[dbranham]

I am considering ditching Time Warner Cable in favor of Apple TV. Is this a reasonable thing to do? Here are some of my concerns.

1. Which would be more economical (excluding Apple TV's purchase price)? TWC runs roughly $70/month for digital cable, I believe. With iTunes TV shows going for $2/show, that would allow us to purchase 35 shows/month at the same cost as TWC service. This is a rough calculation, and I'd love the input of someone who has done this type of thing.

2. How does picture quality compare? We're buying a 1080p television set. I'm not sure what TWC's HD broadcast resolution is. I also don't know what iTunes TV shows' resolution is.

3. I'd be missing local news broadcasts. How do you guys make up for this?

4. How is the iTunes NFL experience? I love my Panthers, and feel hesitant to relegate myself to watching them any way but LIVE.

5. Any other considerations I forgot?

[goMac]

TWC will broadcast shows on a HD networks as either 720p or 1080i. iTunes uses standard definition. Your cable will get you pretty close to your full 1080p resolution, but iTunes won't even be close.

If you're looking for a good HD solution, don't bother with iTunes right now. Every other service seems to be beating them in terms of video.

[mduell]

Originally Posted by dbranham 

I am considering ditching Time Warner Cable in favor of Apple TV. Is this a reasonable thing to do? Here are some of my concerns.

1. Which would be more economical (excluding Apple TV's purchase price)? TWC runs roughly $70/month for digital cable, I believe. With iTunes TV shows going for $2/show, that would allow us to purchase 35 shows/month at the same cost as TWC service. This is a rough calculation, and I'd love the input of someone who has done this type of thing.

2. How does picture quality compare? We're buying a 1080p television set. I'm not sure what TWC's HD broadcast resolution is. I also don't know what iTunes TV shows' resolution is.

3. I'd be missing local news broadcasts. How do you guys make up for this?

4. How is the iTunes NFL experience? I love my Panthers, and feel hesitant to relegate myself to watching them any way but LIVE.

5. Any other considerations I forgot?

1. I watch more than 1 show a day, so it would be uneconomical for me. How much TV do you watch?

2. Not even close; HDTV is 1280x720 or 1920x1080, iTunes shows are 640x480. iTunes shows are about the same as digital standard def TV.

3. Their websites.

4. For $25/team/season or $2/game, you can get the highlights of the game a day or so afterward.

5. If you have cable internet, the price will probably go up ($15/mo or so) when you dump cable TV.

[NYK Ace]

2. there are alot of podcasts which i watch now and more and more are going hd, but honestly the large quicktime versions look pretty good too and the widescreen tv shows look pretty good as well

3. i installed an antenna and now get free OTA, gives me my locals and buffalo bills games in HD

4. the antenna again makes up for this

[dbranham]

Thanks for the input. Sounds like Apple TV isn't such a viable alternative. I cant figure out what its good for. I'd like to stream music to my home theatre speakers, but dont want to pay $299 to do only that.

[mitchell_pgh]

The Apple TV has a place. If I had a nice TV in a living room, and I wanted to access some movies i've converted/purchased or music, etc. it's not a bad choice.

A friend of mine has one, and we constantly have drinks, listen to music, and look at pictures from days past... it's a good time. It's really about music IMHO, but the video part isn't bad at all. He's able to convert DVDs and Divx to compatible formats.

[NYK Ace]

Originally Posted by dbranham 

Thanks for the input. Sounds like Apple TV isn't such a viable alternative. I cant figure out what its good for. I'd like to stream music to my home theatre speakers, but dont want to pay $299 to do only that.

if you watch alot of video podcasts its great, i catch alot of Rev3 stuff, dl.tv, Around the Horn, Best Week Ever, Tom Green Show, Webnation w/ Amber Mac, Stump the Chef HD, washington post HD, and its all free

again, for me, the OTA antenna (installed in my attic) has filled in alot of the gaps cable left (I mostly watched broadcast Tv as it is) and its all crystal clear and actually looks better then cable because its uncompressed HD. I like to think of apple tv as an on-demand channel which has given me back my TechTV and more. Then anything i cant get in podcasts / OTA i pick up for 1.99, its saved me alot of money