Apple TV 2: Walk-through what's new
The interface has been slightly modified from the now familiar Front Row interface to something slightly different:
New Apple TV main screen
From here, the new options can be selected using the Apple Remote.
Read on to see more of the new Apple TV features in action.
Movie Rentals
OK, this is the big feature that has had most Apple TV owners salivating over the update. With the new update, you can now rent movies from iTunes Rentals directly from Apple TV. Additionally, Apple TV owners are the only people who can rent from Apple's HD selection.
You can browse through movies by genre, Top Movies (most popular) or through a search list. Once selected, you can decide to rent the movie on the spot. The title will start downloading, and for most standard definition films on a broadband connection start playing immediately.
The new rentals screen in Apple TV
TV Shows
Also new to the Apple TV is the ability to finally (!) purchase content from the iTunes Media store. For television shows, this can be especially convenient from the Apple TV. The process of finding a show is very similar to finding a movie rental. You then have the option of purchasing a single episode or subscribing to the entire season.
If you synch your Apple TV with your Mac or PC, your TV shows will automatically be downloaded to your computer as well, so that you can watch it back from the computer or transfer it to the iPod. That's pretty cool.
Buying a TV show via Apple TV 2
Photos
The Apple TV has updated its photo display ability and it can now communicate with .Mac and Flickr. You can view your own pictures, or those of your contacts straight from the screen and choose to play them back to music you have on your Apple TV or connected computer.
You can view your Flickr streams (and streams from friends) via Apple TV
Podcasts and Music
You can watch video podcasts right from the Apple TV and also buy music albums. Like TV shows, these will synch with your Mac or PC if you choose to interface the two devices together
Watch an HD vodcast on your HDTV
All in all, this looks like a pretty nice update. While some of these features probably should have been included last January, it's nice to have them now and that plus iTunes Rentals integration has made the Apple TV a whole lot more attractive.
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So now that the long awaited Apple TV update is now available, let's take a look at some of the changes this new update brings to both the...
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Apple TV is cool, but lets think about this for a second...We pay apple to get this box in order to pay them more to rent movies from them...
February 13 2008 at 12:24 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplySort of like you pay Comcast or TimeWarner or DirecTV to rent a box so you can pay to rent movies from them? Or how you have to go to the store to buy a box (that you have to pay for! The horror!) so you can rent movies from Blockbuster or Netflix? Or how you have to buy a PC to rent streaming movies from Netflix?
Yes, that was worth a lot of thought.
How can I take advantage of the 5.1 sound? I ripped some of my DVDs with Handbrake with the Dolby Digital track, but they won't play back in 5.1.
February 13 2008 at 10:48 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyDoes anyone know if they allow you to now add details to the movies.
On the version one ATV you could only add DVD cover art.
I would love to be able to add movie synopsis and also rate each movie like you can in Itunes.
Other then that I can't wait to upgrade.
If you are on a mac there is a utility called MetaX. It's free and allows you to edit all the information for films, tv episodes, music video's etc and can pull the info from IMDB, Amazon etc.
The site is: http://www.kerstetter.net/page53/page54/page54.html
I've been using it for quite a while and definitely the best of all the one's I've tried.
Well i have to say that from what I have read, I am very disappointed with this update. I've not tried it yet but one of the things I was looking forward to was being able to browse my movies by Genre, and presumed that I would be able to do the same for TV Show's.
Now I'm reading that you can only browse by Genre in the rental section which is ridiculous. Why put it in one place and not the other. So now I have to continue scrolling through an ever growing list to find what I want to watch. Sure, they might add it in the next update, but that'll probably be another age away.
Another thing. It should be an option as to whether to prioritise already owned content or rentals/online stuff. I'm in the UK and we can't get rentals, we can't buy films, and our range of TV shows is crap, not to mention we pay 2-3 times more than our US counterparts, so there's no way I'd want to have all that online stuff prioritised.
Hopefully someone will come out with a hack or something soon adding some better way's to browse content otherwise I'll end up rolling back.
Very disappointed Apple.
why can't you use rental from canada? i'm from germany and interested in using rental to see englisch movies. how does appleTV knows where i'm from? do i need an apple id? well, then i could make an apple-account and take an adresse in the usa, to get access to rental.
am i right?
If you set up an account with an American address I'm pretty sure you could use the US store and therefore get movie rentals. I think you might need a credit card to set up the account though. If you can get hold of some US itunes gift cards, that might work
February 13 2008 at 5:50 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Replydoes flickr work now? ;)
February 13 2008 at 3:56 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyWow. I'm surprised to hear so many unhappy upgraders. I upgraded mine this evening and I've already watched two movies. One in SD and one in HD. I thought both formats looked nice and although I have a nice 50' pioneer plasma, I will be renting SD in the future because it looked really good to me and didn't take me out of the movie at all.
I think this box is now killing! Previously I had held off on the Atv because the price, the video quality, and the need to be tethered to my computer.
Now all that has changed and so far I am completely delighted with all the new functionality. It is doing exactly what I hoped for (exactly what was advertised).
Great choice in TV shows :)
February 13 2008 at 2:41 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyFor Canadians:
No movie rentals.
HD or not.
Sux
The Flickr integration stinks! You can't login to your account, and can't see your contacts who have "public searches" turned off.
February 12 2008 at 8:18 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyHot Apps on TUAW
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