Apple MA711LL/A TV with 40GB Hard Drive [OLD VERSION] by Apple Computer
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Digital camera reviews of Apple MA711LL/A TV with 40GB Hard Drive [OLD VERSION]
Digital camera Review: A great device - c'mon Apple, make it better
Summary: 4 Stars
First thing - I love my Apple TV. I've had it more than a month, and we use it often to rent movies. The selection is decent and getting better, and I'm not terribly bothered by the one-month wait for rentals to be available. I also like that I now can mark movies that I might want to watch later.
So what could improve? I don't like spending $2 for a 30-minute or 1-hour TV show. I would take a show with advertising for free.
That's a small nit, however. A great product.
Digital camera Review: A media server made easy
Summary: 5 Stars
The combination of AppleTV, an iTunes server, and an iPod Touch remote for the whole system has made our music and movie enjoyment much, much greater. The AppleTV/iTunes combo makes it very easy to set up a wireless media storage and playback combination through your living room home theater system.
The only slight complaint I have is that the appleTV isn't always automatically found by the remote iTunes server after a re-start, meaning I have to go through the code entry nonsense again. However, this is rare, and doesn't otherwise detract from a great system.
Oh, and 40 gigs is more than plenty if you are using an external system to stream content to the AppleTV. Otherwise, I might suggest the bigger drive.
Digital camera Review: A very good Version 1
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a very well-done product and the best Version 1 that I've ever seen. It will do what it says, and without fuss and with the smallest of setup. Out of the box, it's two cables and three clicks away from entering your network password, if you have one enabled. It then starts to sync with iTunes--all your ripped and bought music, your purchased videos, television shows, movies, from an ever-expanding list. It also syncs your photos from iPhoto. Like a good maid, it does Windows too.
If you have more media than its 40GB drive will handle, and I have a great deal more, it fills up with photos last, which is shame for they make a really nice screen saver--your life in photos, rising from the bottom of the screen, large pictures in front and fast, smaller ones in the rear and slower, nice false perspective.
It can be set to stream all your content from up to five iTunes computers at a time. You can control the syncing to limit it so the photos stay on. Syncing is important only if the computer(s) with the iTunes are off, for Apple TV can play anything stored on it and stand alone. You could schlep it along on a vacation.
Problems and suggestions. Three times the living room one has lost contact with Orpheus in the office while it was syncing but streaming from the playlist, and I couldn't get it to download the playlist again without surgery. This is a software problem and this is Version 1.
Suggestion. Allow the user to specify the priority of things to be kept, giving photos higher priority if you wish. Even better would be a different sort of syncing. Order all the playlists from all your iTunes, or even just the computer you're syncing with, and let Apple TV load as much as will fit, and use it as a disk buffer. This might cause thrashing of the WiFi though. But it would give access to everything when the computer was on and the most important things when not. And you could take your most important stuff on vacation. It's a small box.
Also every playlist has as its first option "Shuffle." The second option ought to be the repeat option stored on the iTunes playlist instead of having a system-wide option.
This is a model of very complex technology made very simple indeed to use; I don't think that anything, except possibly the iPod, even comes close, and that's not nearly as complicated a thing to do. I predict that this will do to DVDs what the iPod did to CDs. Neither will die but both will have to think. And cable companies will, I suspect, start to give more attention to faster download speeds and hasten Internet2 and perhaps lessen the number of channels flogging crap. Do you think? This may be the killer app/box. After all, if music is now sold as being the number one album on iTunes and then CD sales as an afterthought, and the iTunes store was launched in April of 2003, can you imagine what Apple TV might do? Death to dial-up.
Digital camera Review: Another Dominating Product By Apple
Summary: 5 Stars
The Apple TV is an exceptional device that can be used to stream or store your media. I have about 100 movies (2gb a piece) and 150 TV Shows (80GB all together) so I opted to stream all of my content from my main computer. Setup was a breeze and it works exceptionally seamlessly. I have not found a disadvantage to streaming yet, it loads enough of the movie in about 2 seconds so that you can begin watching immediately. There is no skipping or buffering at anytime through out the movie and that is pretty good considering I am using a Wireless G 54mbps network.
Another thing I really enjoy about the Apple TV is the nice interface. It is simple and elegant as is the Apple TV itself. It is easy to use, so easy that anybody can just pick it up and learn it instantly. I would recommend this to anyway who enjoys movies and would like an easy way to build a digital library of movies that they can simply stream to their tv.
Oh yeah, also the movies that apple sells on iTunes are equivalent to DVD quality so the picture is very nice, and if you load your own DVDs 2400kbps is a perfect bit rate to use, it uses about 1.5 to 2 gigs a movie and it is DVD quality.
Digital camera Review: Apple Fails To Deliver Again
Summary: 1 Stars
I've been an Apple user all my life, and I wanted to love the AppleTv. I tried to show it off to my Windows friends, but nothing they have would play, and my "special" H264 videos will not play on their systems either.
Needless to say, I was embarrassed and out almost $400. All my Windows friends are watching DVD's from their Network Storage, and this Appletv is only oneway play, no network support.
Why can't Apple give us something good for once that impresses for more than just a slicked up case?