Considering an AppleTV...

[seepy83]

I've been thinking about picking up an Apple TV, but I'm on the fence and hoping that the collective knowledge here can persuade me one way or another.

The appeal for me is that it's low cost, I already have an iPod Touch that I can control it with, and I would rather steam content to my TV/Speakers (vs. building a Home Theater PC).

On the other hand, other than music, I don't have a whole lot of content in iTunes (only a couple of movies so far), and I don't necessarily want to get myself locked-in to apple products by making all my purchases through iTunes.

And, last but not least, Jailbreaking...I know that the AppleTVs can be loaded with custom firmware. What additional features can be added when you jailbreak one?

p.s. all of my machines are running some flavor of Windows...will that limit me in any way (whether on an out-of-the-box AppleTV or Jailbroken one)?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Meh. Roku's are pretty good. If you're going to spend extra money on something just to hack it...

iTunes 10 broke third-party streaming appliances... again. So I'd stay away from that ecosystem if you're in a mixed platform environment.

There's something called MP3Tunes that stores your iTunes library online and streams to the Roku as well.

 

[Tyranicus]

The biggest advantage to jailbreaking an Apple TV is XBMC. I bought my Apple TV as a $99 XBMC box. With XBMC, you can stream video in any format from your Mac or PC.

 

[Kaido]

I have the new AppleTV. It's super nice - only $99, size of a brownie, no noise, easy interface. I did hack it. It has XBMC and Plex. XBMC does streaming, whereas Plex does transcoding. XBMC is beta, but very usable. Plex is more of an alpha right. The AppleTV only outputs 720p, but via XBMC you can stream 1080p and it will automatically downscale for you. Looks great.

Right now, there is no Hulu+ on the AppleTV. It does have Netflix. It doesn't have a bunch of other web-based stuff either, like Vimeo. I have a bunch of little streamer boxes scattered throughout my house - a Roku, an AppleTV, an Asus O'Play, a Patriox Box Office, etc.

Which player you pick mostly boils down to what you want to watch and how you want to manage your media. If you like iTunes a lot, then a stock AppleTV is great. You can convert stuff you download (like MKVs) into iTunes if you'd like. You can jailbreak it and get more formats to play back via XBMC, but you can only output 720p (looks great on my 1080p set, fwiw). If you like web-based stuff, a Roku box may be a better answer. The ultimate answer is an HTPC, but those aren't super tiny & simple like the other players.

So -

1. What kind of content do you want to watch? Downloads, rips, iTunes purchases?

2. How do you want to manage it? ie, where are you going to store it, how are you going to organize it, etc.

 

[silverpig]

The biggest advantage to jailbreaking an Apple TV is XBMC. I bought my Apple TV as a $99 XBMC box. With XBMC, you can stream video in any format from your Mac or PC.

Does it do 1080p at all? Can it play 1080p files and output 1080p too?

Nevermind... Kaido answered. I'll wait for 1080p output 😛

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Does it do 1080p at all? Can it play 1080p files and output 1080p too?

Not stock. It downsamples to 720p.

Supposedly, XBMC will let it output 1080p though.

 

[seepy83]

1. What kind of content do you want to watch? Downloads, rips, iTunes purchases?

This is probably why I'm so on the fence. Initially I was just looking for a simple way to stream music from my iTunes library to my home theater receiver. But I suspect that if I get an AppleTV for that purpose, I'll be a lot more likely to purchase movies through iTunes, and I figured I should see what else is out there before getting locked into a product that only works with iTunes.

The market for these types of devices and steaming content services is booming right now, and the more I look into them, the harder the decision is.

The simplicity and familiarity of iTunes/iPod Remote for my girlfriend and other friends who might be at my house trying to control the music is definitely appealing. But at the same time, other devices (like a Roku or some flavor of GoogleTV) have more features (like free streaming through Amazon Prime).

Like Kaido said above...he's got a bunch of different types of these devices in his house...maybe that's the best way to do it (other than building and maintaining a full-blown HTPC, which I don't want to do). The Roku's and AppleTV's are pretty inexpensive so maybe I'll end up with one of each of those. The products that run GoogleTV are a little too pricey for me right now.

 

[Kaido]

Does it do 1080p at all? Can it play 1080p files and output 1080p too?

Nevermind... Kaido answered. I'll wait for 1080p output 😛

They don't know if the 720p output is a hardware limitation or a software limitation. Currently it only outputs 720p. Thankfully, they can send 1080p through the ATV2 without stuttering anymore, so at least you don't have to re-encode. Looks great fwiw.

 

[Kaido]

This is probably why I'm so on the fence. Initially I was just looking for a simple way to stream music from my iTunes library to my home theater receiver. But I suspect that if I get an AppleTV for that purpose, I'll be a lot more likely to purchase movies through iTunes, and I figured I should see what else is out there before getting locked into a product that only works with iTunes.

The market for these types of devices and steaming content services is booming right now, and the more I look into them, the harder the decision is.

The simplicity and familiarity of iTunes/iPod Remote for my girlfriend and other friends who might be at my house trying to control the music is definitely appealing. But at the same time, other devices (like a Roku or some flavor of GoogleTV) have more features (like free streaming through Amazon Prime).

Like Kaido said above...he's got a bunch of different types of these devices in his house...maybe that's the best way to do it (other than building and maintaining a full-blown HTPC, which I don't want to do). The Roku's and AppleTV's are pretty inexpensive so maybe I'll end up with one of each of those. The products that run GoogleTV are a little too pricey for me right now.

Yeah - there's no perfect "appliance" box, and I don't think there ever will be. Plex is pretty close, but requires a Mac & won't play Bluray discs. My parents have a Sony 470 Bluray, which does Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, and Bluray discs, which is pretty nice, but it doesn't do nice HD streaming like the other player boxes do. Roku does USB streaming, but not network streaming.

Honestly I like the Roku quite a bit. If Apple could throw on a web services plugin and let you add Amazon, Vimeo, Hulu+, etc. they'd be the go-to box for everything. I think we're going to settle on AppleTV's for the house though - they do iTunes, XBMC (various media types), and Netflix, which is primarily what we use. We're huge fans of XBMC, so having it in a $99 box is pretty slick. Needs a bit more work to be perfect, but it's plenty usable as-is.

If I had my dream...I'd have a Tivo DVR with a Bluray player that does HD streaming and web services. Netflix, Youtube, Vimeo, Hulu+, Amazon, etc. No one wants to make a super box like that though :biggrin:

 

[Kaido]

The products that run GoogleTV are a little too pricey for me right now.

I thought GoogleTV was a neat idea, but I haven't heard too many great things about it, and it seems like a lot of streaming content providers are starting to block GoogleTV, which is a bummer. I was also very excited about the Boxee Box, but that was a huge disappointment too.

Ideally, if Plex can setup streaming instead of transcoding on the ATV2, that'd be perfect - it talks very nicely to the Plex Media Server and grabs artwork etc., plus integrates perfectly within the ATV2 menu (XBMC launches as a separate app that takes over the GUI).