Apple TV takes over DVD world, or 30%, at least

With the advent of apple TV on our doorsteps, I am searching to create a Media Centre for my Plasma TV. I am unsure about apple TV vs Mac Mini.

Apple TV is cheaper with good conectivity but unsure if you can play DVD's ripped to HDD on the apple tv or if these need to be converted to MP4 and will the USB port on the back support an external HDD.

Mac Mini is more expensive with DVI out only but will play DVD's, DIVX, and support an external HDD.

Can anybody Help about the issues of DVD's on the Apple TV and what the USB port will support

@23 rahrens, I agree, mainly. Except that cable is already ahead of the pack in serving content on demand. It's one of their key differentiators. Much of it is "free" (in the sense of "gift with purchase" if you're already paying for cable). Cable on demand content is always streamed and can't be saved to a hard drive. Some titles are available in HD. Steve has (so far) been right in betting that people wanted to own music rather than subscribe. But will that apply to TV and movies? The cable customer (and the Netflix customer) already have bought into the subscription model.

HDTV flat panels are dominating current sales, but there's a huge legacy base of older TVs that are not compatible with AppleTV. DVD players can connect to ANY TV. AppleTV can't. I wonder how many returns Apple is going to have when naive buyers discover this.

All Apple needs to do to make this product a run away hit is put an over the air HD tuner in it(like the ones Elgato makes). Now your Apple TV can get free HD broadcasts from local broadcasters as well as ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX & PBS. anything else you want to watch or listen to you buy from iTunes.
This would allow customers to drop their expensive cable TV packages and really bring on some competition in the market place.

Rahrens,

Except for the fact that without DVR capabilities, the AppleTV is a sub-par digital hub. Unless there's a subscription option that rivals NetFlix's prices, it is again sub-par in that category as well.

NetFlix offers Blu-ray. That's 1080p content at higher bitrates than the AppleTV offering content at 720p with lower bit rates to accommodate bandwidth limitations.

The best way to pick up consumers is to offer DVR capabilities and then transition them to pay content exclusively through iTunes. This is what the iPod has done. At no point was MP3 cut out of the equation because if it had, the iPod would have less marketshare today than the Zune. So stop eating up hype - when it is not warranted here - just for Apple's sake. Ask Joe Blow if he has heard of and wants a TiVo. The answer will be "yes" for the majority polled. Without DVR, I fear this enterprise is going to go over as well as the Mac Cube.

I've noted this before in similar forums when people make these same comments.

AppleTV is NOT intended to be a DVR. Apple doesn't want to compete in that arena. Other manufacturers make very good DVR's, and a DVR has no reason to need a PC.

Apple's products are intended to be positioned around what Steve calls a Digital Hub. That Hub is your Mac. The HD in the AppleTV is for short term storage and caching streamed content from either your Mac or iTunes. If you want to record broadcast or cable content, then buy something that will do that.

Apple's intentions are, to me, clear. In the future, they intend to be THE location for Content On Demand.

And COD is the future of content distribution. Clearly, consumers want to watch what they want, when they want, from whatever source they can get it. And they are willing to pay for it. Apple is willing to be that distribution point. With the AppleTV, they will be.

Obviously, this is the first generation. Subsequent generations will add capabilities and features. I think we'll see larger HD's, and perhaps either a USB or Firewire connector to add HDD storage, or (more likely) the ability to store content on such an external HD served from an Apple Airport Extreme.

Will we ever see DVR capability? No. Apple wants you to get your content through the iTunes Store. And as the numbers of AppleTVs rise, and the capabilities of the units get better, more and more people will go there for their content, and COD will definitely be where its at. More and more content creators will serve their content through the ITS, and eventually, cable providers will begin to feel the pinch. So they too, will begin to serve content on demand, and today's menus of channel lineups will go the way of the dodo bird.
Don't forget, in the beginning, the iPod was just a five gig, B&W screened, Mac only mp3 player. It took a few generations to get where they are today.

So will the AppleTV.

I'll be buying one for listening to my lossless audio files at first, but I then plan on ripping all of my music video DVDs. If Apple starts to offer 720P TV shows, then I will dump DirecTV as pretty much all I watch are the HD channels.

I wish that the Apple TV also would play DVD's so I could use it to replace my aging DVD player.

Once the @TV is hacked to play DivX and Xvid then it might be worth a look. As a medium for playing iTunes only content it simply can't compete with Satellite and Cable TV.

Why on earth would I trade in my Sky HD + box with hundreds of normal channels, 15-20 movie channels and a few in HD. It just doesn't make sense.
I do however run a mac mini alongside the skybox to play divx movies and vids from da interweb as well as browsing and the odd game of Wow.

The @TV just seems to have little to no value compared to the above hardware which is not to say that I wouldn't love to be able to download high quality movie content from iTunes. I would but in a device that does not limit me exclusively to content from iTunes.

Here are my two cents on this issue.

I am interested in creating a real multimedia hub in my living room. AppleTV is not such a hub, and therefore I'll look for alternatives.
What AppleTV lacks, to be able to sale the mentioned figures, it the following:
- TV recording features (TiVo like)
- Internet connection
- Expandable memory (external HDD)

Some comments are a little biased since they are from US residends (except one Canadian :-) ).
AppleTV has the potential to be a HUGE source of revenues in Europe.

Think about that:
- No TiVo here!
- Movies always come a lot later than they do in the US
- TV series are available up to one year later than in the US
Many people with high education/revenue understand and speak english very well. I bet they would spend big bucks to be able to watch TV series and movies in advance even in original language (many already do that in theaters as well as by playing DVDs in their original version).

The lacks I mentioned are important in Europe because iTunes store does not allow any video content download.
A transition to an AppleTV based model (you buy what you want to watch, commercial-free) has to be done step by step in Europe.

PLEASE APPLE, let us watch, pause and record live TV (think about local TV series, sports and so on). This would bring your device in many homes in old Europe. That would be a wonderful head start should you decide to sell us video content.

Since AppleTV is not ready for prime time in Europe I will purchase:
- mac mini
- external HDD
- eye TV
So I will have what I am speaking of RIGHT NOW and here.

Unfortunately it will cost me a fortune...