OK AppleTV haters, time to put up...

[Tilpots]

Uhh that is totally incorrect. If you want to stream videos / music to it then yeah, sure, you gotta have a computer to stream the video / music from, but if you want to buy or rent TV shows, movies and music from the iTunes store and watch them you can do so without an additional computer, the files are stored on the internal drive. No external computer required.

I set this up for my sisters kids. I bought them an ATV for Christmas and replaced the internal drive with a much larger one and filled it up with all the cartoons I had, Flintstones, Jetsons, Thundercats, Scooby Doo etc. Thousands of episodes. They have no computer at home and are technologically inept, yet I didn't even have to show them how to use it.

That is the one great thing about the ATV, any idiot can use it, hell even my mom can use it and she can barely figure out a microwave.

So you don't need a computer as you stated, true. You could buy every single thing form the iTMS. But then what did you use to fill up the Harddrive? Uh, had to be another computer in there somewhere.

 

[mrgreen4242]

snipped long quote

yes, the mini will do all the media center things the ATV will do, plus other non-media center things as well. I'm just saying that the mini is overkill in terms of price for those added features. I have ZERO desire to browse the web or do anything other than watch TV/movies on my TV.

Adding the cost of your home PC to the equation is just silly. It's a sunk cost; if you are looking at an ATV you. Almost certainly have a computer already. I can see the argument that a mini might be better for someone who has a laptop rather than a stationary, always on desktop system, but hacking the ATV to allow USB drives (and more file format support) is an equally valid solution. (Anyone capable of setting up a mini as a n HTCPC could figure out "hacking" an ATV).

We also canceled our cable over a year ago in favor of the ATV and Netflix. We don't even bother with live TV.

If the pricing was closer on the two devices I would agree with you, but apples to apples, I think the ATV provides more value, if a smaller feature set.

 

[Tilpots]

If the pricing was closer on the two devices I would agree with you, but apples to apples, I think the ATV provides more value, if a smaller feature set.

Here's is where I'll disagree, but everyone's entitled to their opinion because all of our situations our different. Buying the Mini has been the best computer purchase I have made to date. I work in TV and watch quite a bit of it. I couldn't get by on what the AppleTV offers. The Mini has filled every media need I've asked of it and it does so much more.

I wanted the AppleTV to succeed just like a lot of other folks, but after literally years of waiting for an acceptable upgrade, I had to move on. I'm glad I did.

 

[randy98mtu]

I have an ATV and I was getting tired of waiting for the update. The ATV is great, but I feel it could be made much better. I find the existing hardware falls short even for the advertised 720p playback. I see a lot of stuttering. So I got a Mac Mini and installed Plex. It's great for playing 1080p movies. But it doesn't "just work." It is more of a hobby than something you can just turn on and used. The overall experience is not as good as the ATV. I really miss the seamless integration with iTunes and the great picture slideshow screensaver. i have that running on my ATV any time we have people over and it's a great conversation starter. So i still find myself moving my ATV back and forth and the Mini is only used for 1080p movie playback.

So count me in the camp anxious for an ATV update, because I still find it to be the best media server.

 

[B.A.T]

Mini's are NEVER in the refurb store.

There are four of them in the refurb store right now.
http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/mac?mco=OTY2ODY3Nw

 

[mrgreen4242]

There are four of them in the refurb store right now.
http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/mac?mco=OTY2ODY3Nw

And they were gonetje same day, probably within an hour or two. It was a bit of hyperbole to to say they are never available refurb, but in reality they are very hard to buy refurbished.

 

[Tilpots]

So OP, after all this discussion, what are you going to do? Just curious...

 

[mrgreen4242]

So OP, after all this discussion, what are you going to do? Just curious...

Well, that's a good question! Short answer: sticking with the ATV.


Long answer: I have taken apart my AppleTV and got it working normally again. I'm 99.99% certain my issues were heat related, so I am going to rig up a larger enclosure for the ATV (basically, longer screws holding the bottom on so the device will be both latter and have more ground clearance) and install a quiet low RPM, case fan (probably power it off of the USB bus, or possibly off the stock fan power port, if I can figure out how much juice it puts out).

That should, along with an eventual replacing of the HDD with a CompactFlash card/IDE converter led should make the ATV last another several years, at least.

I will likely buy a new ATV if they do a significant hardware update (like move to an ARM platform and iPhone OS-based software) and move the old ATV to another room. Looking at the other options, I didn't feel that anything on the market gave the features of the ATV for near the price. There were some inferior looking, cheaper options, and some superior but more expensive ones out there, but for me the ATV fills the required needs at an acceptable price.

Also, I will probably get a Roku player, eventually, as that is the major shortcoming of the ATV. Although, if the Netflix iPad app works with the video out cables and they update it to support the iPhone as well, I might spend that money on the AV connection kit and some more homebrewing hardware instead.