How does the Apple TV compare to the Xbox 360?

[r12ski]

I found this article to be extremely helpful in comparing not just the Xbox to the TV but also other services as well.

It an objective analysis of each.

For me, the xbox is noisy and my tv is smaller than 50" so apple tv FTW.

Heres the article: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/02/14/apple_tv_take_2_review_part_2_hd_movie_comparisons.html&page=1

 

[SpinThis!]

My buddy has a 360 and I have an AppleTV.

One thing to consider—where is your content coming from? If you have a lot of DVDs you want to convert, the tools for converting them to WMV (on both mac and windows) just aren't very friendly or available... and we've tried a lot of them. Unless you can live with WMV files (urrggh), the 360 doesn't support 5.1 surround with H.264 if that matters to you. And don't even get me started on why the XBox 360 can only stream certain content over MCE. IMO, WMV9 /VC1 files are bigger than H.264 and look worse at the same bitrate.

Out of the box, the ATV has relatively poor codec support but if you hack it, you can get pretty much everything to play—such as xvid and wmv files. Even if you don't hack it, the AppleTV is pretty capable—depending on where you content comes from (whether you convert movies yourself or rent/buy them from the Apple store).

The Media Extender is a bit more useful (you can use it as a live DVR for example if your PC has a tuner card) but only if you use Windows XP/MCE or Vista combination. Apple TV is simply a much easier experience if you own a Mac imo.

 

[err404]

Out of the box, the ATV has relatively poor codec support but if you hack it, you can get pretty much everything to play—such as xvid and wmv files.

Not to be discouraging but, if you are buying a NEW AppleTV, they are NOT easy to hack 'yet'. (An original AppleTV 1.0 is a piece of cake, but they are hard to find)
Most of the documentation and procedures online are for hacking 1.0 boxes. Even the Take2 hacking procedures require that your safe boot partition is from an original 1.0. Documentation for 1.1 and 2.0 AppleTV hacks are poor at best. The recent release of 2.0.1 confuses things even more since if you mess up, you may not be able to easily get back to 2.0.
Thats not to say that it can't be done, but if you go this route be prepared to spend a lot of time figuring it out, especially if you are not running Tiger. I tried it a month ago and had a VERY hard time getting AFP working.

In short, as of right now, I would not recommend buying a new AppleTV if you are depending hacking it for functionality you need.

 

[usarcher]

I stumble onto this thread looking for an answer to my issue. I just got the Apple TV this weekend got everything synced, played some music, and watched a HD rental. Everything works and looks beautiful. My concern is about the fan noise. Every where I look everyone say that they can't hear the TV, but I can definitely hear the fan spinning from across the room when there is no other sound in the room, or in a quiet part of the music/movie.

Is there anyone out there that can hear their TV or is it just mine and I should look into replacing it?

Thanks

 

[mallbritton]

I stumble onto this thread looking for an answer to my issue. I just got the Apple TV this weekend got everything synced, played some music, and watched a HD rental. Everything works and looks beautiful. My concern is about the fan noise. Every where I look everyone say that they can't hear the TV, but I can definitely hear the fan spinning from across the room when there is no other sound in the room, or in a quiet part of the music/movie.

Is there anyone out there that can hear their TV or is it just mine and I should look into replacing it?

Thanks

The TV doesn't have a fan. Perhaps you're hearing the hard drive spinning (which would be bad) or you're hearing something else.

Regards,
Michael

 

[usarcher]

I could be wrong but in the dissection at Macworld:

http://www.macworld.com/article/57079/2007/03/appletvharddrive.html

sure looks like that black box is a fan. Plus when you put the TV to sleep and the hard drive spins down the noise is still there.

 

[err404]

My AppleTV, while not silent, is very quiet. That said I do hear it when the drive spins up. If you have a constant noise that your hearing, you may want to have it looked at.

 

[jaw04005]

Every where I look everyone say that they can't hear the TV, but I can definitely hear the fan spinning from across the room when there is no other sound in the room, or in a quiet part of the music/movie.

Is there anyone out there that can hear their TV or is it just mine and I should look into replacing it?

Do you by chance have the 160GB? I have a 160GB and 40GB. The 160GB is audible, but not distracting. However, my 40GB is completely silent even up to the ear.

If your Apple TV is noticeably audible to the point where it's distracting, by all means contact Apple. You may have a faulty unit.

 

[MikieMikie]

I assumed there was no fan, and Cave Man, who seems to have his unit apart more than together clearly states that the CPU has a cooling fan. You can see the fan in some of his pictures of his Apple TV.

I have a 160 and cannot hear it from across the room.

 

[usarcher]

Do you by chance have the 160GB? I have a 160GB and 40GB. The 160GB is audible, but not distracting. However, my 40GB is completely silent even up to the ear.

If your Apple TV is noticeably audible to the point where it's distracting, by all means contact Apple. You may have a faulty unit.

I got the 40GB version. Sounds like I will give Apple a call or take it back to BestBuy to pick up a different one.

Anyone know how to completely wipe the drive before I return it.

One other thing, I would still highly recommend the TV and if you want a good deal on one, BestBuy has a 10% off coupon that will work

 

[SpinThis!]

Even the Take2 hacking procedures require that your safe boot partition is from an original 1.0.

Wrong. You just patchstick it, as you do in take 1. I bought a Take 2 model and had no problems getting wmv and divx support, coachsurfer, and other things to work but others mileage will vary. Even Windows users can get this running now. (Of course the legality of all this is a grey area if that matters to you.)

I would not recommend buying a new AppleTV if you are depending hacking it for functionality you need.

I'll agree with you here... I wouldn't recommend buying an AppleTV if you don't like what it does out of the box, period... the hacks just add a few useful additions. (Same goes with the iPhone but that's a subject for a different thread.)

 

[err404]

Wrong. You just patchstick it, as you do in take 1. I bought a Take 2 model and had no problems getting wmv and divx support, coachsurfer, and other things to work but others mileage will vary. Even Windows users can get this running now. (Of course the legality of all this is a grey area if that matters to you.)

I had does this a month ago and the process was MUCH more painful then. I was running Leopard and it needed Tiger system files. It looks like they have scripted using the combo updater to get these now.

After the Patchstick, the part I had the most issues with was with connecting to AFP shares (FTPing every movie file to the ATV was too cumbersome). The process (at the time) copied the AFP system files from a 1.0 restore partition. These files were removed after the ATV 1.1 update which stopped new boxes from working with AFP.