Is the Apple TV a dud?

PQ Apple TV Video Converter - Watch movies, TV shows on Apple TV. The software provides a One-Click solution to convert Mpeg, WMV, Tivo, DivX, AVI, etc to Apple TV.

www.appletvconverter.net/apple-tv-video-converter

I think Apple TV is far too limited and too over-priced. The Mac Mini would have been the way to go. Get a real computer and a media centre all in one. Apple is beginning to wobble- Safari 3 is a huge mistake.

I have the Apple TV ***** unlike some people.

And I love it.

40 gig's is OK for me.

Youtube will be cool.

Thank you Steve and Apple :-)

The Apple TV is undoubtedly targeting a niche market which can potentially become larger with the growing popularity of Apple as a prime brand. This is the reason why the design of the Apple iPod if copied by others. They want to be like Apple because they know the company has the image to boot.

http://www.thenewsroom.com/details/351674/Science+and+Technology?c_id=ar

People would love if AppleTV had a DVD player, or was a DVR, a Tivo of some sort, but if you want that, rig up a Mac Mini to do that.

One reason, as stated by Jobs, that there is NOT a dvd drive, nor a tuner, in the Apple TV, is because of the changing standards in the TV industry, with HDTV (Which not everyone has yet) and cable cards, and the general proprietar nature of cable boxes. There is not a Blu-Ray or HDDVD drive in any mac yet for similar reasons... why support a 'standard' that is NOT close to being able to stick yet, as content providers try to lock everything down?

Think of the apple TV as a streaming iPod, that is all it is. For now.

It is totally a dud! I will not be buying one until they fit a cigarette lighter in the remote.

I think the question of "Is Apple TV a dud?" is a flawed question. I think the Apple TV does what it does very well. It is supposed to become the media center of the entertainment center, and while it isn't perfect, it does a very good job. Apple has said that it isn't sure which way they want to go with Apple TV. Essentially, one might see this as a trial unit. As they learn what people want from the Apple TV and figure out efficient ways to implement it, the unit will change and grow, either answering a lot of the critiques or rendering the critiques obsolete.

So the question is flawed: Instead of asking "Is it a dud?" We should be asking "What do we expect out of Apple TV 2G?"

I may be a bit late to this party, but as a very happy Apple TV customer, a lot of these critical comments annoy me.

The biggest problem I have is the criticsim of the picture quality. In a way, I can understand how people come to the conclusion that the picture quality is bad... because they go into an Apple Store, play with the demo on a 50" TV while standing a mere three feet away. Of course you are going to see digital artifacts in the picture. Try sitting on you couch, in a darkened room, a more reasonable 6'-10' from the screen, and that isn't such a big issue. To me, the picture quality is great. It isn't as good as 1080i over-the-air HD, but it is great for watching stuff I've ripped from DVD's or downloaded from ITS or bittorrent. It certainly beats the picture quality of standard cable looks on an HDTV. Image quality isn't an issue, except maybe to people who haven't actually used the product, or whose expectations are way too high.

Furthermore, I don't want, under any circumstances, a computer in my living room. I don't care if it is theoretically more functional, it would be a pain in the ass. Relaxing is mutually exclusive with having to deal with a wireless keyboard and mouse, codecs, and all that other crap. The Apple TV makes watching media content a breeze, and that is exactly why I wanted one.

I honestly don't care that it doesn't have a DVD player. I already have an upconverting DVD player, that feature on an Apple TV would just be a redundancy to me.

Nor do I care about hard drive space. The Apple TV streams media so well, I haven't loaded ANYTHING onto its built in drive, and I stream everything from a 500GB external drive in my office.

All of the rest of the flaws, or the criticisms I might have are software based, and as such they can be easily remedied if Apple decides to listen to what their consumers want. I'm looking forward to the YouTube feature, I think purchasing ITS content will come soon. I would really like to be able to build smart video playlists- essentially to create my own programming rotation. But I think that will be solved soon too.

For a first gen product, I'm really pleased with it. I just moved into a new apartment, and was so pleased with the AppleTv that I opted against getting cable television installed, and so far I've been able to make do very well with just over-the-air HD content (around 10 broadcast HD channels in my area) and a fast internet connection.

The flaws I've noticed in the product aren't fatal to it in my opinion, and many if not most of them will probably be updated in future software revisions anyway. Apple TV may be trying to reach a niche market, or at least one that is less accessible than the iPod was... that doesn't mean it is a dud. I think if Apple sticks with the product, they will be vindicated by it in the end.

yeah, it could be better.

htpp://ThunkDIfferent.com

Surely the iPhone is the most debated Apple product not the Apple TV.