Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

The real strength of AppleTV

GimmeSlack12 said:
There already was the Airport Express if Audio was your primary media and the ATV has the two little letters "T" and "V" in the name, which I'm pretty sure is a good indication of its primary function.
Click to expand...
The Airport Express can be used to get music from your computer to other points in your house, but it’s not a very satisfying solution (IMO). The AppleTV is much better. Plus, it allows you to listen to music without your computer being on. This wasn’t a big deal for me, but it was for my wife.

And it’s called AppleTV because it connects to your TV. The TV is necessary to use it. It does not mean it’s primary purpose is video.
 
mchalebk said:
The Airport Express can be used to get music from your computer to other points in your house, but it’s not a very satisfying solution (IMO). The AppleTV is much better. Plus, it allows you to listen to music without your computer being on. This wasn’t a big deal for me, but it was for my wife.

And it’s called AppleTV because it connects to your TV. The TV is necessary to use it. It does not mean it’s primary purpose is video.
Click to expand...
I never really understood the idea behind the Airport Express/Air Tunes. Since you control it through iTunes you need to be in front of your computer to see and control it, and this would do me no good if I wanted to play music in my living room from my couch with the mac in my office. I suppose if you are sitting on the couch with your computer in your lap it might make some sense, but even then it seems like a stretch.
 
Of all the audio and video toys and services I have
(PSP3, HD DVD, Netflix, Blockbuster, HD DVR)
the ATV with the Apple remote on my iPhones is my favorite platform.
Not perfect, best for leading edge types.
I have three in the house and stream content between multiple computers and iTunes accounts with little or no problems.
 
fivepoint said:
I sort of disagree. What you're explaining could also be done by turning up your computer speakers, or using Airtunes to send music to your living room. You could use an iPhone to change the songs wirelessly.

The AppleTV has to be centered around making movies and TV shows as easy as the iPod made music. The AppleTV shouldn't be centered around music, as you say.

Just my opinion.
Click to expand...
not the same quality sounds horrible ill get an apple tv to replace my iphone dock to listen to music
 
It is bizarre people are saying that the Apple TV's prime target wasn't video! Course it was! It was aimed at you having all the TV shows you own, all the movies at your finger tips. It was to help promote TV shows and movies.

The music and photo abilities are extra features, not the prime thing that the Apple TV was shaped around.
 
Kilamite said:
It is bizarre people are saying that the Apple TV's prime target wasn't video! Course it was! It was aimed at you having all the TV shows you own, all the movies at your finger tips. It was to help promote TV shows and movies.

The music and photo abilities are extra features, not the prime thing that the Apple TV was shaped around.
Click to expand...

It's not at all "bizarre". There has been a great deal of information provided here to support the various views. What do you have to offer to support your opinion besides “Course it was!”?

The AppleTV was originally designed to allow users to access their iTunes and iPhoto collections on their HT system. There is absolutely nothing about the original design that emphasized video over music. (Not to mention that iTunes is much more of a music application than a video application.) Only with the addition of YouTube viewing and movie rentals has the pendulum swung from equal emphasis to favoring video.
 
mchalebk said:
The AppleTV was originally designed to allow users to access their iTunes and iPhoto collections on their HT system. There is absolutely nothing about the original design that emphasized video over music. (Not to mention that iTunes is much more of a music application than a video application.) Only with the addition of YouTube viewing and movie rentals has the pendulum swung from equal emphasis to favoring video.
Click to expand...

So you think it was designed with music in mind, not video? :rolleyes:

Anything that gets connected to a TV is for visual, anything that is connected to a HiFi is for audio. Airport Express meets the music requirement. Apple TV meets the visual requirement. Watch movies, TV shows and view photos. I use the music feature a lot too, but are you seriously telling me that the prime reason you'd buy an Apple TV is for music and photos? :rolleyes:
 
Kilamite said:
So you think it was designed with music in mind, not video? :rolleyes:

Anything that gets connected to a TV is for visual, anything that is connected to a HiFi is for audio. Airport Express meets the music requirement. Apple TV meets the visual requirement. Watch movies, TV shows and view photos. I use the music feature a lot too, but are you seriously telling me that the prime reason you'd buy an Apple TV is for music and photos? :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Glad someone else here sees it my way!
 
Kilamite said:
So you think it was designed with music in mind, not video? :rolleyes:

Anything that gets connected to a TV is for visual, anything that is connected to a HiFi is for audio. Airport Express meets the music requirement. Apple TV meets the visual requirement. Watch movies, TV shows and view photos. I use the music feature a lot too, but are you seriously telling me that the prime reason you'd buy an Apple TV is for music and photos? :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
I did just that, as I explained above. I have a 4:3 tv that is not supported for video by Apple's stupid decision not to include 4:3 formatting (even though the iPod and every other tv bos on the market does just that). I still bought it knowing the limitations because I wanted a better way to access my audio collection by using the tv.
 
danny_w said:
I never really understood the idea behind the Airport Express/Air Tunes. Since you control it through iTunes you need to be in front of your computer to see and control it, and this would do me no good if I wanted to play music in my living room from my couch with the mac in my office. I suppose if you are sitting on the couch with your computer in your lap it might make some sense, but even then it seems like a stretch.
Click to expand...


Well, not necessarily. I've got 2 Airport Expresses - one in the living room that powers a Yamaha YSP-1100 sound projector aswell as transcievers for my outdoor speakers on the deck. The other Airport lives in the master bathroom so as to enjoy long soaks in the tub.
One of the 5 computers in my house is dubbed the "pizza box" - it's an older G4 Powerbook that we use to order pizzas, lookup stuff on the web and of course, to control iTunes. What's more, is now with the two iPhones, we can control the music from anywhere. Also, I can access different playlists on different machines, including a linux serve.

As for AppleTV - it sounds like a great box, but between the "pizza box", the Playstation 3 and the FIOS DVR we have, I really couldn't justify it. They all do media sharing. They all play HD video back. I just don't know if I need a 4th device to do all that. In the mean time, the Airport Expresses let me use the computers I already have but wirelessly, with or without being at the keyboard.

Cheers,
Dave
 
DaveDaveDave said:
Well, not necessarily. I've got 2 Airport Expresses - one in the living room that powers a Yamaha YSP-1100 sound projector aswell as transcievers for my outdoor speakers on the deck. The other Airport lives in the master bathroom so as to enjoy long soaks in the tub.
One of the 5 computers in my house is dubbed the "pizza box" - it's an older G4 Powerbook that we use to order pizzas, lookup stuff on the web and of course, to control iTunes. What's more, is now with the two iPhones, we can control the music from anywhere. Also, I can access different playlists on different machines, including a linux serve.

As for AppleTV - it sounds like a great box, but between the "pizza box", the Playstation 3 and the FIOS DVR we have, I really couldn't justify it. They all do media sharing. They all play HD video back. I just don't know if I need a 4th device to do all that. In the mean time, the Airport Expresses let me use the computers I already have but wirelessly, with or without being at the keyboard.

Cheers,
Dave
Click to expand...
So you can control the music and iTunes from your iPhone? How do you do that? What is the interface like?
 
danny_w said:
So you can control the music and iTunes from your iPhone? How do you do that? What is the interface like?
Click to expand...

You use the iTunes remote program on the iPhone. I've used it and it. is. glorious.

The interface: Think the iPhone's iPod interface but changes your iTunes when you change the song.
 
Kilamite said:
It is bizarre people are saying that the Apple TV's prime target wasn't video! Course it was! It was aimed at you having all the TV shows you own, all the movies at your finger tips. It was to help promote TV shows and movies.

The music and photo abilities are extra features, not the prime thing that the Apple TV was shaped around.
Click to expand...

Not for me it wasn't, at least initially. For ten years I've been looking for the ultimate audio jukebox solution and when I bought my ATV it was close but not quite there. Not until recently when they added the AirTunes capability and I found a cool little app called Signal, did my Jukebox dreams come true. I've always wanted to have one source of music played to different "zones" of my house yet controlled at different locations too. Ten years ago I tried to setup my stereo and 4 Pioneer CD jukeboxes and their serial interface to Hypercard/Supercard. Got close but the computer interface wasn't multi-location.

My idea sat on the shelf for years until recently. With my media server (Mac mini) ATV and another AirPort Express in the basement (both using AirTunes) and Signal on my computers (in kiosk mode) and my iPhone Remote app, I can now play the same music throughout the house AND control it from the different locations. Using this solution has also breathed new life into my Twentieth Anniversary Mac which sits next to my ATV and HDTV in my entertainment center. While the TV is displaying what is currently playing the TAM is used to switch songs, playlists, set a rating for the song and etc. And it also displays the currently playing song and artwork on its screen as well. I also use an old bubble iMac and an old iBook in other rooms/outside. This setup is a hit at parties I like to throw. The ATV is an integral part to all this. Music on it rocks!
 
Kilamite said:
So you think it was designed with music in mind, not video? :rolleyes:

Anything that gets connected to a TV is for visual, anything that is connected to a HiFi is for audio.
Click to expand...

It was designed for both. Using your words, it connects to the TV and the HiFi, so it’s visual and audio. Is it that hard to understand that it requires the TV connection for the user interface regardless of how you’re going to use it? It’s called AppleTV because it requires a TV to provide the visual portion of the user interface, not because it’s designed for watching video.

Kilamite said:
Airport Express meets the music requirement. Apple TV meets the visual requirement.
Click to expand...

I already had a way to get music from my computer to my HT system (baluns that convert line level signals to twisted pairs, then run 100’ of Ethernet cable to my HT), so I had a similar capability to the Airport Express. However, it was not a very satisfying solution (as I believe many Airport Express users have found). First, I couldn’t see what was playing and couldn’t control iTunes from my living room. I actually tried running video from my computer to my TV, but it didn’t work very well (even though I was only “listening”, I still wanted a display connection). Plus, it required my computer to be awake.

The clincher, though, was that my wife would never jump through the hoops required to listen to music. She’d have to walk upstairs, wake up the computer, start iTunes, select a playlist, tell it to play, walk downstairs and setup the receiver. That may not sound like a big deal, but my wife just didn’t want to mess with it, so she would only listen if I was there to fire the system up. The AppleTV (along with a Harmony remote) has made it very simple and she listens all the time now.

Kilamite said:
I use the music feature a lot too, but are you seriously telling me that the prime reason you'd buy an Apple TV is for music and photos? :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
No! I never said it was for music or photos first. However, music was the main driver for me. I did want to be able to convert my home videos for AppleTV so my wife could watch her horse show videos without my having to burn them onto DVD. So, I got it for music first, home video second and photos third.

My point in all this is that there is absolutely nothing about the original capabilities of the AppleTV that favors video over audio. In fact, the audio features appeared to be better realized, so you could probably argue that the original release was more suited to music (I’m not making that argument, though).

Also, when you consider that the AppleTv is cheaper than many iPods have been, it’s not outrageous to think that people would buy it just for music. It is an elegant solution to the problem of “how to listen to the music that resides on your computer through your main sound system”.
 
i just wish you could watch other internet videos from other sites on your tv and not just you tube...
 
The real strength of the AppleTV is what it is capable of in the future. Steve Jobs himself said that it was a hobby project for Apple and I can understand why. The AppleTV is an excellent device, but it lacks a key component in the equation that was used to make the iPod the success that it is.

Content.

Music collections used with iPods typically come from CDs, iTunes, or are "acquired" via alternative means. This vast selection of content made the iPod an attractive device to unify all the music in one place and on one device for easy access. The AppleTV seeks to do the same thing with video while also allowing easy access to existing music collections used with other devices (such as the iPod).

Video media collections on the other hand are different and this poses a unique challenge for Apple if the AppleTV is moving towards a central spot in the living room. How can the AppleTV be useful if it cannot provide an easy one click media management utility in iTunes that allows content to be legally archived from DVDs already purchased (think copying CDs in iTunes)?

Killer App: TV show rentals and lower priced movie rentals.

It is my opinion that the reason the AppleTV remains a hobby for Apple is simply because Steve Jobs is waiting for the market for video purchased via the internet to mature sufficiently to make the AppleTV viable for the mainstream market.

AppleTV: 2010's alternative to cable television?
 
^ It's refreshing to see a logical post with no requests for current forms of video delivery such as DVD/BluRay player and DVR.

I fully agree that what has kept :apple:TV from becoming mainstream is the lack of content available via cable/satellite and rental prices competitive with DVD rentals.

NBC's return to iTunes has validated it as a valuable delivery format for their content.

With the addition of HD TV (better quality than excessively compressed cable HD content), the only bottleneck that I find is price parity with current popular options such as cable for TV and Netflix for movie rentals.

TV show rentals could make sense but I'd suggest a pricing scheme more familiar to cable viewers: a content provider – let's say NBC – could sell a pass to all of its content. You'd buy an NBC pass for $9.99 per month which would grant you unlimited access to all of NBC's shows.

To ease the transition for people used to "TV channels", each network would have their own portal – or channel – where you could subscribe to their monthly pass and view all of their shows.
 
iPod Touch
PC With Music On
PC Connected To Hifi

There, Use Remote to control the iTunes Library on the PC, and your sorted, you also have a PC for Web Browsing etc, and an iPod Touch for couch web browsing, and taking outside the house!
 
How about iTunes Visualizer on AppleTV?

I was wondering - in the line of using the AppleTV for music - if Apple could include the (already two of them, with apparently more coming) iTunes visualizer. These sophisticated visual fireworks are simply stunning on a large TV screen. I thought that perhaps the AppleTV simply does not quite have the necessary computing power to drive this kind of application. (I refuse to think that Apple just forgot this important - to me! - feature.) Any ideas?
 
ipedro said:
^ It's refreshing to see a logical post with no requests for current forms of video delivery such as DVD/BluRay player and DVR.
Click to expand...

That makes a lot of sense - you're saying it is logical to see a post that doesn't request current technology that will be around for years to come?

OTA DVR's will be around for at least another 5 years, and Blu-Ray will be with us for 2-3 years at least.

I see no logic in not including these.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back