Have to start out by saying that I'm a huge fan of 
TV. With the new update, I'm simply amazed. And none of it has much to do with movies... 
However, a lot of people ask why I like it so much?
Even before the update.....
1. The 160GB holds all of my music (in-sync with my Mac). This is great because Mac doesn't have to be on for music to play in the living room.
2. The other (seemingly un-realized) feature is that the AppleTV can travel! I was asked to bring music for a party at my sister's house last Halloween, so I got a bunch of scary pictures and sync'd the scary-picture folder toTV, created a playlist, then brought it over to her house.....imagine bringing every CD I own under my arm...hooked it into her home theater and TV and she had music + a slide show to go with it.
3. With the new update, theTV can act as an airtunes set of speakers...so now, from my Mac, I can choose the TV as a set of speakers for my iTunes...my wife can do the same from her laptop (still a PC...working on converting her).
4. At parties, we love to use theTV -- we fill-up a folder with pictures of friends (especially ones we know are coming to the party) and let the slideshow be the TV entertainment while our custom playlists handle the tunes. GREAT for parties/get-togethers.
So, for me...awesome functionality...before we even consider video/movies.
I'm happy about the new rental feature, but I was thrilled with theTV before. We will most definitely use the rental feature and get even more out of our unit.
My point in writing this post was to show that this little 'engine-that-could' has really brought a lot of joy/coolness into our daily musical lives/parties. It is simple enough to use that non-tech-heads (like some of my famiily) are not intimidated by it...and can easily get around enough to change music,etc...
My future wish list:
1. YouTube is cool..but what would really make this a movie machine is either a direct hook-up to IMDB (like the YouTube interface) -- should be smart enough to know what movie you are watching and autoload the IMDB page
2. I know that the future is 'disc-less', but wouldn't it be cool to have anTV with a blu-ray player/recorder drive built in? Would replace another component in my system (always good) and allow recording of TV (i.e. DVR) onto disc.
3. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE open-up the rear USB port on the rear of the unit to allow for HD expansion via external drives. (I imagine that my 160 GB isn't going to go as far with HD movie downloads)
Thanks for reading..enjoy the new update!
-D
TV. With the new update, I'm simply amazed. And none of it has much to do with movies... However, a lot of people ask why I like it so much?
Even before the update.....
1. The 160GB holds all of my music (in-sync with my Mac). This is great because Mac doesn't have to be on for music to play in the living room.
2. The other (seemingly un-realized) feature is that the AppleTV can travel! I was asked to bring music for a party at my sister's house last Halloween, so I got a bunch of scary pictures and sync'd the scary-picture folder to
TV, created a playlist, then brought it over to her house.....imagine bringing every CD I own under my arm...hooked it into her home theater and TV and she had music + a slide show to go with it.3. With the new update, the
TV can act as an airtunes set of speakers...so now, from my Mac, I can choose the TV as a set of speakers for my iTunes...my wife can do the same from her laptop (still a PC...working on converting her).4. At parties, we love to use the
TV -- we fill-up a folder with pictures of friends (especially ones we know are coming to the party) and let the slideshow be the TV entertainment while our custom playlists handle the tunes. GREAT for parties/get-togethers. So, for me...awesome functionality...before we even consider video/movies.
I'm happy about the new rental feature, but I was thrilled with the
TV before. We will most definitely use the rental feature and get even more out of our unit.My point in writing this post was to show that this little 'engine-that-could' has really brought a lot of joy/coolness into our daily musical lives/parties. It is simple enough to use that non-tech-heads (like some of my famiily) are not intimidated by it...and can easily get around enough to change music,etc...
My future wish list:
1. YouTube is cool..but what would really make this a movie machine is either a direct hook-up to IMDB (like the YouTube interface) -- should be smart enough to know what movie you are watching and autoload the IMDB page
2. I know that the future is 'disc-less', but wouldn't it be cool to have an
TV with a blu-ray player/recorder drive built in? Would replace another component in my system (always good) and allow recording of TV (i.e. DVR) onto disc.3. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE open-up the rear USB port on the rear of the unit to allow for HD expansion via external drives. (I imagine that my 160 GB isn't going to go as far with HD movie downloads)
Thanks for reading..enjoy the new update!
-D