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One month with Apple TV

by Dave Caolo Feb 2nd 2009 at 4:00PM

Last Christmas, my wife surprised me with an Apple TV. I had mentioned it a few times, but not with the breathless anticipation I typically reserve for Apple products and baked goods. Still, I set it up and have enjoyed renting movies, listening to music and delighting the kids with enormous pictures of themselves.

While the Apple TV isn't a flop, it isn't the type of runaway hit we've come to expect from Cupertino. When Tim Cook shared Apple's first quarter financial results last month, he referred to the Apple TV as "...a hobby." He also noted that sales tripled since they added movie rentals, but didn't share specific numbers. After a month of playing with it, I think I know why.

First, let me share what I love about the Apple TV, lest you think I'm a Negative Nellie. To start, it's tiny and unobtrusive. While I like owning fun gadgets, I dislike looking at a stack of ugly hardware.

The UI is extremely easy to navigate and the learning curve is nil. A 6-year-old could operate this with no instruction. I'm also quite pleased with the quality of the content. HD programming -- both TV shows and movies -- are ready to view just seconds after purchase, and look great on my TV. Additionally, I never thought I'd listen to music with my television, but I've been doing just that.

Finally, it "just works." All you need to do to get an Apple TV working is connect it to your TV (a single HDMI cable in my case) and plug it in. There isn't even a power button to flip. iTunes saw it immediately and began to synchronize media.

Speaking of the media, that's where we run into trouble.
Here's a scenario that we've encountered twice now. My wife and I love NBC's The Office. Two weeks ago, we missed it. I fired up the Apple TV, bought the episode that we missed ($2.99US) and we sat down to watch it in glorious HD. Nice, right?

Well, we could have watched it for free on Hulu. Or at NBC.com. Of course, my iMac's 20" display can't compete with my 34" TV, but "free" certainly helps lessen the disappointment of that discrepancy. It's not like that particular episode of The Office was one I'd want to own forever and ever (it was "Prince Family Paper" if you're wondering), I simply wanted to see what I had missed. And I was being penalized three bucks to do it. If only I could get a free replay on my TV.

Boxee is a service that lets you search and view content from Hulu, Netflix, ABC, CBS, Comedy Central, Last.fm, and flickr and is easily installed on an Apple TV. Frankly, that's how I'll be using it most of the time, save for movies and TV shows I absolutely want to own.

But it isn't just about money. My other issue is how I'm used to consuming media.

Let's start with music. I'm dating myself here, but when I was young and wanted to buy a song, I'd go to the record store and pick up a 45 (for you young whipper-snappers in the audience, a "45" is a kind of "record." Google is your friend), then a cassette and eventually a CD. Ultimately, I "owned" the song; not in the legal sense, but in the sense that I had an ultra-portable, physical thing that I could hold, pop into a player and enjoy just about whenever and where ever I wanted.

Plus, listening to music doesn't preclude other activities. I can just as easily hang Christmas lights on the house, drive the car, make a sandwich or weather-seal the deck while listening to music.

It's different with video. I'm accustomed to having video delivered to me by a TV, movie theater or, more recently, an iPod or iPhone. While I carry music around with me, I must plant myself in front of one of those devices to enjoy television or a movie.

Likewise, I can't do any of the above things while watching video. OK, maybe make the sandwich, but even then I'm only glancing at the screen occasionally. In other words, while I want my music available any where, any time and as a physical "thing" that I control, I'm A-OK with taking a more passive role in interacting with my video.

For years, some people have been clamoring for a subscription-based iTunes Store. While I'd never want to see music go subscription, I'd love for that to be an option for video.

If Apple charged me X amount of money per month and gave me unlimited access to their library of television and movies from any approved device, including Macs, iPhones, iPods and, of course, Apple TVs, I'd be a happy customer (of course, this would send the cable companies into a frenzy, but that's another post entirely). Yes, I want to have my music files physically on my hard disk. But if the shows and movies I want to watch all lived on a free-range server farm in Cupertino, that'd be fine with me.

I'd save a lot of disk space. There'd be nothing to sync, or forget to sync, before a vacation. I wouldn't have to cough up three bucks just to watch The Office, and and Apple would maintain its revenue stream.

Right now, the Apple TV is designed to sell content from the iTunes Store. Well, there are free ways to get much of the same content. Let me pay a monthly fee for unlimited access to the full library, and I'll do it.

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Last Christmas, my wife surprised me with an Apple TV. I had mentioned it a few times, but not with the breathless anticipation I typically...
 

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Patrick Maley

You're missing the point. You pay only for what you watch. I have 5 kids and they watch the same shows over and over again yet I had to pay $100+ per month for cable. I cut it to basic cable ($15 month - and still have live HD programming by the way - if you have a digital TV) and now purchase an episode or two per week - average $5 week with iTunes or $20 per month.
My wife and I are ordering entire seasons of shows we missed and let me tell you it is incredibly convenient. And cheaper.
And you get my music library on my surround system, control my iTunes library from my iPhone and get to see home movies of my kids. In addition, the screensaver (in my case set to the photos from the last 12 months) stops people in their tracks. My wife will sit there and watch hundreds and thousands of photos on our 55 inch plasma.
This device is a few features away from being a blockbuster device.

April 01 2009 at 11:56 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Andy

How about Tivo? TivoHD is awesome!

With that said, we also have an AppleTV and use it to stream movies that I ripped on my iMac. I sync about 40 and stream the rest. It's nice to be able to take on vacation. I have 5 kids and they scratch the heck out of DVD's, so we rent them from ne of the self-serve kiosks for a buck, rip 'em and return 'em!

March 11 2009 at 11:28 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Tom

This would be a great idea, if i could get access to itunes libary of films and tv shows, for say 30£ a month i would cancel sky

Would be amazing, especially if they included HD content, and would put apple firmly as a leader of television media, what with faster internet connections coming, and demand for advert less quality TV

the possibilities make the mind boggle, what a great idea
i hope apple are listening!!

February 11 2009 at 11:19 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
HDinCincy

I must echo Speck's comments. This is so nice when friends/family is over to be able to queue up pictures on the 50" plasma. That alone is worth the price. Being able to use iTunes for PPV is also nice, especially when I get those all the time as gifts. I was an early adopter of AppleTV and only have a 40gig drive but I use it ALL the time and LOVE it!!

February 09 2009 at 8:30 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Gnuet

Turned my aTV into a Linuxbox running Ubuntu and serving web. As a mediaplayer it kinda sucked, the Popcorn Hour is WAY better.

February 09 2009 at 2:37 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Kordic

I can understand the argument against a subscription based TV or Movie scenario, but what about a way for apple to stream us the TV shows with commercials? I would not mind watching the office in HD with commercials if I didn't have to pay the $2.99 price then at the end give me the option of buying the episode commercial free. I don't know how feasible of that would be, but it would sure make me happy.

February 06 2009 at 5:47 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Kevin Stueber

We love our Apple TV, and here is why:

We get our DVDs from Netflix, rip them to MPEG-4 via Handbrake and save them to an external HD connected to our Mac.

So far we have 250GB of movies and TV shows available on our Apple TV and counting.

Sure, this may not be considered entirely legal, but I don't think it's entirely illegal either. I'm paying for the Netflix subscription and it keeps me off of Bit Torrents and drugs.

February 05 2009 at 12:46 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Kevin Stueber's comment
Andy

heh heh... nice point

February 05 2009 at 9:49 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Greg Speck

I think too much is forgotten about the ability to organize and enjoy other types of media. I have over 10,000 photo graphics, 15,000 songs ( I belonged to e-music when 9.95 have you unlimited downloads), 500 TV shows, ( thanks Elgato) and a large number of movies ( some home some commercial).

I can listen to my ITunes library with either TV ( and sound system), search out the photos to show and enjoy when ever the mood strikes, show home movies ( gets company to leave earlier) and then watch the media I like, when I want to.

Everything evolves, and Apple TV is heading in the right direction.

Go back to they days of Elgato's IHome, and we have come a long way. Even with out the browser the had which crashed more than not.




February 05 2009 at 6:21 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
ihedgar

Apple TV is the ultimate video gadget for those of us who live outside the US.

Hulu and other such services won't stream to non-US IP addresses (yes, I know how to get around this on my Mac, but it's a hassle, slow, and not on a big screen). Local TV stations don't carry most US shows, and very little US sports. With ATV I'm able to watch US shows easily, and without commercials.

And frankly, $1.99 isn't a lot of cash. 5 shows per week = $40 per month which is less than the local cable provider costs.

Expats love ATV. Keep the content coming Apple.

February 05 2009 at 4:18 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Yawn!

The Neflix hack for Apple TV

You do not need to open the appletv and you may reset it at any time using factory restore.

The patchstick will plug into the appletv USB and install programs like Launcher (XMBC and Boxee) NitoTV and Couch surfer - this allows you to use SSH, SMB, Play DVD's, and mount drives from remote computers.



Items you need:

a mac to use the console

1 flash drive - to make patchstick
2. usb hub
3. keyboard and mouse

1. Make an atvusb-creator patchstick, then install it
http://code.google.com/p/atvusb-creator/

2. Install Firefox and the Silverlight 2.0 plugin from Awkward TV, using the SSH capabilities unlocked by the atvusb-creator patchstick.

http://wiki.awkwardtv.org/wiki/Firefox

(skip the instructions down to install firefox as the patchstick will set up the keyboard and mouse pointer for you)

A. You do not have to install core-audio for this to work.

B. The keyboard and mouse only work in boxee and firefox so you will need your remote

3. Stream Netflix Watch Now through Firefox on Apple TV, using a keyboard and mouse

(since flash is not installed "you can install flash" the join Netflix item will not appear put you can sign in as a member and all is good).

The Firefox app will appear in NitoTV under applications.

Yawn!


February 04 2009 at 10:08 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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