Pros and Cons of the AppleTV

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

Thinking about buying one for Christmas, not sure if it would be a good buy. Let's assume that I'm not going to be jailbreaking it.

 

[mugs]

I have the old Apple TV, not the new one.

Pro:
iTunes integration is awesome - if you use iTunes to manage your music. I use smart playlists a lot, and I love that I can download a song from iTunes, it'll automatically be in any playlists it should be in, and it'll show up on my Apple TV without any intervention from me. People love the photo screensaver too.

Con:
Doesn't support industry standard uPnP media servers like TVersity. iTunes is great for music, but I don't want to put my huge video collection in it. I watch a lot of video off my media server, and the Apple TV just won't do what I need it to do out of the box.

I'd love to see more multi-purpose devices support this. Roku has been working on it supposedly, but they haven't released anything.

 

[mshan]

I used to one the first revision and I just bought the second version.

I'd say the second version is a pretty good bargain if you are iTunes centric. Seems very locked down if you aren't going to hack it.

Again, for what it is, not amazingly cheap, but definitely not expensive either (I'd say it would be really good deal if you can get one for about $75).

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

Anyone actually have the new AppleTV?

 

[silverpig]

A friend of mine just got it and he really likes it. For me the deal killer is no 1080p.

 

[Eug]

iTunes is VERY restrictive for video. That alone is a deal killer IMO, and the fact that AppleTV has no 1080p is also a deal killer IMO.

To put it another way, I use iTunes for all my music, but almost never use iTunes these days for my video.

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

I just bought an Apple TV. What can I do with it? What apps are Airplay enabled? Let's go with I'm not going to be jailbreaking it.

 

[Phobic9]

My GF bought me one for Valentine's Day (how she knew I wanted this... no idea). I, of course, jailbroke it withing minutes of taking it out of the box and put XBMC on it. I was previously using a Mac Mini with XBMC and I'd have to say that the Apple TV 2 works pretty damn close to it. I'm only going to be watching my downloaded TV shows so it'll suit my needs fine, plus I'll have iTunes if I really want to rent movies and such.

 

[Kaido]

I just bought an Apple TV. What can I do with it? What apps are Airplay enabled? Let's go with I'm not going to be jailbreaking it.

If you don't want to jailbreak it, then you will need to convert your movie collection into iTunes format. You can stream music, movies, Netflix, and Youtube. You can rent or buy movies and TV shows from iTunes. You can use the AppleTV as an Airplay device from your iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad (i.e. if you have content on your iOS device, you can push it to the AppleTV), as well as use those iOS devices as a remote control for your AppleTV.

If you jailbreak it, you can use XBMC or Plex. XBMC is currently getting more rapid development. XBMC can play more formats than the AppleTV can do natively, so you don't have to convert your existing movies (ISO, MKV, etc.). That's the main advantage - dump your movies/music into a share folder on your network and play them without any effort. FWIW, Plex posted a preview of the next iOS release:

http://forums.plexapp.com/index.php/topic/23385-preview-of-whats-coming/

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

So the question becomes, XBMC or Plex? And what's NitoTV?

 

[Ka0t1x]

Untethered jailbreak means.. I'll be picking up my ATV2 tonight.

I don't see much of a con to an Apple TV, TBH.

I'll probably try them both.. probably stick with Plex, we'll see.

 

[Wonderful Pork]

Untethered jailbreak means.. I'll be picking up my ATV2 tonight.

I don't see much of a con to an Apple TV, TBH.

I'll probably try them both.. probably stick with Plex, we'll see.

Do you just permanently hang a USB HDD off the side of it? I never liked doing that as I don't want to damage the external drive, which is why I still keep my last gen aTV w/ 128GB built in storage.

Not sure if you can put Boxee on it, I'm using that on the current and it's really good; I used Plex on my Macbook Pro and it got hot and spun the fans like crazy.

I'm looking at the new aTV mainly for Netflix streaming; I don't know of a more cost effective device that can be used for playing divx/xvid as well; maybe Roku?

 

[Ka0t1x]

These apps will stream media from a file share on your network. Plex has its server that just 'works'.

 

[JS80]

I think one of these days Apple will actually make an Apple TV. LCD TV with AppleTV built in.

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

Is 1080p really that big of a deal? I mean is the 720p limitation on the Apple TV really such a big limitation?

 

[TheStu]

Is 1080p really that big of a deal? I mean is the 720p limitation on the Apple TV really such a big limitation?

It isn't a huge deal, with as far as you are probably sitting from your TV, you won't notice a huge difference between upscaled 720p content and true 1080p content. 720p MKVs look pretty great on the AppleTV as it is.

Also i think that AppleTV Netflix only goes up to 720p anyway, if you want 1080p, get a PS3 (looks awesome by the way)

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

It isn't a huge deal, with as far as you are probably sitting from your TV, you won't notice a huge difference between upscaled 720p content and true 1080p content. 720p MKVs look pretty great on the AppleTV as it is.

Also i think that AppleTV Netflix only goes up to 720p anyway, if you want 1080p, get a PS3 (looks awesome by the way)

I have a PS3 in the main media room for Netflix. For the 60" I usually sit around maybe 10 feet away?

 

[KeypoX]

I read that it can do 1080p with XBMC. Is that not true?

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

I read that it can do 1080p with XBMC. Is that not true?

It can play 1080p content with XBMC, but it's output is limited to 720p.

 

[Aikouka]

I tried a 1080p file on ATV2 + XBMC and it worked fine and I noticed no stuttering. The menus still seem a little less fluid than they would on a PC, but it's pretty good overall.

 

[Emulex]

it's weaksauce - it can't handle 3D full bitstream 1080p without stutter. might as well build a cheap htpc and call it a day. full 3D with bitstream is offload on a geforce 430 ($50) and a pc might cost you $100 (used). my quad core was $184 off cowboom

 

[TheStu]

it's weaksauce - it can't handle 3D full bitstream 1080p without stutter. might as well build a cheap htpc and call it a day. full 3D with bitstream is offload on a geforce 430 ($50) and a pc might cost you $100 (used). my quad core was $184 off cowboom

Its $99 and uses like 5W of juice, if that. Spec me an HTPC that meets or exceeds that, and you have a deal.

There are advantages to the HTPC, but price is absolutely not one of them.

 

[KeypoX]

It can play 1080p content with XBMC, but it's output is limited to 720p.

ahh ok thats the part i was missing

Its $99 and uses like 5W of juice, if that. Spec me an HTPC that meets or exceeds that, and you have a deal.

There are advantages to the HTPC, but price is absolutely not one of them.

there are other devices that cost about 100 and do 1080p.

 

[TheStu]

ahh ok thats the part i was missing



there are other devices that cost about 100 and do 1080p.

How are those other devices to use and setup? I have looked into the reviews on a few of them, but it seems that most (that I saw) had pretty crummy UIs. And I was just talking AppleTV v HTPC. AppleTV v BoxeeBox (or whatever) is a horse of a different color.

 

[Emulex]

i don't care how much power the box uses; i prefer the better quality picture and multipurpose machine. all my movies are readily transcodable to my *.portable devices, if not i can jump in and transcode it to what i need. download/upload what i want; record tv (QAM/ATSC), storage. cost of electricity does not mean anything - quality of service does.

you really like to watch a 1080p video stutter? might as well watch 480p without stutter.