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The new Apple TV

So...I really, really like all the changes to the Apple TV. I just might get one. But shouldn't they have done something about the hard drives? How many HD movies can you fit on a 40GB hard drive?

I guess the thing to do is buy the 40GB version, then drop a 500GB drive into it.
 
this may be a dumb question, but they say they are shipping the software update in 2 weeks. Will this be something that can be downloaded or do we need a actual cd or something to update?
 
MotionxxUSxx said:
this may be a dumb question, but they say they are shipping the software update in 2 weeks. Will this be something that can be downloaded or do we need a actual cd or something to update?
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I assume they will be using the Software Update already on the device. Settings > Update Software from your Apple TV.
 
I'm really excited about this! I don't even mind the price drop, as I got mine the first week they were out, so it's not like I got it a week ago and now it's cheaper. I'm very happy that it was a software update and not a hardware update!
 
I'm perfectly content with the Software Upgrades. We knew from the start that the audio chip on the board was capable of 5.1, it was just disabled. I'm glad that it will be made operational with this update - hopefully any encodes already done in DD 5.1 will carry over without any problems.

Rentals are better than expected - not my market, but for what they are, certainly beats everyone else (until Netflix with their set top box comes around.) 2.99, 3.99/4.99 for HD is a good price point.

I'm curious to see how long until HD movies for purchase start showing up... if the rentals work, I would hope that studios would begin to offer 720p downloads to own as well.

Realistically, this makes a great product even better. Hopefully now people will begin to understand where the :apple:TV fits in Apple's big plan.
 
Dissapointment

Well I'm dissapointed with the update. Again europe is left behind (rentals; at least for a while... I'm still waiting for the introduction of the iPhone too) and also there is no hardware update. DVR features and/or Blu-ray would have been nice, this update just doesn't cut it. Even with the price drop I'm not tempted to buy one. :(
 
the HD rentals are 720p based on the updated appleTV spec page.

I wouldn't hold your breath for 1080p. Basically 1 or 2 movies would fit on the smaller AppleTV at a decent bitrate.

this is good news and makes the appleTV less of a dumb purchase (sorry people who have purchased one in the past, but it is true), but without some sort of DVR functionality, I don't see what this does that you can't already get from an xbox or a ps3.

If you don't have either one of those, and you never ever plan on buying a gaming console, then that's fine, i suppose, but it tells you just how off-base the appleTV was that steve jobs had to brag about the fact that it is no longer tethered to a computer.
 
rj1974 said:
Well I'm dissapointed with the update. ...DVR features and/or Blu-ray would have been nice, this update just doesn't cut it.
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Man, at what point do people start realize what "content delivery" means as a business model? If Apple's goal is to sell you your content via iTunes downloads, why in the bloody hell would they provide for you a way to record tv (providing no income for them) and watch movies from an aging physical media-based system (again, providing no income for them)?

Anyone who seriously believed that they would actually see the AppleTV become a TiVo or a Blu-ray player (when still no macs have Blu-ray, even as a BTO) are living inside a reality distortion field greater than the one parked in Cupertino :p
 
kevinbal said:
Man, at what point do people start realize what "content delivery" means as a business model? If Apple's goal is to sell you your content via iTunes downloads, why in the bloody hell would they provide for you a way to record tv (providing no income for them) and watch movies from an aging physical media-based system (again, providing no income for them)?

Anyone who seriously believed that they would actually see the AppleTV become a TiVo or a Blu-ray player (when still no macs have Blu-ray, even as a BTO) are living inside a reality distortion field greater than the one parked in Cupertino :p
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Amen.
 
I don't care what anyone else says, I'm friggin' stoked!!!

Sure, they could have beefed it up with BluRay and DVR functionality, and maybe even figured out a way to add an iSight so we could .Mac video chat from our living rooms, but did anybody expect any of that stuff? As unpopular as :apple:TV has been, I was fairly confident that they would not revolutionize the device.

I'm just excited that it will finally support 5.1. That's all I was hoping for.

For me, though, a nice bonus is the rental service. I'm a Juniper credit card holder, so I get about $150/year in free iTunes gift cards. I'm not a fan of the iTunes music files, so I finally have something to buy with them. The fact that they're HD is just that much better.
 
kevinbal said:
Man, at what point do people start realize what "content delivery" means as a business model? If Apple's goal is to sell you your content via iTunes downloads, why in the bloody hell would they provide for you a way to record tv (providing no income for them) and watch movies from an aging physical media-based system (again, providing no income for them)?

Anyone who seriously believed that they would actually see the AppleTV become a TiVo or a Blu-ray player (when still no macs have Blu-ray, even as a BTO) are living inside a reality distortion field greater than the one parked in Cupertino :p
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That's funny :)

I'll settle for a Mac Mini update (802.11n) too and turn that into the :apple:tv I would prefer to have and add the Blu-ray player/writer later on (once they are less expensive). But I'm afraid it will be EOL before that happens :(
 
rj1974 said:
That's funny :)

I'll settle for a Mac Mini update (802.11n) too and turn that into the :apple:tv I would prefer to have and add the Blu-ray player/writer later on (once they are less expensive). But I'm afraid it will be EOL before that happens :(
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I'm not so sure the Mini will be EOL'd any time soon... right now it serves really as the dumping ground for excess and price reduced macbook parts. It's a great low cost device that has plenty of uses (and functions very well as a main computer, I really like mine as my home desktop complimenting my MBP)

The N thing annoyed the F out of me when the revised mini's were announced, but I just ended up using a physical ethernet connection to deliver the content to the AppleTV from my office. (That would be wires through the walls, not a long cable going through the house visible ;) )
 
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