New AppleTV delivers on $99 price point, streaming

Hi everybody,

I was ready to buy a ATV 2^gen...it looked cheap and useful to me...

Although, reading all your post confused me a little.....

I have a NAS (dns-323) loaded with tons of movies (avi downloaded from internet...tv shows that are currently playing in us and that aren't available yet in Italy..mainly i enjoy watching tv series in english..) and mp3s....the NAS also has a built-in iTunes server...

My idea was to buy the atv and to access the NAS to watch the movies on my 60" plasma....is that going to be possible? I assume that playing mp3s shouldn't be a problem..

I've been reading about the new jailbreak from dev team (shatter), which should JB also the new ATV...is that going to help my need?

I understand the are tons of boxes that could do what i require, but i'm interested in the ATV solution (at least for thr moment)

I also couldn't understand if the new box is more or less powerful than the old one and why...


Thanks

I hope this means Apple are about to re-enter the home console segment, with an app store-enabled tv at some point. Maybe they'll call it Pippin 2!

Also, people commenting on the arguably under-specced hardware seem to forget all the other nice things you get as a loyal Apple customer.

You get a shiny UI likely to make the interface "laggier" than it has to be, timely planned obsolescence, strong community support from devoted fans amongst others. All this and more FREE with your purchase! Additional charges guaranteed to apply.

Undoubtedly this device will sell well, and it's plausible to think a home-brew community will exist, which will mean great potential even if untapped by Apple themselves.

That is the great redeeming quality of the Apply iDevice scene in my eyes, everything gets a thorough hacking.

Well, I should say what made me most excited is the Apple TV. only $0.99 to stream HD TV rentals from ABC and Fox, while first run HD movies will be a less thrilling $4.99. Other services include Netflix, YouTube, Flickr, and Mobile Me, along with Rotten Tomatoes integration in the movie catalog. Awesome, so cool and amazing!
That means I don't need to buy other converting tools anymore? I really love movies and video, if with this Apple TV, then I just stream the HD movies and enjoy witout need of converting by ifunia video converter and no syncing, totally stunned and can't wait any more!!!!

Seriously no storage, and 720p, really 720p does apple think it is 2005, you really need 1080 for this to be a living room appliance, at 720 it is only a kitchen tv appliance.

You people sure do complain a lot for a $99 black box :)

The product is not intended for folks that download content of the 'tubes for "free" in avi or mkv format.

-K

Would have been nice to add an HDMI in port so you could put this inline with the cable box and nix the need for a switcher or changing the input port on the TV. Medium fail.

Is it definitely the case that just because it is a MICRO usb port that it can't host other USB devices?

I'd never really given it any thought before, but had just assumed that the micro USB format was just a physical plug/connector specification (with the same 'pins' as a normal USB) - and that it wasn't tied in with the comms protocol or supported functionality.

Would be very interested if anyone could verify or repudiate this.

tks

Just cancelled my new Apple TV order....

Why, it requires iTunes 10 which doesn't work on OS X 10.4 which my mac mini runs as the streaming resource.

It doesn't have enough ram to run 10.5 so Apple's message to me seems to be... OK spend £99 for a new Apple TV but oh, you'll need to spend another £650 for a new mac mini because we can't be bothered to support 10.4 anymore (but if you had a ten year old Windows XP it'd still work!)

I was soooo ready to buy an Apple TV -- until I read the specs.

To me, the biggest failing of the whole announcement was the limitation of both the input and output of the Apple TV to 720p. I'd hoped that we'd see an upgrade from the 720p-hobbled 1st gen TV. Seriously? This is not 1999. In this century, people have pocket sized cameras that shoot 1080p -- how are they going to display their home movies? (And don't say "just transcode using MPEG StreamClip or HandBrake!" -- remember the target consumer market who wants to just plug-and-play.) And who buys a 1080p HDTV so they can display 40% of the pixels?

720p is, (oh, what was that phrase....) "a bag of hurt".

So with the new Apple TV, what is Apple's recommended place for storing media?

I say this, because now with the absence of any HD in the box, for the energy conscious of us that put our Macs to sleep (or close the lid), AppleTV can't stream from the computer's iTunes library.

I'm aggressive with my energy saving - so my iMac is set to sleep pretty soon after inactivity - so if i know I'm wanting to watch a movie via my AppleTV - I make sure it's sync'd and copied to the device.

As you probably know, the old AppleTV runs HOT, so part of the upgrade appeal here for me is something much more efficient.

One solution I guess, would be for the ecosystem to know you've made a previous purchase in the iTunes Store, and therefore let you view it from the cloud. But this doesn't help for anything acquired outside of the Apple ecosystem.

As an existing AppleTV user, this is the sole compelling reason NOT to upgrade. And I think it's pretty significant.

Any comments?