Apple TV on Yahoo! Tech's Worst of 2007 list

Has any of you used this guys before to increase ATV capacity? Any thoughts? I really need to increase the capacity of my 40GB model

http://www.weaknees.com/appletv/apple-tv-upgrade.php

I can proudly say I’m one of the early adopters of Apple TV without being a MacFan (my only other Apple product is an iPod, my PC is a Maingear which I love), and I can say Apple TV has fulfilled all my expectations perfectly, and a bit more. As I envisioned, I connected it to my receiver too, and I can hear all my music collection on high quality speakers. Watching the latest photos on my TV is priceless, and it’s very easy to see my movies filmed with my Xacti video camera (directly on h.264) in matter of minutes after filmed without the pain of connecting cables, etc. As many say here, Apple TV does exactly what is supposed to do

I have only two complains: The movies from my Xacti are usually rendered with many pixelations and jittery, a technical problem I’ve not been able to resolve, and 40 GB of storage capacity is way too low, considering the OS takes almost 8 GB. Dumping my Apple TV for the bigger 160GB model less than a year down the road is a costly proposition to me. There should be a way to increase its capacity without having to buy a new unit, like making the USB port available for an external storage device. Many would argue you can stream music from iTunes instead of downloading it to Apple TV to save space, but then the PC has to be on and the way to access music wouldn’t be that simple, upsetting my wife. I always thought 40 GB of space (32 GB in practice) was insufficient at a time when we were close to cheap 1 TB HDs (today a reality), SDHC cards of 6GB and USB flash drives with over 60GB of capacity.

Other than that ATV is a great product

Just got one for christmas. I've got close to 1/2 TB of itunes video content, not to mention a massive music collection. Do I wish it had DVR capability? Sure, but it's not a deal breaker. I wanted mine for the sole purpose of being able to EASILY access my media collection from the comfort of my couch. It does that job BEAUTIFULLY so I'm not unhappy.

I do agree that Apple has kind of dropped the ball on the development of the device, but hopefully the renewed interest in video on demand/online rentals will spur some activity on that front.

I love mine. Stoopid Yahoo people.

I bought the AppleTV on opening day of sales. Thought it was fantastic for 6 months, but it's of some features makes it less useful than I'd have hoped for, especially after 9 months with no updates other than adding YouTube, which looks pretty crappy on a 65" TV.

TiVo Series 3 does just about everything AppleTV does except play video podcasts over the home theater. If I had to choose between the two devices, TiVo wins hands down.

Those wanting the AppleTV to play Video_TS folders directly off the device should check out the AwkwardTV hacks. They're easy to install if you have USB thumb drive, and add many missing features to the AppleTV.

I love mine, I really hope they don't release version 2 in January as I really think the version 1 hasn't been used to its best yet. There has only been 1 software update to date due probably to Apple's focus on the iphone and leopard.

The current device is great if you have a family and if you own a TV device - even better.

I won't be buying version 2 if it is announced but i would like to see them updating the software, online rentals, more online content even the odd new application. This machine has potential Apple have simply been distracted.

I reviewed the unit here http://www.maccreative.net/detail/106/apple-tv-review-love-digmo.html

I don't think it should be on the worst tech list but should be on the post neglected tech, or the tech with the most under exploited potential.

Whoever says it's the worst tech piece of 2007 has sadly never been up at 2AM doing whatever while watching YouTube or streaming movies wirelessly from an external HD on the network.

The whole point of buying an AppleTV is to hack it, sheesh.

Any apple product for that matter (iPhone/iPodTouch jailbroken, iPod4th gen w/ Linux + RockBox(?), etc.)

The negative comments about the AppleTV are obviously written by people who haven't spent time with one.

I have one here (bought it immediately after its release) and love it. In any given day, I listen to albums, use the photo slideshow to show my collection of great photos all during the day, listen to podcasts, watch a video later in the evening, and play any of my iTunes music collection. All of my videos and music are on a Mac in another room, and I sit on the couch and select what I want so easily.

Although I know this could be approximated with Front Row, AppleTV makes it work perfectly. I've loved mine and recommend it all the time; I'll definitely stick with them as when a newer one gets released as well.

Here are the features the AppleTV needs, and these shouldn't add to the cost much or at all. It needs 1080p playback capability - yes, I know very few people have 1080p capable sets and in many cases they aren't able to make out all the resolution anyway, but it's a checklist item the absence of which turns off many prospective buyers. It needs real surround sound capability - Dolby Digital and/or DTS over the optical output, six-channel analog output, or multichannel PCM over the HDMI port, or some combination thereof. Matrixed ProLogic is not good enough - we've had Dolby Digital on DVDs for over ten years now. I expect Apple to at least give us the technology of the current century.

The AppleTV should access the iTunes store for music and movie purchases and/or rentals, and download podcasts. Movies need to be at or above DVD resolution, high-def content should be optional. If Apple attacked the high-def movie market seriously, they could end the Blu-Ray/HD-DVD war by killing off both formats.

AppleTV needs to play every reasonably popular video and audio codec. In fact, iTunes itself needs this ability. We also need a way to get our own DVDs on there that is supported by Apple. If this means getting together with the studios and agreeing to DRM-lock the resulting files to the original ripping user, so be it. Power users could still use Handbrake if they wanted.

We use ours for ab't 12 hours of content a week - in addition to our HiDef DVR.

I see no reason whatsoever for the AppleTV to ever add DVR features - other than for cheapskate geeks who haven't already added a DVR [SD or HD] to their television system.

It would just be one more enormous set of negotiations for Apple with assorted video content distributors - possibly ending with locking AppleTV users to one satellite or cable provider.

Thanks; but, no thanks.