My biggest problems with the new Apple TV

[cdavis11]

-Ripped movies now will be listed under "Computers" rather than in the Movies tab under "My Movies" or in the TV tab under "My TV shows." Much less clean, plus I'm not sure yet how things are going to be organized under the "Computers" tab - will the interface break up TV shows, movies, music, etc. Regardless, the existing way was better.

This is my main concern. I stream everything, so internal storage is no big deal for me.

But finding that streamed content *might* have gotten a little funky. As the original poster points out, streamed content shows up in "my movies" - and it shows up with cover art and other meta information if the Apple TV/Itunes pairing is set up as sync, with syncing turned off.

I hope finding my local content isn't going to take more than a few clicks - that's a surprise coming from Apple...they may have just added a step or two to my living room "work flow".

If I can stream hulu plus from my Iphone4, then cable is gone...if I can't, it may finally be time to do the mini/plex shuffle and be done with it. I just wish Front Row could get a makeover, or Plex the ability to play Itunes protected/purchased movies natively.

 

[jaw04005]

Ripped movies now will be listed under "Computers" rather than in the Movies tab under "My Movies" or in the TV tab under "My TV shows." Much less clean, plus I'm not sure yet how things are going to be organized under the "Computers" tab - will the interface break up TV shows, movies, music, etc. Regardless, the existing way was better

This gripes me the most.

We already went through this with the Apple Take 2 update, where they put your purchased content at the bottom of the menu selection list. With the 3.0 software update, your purchased content is back where it logically should be.

Looks like with the new Apple TV will be organized like 2.0 but worse.

Minimum # of clicks to see list of purchased movies from the start-up menu

Apple TV 1.0 − 1
Apple TV 2.0 − 7
Apple TV 3.0 − 1
New Apple TV - 5


As for the new Apple TV, we’ll know the future of this product once the first units ship and someone completes a tear down.

It has a lot of potential, but if it ships with anything less than 8GB of flash memory — it’s clearly the same hobby strategy they’ve been trying to push since 2006 except this time they’ll market it as an iPad/iPhone accessory.

Jobs once said he hoped the Apple TV would someday be the fourth leg of Apple’s stool. However, a lot has changed since that statement in 2006 and now — particularly Apple’s relationships with content providers.

 

[zedsdead]

This gripes me the most.

We already went through this with the Apple Take 2 update, where they put your purchased content at the bottom of the menu selection list. With the 3.0 software update, your purchased content is back where it logically should be.

Looks like with the new Apple TV will be organized like 2.0 but worse.

Minimum # of clicks to see list of purchased movies from the start-up menu

Apple TV 1.0 − 1
Apple TV 2.0 − 7
Apple TV 3.0 − 1
New Apple TV - 5


As for the new Apple TV, we’ll know the future of this product once the first units ship and someone completes a tear down.

It has a lot of potential, but if it ships with anything less than 8GB of flash memory — it’s clearly the same hobby strategy they’ve been trying to push since 2006 except this time they’ll market it as an iPad/iPhone accessory.

Jobs once said he hoped the Apple TV would someday be the fourth leg of Apple’s stool. However, a lot has changed since that statement in 2006 and now — particularly Apple’s relationships with content providers.

This is what bothers me the most. 3.0 also gave us the most recents above each section, which I also used extensively. I am afraid those will be gone as well.

 

[CalMin]

Despite all these complaints, many of which I agree with, the thing is just $99. $99! Nice.

 

[CLuv]

$99 makes it a very nice device. I own the original TV since '07 but now my library has grown too large for the device itself considering all the music and movies I buy, not taking into account all the DVDs I've converted for use with my TV. Everything is now on my HP MediaSmart Server EX490 and streams over 802.11n without a hiccup. (Granted the base Celeron processor blows, so I dropped in a 3.06Ghz Wolfdale)

Have Home Sharing enabled on my MacBook, my fiance's MacBook Pro, and on the HP MSS. I buy something automatically copied without my having to deal with it manually. Converted DVDs moved into iTunes gets copied, super easy.

I would much rather stream then worry about am I out of room on my 40GB built in drive. Instead of doing hardware hacks on the TV to give it more storage with an external, the HP MSS allows me to make a change to the iTunes installer and know that my library is copied across the drives in the server if a drive were to fail. Running iTunes 10 on all devices.

Renting shows finally makes it worth it, I would much rather rent a show then buy it. (Unless it is the complete Chappelle's Show which I bought through iTunes). I think more studios will follow, but it will take some time on the renting.

Sure I have Pandora running on my current TV, but I can now pop that into the bedroom if I don't want to listen to my extensive personal library, and if I want to watch a movie in the bedroom I can do it now from the HP MSS. The living room is mostly for movies on my system, so for $99 it's a nice addition for my purpose.