Apple MA711LL/A TV with 40GB Hard Drive [OLD VERSION] by Apple Computer
![Apple MA711LL/A TV with 40GB Hard Drive [OLD VERSION]](/images/Apple-MA711LL-A-TV-with-40GB-Hard-Drive-OLD-VERSION-B000MQNMQ6-L.jpg)
|
Our Price: $349.99 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $85.95 (click here) Category: CE See more digital camera details and other models |
|---|
Digital camera reviews of Apple MA711LL/A TV with 40GB Hard Drive [OLD VERSION]
Digital camera Review: 2nd time around, Updates make it worth the purchase
Summary: 4 Stars
This is my 2nd purchase of the Apple TV. First one was returned after 1 week as I didnt feel it was worth the money. After the recent software update with movie rentals I decided to give it a go again.
Pros:
- Movie rental service very easy to use
- Addition of AirTunes so music playing on your iTunes can quickly be played thru your stereo/tv
- Great HD picture. I recently returned my HD DVD player and will now skip BluRay and just go with HD downloads
- I transferred my DVD collection to iTunes and now can stream movies from iTunes to Apple TV. Entire library is a click away
- Quick setup using my wireless N connection. Was up and running within minutes.
- Price drop makes it a much cheaper alternative to BluRay and even cheaper than paying upwards of $20 for BluRay discs
- While I likely wont, you can probably cancel your premium cable subscriptions and just download what you want now via iTunes.
- Software easily updated from Apple, so the product should last awhile and not become obsolete anytime soon.
Cons:
- Can only buy tv shows via Apple TV, you must buy movies via iTunes and then sync/stream
- Not all movies can be rented, some are purchase only (I tried to rent Shooter but it was purchase only)
- Limited catalog of HD movies. I expect this to improve as rentals haven't even been around a month.
- HD rentals can take a few hours to download
Digital camera Review: 40 GB is Often Enough
Summary: 4 Stars
I've owned a 40GB AppleTV for over a year. I do not see any particular advantage between the 160GB version and the 40GB version as while 40GB is pathetically small for storing a video library, 160GB is too. That is why I don't buy movies and store them on the device. I've multiple terabytes of video in my house, and it would be futile to store any of it on such a low capacity device.
On the other hand, 40 GB is ample for all but the most extensive digital audio collection and for one's top rated photographs. So I keep my 3 star or higher music files on my AppleTV and use an AirTunes enabled Airport Express to stream sound to the speakers in my bathroom. This is controlled with the must-have Remote app you can get for your iPhone or iPod Touch.
And a common activity is watching movie trailers on a lazy Saturday afternoon, or renting a kids movie during the weekend. Or showing a slideshow of my kids to visitors. Or watching YouTube. And I'm interested in the new feature of listening to Internet radio broadcasts found in the 3.0 version of the AppleTV operating system.
The device is often warm to the touch, but never noisy.
I've also tried hacking the device and installing XBMC to watch movies from a home server, but the results were too cumbersome and it is annoying reinstalling after every OS update.
So, yes, the Apple TV could do more. It could have Netflix integration (never happen), it could get its local video from a centralized NAS instead of a computer running iTunes. It could allow web browsing. It could do these things and be a great indispensable device, but it doesn't and it is just a nice, easy to use, friendly device that does a few things quite well.
Digital camera Review: A Risk Worth Taking
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased my Apple TV recently from my local apple store, and even up to the time I purchased it I was skeptical. I was playing around with it, going through the menus, running movies that were purchased from the store. The thing that seemed to bug me the most was the fact that the quality of the movies that came from the store seemed to look horrible from where I was standing. But let's consider, I was standing about a foot away from a 40 inc LCD display unit, which realistically, if viewed from a similar distance with higher quality video, would not look that much better.
At home I have a 72 inch Samsung DLP (1080P). Again, I was skeptical that this little box was going to be able to put up reasonable quality video on my screen. My couch is about 10 ft from my TV, and I can tell you that the movies that I have purchased from the iTunes store look beautiful. Your experience may vary, but I can say from my watching, and listening, that the Apple TV has done a cut rate job of making media streaming easy for the average consumer.
On the topic of hard drive size, there are a few things to consider before you go writing off the Apple TV's "peasly" 40GB drive. The only thing that you can't stream to the Apple TV is Photos, and even if you have a lot of photos, you probably won't fill up 40GB worth. With the remaining space you can put music, movies, podcast, whatever you might be in to. But you may ask "But what if I can't fit my entire music collection and my photos, or all my movies and my photos?". Well, the streaming for the Apple TV is simply brilliant. I have been using it everytime I get back home for a month now, and I have yet to see a hiccup ever while I'm watching movies or listening to music that's on my computer upstairs. It's simply amazing. I can even stream trailers from the internet, which are extremely high quality, and appear perfectly on screen within seconds. In my house I have a Wireless G network (Which I highly reccomend at the minimum). My router is upstairs and I commonly don't get the advertised 54 MBps while I'm downstairs in TV room, but the Apple TV seems to be able to use the bandwith it gets to the fullest, and buffering is almost instantaneous. If you are worried about not getting a wireless signal where your TV is (Your house would have to be pretty big for this to happen), then purchase a Wireless N router, which will extend your wireless network even farther, and also improve the data speed to more than 100 MBps.
Overall the Apple TV is a great device that does exactly what it is suppose to. It gets all the stuff that I have on my computer, across the digital divide to my TV. It does no more, no less. I believe that you are looking for a device to link up with your extensive iTunes library, this is the thing for you. However, if you're not ready to start buying movies and TV shows from the iTunes store, then it may be a good idea to wait and see what the future holds.
PS: Don't forget to buy HDMI cable and either Optical Cable, or standard red/white audio connectors. (You can also use Component video cable should your TV not have an HDMI port)
Digital camera Review: A digital movie jukebox
Summary: 4 Stars
Since getting the Apple TV we rarely use our DVD player. All of our most watched DVD's are available in just a few clicks. The kids and wife love it and is what ultimately matters for me. Although I like the Apple TV very much, it is not without its flaws. Here are my pro's and con's.
Pro:
-Set up is very easy and fast. Plug in connect to network. Authorize in iTunes and you are ready to start transferring content. I connected via the new APBS N router and transfer speeds were fast. Using a N only network, 28 GB took about 160 minutes.
-The interface is very good. Very smooth movement and operations using the remote. Very intuitive menu system. Play controls lack some features like auto-correct (like TiVo) on FF and RW but overall very slick. Nice play from start or resume movie feature when accessing previously viewed content.
-Video quality is very good. Most all of my own DVD's I converted (using Handbrake) look very nice on my 32" 720P Sony LCD.
-Music plays well and sounds a tad better than from my iPod when hooked to the same receiver.
-Pictures screen saver is very cool.
-Streaming is easy and works very well over my N network.
Con:
-Size of HD is too small. With a 80 GB iPod out there Apple should have done better the first time around. the ease of streaming is nice, but a bigger HD is needed.
-Lack of HD content on iTunes. My guess is that this will come whether the movie studios like it or not. As more people get HDTV's the demand for content will rise.
-Remote needs to be more full featured. I think they tried to build the controls around the remote and should have done it the other way around. Not a deal breaker since I use a Harmony remote to control everything.
-It needs a easy way to get your own DVD's into iTunes like you do with CD's. Something with hardware acceleration to speed up the process.
With the great interface and easy set-up this thing should be a slam dunk for people wanting a "video jukebox" but the lack of an easy and fast way to get your own content into iTunes and the lack of HD content hold it back a tad. It is perfect for what I was looking for, but if your not comfortable converting your own DVD's using Handbrake or something you might want to wait.
Digital camera Review: A great box for your old home-made movies.
Summary: 5 Stars
What a joy it is to have all my home made movies, originally shot in Super 8 (remember that format?), on my Apple TV.
I had tons of old Super 8 movies, some of them filmed by my dad some 60 years ago. Watching them now required setting up the old family projector, and pulling up the portable white screen. Some movies became dry, and tore in the projector, so watching one of the old movies became a process of stop, remove film, glue it back together, and continue watching.
My brother eventually gave all the movies to a specialized company that converted them all into mpeg format. Once in mpeg, they were transferred to iTunes, and then to the Apple TV via the home network.
What a pleasure it is now to watch my family's old home made movies on my TV screen. It is now a snap to switch between my movies, and by being so accessible, I can now show them to other family members and friends.
The Apple TV is really like an iPod. It is controlled by a very simple remote control with one menu button, a play/pause button, surrounded in a circle by the forward and rewind buttons, and the volume control (`+ and -` buttons also used for navigation). You are going to wish all remote controls were that simple.
Navigating the Apple TV is like navigating an iPod. You can store video, music, and photos. There is a slideshow feature for your pictures that will display your pictures on your TV with background music of your choice. The background music can be chosen at random from your music library.
Though as simple as an iPod to operate, the Apple TV is itself a stripped-down Mac mini, running a version of Mac OS X. When you plug in the Apple TV to your TV, you will not need to do any configuration. It's basically plug-and-play. Audio and video cables (not included) connect it to your TV. There is an HDMI output.
The Apple TV comes with a wireless feature allowing you to wirelessly connect to your home network. However, in order to sync your Apple TV with your iTunes, I would recommend you use an Ethernet cable to connect to your home network. The video, music, and photo transfer will be faster through an Ethernet cable. Once you sync your Apple TV for the first time, you may then disconnect the network cable and use the wireless feature in the Apple TV to update its content.
I also recommend you first start syncing at night. In this way, the syncing process will go on while you are sleeping. My Apple TV is 160 Gigabyte strong, and to put that much information on it might take the better part of a day! In most cases, depending on your hardware, connecting through the network Ethernet cable will make the transfer much faster than connecting wirelessly, particularly over 802.ub, 802.ug, and 802.un networks.
You can sync content from only one computer at a time, and you can't add content manually--for example, by dragging it from iTunes library to the Apple TV icon on iTunes' Source list, as you might do with an iPod. If you choose to sync with a different computer, all the data on the Apple TV will be replaced.
Another nice feature of the Apple TV is its ability to connect to the iTunes store, through your computer (either a Mac or PC), where you can download music and videos. Like the iPod, the Apple TV will neatly categorize your media for you, and automatically download the covers of the music albums and films.
One negative comment I have about the Apple TV is that you cannot transfer the media files on your Apple TV to your computer. It is only a one way process, with files moving from your iTunes to your Apple TV, and not vice versa. So if you want to send an Apple TV to a friend, loaded with your music and video library, your friend cannot connect it to his computer. If he does so, all the media on the Apple TV will be erased when it tries to sync with your friend's iTunes, replacing it with the media files on your friend's computer. This also applies to the iPod. There are software on the internet that claim to address this problem, but I have not tried any of them.
Be careful about earlier versions of Apple TV. Earlier versions don't support streaming videos. Newer versions shipped give you the option of navigating YouTube, and streaming their videos. I think that older versions can be updated to support streaming videos.
Apple TV also has limited support for video formats. This means that you will have to rely on tools like Techspanion's Visual-Hub to convert videos to Apple TV-ready formats. You can also use Apple QuickTime. You cannot directly burn a DVD into iTunes. DVDs also need to be converted in order to have them transferred to your Apple TV.
You can stream movies, however, you can't stream photos. Instead, on the computer synced with the Apple TV, iTunes formats the pictures you select and copies them to the Apple TV's hard drive. Once they're on the Apple TV, you can view a selected album or your entire photo library as a slide show. You can choose from a variety of transitions, as well as determine the display time for each picture.
Apple has chosen to say that generally, 5.1 audio is not supported.
The Apple TV does not offer true HD quality.
Apple Computer Inc. has changed its name to Apple Inc. With the name change, Apple is now promising us gadgetry other than computers. The iPhone is one example. There's more to come.