS support
- slow
- not expandable...At least Sony provided a way to upgrade the HD and supports also external Hard Drives...
I read the whole thread again and I cant help feeling that most people try to defend Apple. I understand it fully, I am also an Apple fan...
The thing is that the Apple TV is a device for the masses and it has the "good enough" mentality...I hate "good enough", I want something better than that! The "Good enough" mentality is something that made Microsoft the biggest company in the world!
I think we should all try to be more logical when deciding about a product.
What are the features that Apple TV offers? How much does it cost? What about the quality? Please remember that the Apple TV is missing things essential to viewing movies, like subtitles, multiple audio track support and closed captions...I know they are now supported but please tell me, how many films are out there that do support them??? I' ll tell you: None!!!!
Apple speaks that films with Standard Definition are of DVD quality. This is simple a lie! The quality is certainly worse than DVD and I am not comparing it to DVDs upscaled to 1080p....
The High Definition films offered by Apple TV can only be rented and the user has no other option available but to rent the available films or download pirated content in mkv files and convert them to mp4...
The latest Apple TV update has made it impossible to tell which content is stored locally on the Apple TV and what is available only on the iTunes computer paired with the Apple TV...The only way to bypass it is uncheck the option in iTunes...
I have tried hard liking it, believe me! I converted 400 movies to mp4, I converted hundreds of mkvs to mp4, and then came Take 2 and brought Dolby Digital support! Apple TV made me forgot how nice a movie can sound! I was so blind I forgot I had a DTS capable receiver and hundreds of DVDs sitting there...No, I wanted to use the Apple TV....
You know what? I don't anymore! I am sick and tired of mediocre quality. I want to get the best quality for my money and buying the Playstation 3 was the best move I could make. I sold my Apple TV for 270 Euro and bought the Playstation for 390, so I paid only 120 Euros more for something that is ages ahead and offers a much better quality and experience than the Apple TV...
The thing is that the Apple TV is a device for the masses and it has the "good enough" mentality...I hate "good enough", I want something better than that! The "Good enough" mentality is something that made Microsoft the biggest company in the world!
I think we should all try to be more logical when deciding about a product.
What are the features that Apple TV offers? How much does it cost? What about the quality? Please remember that the Apple TV is missing things essential to viewing movies, like subtitles, multiple audio track support and closed captions...I know they are now supported but please tell me, how many films are out there that do support them??? I' ll tell you: None!!!!
Apple speaks that films with Standard Definition are of DVD quality. This is simple a lie! The quality is certainly worse than DVD and I am not comparing it to DVDs upscaled to 1080p....
The High Definition films offered by Apple TV can only be rented and the user has no other option available but to rent the available films or download pirated content in mkv files and convert them to mp4...
The latest Apple TV update has made it impossible to tell which content is stored locally on the Apple TV and what is available only on the iTunes computer paired with the Apple TV...The only way to bypass it is uncheck the option in iTunes...
I have tried hard liking it, believe me! I converted 400 movies to mp4, I converted hundreds of mkvs to mp4, and then came Take 2 and brought Dolby Digital support! Apple TV made me forgot how nice a movie can sound! I was so blind I forgot I had a DTS capable receiver and hundreds of DVDs sitting there...No, I wanted to use the Apple TV....
You know what? I don't anymore! I am sick and tired of mediocre quality. I want to get the best quality for my money and buying the Playstation 3 was the best move I could make. I sold my Apple TV for 270 Euro and bought the Playstation for 390, so I paid only 120 Euros more for something that is ages ahead and offers a much better quality and experience than the Apple TV...
I'll stick with Apple TV.
I like Sony almost as much as I like Microsoft. If I am a fan of Apple it would have to be due to Apple simplifying things so well.
I see the Playstation 3 as a 'game console', and I have no interest in playing games.
The Apple TV is designed to be a wireless bridge to get iTunes to your TV, and it does that very well.
I like Sony almost as much as I like Microsoft. If I am a fan of Apple it would have to be due to Apple simplifying things so well.
I see the Playstation 3 as a 'game console', and I have no interest in playing games.
The Apple TV is designed to be a wireless bridge to get iTunes to your TV, and it does that very well.
Well I'm not trying to mindlessly defend Apple, but I do think that you are misunderstanding my argument. If you can only buy one device then by all means the PS3 is the hands down winner. It is a great Blu-ray player and and a decent game device. The media streaming capabilities are an added bonus.
But if you want a device that will integrate your digital music library with your home theater and will play video on demand is the PS3 better at doing this than the AppleTV? (Ignore the other PS3 functions that the aTV does not do). My position is that I don't think so. I got my PS3 to play Blu-ray discs and I got the AppleTV to interface with my digital music library. However, I am interested in people's opinions about the PS3 and XBox as media servers and rental devices because that is what I use the AppleTV for. If there is something better for less than $1,000 I'd like to know.
Finally, you stance that you are shocked (shocked!) by the responses you got on an Apple fan site dedicated to the AppleTV is just a bit disingenuous. With your title you have to admit that you were trolling just a little bit! Personally, I don't mind a lively board and hey, it got me to read your thread.
But if you want a device that will integrate your digital music library with your home theater and will play video on demand is the PS3 better at doing this than the AppleTV? (Ignore the other PS3 functions that the aTV does not do). My position is that I don't think so. I got my PS3 to play Blu-ray discs and I got the AppleTV to interface with my digital music library. However, I am interested in people's opinions about the PS3 and XBox as media servers and rental devices because that is what I use the AppleTV for. If there is something better for less than $1,000 I'd like to know.
Finally, you stance that you are shocked (shocked!)
by the responses you got on an Apple fan site dedicated to the AppleTV is just a bit disingenuous. With your title you have to admit that you were trolling just a little bit! Personally, I don't mind a lively board and hey, it got me to read your thread.
I simply don't view the AppleTV as the 'same thing' as a PS3. A PS3 is a gaming device that can also play Blu-ray movies. The thing about Blu-ray movies is that you have to actually have physical Blu-ray discs. In other words, you either have to have a local place that rents them ala DVD (in which case, you might as well say a DVD player beats an AppleTV if that's all you care about is DVD quality and rentals) or you have to use something like Netflix, which means scratched unusable discs at least PART of the time AND you have to wait 1-2 days to get those discs and all the trips to the mailbox and back, etc.
I personally have no interest in buying my TV shows on an AppleTV unless I only cared about one or two shows, in which case I might get rid of cable to use it (but then they'd charge me a surcharge for internet only use). But combine whole house audio streaming (with an iPod Touch as a WiFi remote) with HD movie rentals (which may not be Blu-ray quality, but you don't have to wait for them or depend on a local rental place (which could be out of stock) or worry about scratched discs. The quality I've seen looks at least as good as cable HDTV rentals with a vastly larger selection than cable offers (here cable charges $1 more for HDTV movies on demand than Apple and they only offer about a dozen at any given time).
So to me, at least, you're comparing apples (forgive the pun) to oranges. The ONLY thing the PS3 has in common hardware wise to an AppleTV is the streaming capability and it cannot handle AAC DRM files (if you've ever used iTunes store to buy music for an iPod, forget about streaming them to a PS3 unless they were iTunes Plus) and it cannot handle either FLAC *or* Apple Lossless which means you have to use WAV for high quality playback or deal with lossy MP3 or non-DRM AAC. You also HAVE to have a monitor turned on in order to stream (whereas an Iphone or iPod touch or even a laptop can control iTunes for AirTunes without needing a monitor turned on). Thus, the streaming capabilities are LIMITED on a PS3 by comparison.
Personally, I just want to rent HD movies (if I REALLY like them, I will either buy a DVD or a Blu-Ray disc depending on the quality rating for that movie on Blu-Ray (some are crap)) and stream my music library around the house. I might dump some of my music video and concert DVDs to stream, but otherwise, I'll just use a DVD player to watch DVDs.
As for Apple, I like MacOSX and the iPhone/iPod touch are really cool, but I'm no Apple fanboy. I downright despise Apple's business practices almost as much as Microsoft (blocking standards and competing companies artificially by not allowing them in Apple products, be they hardware platforms like the iPhone or standards found in iTunes (e.g. no FLAC support).
I personally have no interest in buying my TV shows on an AppleTV unless I only cared about one or two shows, in which case I might get rid of cable to use it (but then they'd charge me a surcharge for internet only use). But combine whole house audio streaming (with an iPod Touch as a WiFi remote) with HD movie rentals (which may not be Blu-ray quality, but you don't have to wait for them or depend on a local rental place (which could be out of stock) or worry about scratched discs. The quality I've seen looks at least as good as cable HDTV rentals with a vastly larger selection than cable offers (here cable charges $1 more for HDTV movies on demand than Apple and they only offer about a dozen at any given time).
So to me, at least, you're comparing apples (forgive the pun) to oranges. The ONLY thing the PS3 has in common hardware wise to an AppleTV is the streaming capability and it cannot handle AAC DRM files (if you've ever used iTunes store to buy music for an iPod, forget about streaming them to a PS3 unless they were iTunes Plus) and it cannot handle either FLAC *or* Apple Lossless which means you have to use WAV for high quality playback or deal with lossy MP3 or non-DRM AAC. You also HAVE to have a monitor turned on in order to stream (whereas an Iphone or iPod touch or even a laptop can control iTunes for AirTunes without needing a monitor turned on). Thus, the streaming capabilities are LIMITED on a PS3 by comparison.
Personally, I just want to rent HD movies (if I REALLY like them, I will either buy a DVD or a Blu-Ray disc depending on the quality rating for that movie on Blu-Ray (some are crap)) and stream my music library around the house. I might dump some of my music video and concert DVDs to stream, but otherwise, I'll just use a DVD player to watch DVDs.
As for Apple, I like MacOSX and the iPhone/iPod touch are really cool, but I'm no Apple fanboy. I downright despise Apple's business practices almost as much as Microsoft (blocking standards and competing companies artificially by not allowing them in Apple products, be they hardware platforms like the iPhone or standards found in iTunes (e.g. no FLAC support).
That's funny, that's exactly how I feel about the PS3 when it comes to being a media center. "Sure it's ugly as sin and a pain to navigate through, but it's good enough."
Like I said before, larger file sizes don't mean the video looks better. I have done side-by-side comparisons of a number of DVD encodes in handbrake and can't see a better quality image on files ripped at high bitrates. I came to the conclusion that it would be stupid to fill up countless hard drives with my movies just so I can know that my movies have a higher bitrate.
P-Worm
I got the Apple TV to try out. I have a PS3 and a 360. I was going to settle on the PS3 as a media viewer. I had ripped about 50 of my DVD's to MP4 using handbrakes PS3 default. But then I tried streaming from my PC, and I just couldn't figure out why it didn't work as well as I would have hoped. I had issues with some of the movies not being recognized by the PS3 (however, putting that movie on the PS3 itself worked fine). Also had stuttering issues, even though I was using Wireless N. People were praising this TVersity app for Windows, and I just dont see why. All I want is a SIMPLE solution.
I saw the Apple TV in action, thought it would work for me, asked about it on the forums also. Got iTunes for my Windows machine, installed fine. Added the 50 or so ripped MP4's to it, all were recognized. Downloaded album art for each one, and then checked the Apple TV. All the movies were there, and all the album art was there. Everything looked clean and organized. Picked a random movie and hit play. Took a few seconds to buffer and thats it. Does it look like the DVD? No, but it looks good enough for what I want to do, back up my DVD's so I can store the cases away (I dont want my place looking like blockbuster).
The Apple TV may not be the greatest thing ever, but for a simple way to extend your iTunes library, it does a fine job. I currently have no interest in downloading movies for own or rent from iTMS, so I cannot comment on that.
I saw the Apple TV in action, thought it would work for me, asked about it on the forums also. Got iTunes for my Windows machine, installed fine. Added the 50 or so ripped MP4's to it, all were recognized. Downloaded album art for each one, and then checked the Apple TV. All the movies were there, and all the album art was there. Everything looked clean and organized. Picked a random movie and hit play. Took a few seconds to buffer and thats it. Does it look like the DVD? No, but it looks good enough for what I want to do, back up my DVD's so I can store the cases away (I dont want my place looking like blockbuster).
The Apple TV may not be the greatest thing ever, but for a simple way to extend your iTunes library, it does a fine job. I currently have no interest in downloading movies for own or rent from iTMS, so I cannot comment on that.
I am comparing the two devices from the Video Playback perspective. I do not care about Pictures and Music Playback through my TV. If you do, then the Apple TV is great for the job. I can watch my pictures on my Apple Cinema Display that's connected to my Mac Pro and also sits in the living room, just like my TV. If I want to listen to Music, then my Harman Cardon Speakers (connected to the Mac Pro) do the job great and I don't need to do that through my TV set.
The Playstation does support more Video formats than the AppleTV. It also plays higher picture quality movies. (Blu-Ray). That is its main advantage.
I just think that the Apple TV doesn't have a place in my living room, since all I care is video playback.
The Playstation does support more Video formats than the AppleTV. It also plays higher picture quality movies. (Blu-Ray). That is its main advantage.
I just think that the Apple TV doesn't have a place in my living room, since all I care is video playback.
Like I said, Blu-ray playback requires having actual blu-ray discs. You're comparing a hard format medium to a streaming medium. Apples and Oranges. If buying or renting local blu-ray discs works for you, great. I can't argue with someone's preferences for playback, etc.
I finally got my AppleTV units working fully (no idea what changed after I visited the Apple store with them, unless something wasn't fully activated on my iTunes account), but in any case, I just rented the comedy "Balls of Fury" in HD and I have to say, it looked fantastic on my 720P Panasonic projector and 93" screen! It looked AT LEAST as good as any of the newer movies I've seen on HDNet Movies, probably better (more like regular HDNet showing HDTV programming; converted movies often have film grain. This movie had very little at all and looked VERY sharp). While I don't currently have Blu-Ray here to compare, it's hard to imagine it looking a whole heck of a lot sharper. Admittedly, my projector isn't 1080P (those are still several thousand dollars) and given that viewing 720P on a 1080P LCD, DLP or Plasma set would result in the set having to scale the picture, maybe that's why some think it's a little "soft" looking on their flat-screen sets??? It's sharp as hell here with a native 720P and I almost never saw any artifacting (I can think of one scene with a tiny little area of a flat color where I saw it for a second or two). I would say it's definitely cleaner than cable HDTV on average. Of course, the Panasonic projector I have (PT-AX100U) was one of the top rated 720P LCD projectors out there, so it's scaling hardware even watching 1080i or 1080P material is probably going to be better than cheap flat-screen sets scale 720P to 1080P. That would be my guess, anyway as it's not "soft" looking at all here, but ultra-sharp (I would say nearly as good as any HD signal I've seen so far on cable, really and Armstrong Cable doesn't squeeze the crap out of their HD signals like some cable companies do either. They're definitely better than Time-Warner and were voted independent cable provider of the year last year so their HD isn't total crap is what I'm saying for comparison purposes.
As for time to start the movie, I would say on my 5Mbit Internet connection, the movie said it was ready to watch within 1 minute of starting to download (2.0 software on AppleTV). I don't plan to upgrade to 2.1 if that is going to increase the time. There wasn't a single stutter or glitch the entire movie. Dolby Digital sound was fine (same as any DVD) on my 6.1 system.
So now that it appears to be working normally, I would say for a mere $229, it's a pretty good buy. I have THREE rooms of speakers in my house. One set is in the den (well, technically both computers there have their own speakers) and those are Klipsch THX 2.1 speakers (200 watt sub with satellites... pretty good for computer speakers, IMO). My main music listening room has $2000/pair Carver ribbons speakers with a custom active crossover network biamped with over 400 watts per channel (into 4 ohms). My home theater downstairs has PSB speaker with identical drivers in a 6 channel configuration plus a 250 watt 15" subwoofer for the .1 LFE channel with the aforementioned 93" screen and Panasonic 720P projector.
Frankly, I want to have music all around the house and with the AppleTV units, iTunes on my Mac server and an iPod Touch as a WiFi remote I can carry around (or use the AppleTV interface downstairs on the home theater), I can play my entire Apple Lossless music collection in any room or multiple rooms at the same time all in sync. No PS3 can do any of that. So for me, AppleTV works out just fine. That doesn't mean I don't plan to get a PS3 for gaming and buying the relatively few movies I'd watch more than once or twice in the future. I don't see them as fulfilling the same function and there's no reason you couldn't have both. An Airport Express alone to use for AirTunes costs $99. For $129 more, you can do that plus stream video and rent movies in any room in the house. That's not a whole lot more to do that, IMO.
Now if AppleTV would offer a subscription based offer for a reasonable price, THAT would be even better. I'd never have to worry about forgetting to record a tv show again (well most shows anyway) and Netflix would have zero appeal.
I finally got my AppleTV units working fully (no idea what changed after I visited the Apple store with them, unless something wasn't fully activated on my iTunes account), but in any case, I just rented the comedy "Balls of Fury" in HD and I have to say, it looked fantastic on my 720P Panasonic projector and 93" screen! It looked AT LEAST as good as any of the newer movies I've seen on HDNet Movies, probably better (more like regular HDNet showing HDTV programming; converted movies often have film grain. This movie had very little at all and looked VERY sharp). While I don't currently have Blu-Ray here to compare, it's hard to imagine it looking a whole heck of a lot sharper. Admittedly, my projector isn't 1080P (those are still several thousand dollars) and given that viewing 720P on a 1080P LCD, DLP or Plasma set would result in the set having to scale the picture, maybe that's why some think it's a little "soft" looking on their flat-screen sets??? It's sharp as hell here with a native 720P and I almost never saw any artifacting (I can think of one scene with a tiny little area of a flat color where I saw it for a second or two). I would say it's definitely cleaner than cable HDTV on average. Of course, the Panasonic projector I have (PT-AX100U) was one of the top rated 720P LCD projectors out there, so it's scaling hardware even watching 1080i or 1080P material is probably going to be better than cheap flat-screen sets scale 720P to 1080P. That would be my guess, anyway as it's not "soft" looking at all here, but ultra-sharp (I would say nearly as good as any HD signal I've seen so far on cable, really and Armstrong Cable doesn't squeeze the crap out of their HD signals like some cable companies do either. They're definitely better than Time-Warner and were voted independent cable provider of the year last year so their HD isn't total crap is what I'm saying for comparison purposes.
As for time to start the movie, I would say on my 5Mbit Internet connection, the movie said it was ready to watch within 1 minute of starting to download (2.0 software on AppleTV). I don't plan to upgrade to 2.1 if that is going to increase the time. There wasn't a single stutter or glitch the entire movie. Dolby Digital sound was fine (same as any DVD) on my 6.1 system.
So now that it appears to be working normally, I would say for a mere $229, it's a pretty good buy. I have THREE rooms of speakers in my house. One set is in the den (well, technically both computers there have their own speakers) and those are Klipsch THX 2.1 speakers (200 watt sub with satellites... pretty good for computer speakers, IMO). My main music listening room has $2000/pair Carver ribbons speakers with a custom active crossover network biamped with over 400 watts per channel (into 4 ohms). My home theater downstairs has PSB speaker with identical drivers in a 6 channel configuration plus a 250 watt 15" subwoofer for the .1 LFE channel with the aforementioned 93" screen and Panasonic 720P projector.
Frankly, I want to have music all around the house and with the AppleTV units, iTunes on my Mac server and an iPod Touch as a WiFi remote I can carry around (or use the AppleTV interface downstairs on the home theater), I can play my entire Apple Lossless music collection in any room or multiple rooms at the same time all in sync. No PS3 can do any of that. So for me, AppleTV works out just fine. That doesn't mean I don't plan to get a PS3 for gaming and buying the relatively few movies I'd watch more than once or twice in the future. I don't see them as fulfilling the same function and there's no reason you couldn't have both. An Airport Express alone to use for AirTunes costs $99. For $129 more, you can do that plus stream video and rent movies in any room in the house. That's not a whole lot more to do that, IMO.
Now if AppleTV would offer a subscription based offer for a reasonable price, THAT would be even better. I'd never have to worry about forgetting to record a tv show again (well most shows anyway) and Netflix would have zero appeal.