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Worth it in UK?
- Thread starter jamied95
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It depends what you are expecting from it.
If you are happy buying and renting from iTunes or ripping and converting your own films with Handbrake then it's well worth the money.
If you are happy buying and renting from iTunes or ripping and converting your own films with Handbrake then it's well worth the money.
Of course people use it.
As previously said, it depends on what you need.
If you have an iTunes library that you want to be able to stream to TV sets then it is well worth the £99. If you want to rent iTunes content then it is probably worth it.
If you don't want to do either of those then in the UK it probably isn't worth it, at the moment.
Do you have an iTunes library that you want to stream to a TV? Do you want to rent iTunes movies to watch on your TV?
I'm in the UK, and have an Apple TV 2.
Is it worth £99?
DEFINITELY.
For ease of streaming items in my iTunes library alone it's worth the money. to be able to stream anything from iTunes to wherever the ATV is, is worth the money.
YouTube on the TV is good, rentals are good from iTunes and I'm sure they will add more content in the coming months.
For £99, the decision is a no-brainer (and I have Virgin Media Cable TV too).
Is it worth £99?
DEFINITELY.
For ease of streaming items in my iTunes library alone it's worth the money. to be able to stream anything from iTunes to wherever the ATV is, is worth the money.
YouTube on the TV is good, rentals are good from iTunes and I'm sure they will add more content in the coming months.
For £99, the decision is a no-brainer (and I have Virgin Media Cable TV too).
The Apple TV has YouTube. I haven't used it, but I don't see why it would have any different content than the browser version does.
Obviously the quality would depend on the quality of the uploaded video. The Apple TV will reproduce it well, but if it is a poor quality video it will not look good. If it is good quality it will be fine.
Obviously the quality would depend on the quality of the uploaded video. The Apple TV will reproduce it well, but if it is a poor quality video it will not look good. If it is good quality it will be fine.
No you can't -- things like the 4OD YouTube channel are only available on certain devices and not the Apple TV (or iPhone/iPad).
No, it's because YouTube are contractually obligated to only distribute those shows using Flash 9 or above using RTMPE as the distribution protocol for DRM reasons to try and prevent ripping the streams.
So unless Apple TV runs Flash then there's not much chance of that changing.
I don't think it's worth it, unless you buy huge amounts of video from iTunes but that would make you fairly unusual in the UK. For an extra £20 you can get a Sony Blu-Ray player that supports iPlayer, Demand Five, YouTube and LoveFilm. That's much more useful for the average consumer right now I suspect.
Phazer
It isn't just if you buy iTunes content. If you have an iTunes library of ripped music/video or home produced stuff then it is also worth it.
It is certainly worth the £99 to me, and before getting it I hadn't purchased a single video off of iTunes. I've still only bought a couple of things.
Does he rely totally on iTunes purchases? If so then you should point him here to this forum so he can learn how to rip his DVD's.
If someone doesn't want to go to the effort of ripping DVD's then it is very likely not worth it. I had considered getting someone one for Christmas, but didn't as I know they won't rip their DVD's.
As I've said earlier, if you have a decent iTunes library (from whatever source) then it is very much worth it.
If you can connect it up to some speakers too, then it's really good as a DJ tool for parties. Using the apple remote app, guests can request and vote for songs to be played. The price is quite frankly a disgrace in the UK and should probably be £79. I have a 1st gen and love it (but am frustrated with some of it's limitations). I'm waiting to see what comes next for the 2G model before I buy one.
iPhoto
I totally think its worth it,
I have loads of music and movies in my iTunes collection (mostly ripped from CD and DVD, and some bought from iTunes), but one of the big advantages for me is tha ability to put my Iphoto library through the TV, which no one really seems to mention in these threads.
Its so much better than sitting around a 13" macbook to see holiday photos.
I totally think its worth it,
I have loads of music and movies in my iTunes collection (mostly ripped from CD and DVD, and some bought from iTunes), but one of the big advantages for me is tha ability to put my Iphoto library through the TV, which no one really seems to mention in these threads.
Its so much better than sitting around a 13" macbook to see holiday photos.
Although I do a fair amount of things already through my MBP hooked up to my TV im still thinking about getting one. To rent films easily and quickly at least. Blockbuster is too far away to always be going! Although it would be that bittt more inviting at £79 I don't have a problem with it at £99.
It's too gimped in my opinion, but it might still be worth getting depending on what you want out of it.
I have a new samsung TV with DLNA, and that is so much better than the apple TV for streaming movies that it renders that aspect of the apple TV moot for me. The samsung itself will happily stream every video in my collection so far, be it .mkv .avi or whatever... and whats more it'll stream 1080p files too whilst the aTV tops out at 720p. If a new TV isn't on the table any time soon, there are a buttload of boxes that'll do a much better job as a media streamer than the aTV.
My aTV though is plugged into my home audio receiver via HDMI and it is just brilliant for streaming my music. I can either be sitting there with my laptop or iphone, select airplay and the aTV wakes up and starts streaming the music. Considering the other easy way to get this working is via an airport express which costs almost as much as the aTV, why not get the more capable box. Once they mature the video aspect of airplay into something more useful (eg, throw recorded videos from the iphone up onto the TV or videos from safari) then it'll most certainly be worth the small extra expenditure over the airport express.
Overall though I must say I'm disappointed... it could have been much better. App support, 1080p, and better access to content (for the uk at least) are all pretty necessary for it to really be worth it. Plus £4.50 or more to rent an HD movie is silly for a digital distribution medium in my opinion.
I have a new samsung TV with DLNA, and that is so much better than the apple TV for streaming movies that it renders that aspect of the apple TV moot for me. The samsung itself will happily stream every video in my collection so far, be it .mkv .avi or whatever... and whats more it'll stream 1080p files too whilst the aTV tops out at 720p. If a new TV isn't on the table any time soon, there are a buttload of boxes that'll do a much better job as a media streamer than the aTV.
My aTV though is plugged into my home audio receiver via HDMI and it is just brilliant for streaming my music. I can either be sitting there with my laptop or iphone, select airplay and the aTV wakes up and starts streaming the music. Considering the other easy way to get this working is via an airport express which costs almost as much as the aTV, why not get the more capable box. Once they mature the video aspect of airplay into something more useful (eg, throw recorded videos from the iphone up onto the TV or videos from safari) then it'll most certainly be worth the small extra expenditure over the airport express.
Overall though I must say I'm disappointed... it could have been much better. App support, 1080p, and better access to content (for the uk at least) are all pretty necessary for it to really be worth it. Plus £4.50 or more to rent an HD movie is silly for a digital distribution medium in my opinion.
@zeeflyboy
I think we are only seeing the beginning of a big push from Apple for the AppleTV. It has so far been a 'hobby' for them as we all know but I sense a change now that it is based on the hugely popular iOS platform.
Apple have a long history of taking baby steps where people are saying, as you are here and rightly so, that it could be so much better if they added feature X and removed restriction Y etc etc. I agree with what you are saying but some of these things such as UK content access require complex negotiations with the content owners and Apple will be in a much better position to make these negotiations if they at least have a live product upon which to base the business model.
I think it is clear to all that iOS is not a flash in the pan and the Apple TV is based on solid technology which can and does work. It is now up to the content owners to decide if they want in on the act or if they prefer to sit in their ivory towers and let people distribute content underground. Apple caught the phone industry and the tablet industry with their pants down and it would be foolish for the home entertainment industry and content owners to do the same thing.
I've just received an Apple TV for myself today and I bought a second one as a gift for my Mum and Dad for Christmas. I've only had a 10 minute play with it tonight to check that it works before boxing it back up for Christmas but I am impressed with what I have seen so far. In particular, the quality of the 720P HD recordings is as good as or even better than the 1080i which I receive on my Sky HD+ system. Now I know that my existing DVD rips work well I can continue to rip the remaining DVDs with a bit more confidence.
This is effectively a version 1 product and I think Apple will work the kinks out over the coming months. There are so many people out there with some sort of iOS device in the family and the £99/$99 entry price is so low that many people will be tempted to buy an Apple TV. I just hope that Apple put some effort into marketing this time rather than rely on word of mouth or gift purchase to get the ball rolling.
Kind Regards,
Craig.
I think we are only seeing the beginning of a big push from Apple for the AppleTV. It has so far been a 'hobby' for them as we all know but I sense a change now that it is based on the hugely popular iOS platform.
Apple have a long history of taking baby steps where people are saying, as you are here and rightly so, that it could be so much better if they added feature X and removed restriction Y etc etc. I agree with what you are saying but some of these things such as UK content access require complex negotiations with the content owners and Apple will be in a much better position to make these negotiations if they at least have a live product upon which to base the business model.
I think it is clear to all that iOS is not a flash in the pan and the Apple TV is based on solid technology which can and does work. It is now up to the content owners to decide if they want in on the act or if they prefer to sit in their ivory towers and let people distribute content underground. Apple caught the phone industry and the tablet industry with their pants down and it would be foolish for the home entertainment industry and content owners to do the same thing.
I've just received an Apple TV for myself today and I bought a second one as a gift for my Mum and Dad for Christmas. I've only had a 10 minute play with it tonight to check that it works before boxing it back up for Christmas but I am impressed with what I have seen so far. In particular, the quality of the 720P HD recordings is as good as or even better than the 1080i which I receive on my Sky HD+ system. Now I know that my existing DVD rips work well I can continue to rip the remaining DVDs with a bit more confidence.
This is effectively a version 1 product and I think Apple will work the kinks out over the coming months. There are so many people out there with some sort of iOS device in the family and the £99/$99 entry price is so low that many people will be tempted to buy an Apple TV. I just hope that Apple put some effort into marketing this time rather than rely on word of mouth or gift purchase to get the ball rolling.
Kind Regards,
Craig.
I think it's worth it, it's even better if you happen to be on holiday in the US and get it for about £65 which is what I did. 
Looking at doing the same. Apart from changing the power cable does it work ok?I think it's worth it, it's even better if you happen to be on holiday in the US and get it for about £65 which is what I did.