Trust me, do not waste your money on this product. We have owned this unit for several months now and really wish we could still return it. I am still an Apple fan. I have a MacBook and the Airport both are wonderful but this little gadget just isn't worth it!
- The movie rentals are a SCAM. When a new movie comes out you can BUY it right away for $15 dollars, but they make you wait another month before you can rent it. wtf? I can rent it from Netflix or Blockbuster the same day it comes out but Apple makes me wait a month! They are just trying to get you to spend more money.
- We have to reboot it ALL THE TIME. It just goes out to lunch for some reason. It won't download, or it says it can't connect to the Apple store. Then we have to get up off the nice comfy couch, pull the power plug from the back of the unit, then count to ten and plug it back in.
- As others have said, the unit gets HOT. Chernobyl HOT. I have to prop it up on stilts to keep it from melting the finish off my table.
- The remote sucks. We also have an Apple laptop in the living room and the remotes are exactly the same. So if you are using the laptop and someone trys to watch a movie it makes the computer go crazy until you physically block the IR port.
- It is a real pain to find a movie you are looking for. You can scroll and scroll and scroll and hope you get lucky or you can try the search function which is like entering your name into the video game you just got high score on at the arcade... one letter at a time.
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I've had an apple tv for about 5 months and I think I've actually sold a few to friends and it's not for the reasons you might think. Many reviewers have focused on movie rentals, but I bought this to be able to share my photos and home videos with family and friends. I know it could be called a glorified ipod, but it quietly gives me access to the home movies and family photos that have sequestered on my hard drive. Instead of gathering around the computer to see the latest...we just access the apple tv. It is also as another reviewer mentioned, a great way to access your music collection. By the way I have rented movies and played purchased movies...it works great. For me, 720p is fine...you won't find anything better than 720p on cable or broadcast HD. I also love being able to use my iPhone as a remote for the system. It's awesome
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I'm an Apple fan. I have owned two desktops, an Airport, four iPods, and and iPhone. This product is just not ready for prime time. But it makes a really nice, warm, $300 doorstop.
Here's my setup, DSL line to Airport base station, over wireless, to Apple TV. (Note: I later added a Cat 5 wire between the Airport and the Apple TV, and performance only improved marginally.)
1. Movie Rental Scheme Makes No Sense - If you want to rent an HD movie it takes about 5 hours to download. Then you've got 30 days to start watching it. Once you start watching a two hour movie you have to finish within 24 hours. We have a toddler. Those blocks of time are not likely to line up in our lives for at least 15 years. It just doesn't make any sense. The only real knock on the Apple TV here is the 5 hours it takes to download. Apple pitched it as something you could start watching right away. That just hasn't been my experience.
2. Only 780p, not 1080p -- If I'm going to drop $300 on a consumer electronics device, it should perform at the current gold standard.
3. It gets hot -- As many others noted, the unit gets very warm. I was afraid to leave the stereo cabinet doors closed for risk of fire.
4. The Remote is Lame -- Scrolling, scrolling, scrolling . . . keep that thumb scrolling. Too many menu choices for such a limited remote. It takes many many clicks to get where you're going.
5. Latency -- It's like a bad cell phone or PDA. If you push a button and it is busy doing something, it just sits there. No acknowledgment, no little hourglass, just sits there. I had to wait up to a few minutes for remote clicks to be processed. I routinely waited 10-30 seconds for clicks to process.
6. Long Waits for Content -- If you want to watch HD content, it does NOT start playing right away. You have to wait between 1 1/2 and 2 1/2 times the length of the content before you can start watching.
Contrast all of this above with a Blu-Ray DVD player. The player is about the same price. The content costs about the same. There's no latency. There's no waiting for downloads. The images are full 1080p.
The one good thing about the Apple TV, HD Podcasts. We loved the NASA podcasts of space imagery and underwater diving podcasts.
Final word, way too expensive for what it does. We returned it after 3 weeks.
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I really love this thing. I have it connected via component cables to a home theater reciever for audio and seperately to my tv for video, controlled with a Logitech Harmony Remote (also iPhone / Apple Remote App ).
Music
Entire 4,000+ CD library hooked up to my home stereo, no weird techy workarounds to get music playing on my home stereo, no wizzing fans, no running into the other room to change a song. iPod dock was fine but nothing can touch the easy of use and convenience of using the Apple TV as a Network Audio Server. Turn the TV off after the music gets going and you can control it with iPhone or iTouch (entire playlist is right there on the luxurious iphone screen in your pocket).
Video
I have a 32" HD-LCDTV, at 32" the normal resolution of video from iTunes video store is virtually the same as TimeWarner HD Cable Channels. HD vids are available, only necessary for larger screens I think.
I usually rent movies rather than buy, better selection than cable on-demand. Can do it right on the TV, great selection of stuff I actually want to watch. Rentals are $3-$5 - play in about 30 sec. Good surround sound, indistinguishable from a DVD. I cancelled Netflix a few weeks after getting this.
Pros
Techphobe Spouse actually likes and uses it (she looooooves the slideshow feature)
Easy Apple Interface
Plug it in and it works instantly (configuration with a LAN could be taxing if you're unfamilliar with how to set one up)
Cons
Apple Universal Remote went right in the garbage, as always.
Entering text via Apple Remote remote is brutal.
Hates Firewalls
Limited storage
Wishlist
Pandora (without hacking) on the AppleTV, just like the iPhone version
Let me type in text with an iPhone or Touch
Expandable Storage
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