Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
2096 of 2186 people found the following review helpful.
Video Review: Apple TV, so much for so little
By D. Bowman
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R18DCQTG9T6VTO This is an amazing compliment to your home theater.So many features, yet so simple to use.My 7 year old son has it all figured out.I hope you enjoy the video.Let me know what you think.
665 of 712 people found the following review helpful.
Apple TV - Good Now, Potential to be Great
By Just Another Geek
I am not an Apple Afficianodo. I don't wear jeans and black turtlenecks in reverence to Steve Jobs. I don't hang out at the Apple Store and covet becoming a "genius"; however, I have to give credit where credit is due. The last few products Apple has brought out - the iPod, iPhone, iPad - have been incredible and changed the consumer electronics and media / software landscape. Apple TV is now positioned to do the same, but it will take some more time to fully realize the potential of this device.Apple TV effectively allows you to stream whatever is on your iTunes to your TV and home theater system. Moreover, it has built in support for Netflix, You Tube and a few other internet based media content providers. The picture quality and performance for these services are worth the price of admission. There is significant potential to advance the platform - just give it some time.System Overview: My Apple TV is plugged into a 60 inch Samsung 1080p LED HDTV via HDMI (video) and a Yamaha Home Theater Receiver via Toslink optical cable (audio). I have AT&T Uverse with their 802.11g Residential Gateway (combination of DSL modem and wireless router) with their Elite DSL service (6 MB per second). iTunes runs on a Dell Desktop with 4GB of memory, Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 500 GB Hard Drive operating on Windows Vista (64 bit) and secured with Norton 360 (firewall, antivirus, etc.). The network handles the Desktop, 2 iPhones, a Blackberry, an iPad, the Apple TV, 4 Laptops, a wireless Printer and a networked wired printer. The Computer / Residential Gateway are in the Den and the TV / Home Theater / Apple TV are in the family room. The two rooms are about 100 feet apart and are separated by five walls.Set Up: Easy as pie. It took five minutes to plug in the HDMI cable, the optical cable, the power outlet and then adding it to the wireless network. Sharing iTunes from my desktop to Apple TV took another 20 minutes, since I had to download the new version of iTunes and restart my computer and Apple TV. Apple really makes it easy - I didn't have to make any adjustments to my firewall settings to share iTunes on the desktop with Apple TV. I also downloaded the Apple Remote on my iPhone and iPad, which took another 5 minutes.User Interface: Apple's secret sauce is the simplicity of their products. Apple TV is no different. The menu is very simple - Movies, TV, Internet, Computer and Settings. Movies and TV are for renting content directly from iTunes within Apple TV. Internet gives you access to Netflix, You Tube, etc. Computer gives you access to iTunes on your computer. Settings allows you to change the various Apple TV options. The remote control is Apple's usual model of minimalist efficiency, with a menu button, a play / pause button and an iPod like controller. The supplied remote works well with Apple TV, but is a bit cumbersome when one has to enter data (e.g., e-mail addresses, search on YouTube or Netflix). A much better solution is downloading Apple Remote on your iPhone or iPad. It basically turns the iPhone or iPad into a big touch pad that allows you to use gestures to control the Apple TV (e.g., swipe left, swipe right, double click, etc.). Moreover, it automatically provides a keyboard when one is asked for text input (e.g., for search). Apple remote is free on the App Store.Netflix Streaming / Video Quality: Setting up Netflix was quick - basically just enter your e-mail address / password and you're ready to go. I watched some TV from BBC, a foreign flick and Iron Man. Each program loaded quickly - less than 30 seconds. Picture quality was good to great, depending on the source material. Picture quality was comparable to DVD for SD material(perhaps slightly better), but slightly less sharp than upconverted DVD or blue-ray. HD Programming looked like the HD on-demand programming through uVerse. There was enough of a buffer that there was no jittering, pixelation or stuttering on the streaming to the TV. Sound quality on the stream was good - I don't think they stream in 5.1, so the video stream doesn't leverage the subwoofer. Considering that I'm running a heavily taxed wireless system on 802.11g with a 100 foot distance between Apple TV and the Gateway, the picture quality and streaming performance are impressive. Having this quality of Netflix compatibility is worth the price of admission by itself.iTunes Streaming: I streamed some music from my Playlists from the Computer. Sound quality is good, but not great. My Yamaha CD Player sounds better, but it can only hold 5 cds. Having access to my entire library is very useful, so you lose sound quality but gain convenience. iTunes streams not only the music, but also the cover art. After a few minutes, Apple TV switches into screensaver mode and starts transmitting pictures to the TV along with the music. I also streamed some videos from my computer and the streaming was again flawless. One of the issues with Apple TV is that it only supports the Apple video standards, i.e., MP4. I had some DIVX files that I converted over to MP4 by using DVD Fab and imported them into iTunes. So if you have a library of AVI, Divx, Xvid, etc., this will require conversion of those files in order to stream from your computer.iTunes from within Apple TV: There is access to an iTunes store within Apple TV as well. They have a different pricing structure, in that TV shows and movies are available for rent only. They have a limited number of titles at this point - primarily BBC, ABC (since Steve Jobs sits on their Board) and Fox. CBS and NBC are not on Apple TV. Movie selection is decent - they have all the latest movies. The Apple TV selection can be easily increased by just downloading the content you want from iTunes on your desktop and then streaming it to Apple TV.YouTube Streaming: Surprisingly good. The HQ / HD You Tube pieces look remarkably crisp on the TV. The older content that was meant to watch on a small window on your computer looked a little pixelated, but acceptable.Apple has built a great platform with a lot of potential. With what is available right now - Apple TV is a pretty impressive value at $99. It is worth it just for the Netflix streaming and integration with iTunes. Since Apple TV is actually built on the same hardware (at least the processing chip) as the iPhone and iPad and has the same operating system, I wouldn't be surprised if there are "apps" that will eventually make it to Apple TV to further enhance Apple TV (e.g., ABC Streaming, Games, Amazon on Demand, etc.). There is supposed to be an upgrade to the operating system with a new version of Airplay that comes out in November, 2010. This will allow you to stream from an iPad or iPod to the Apple TV as well.I looked at other streaming devices (e.g., Roku, using my Panasonic Blue Ray for Netflix, etc.) and none of them had the simplicity and reliabilty that the Apple TV offers. The Wi Fi "stick" for my Blue Ray player is $80 anyway and the Netflix integration isn't anywhere nearly as robust as Apple TV. UVerse also has music and picture streaming built in using Microsoft Media Center - however, it required some network configuration and it crashes quite often. I didn't purchase a Roku, but a friend of mine has had a number of issues with streaming performance. At under $100, the Apple TV is competitively priced with other streaming options. Now just bring on the "apps".Update on 4/1/11:I've had the Apple TV for a few months now and I still really like it. Apple has introduced Airplay, which is worth mentioning as it has potential to be a gamechanger technology. Moreover, there has been significant activity on the "jailbreaking" front for the Apple TV.Airplay is Apple's system of transmitting video / audio wirelessly between compatible devices. Apple TV, the iPhone and iPad are all Airplay compatible. This has proven to be particularly useful feature as I can stream videos from my iPad to the Apple TV and have them appear on my TV. For example, I may have a digital copy of a movie on my iPad (perhaps purchased through iTunes or came with a DVD purchase). Through Airplay, I can transmit the movie directly from my iPad to the Apple TV and watch the movie on my TV. Similarly, if a friend has an iPhone and we want to listen to their latest music selection, we can stream their music from their iPhone directly to my stereo system through Airplay. The real gamechanger for Airplay is streaming video from websites onto my Apple TV so I can watch them on my TV. For example, I could be on the TED website and they have a video from a TED conference. I can stream the video directly to my Apple TV and watch the video on my TV's 60 inch screen instead of the iPad's 10 inch screen. Several websites have already incorporated Airplay compatibility into their videos, such as CNN and TED. I think Airplay is going to have an interesting adoption cycle - traditional media companies (e.g., TV Networks) probably won't endorse Airplay since it goes against their business model. Other websites that rely on video for traffic (e.g., adult sites, news sites, blogs, etc.) will probably adopt Airplay to gain more traction with consumers.According to Wikipedia, jailbreaking refers to "a process that allows devices running Apple's iOS operating system to gain full access to unlock all features of the said operating system, thereby removing limitations imposed by Apple". Once jailbroken, iOS users are able to load and run applications that are not available on the App Store. Jailbreaking a device is not illegal, much to Apple's chagrin; however, it could void one's warranty. I'm not going into how to jailbreak and Apple TV - just google "jailbreak Apple TV" for instructions. Since the Apple TV has been jailbroken, there have been some applications that have been launched to provide more robust usage of Apple TV. The Couch Surfer application is basically a web browser for Apple TV. Additionally, there are applications that allow Apple TV to play formats other than Apple approved formats, such as DIVX and others. I haven't jailbroken my Apple TV; however, one should be aware of what options are available for this device.
425 of 472 people found the following review helpful.
Unrealized Potential (so far)
By ShutterBug
PROS*Low Power (less than 6 watts)*Compact*Good-looking UI*Netflix support (unlike previous generation AppleTV)*Remote App for iPad/iPhone/iPod touch*Airplay (though basically we just have Airtunes functionality until iOS 4.2 comes out for iPad/iPhone/iPod touch).*Closed Captions (Content dependent)CONS*Lots of "Loading..." screens*No Local Storage! (must stream over Internet or via iTunes on PC/Mac using Home Sharing. I know you were trying to cut costs Apple, but why not at least allow local USB storage? I know, I know: DRM.)*IR Sensor inferior to previous generation AppleTV (requires more direct line of sight)*Lag before videos and podcasts start playing (even when located on a local computer)*Netflix controls are not as good as Roku. Infrequent keyframes makes it hard to rewind to an exact spot. Roku does much better (and even PS3 Netflix controls are better).*Podcast controls sometimes get confused (screen indicates reversing at maximum speed, but video is actually reversing at 1x)*Doesn't precache artwork icons (Scrolling down through a list of podcasts or Netflix movies, it loads the screen with empty icons then slowly downloads them. This happens no matter how long you wait before scrolling down. Sometimes, it never gets around to downloading certain icons. Hey Apple, how about displaying the name of the movie while you are retrieving the artwork so we can start using the interface even if all of the artwork isn't there?) [Update: there may be some precaching going on, but just not in a very intelligent manner. I have about 170 movies in my Netflix instant queue and a 1.5 Mbps DSL connection so that may contribute to the slowness displaying artwork. If you have a very fast internet connection, you will probably have minimal delay.]*No Pandora*No App support (Yet? Come on Apple, enable App support. It won't take long before we have lots of useful 3rd party apps. I'm sure Pandora would be one of the first and then NPR and local weather forecast.)*No 1080p - 720P only (Yes, most people don't have the bandwidth to support 1080p streaming over the internet, but someday we will. Also, it would be nice to be able to show your 1080p video you shot with your new camcorder or high-end DSLR.)*Rotten Tomatoes movie reviews are not available for Netflix movies.*Remote app could display the actual menus for faster selections.*Home Sharing must be activated for a specific single account. (Result: If both you and your spouse have an iTunes account you will have to choose one or the other and will only have access to media in that person's iTunes account.)UPDATE:Removed from Cons:"*Can't add internet radio stations to a favorites list (and there are hundreds if not thousands to scroll through)." Someone commented that you can add a radio station to your favorites by holding the center button down. I tried this and it works. Not sure how you're supposed to know this as it's not mentioned in the brief instruction book.
See all 938 customer reviews...
WOW!!!
Warning--Issue on Audio Decoding Abilities on Optical Hook Up
Pyle PD1000A Good concept but poor audio.
