[The Godfather]

Anyone find good video reviews, other than the one linked below?
FOXNews.com - EXCLUSIVE Apple TV Review: Hands on With Steve Jobs' New Hobby

[turtle777]

Well, got mine today.

Overall, nice.

But what's annoying: my movies and TV shows don't show up on the ATV under Movies or TV Shows. I have to go to Computers - Shared iTunes - Movies.

That sucks, it's just too many clicks away.
On the old ATV, my own movies and TV shows showed up right under Movies or TV Shows.

-t

[Wiskedjak]

Originally Posted by turtle777 

But what's annoying: my movies and TV shows don't show up on the ATV under Movies or TV Shows. I have to go to Computers - Shared iTunes - Movies.

That sucks, it's just too many clicks away.
On the old ATV, my own movies and TV shows showed up right under Movies or TV Shows.

-t

Weird. If I remember correctly, that was how the Apple TV *originally* behaved, and then an update brought them into the main menu. Seems like the design is intended to put pay-for content at your finger-tips and content you already have at arm's length.

[turtle777]

Yep, exactly, and very annoying.

-t

[turtle777]

Some more annoyances: there seems to be no way to create a playlist / favorites from radio stations.
Heck, there is not even a "recently played" list.

You have to go through the list of hundreds of stations every time you want to listen to something. F*cking dumb.

On the plus side: it seems like I can sell my old Apple Tv 40GB for about $ 80-100 on eBay. Wow.

-t

Could someone remind me why exactly they dropped the storage capacity from 160 GB to 8 GB, and why they still refuse to support 1080p as awesome as it is?
If anything, the new version is even less useful for my blu-ray system than the old version.
I'll stick with using my computer to stream, TYVM!

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally Posted by Andrej 

Could someone remind me why exactly they dropped the storage capacity from 160 GB to 8 GB,

- because the storage is irrelevant when you're streaming
- power consumption
- price
- size

Originally Posted by Andrej 

and why they still refuse to support 1080p as awesome as it is?

- because iTunes movie rentals don't come in 1080p
- because it's $100

Originally Posted by Andrej 

I'll stick with using my computer to stream, TYVM!

That's exactly what the new Apple TV is intended for.

[turtle777]

I used to have the 40GB ATV. Never used the storage. I was always only streaming.

I'm eBaying my old ATV, I should get $50-$75 for it. So the new ATV was areal cheap upgrade.

-t

[Spheric Harlot]

I don't know about US energy prices, but over here, you'd probably save the difference on a couple years' worth of electricity consumption alone.

Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot 

That's exactly what the new Apple TV is intended for.

Well that's dumb.

We can already do that with the new iPhone/iPod.

I want to store high quality movies, my entire picture/movie library, and a few documents to display on the big screen and not have to lug my computer back and forth just to show my material. 8GB isn't enough. Gosh, what a pointless product.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by Andrej 

Well that's dumb.

We can already do that with the new iPhone/iPod.

O Rly ?

Your iPhone can stream 720p content to your TV ?

You are a genius.

-t

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally Posted by Andrej 

Well that's dumb.

We can already do that with the new iPhone/iPod.

I want to store high quality movies, my entire picture/movie library, and a few documents to display on the big screen and not have to lug my computer back and forth just to show my material. 8GB isn't enough. Gosh, what a pointless product.

If you don't have a network at home, why are you looking at the Apple TV?

I'm confused, but I think that's because you are.

[subego]

Originally Posted by turtle777 

Some more annoyances: there seems to be no way to create a playlist / favorites from radio stations.

You have to go through the list of hundreds of stations every time you want to listen to something. F*cking dumb.

I haven't confirmed this for myself, as I don't have one, but I've been told you can hold down the select button on a station and then add it to your favorites.

Worth a shot.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by subego 

I haven't confirmed this for myself, as I don't have one, but I've been told you can hold down the select button on a station and then add it to your favorites.

Worth a shot.

Confirmed

I tried right clicking on it, but that didn't do anything. I'm glad that at least this was an easy fix.

-t

[Doc HM]

The new ATV makes loads more sense once you've seen the revised Remote app. Especially on an iPad.

And it's not just iTunes that rents/sells content in 720, there's no 1080 content online at the moment.

[scaught]

Originally Posted by Andrej 

Well that's dumb.

We can already do that with the new iPhone/iPod.

I want to store high quality movies, my entire picture/movie library, and a few documents to display on the big screen and not have to lug my computer back and forth just to show my material. 8GB isn't enough. Gosh, what a pointless product.

You don't have to "lug" your computer anywhere. Do research before you make insane complaints.

[ibook_steve]

Well, I think I love my new ATV. Right now it's sitting next to my Roku box, which is awesome in its own right. The missing piece of the puzzle right now is Hulu, which Roku will have this year, they've said. But the ATV interface is amazing and Netflix on it is much better than Roku, not to mention the Remote app on my iPod Touch.

I'm also waiting for the inevitable ATV hacks, so maybe Hulu and other Internet services will be available. I'm still looking for "one box to rule them all" (GoogleTV maybe?).

Steve

[olePigeon]

I can't wait for the ATV hacks. It runs iOS, so I'm anxious to see what apps people make for it. I could see an ATV becoming a half decent Carputer.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by ibook_steve 

Well, I think I love my new ATV. Right now it's sitting next to my Roku box, which is awesome in its own right.

I returned my Roku HD. Paid $ 89 for it two months ago.

For the same money, I get a new ATV. I don't need Hulu, only Netflix, so I'm good.

-t

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by olePigeon 

I could see an ATV becoming a half decent Carputer.

You're right, it has a lot of potential.

-t

[Wiskedjak]

Many of our meeting rooms have LCD screens. Some of us are contemplating ATV's to project our iPads onto the screens, assuming the ATV can display non-video/music content over AirPlay (ie: Keynote, iMockup, iAnnotate, etc).

[dennett]

We love our new AppleTV so much that we ordered a second for our other big screen last night. It's great being able to listen to our iTunes music on our home theater while our iPhoto pictures play in screen saver mode on the big flat screen. $99 seems almost too cheap...

[tooki]

Originally Posted by Doc HM 

And it's not just iTunes that rents/sells content in 720, there's no 1080 content online at the moment.

Whatever the Sony online store is called, the one you use to rent movies from a PS3, does 1080p. They look great.

The downside is that Sony's store is capped to absurdly low download speeds, so it takes almost an hour to buffer enough of a movie to begin watching it. None of this silly "on demand" stuff for impatient pussies…

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally Posted by dennett 

$99 seems almost too cheap...

I think the actual stroke of genius was moving ATV into impulse-buy territory.

By next spring, you'll have three - and thus have spent the same amount you'd NEVER have spent on the TV-attached iPod that the first generation was, despite its greater functionality.

[Cold Warrior]

I'm considering one of these. I have the previous generation; its utility for me is hacked with ATVfiles, perian, and ftp. I can take media from my computer, nearly any format, ftp it over the LAN to the apple tv, and play it on the television. Renting movies is useful too.

Since most of my video isn't mp4, and I'd rather not transcode, will itunes transcode avi on the fly?

If not, I'll be watching closely for iOS ATV hacks and apps. Hopefully it'll be easier to develop apps that integrate more easily into the UI than the older ATV hacks.

[turtle777]

I sold my old ATV on eBay, got around $60 for it.

All my videos are MP4, since I have been using Handbrake for ages, and I don't download movies.

Since I wanted Netflix, the new ATV was a no-brainer.

Plus, we'll get apps soon

-t

[Wiskedjak]

Originally Posted by turtle777 

Plus, we'll get apps soon

-t

I'm a little surprised that it wasn't *launched* with apps.

[subego]

Originally Posted by turtle777 

I sold my old ATV on eBay, got around $60 for it.

40G or 160G*?



*Or whatever size the bigger one was.

[turtle777]

40GB.

-t

[subego]

Oooh. Good deal.

[glideslope]

Originally Posted by turtle777 

Some more annoyances: there seems to be no way to create a playlist / favorites from radio stations.
Heck, there is not even a "recently played" list.

You have to go through the list of hundreds of stations every time you want to listen to something. F*cking dumb.

On the plus side: it seems like I can sell my old Apple Tv 40GB for about $ 80-100 on eBay. Wow.

-t

Wait for the Apple TV update after iOS 4.2 is released.

[Wiskedjak]

Originally Posted by glideslope 

Wait for the Apple TV update after iOS 4.2 is released.

I doubt Apple will make radio stations any easier to user. It doesn't travel through iTunes and they don't make any money off of it. Never mind how long it too them to even include the current, limited radio station functionality.

[subego]

In iTunes, or the AppleTV?

[Wiskedjak]

Originally Posted by subego 

In iTunes, or the AppleTV?

On the AppleTV. Apple has supported radio stations in iTunes almost since day one, but the first versions of AppleTV OS had little or no support for that functionality. The first AppleTV hack that I can remember was to support radio stations.