apple tv

[seb]

prob a repost..

http://www.apple.com/appletv/

is it any good? anyone heard of it?

How does it work? is it just a freeview box with the added extras that it has?

 

[BenWall]

Doesnt sound very good, it basically connects to iTunes and streams what ever you have downloaded (paidfor) to the TV, but I imagine that the films etc wont be cheap and you cant do anything with them other than play them via apple products.

Best sticking with sky and your PC.

 

[sn00p]

It has a harddisc and content can be downloaded and played back from the device.

It supports h264 and mpeg4, it doesn't support divx.

There were hacks for it (which meant opening the box and mounting the drive on a mac) which allowed divx playback providing you made a quicktime container for the film, apparently these are all broken in the new firmware update released the other day.

A mac mini is probably a better bet, but then that's twice the price.

 

[Tom]

Useless unitl itunes uk updates its content, then i might buy one.

 

[Mike_182]

I've got one, and it's absolutely fantastic for the money. The only reviews I can find on the internet slating it are from jumped up idiots who bought it wanting it to do something which it doesn't say it can do.

As a way of watching all my videos and pictures, and listening to my music downstairs on my HD TV, it's absolutely brilliant.

Mac Mini probably would be a better bet, but then you can't buy a CoreDuo based Mac Mini for the £260 I paid for my 160Gb AppleTV...

 

[Mike_182]

Another point worth noting is when you compare it to a lot of the cheaper units on the market, they are purely streaming devices. The AppleTV has the disk so that only some of the content needs to be streamed (if any at all!) so you don't have to go upstairs and turn the computer on and then come downstairs and turn the AppleTV on...

 

[jongsr4]

I think it looks fantastic but could you not just link up your computer with Itunes etc to the widescreen tv?

 

[Tom]

OS X 10.5 has a much better front row interface, better to buy a used mac mini and wait for lepoard.