Yes, I can confirm this.

I have the AppleTV working on my Sony XBR CRT. This is a standard definition television with component inputs.

It works just fine. I have the Apple TV set up for 480i. All of the other resolution settings result in no picture.

The movies look good, the TV shows look good, the photo look like you might expect and of coarse having control of my iTunes without having to walk accross the house is a real treat.

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Ok, so I am waiting for someone to cover this question for me...

Can this thing play to "multiple speakers" the same way my iTunes can?

Example: From iTunes I can play to my AirPort Express in my living room, the one in my basement and my G5's attached speakers all at the same time. Is there a setting in the ATV that will allow me to select a music track and stream/play to multiple locations in my house at once? This info would be helpful for those of us trying to decide between an ATV and a MacMini.

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Quick fix: This is despite Apple's warnings that one much have a widescreen HDTV...

I think you mean "This is despite Apple's warnings that one MUST have a widescreen HDTV".

Cool :)

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Ted,

I don't think so, the AppleTV doesn't appear to show up as a remote speaker in iTunes.

iTunes views the AppleTV more like an iPod than an airport.

In fact, when you sync the AppleTV, iTunes will tell you, "iPod sync complete".

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Can somebody please answer this.

does the apple tv work on a tv without component as many sdtv's in the uk dont have them. they only have scart. iv seen component to scart adapters but most of them only carry the video not the audio, im not botherd about the audio that can go to my amp but i want to make shore that the video will be ok.

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While you can get Apple TV to work on a lower resolution TV, the resulting image is disappointing. The pictures look OK, but the text on the screen isn't as crisp and easy to read. I use my Apple TV at maximum resolution and it looks beautiful.

Apple TV also has a HDMI hookup. But I gather if you don't have a component hookup, you're not going to have an HDMI hookup either.

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Of course AppleTV works with any TV **with** component video inputs!! File this under "No-duh" please. Every DVD player on the planet supports standard def over component video, why wouldn't the AppleTV!?

C'mon guys. This is not helpful to people who don't understand what inputs they have on their old TV.

The percentage of standard def TV's with component video-in is very, very slim compared to the millions and millions of units that only have RCA-in, S-Video-in, RF Coax-in or (even worse) two-screw-antenna-in.
All of these are legacy inputs are completely incompatible with AppleTV.

However, **every** HDTV has component video-in or HDMI. Can you see why Apple is dumbing down this for situation for everybody?

And by the way, HDTV rocks! "[P]lunk[ing] down the money for a new high falutin TV" is like plunking down the money to move from black and white TV to color TV. It's also a lot like plunking down the money to **switch** from PC to a **Mac**!

Quality always matters and the Mac user crowd should be on the side of the improved user experience that HD offers.

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nope just scart and the normall YRW compisite cables

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sam -

nope, it requires a component in. that was the first thing i checked yesterday when i pulled it out of the box. some devices i've seen can be configured in menus to use one of the component outs as a regular composite, but not this one. I'm sure somebody will sell an adaptor.

now, of course, if you can put up with seeing everything in black and white, whereupon you can use any one of the outputs on your composite input.

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Ted,
I think you can 'connect' up to five AppleTVs to iTunes. They'll come up as 5 separate devices on your iTunes device list. So yeah, I presume you can have up to 5 AppleTVs playing 5 different things at the same time. Helluva lot of synching thoough. Don't know if this answers your question.

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There are people in this world still who don't have HDTV's?

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No one has a SQUARE TV. Sorry, even SD televison's screen is a rectangle. A rectangle with rounded corners.

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So I got my Apple TV yesterday too, and like some others who don't have an HDTV (sorry Eli), I too do not have the widescreen goodness yet.

Thankfully my suspicions were confirmed - my TV has component on the back, the Apple TV has component, that should work, right? Despite all the press and manuals, it does indeed work.

That being said, it's pretty clear it was not really designed for ideal experience on a standard def TV. Hard to read small text of course, and things just have a general "compressed" feel to them. For instance, the icons and words on the main menu are much closer left to right than you see on the demos, and pretty much like the Rogue article linked here.

One issue, and it's pretty serious: on my 30" flat-faced Daewoo CRT, the movies and music and podcasts play fine, but the TV is not scaling well. My TV episodes, converted by me AND those bought at the iTunes store, do not fill the entire screen left to right. It's like it's scaling based on the 480 vertical lines and not going the full width, which I believe is 852 pixels over compenent. So it makes sense that 640x480 videos would not go edge to edge, it's just unfortunate there's no "stretch" feature to scale it out.

Movies play fine edge to edge, probably because they are not 480 vertical lines. Also, confusingly, TV trailers play just fine.

So like I said, having a standard resolution CRT screen works, it's just not the ideal experience.

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"There are people in this world still who don't have HDTV's?"

Maybe you aren't paying attention, but the last time I've seen installed base data, only about 15% of households have an HDTV.

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I can definitely confirm that it works just fine on a standard definition TV. Syncing seems to make iTunes very unstable so I've been doing it slowly after melting down my router once.

and to #12: i probably would have a HDTV at this point but Steve keeps taking all my money.

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Hi, I live in Spain, have just received an Apple TV. I have a TV that's approximately four years old, and has two types of inputs: SCART and S-Video. There are three SCART inputs, and the TV manual indicates that the first port supports RGB. I purchased a Component Video to SCART adapter cable, and hooked everything up. Unfortunately, it didn't work. When selecting the input from the TV, I simply stared at a blue screen. :-( (According to the Apple TV manual, I also tried holding down + and Menu on the remote for six seconds, so that the Apple TV would cycle through its various resolutions. No go. :-(

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Here you go. Problem solved. We are going to have to wait one month though!
http://www.svideo.com/appletv2tv.html

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Bloody hell - how difficult is this!! First you have to wait 3 months for it and then when you get it theyve updated the page and it says widescreen tv and not just tv....

After looking for a composite to scart which set me back 40 euros and days of looking (i am also in spain). The bloody thing can still not connect.

I can see it looking for different resolutions in the RGB mode of the tv.
However it will not find it.

ive got a 3 year old tv 29´with scart and rgb modes. does anyone know how to configure the ATV. alos tried in 16:9 and 4:3.

Why does apple always do this shit to us. Ive been loyal for years but really this makes me rethink big time!

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same here, i have a 4-year old LG 32" widescreen CRT.

and i also bought a composite to scart cable. My TV has 2 scart input connectors.... but it doesn't work with my conversion cable.

now im screwed!

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