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What Ultimate NEW Apple TV Feature Would You Add (other than DVR)?

CWallace said:
But many folks want something simple - even if "castrated" - that always works and when it doesn't, can be made to work again by cycling the power.
And that something is the :apple:tv.
Click to expand...
Well... that's the great irony. I started this thread, and when I said "other than DVR" it was my attempt to exclude the whole DVR argument from this conversation. --You know... because I specifically think there is a lot of potential without one (hence my own recommendations). --So, everything that I've said about DVRs was under the context of "devil's advocate". I'm musing over the fact that I'm not really seeing any serious blockades...but I'm not in the camp that thinks the AppleTV is INCOMPLETE because it doesn't have one. So... we're likely two people on the same side of the fence, having a hypothetical argument. :p

~ CB
 
Ditto on the better support for 5.1 and USB. Also, I'd be surprised if noone's mentioned: gig-e. Wireless is great, but being able to have a gig switch connecting your itunes to the TV would make syncing up (and streaming) much better. Sweet speed.
 
MikeL said:
Other than those you asked? It's delightful how you parade being ignorant, and get huffy when someone suggests you use the forum tools to educate yourself. Clever? Uh huh.
If people took five minutes to give themselves a hint at some background knowledge, they'd be much more valuable contributors. Ever thought of trying that?
Click to expand...
Wow. It's like I haven't been linking to things and quoting from other sources to back up my opinions... no wait, that's YOU. :rolleyes: It's okay, man. You don't know anything and you count on others to make your points. I get it. Keep standing. Or sit down. It's all good. Like I told CWallace, I'm playing devil's advocate at this point. Read the thread title. Read my first post. I'm not saying AppleTV needs a DVR, so don't let my hypotheticals bunch your delicates. :D

~ CB
 
Cleverboy said:
Well... that's the great irony. I started this thread, and when I said "other than DVR" it was my attempt to exclude the whole DVR argument from this conversation.

So... we're likely two people on the same side of the fence, having a hypothetical argument. :p
Click to expand...

Excellent point, sir. :) I am indeed guilty of drifting well off-topic. :eek:

So what I would like to see is HD content (rent and own) via the iTunes Store and discrete multi-channel digital sound.
 
The BluRay/ HD-DVD is a very good choice, I too would agree to that idea. Also the screen on the front of the apple TV (Although, if USB were enabled then there could be a 3rd party product).

I think that a feature that would be good would be a parental feature, if you do have films or TV shows or whatever on your :apple:TV then it would be cool to each have a USB dongle with a login key, which would be password protected for each home user which could be used on all machines to log on with. That way, if my friends come round & want their kids to watch a film, then they log in with there key & any films that are above their age then it doesn't show it? This could be used for music as well, where they can't listen to Explicit music. This would be easy to implement as all Apple needs to do is add in a tab on the "Get Info" section to add in the details on age restriction.

Another idea would be a device that could be used as a music server. Nothing to expensive though. The device could be remote logged in like your wireless router and controlled/setup via the web interface on your Mac. You could then add drives as you need & set it to different raid set's & alike. I know you could use a NAS, but if Apple created something inexpensive and with there history, it would be easy to use, like an iTunes Server app, but you could still have your own directory & use you USBpass to access it via any machine. With wireless becoming more stable for HD over the WiFi it could be suitable, but have this attached to your :apple:TV's & Macs in your home & it would save having to have your Mac on at all times? So when you have a hard day at work, you can turn the :apple:TV on, whilst that loads, pour a beer or a glass of your favourite wine then sit with the lights off & watch your favourite film or TV show, or, put your fav album on that you enjoy relaxing to to in front of the fire. Either way, put your feet & relax...

I think this would make the :apple:TV enjoyable, this way you do not have to worry about having other computers on to enjoy your music, & no USB HDD. Only the DVD type drive.

The only other thing I would then add :eek:, would be TrueHD audio out & the ability to play .vob files direct on my Mac & iMac. This way, films would be copied like for like, not compressed onto my file server. Then, run though my 1Gb network. Then the :apple:TV would have to be 10/100/1000 base network compliant. :D

I know it seems a bit much, but I have a laptop with linux Ubuntu on it, & it plays .vob files direct from the HDD & only boots with my USB key which is too password needed too. I think with the security history of Apple, you can never be to carefull, especially as Apple becomes more popular & thus more prone to virus's.
 
- streaming from a NAS. seems stupid to need a mac/pc on to stream stuff. With the take 2 update making the apple TV more standalone in nature, they need to embrace that.

- better native codec support. quicktime even has divx/xvid support now, so why restrict appleTV?

- attachable USB devices. Stack a little bluray drive under it like with a mac mini.

- web browser. work in conjunction with the wireless keyboard/mouse. While limited, I'm sure the processor could handle the web pretty well.

- sync to my ipod. let me connect via USB and handle the sync in a completely PC-less environment.

- support for universal remote controls. I'm using remote buddy with a playstation 3 bluetooth remote on my imac upstairs and for slingplayer its much better than the apple remote. Having number keys for searching, better navigation/transport keys etc.

- better visualisations when listenign to music. Have you seen the 'planet' visualiser on PS3? Breathtaking.
 
Foocha said:

Screen mirroring and widgets are both great ideas. I also like barijazz's Blu-Ray idea. I'd add a display to the front as well, so you could use one without a TV, to hook up directly to your hifi. Maybe it would look something like the mockup image above.

http://www.macpredictions.com/2007/12/blu-ray-apple-tv.html
Click to expand...

This one needs work. Not saying the idea is entirely bunk but as a rule, good industrial design requires that the design be user friendly.

The problem with the picture is that the display is simply too small to convey any useful information to a user. Either the screen needs to be larger or the information needs to be shortened to allow for the text to be larger and readable at a distance.

Even so, there are too many usability problems there. But how many people have a hi-fi without a TV? I would suspect that they're such a small minority in the grand scheme of things that their potential (read: not guaranteed) interest in such a product will not justify the additional expenditure for developing, manufacturing and marketing such a model.

Also, an increase in specificity of function means a decrease in the flexbility of the design.

I suspect that a person with a stereo system that they have in a listening room and not with their home theater, has a considerable amount of disposable income to go spending on such items. There are three possible alternatives I think are all better, and I'm not stating them to one-up you, but to say that you have a good idea but let's ask how it could be even better... here's three examples:

1. 32" VESA-mounted display centered between the front L-R speakers.

2. Mini-monitor at the listening chair, connected by wall-installed wires.

3. Apple-developed iPhone/iPod Touch upgrade to enable the handheld wi-fi device to act as a visual remote control for the AppleTV, e.g. using cover flow and the touch interface to select and queue up songs from any part of your network (including iPhone itself) and stream to your hi-fi.

I think #3 is the winner in terms of Apple's core design goals... flexibility, simplicity, ease of use. The user experience is the most important thing in all the design considerations for these kinds of products, because even 3000 features are only as good as the user interface permits them to be.
 
Must Have's:
- Support remote control codes to use separate fast forward and chapter skip buttons (very bad design requiring you to hold the button down)
- Support remote codes for leveraging the number buttons to quickly jump to a letter in a long list (click 5 twice to jump to k), that would be a huge convenience improvement, also for searching.
- support remote code for a home button.
- ability to browse my content by genre.
- Improved fast forward/rewind performance, it is practically unusable now (especially rewind) when streaming, no reason it couldn't work (and I do use a wired connection).
- cover flow browsing of my own content (primarily movies/tv shows, wouldn't do that with music)
- > 24 hours to watch a rental. 48 hours is fine, at least i have the option to watch it over two hours then.
- transfer a rental from one apple tv to another on the same account if i want to move to the bedroom to finish watching something.

Would love to have:
- ability to control music across apple tv's. If I am having a party would love to play a playlist and select the other apple tv's i want playing it, that is the one thing that stops me from considering my music needs served.
Ability to rent on itunes and play on apple tv (there is debate as to whether or not this is going to be supported.) I don't mind not be able to move things from apple tv that i rent on apple tv, but if i want to watch part of a rental at home and the rest on the road i would like to use my tv.
- Favorites list. would love to make a list of my favorite movies that I don't own so i can browse and rent them, ideally would allow me to add things they don't offer. would be a nice way of collecting favorites. Ideally would like to include the list in my move list so when I browse I am browsing things I own and things I like that I may want to rent (if available). This could potentially satisfy my unhealthy desire to collect things.
- Support for more codecs so I have more ripping options, potentially get better usage of the surround soundtrack.

I don't think anything on here is unreasonable, syncing the music I know is difficult but I think it would be an excellent feature.

Peter
 
If I could SCREEN MIRROR, I'd be in heaven.

I'd use my Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, and control my iMac (display in sleep mode), from my TV, and make my iMac display anything I like. I could start-up a Keynote or Powerpoint presentation, play World of Warcraft (or any game), browse the web on a large screen tv, or just play a DVD from my computer. I mean, I'd like it just to play Netflix Watch-it-Now movies through to my TV. The whole wireless-vga affect would be super useful for people doing presentations.

~ CB
 
The 1.1 user interface, with the sources feature intact, but with the 2.0 capabilities for movie rentals and AC3 output.

Totally don't care about Bluetooth keyboards, widgets, web browsers, DVRs, Bluray, warezmonkey codec support or toast-making attachments. If you want X, you know where to find it.
 
EvilRob said:
The 1.1 user interface, with the sources feature intact, but with the 2.0 capabilities for movie rentals and AC3 output.

Totally don't care about Bluetooth keyboards, widgets, web browsers, DVRs, Bluray, warezmonkey codec support or toast-making attachments. If you want X, you know where to find it.
Click to expand...
It's sounds like you're implying that Apple TV Take 2 removes something that 1.1 has...? I'm pretty sure the "sources" feature is still there... right there under "Settings". It looks like its called "Computers" now. It's not like you're going to be swapping computer sources every hour or anything. If it eliminates clutter and doesn't outright suck, I don't mind interface changes.

YouTube support DESPERATELY needs categories though. It's ANNOYING.

All, Autos & Vehicles, Comedy, Education, Entertainment, Film & Animation, Howto & Style, Music, News & Politics, People & Blogs, Pets & Animals, Science & Technology, Sports, Travel & Events
Click to expand...

~ CB
 
Cleverboy said:
If I could SCREEN MIRROR, I'd be in heaven. ... I mean, I'd like it just to play Netflix Watch-it-Now movies through to my TV. The whole wireless-vga affect would be super useful for people doing presentations.
Click to expand...
You cannot mirror your screen and watch a movie without a huge pipe carrying that uncompressed image data that updates many times every second. Your computer is probably not powerful enough to compress it in real time, either. There is a reason streaming sites use compressed video files. You can try to watch a movie through VNC on a second computer if you want to get a feel for who well it would work. I think your "heaven" is not going to happen any time soon. :)
 
theBB said:
You cannot mirror your screen and watch a movie without a huge pipe carrying that uncompressed image data that updates many times every second. Your computer is probably not powerful enough to compress it in real time, either. There is a reason streaming sites use compressed video files. You can try to watch a movie through VNC on a second computer if you want to get a feel for who well it would work. I think your "heaven" is not going to happen any time soon. :)
Click to expand...
Meh, I can dream. :D No, I've been despising the VNC route for a while. I'd almost prefer a smarter, more interface component-based approach... something that "smartly" reconstructs pages as much as it dumbly sends them over as a large differenced graphic update. For the part of streaming video however, we already have the iChat example where users can "share" a video stream. I believe that stream is simply sent to the other computer verbatim, and core animation is used to reposition it on the viewer's screen. Sure, a DVD would probably be out of order compression wise, but on a local network it might not be entirely untenable (especially if it isn't being accompanied by huge overhead from some badly written VNC implementation).

UPDATE: I forgot to mention that I realize that doing ANYTHING with a DVD stream is far from likely due to DRM and copyright concerns.

~ CB
 
A Blu Ray drive. I think that would be a big help in pushing the box as a future-proof device and it would appeal to a lot more people.
 
I think they need a new remote. Ipod clickwheel with butttons on it that turn on your TV and switch the inputs. I would think Jobs would want an elegant experience at home and nothing is less elegant than having to grab 2 remotes to watch a show. I want to just pick up one.

A remote the size of the nano (generation 2) would be perfect.

Also it would sweet if you had the ability to use your iPod Touch or iPhone to control the ATV.

BR player? It's never going to happen so why bother talking about that.

I want Apple to give me the ability to redownload the content I purchased with no hassle so I don't have to worry about storing it.
 
"quicktime even has divx/xvid support now, so why restrict appleTV? "

No it doesn't...

The biggest feature for me, by far, is the ability to control the volume using the apple remote. At least make it an option. geez. Search/Sort functionality is supposed to be built into take 2. As long as it's functional, then I'm happy with the device.
 
Cleverboy said:
I'm liking the list so far.

  • Widgets (Clock, Egg timers, Weather, Stocks, Flight planner, etc)
  • Safari Web Browser
  • RSS Reader
  • Screen Mirroring / Presentation & Parental Monitoring
  • Web Radio
  • iTunes WiFi Store /w Podcasts
  • USB Add-on Drive Integration (DVD,Blu-Ray,HD DVD)
  • *iPhone/iPod Touch visual remote application

*NEW ONE! I think an application can be created for the iPod/iPhone that gives you a visual remote control with more advanced features. For instance, it let's you JUMP to different sections of Apple TV very easily. Gives you "pinch/zoom" controls on the web browser, let's you "scrub" through videos... dragging the playhead to where you want instead of "FastForwarding", etc.

Ok. I'm seeing the potential. Tre kewl. I'm kind of against it being just a computer connected to the television. I don't think people should be writing e-mails or running Microsoft Word on it or anything. I think its great as a consumer appliance with "extras". The interface is great... as much as possible, I don't think it should force you to do anything you can't comfortably do with the minimalist Apple remote (or iPhone/iPod Touch visual remote application.) :)

Good stuff!

~ CB
Click to expand...

Or using the iphone as a two button mouse that automatically hooks up to your computer and/or apple t.v.:D
 
Cleverboy said:
Meh, I can dream. :D No, I've been despising the VNC route for a while. I'd almost prefer a smarter, more interface component-based approach... something that "smartly" reconstructs pages as much as it dumbly sends them over as a large differenced graphic update. For the part of streaming video however, we already have the iChat example where users can "share" a video stream. I believe that stream is simply sent to the other computer verbatim, and core animation is used to reposition it on the viewer's screen. Sure, a DVD would probably be out of order compression wise, but on a local network it might not be entirely untenable (especially if it isn't being accompanied by huge overhead from some badly written VNC implementation).

UPDATE: I forgot to mention that I realize that doing ANYTHING with a DVD stream is far from likely due to DRM and copyright concerns.

~ CB
Click to expand...

It would be just like hooking your computer up to your t.v. except with a long wireless cord, and the apple t.v would act like the wire.
 
Avatar74 said:
This one needs work. Not saying the idea is entirely bunk but as a rule, good industrial design requires that the design be user friendly.

The problem with the picture is that the display is simply too small to convey any useful information to a user. Either the screen needs to be larger or the information needs to be shortened to allow for the text to be larger and readable at a distance.

Even so, there are too many usability problems there. But how many people have a hi-fi without a TV? I would suspect that they're such a small minority in the grand scheme of things that their potential (read: not guaranteed) interest in such a product will not justify the additional expenditure for developing, manufacturing and marketing such a model.

Also, an increase in specificity of function means a decrease in the flexbility of the design.

I suspect that a person with a stereo system that they have in a listening room and not with their home theater, has a considerable amount of disposable income to go spending on such items. There are three possible alternatives I think are all better, and I'm not stating them to one-up you, but to say that you have a good idea but let's ask how it could be even better... here's three examples:

1. 32" VESA-mounted display centered between the front L-R speakers.

2. Mini-monitor at the listening chair, connected by wall-installed wires.

3. Apple-developed iPhone/iPod Touch upgrade to enable the handheld wi-fi device to act as a visual remote control for the AppleTV, e.g. using cover flow and the touch interface to select and queue up songs from any part of your network (including iPhone itself) and stream to your hi-fi.

I think #3 is the winner in terms of Apple's core design goals... flexibility, simplicity, ease of use. The user experience is the most important thing in all the design considerations for these kinds of products, because even 3000 features are only as good as the user interface permits them to be.
Click to expand...

You could also just hook up your ipod to your stereo system, or use airtunes with a laptop.
 
I certainly don't see the harm in future versions having the possibility to add an external blu-ray/hd-dvd drive there for purchase. Although I doubt I'd ever bother buying one it certainly makes sense to allow people to buy an extra bit of hardware if they want it.
 
barijazz said:
It would be just like hooking your computer up to your t.v. except with a long wireless cord, and the apple t.v would act like the wire.
Click to expand...
Exactly. I've been pricing out solutions, and I'm a big fan of consolidation, versus getting some new gizmo. Wireless VGA is pretty pricey. Wireless HDMI is non-existant. If Apple could add this via software, it'd be even better and more handy. Even something that works semi-good is better than nothing at all (for me).

~ CB
 
Cleverboy said:
Sure, a DVD would probably be out of order compression wise, but on a local network it might not be entirely untenable (especially if it isn't being accompanied by huge overhead from some badly written VNC implementation).
Click to expand...
Even a DVD is already compressed, but its bit rate is quite high. Now, you want your computer to compress its own image on the fly which needs a lot more resolution than 720 by 480 and send it over. Give it up. :) Well, OK, give it up for the next few years. :)
 
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