Signs point to possible Apple TV upgrade at Sept. 9 event - Page 2

For me it's the tuner itself, the DVR is less important. I hate the tuner in my TV, it takes a full second to switch channels, and you can't hold down the button and skip over them, it stops at every one. EyeTV, on the other hand, absolutely flies through the channels.

Technically it's already done, people have hacked EyeTV into the ATV over a year ago. And it even does DVR.

Maury

Some of them. Tropic Thunder was amazing. A Fish Called Wanda, not so much.

Maury

Collectors certainly like to be able to revisit certain scenes maybe not repeat the whole film in its entirety. It's the same as people who collect music (CDs). They may not repeat listening to the entire CD, but want to be able to have that option readily available. Hence, they own them.

Well a related problem is that it never really goes to sleep. Come on, isn't Apple supposed to be the greenies? 13W forever? Fix it!

Maury

Hmmm....Apple TV update at the same time as a Tablet? Imagine a tablet that acts as a remote control while in the media room, then as a remote viewer when elsewhere in the home or when traveling.

Accessing the home Apple TV that now is a media and data server accessible via wifi in the home or over a cellular network or internet access when away.

I'd buy....

I agree the majority of films I wouldn't bother owning...

Two points...if I've rented a movie from iTunes and particularly enjoyed it, I will watch it again and usually pickup something I missed the first time.

Secondly, there are a few movies that I do enjoy seeing more than once, Alien, Predator, The Thing, Quantum of Solace to name a few....FYI: if you like scifi or just a well done story, go see District 9!

My girlfriend even liked it and she hates action movies, I had to tell her Precinct 13 was a love story!

Brilliant! Me too!

I love my Apple TV.

I have a wishlist for an upgraded version. If they are met I'll buy it asap:

1 - 2.5" internal hard drive
2 - On/Off switch (In the front !!!!!!)

Munster believes there's a high possibility the sky will rain marshmallows, but doesn't rule out the possibility that those marshmallows will just be large drops or rain.

ULV Core Solo CPU
9400M Chipset

Apple TV 10.6 OS revision (ya know the updated one)

Doing what the Boxee folks did with Hulu, Revision, and the like would be a "SOLD" for many, many people.

With the relationship and side-selling capabilities of iTunes as a service offering direct tie into Comedy Central... Watch this, buy the season. CBS, NBC, The other guy and FOX.

App Store + Bluetooth = BT Joysticks and an Apple competitor for Nintendo, Sony, Xbox, Sega (LOL).

I can see a Blue-Ray player as an ala-carte item that sits under it and uses the USB port, thus allowing current iTV owners to add BD support.

If I owned an AppleTV right now... I'd Boxee it, and sell it on Ebay QUICK.

Mine suits my viewing habits exactly. I'm not a channel flipper - I have a small number of shows I like to watch (three or four, generally speaking), and as such, spending $100/month for cable service is ludicrous. Instead, I can pay $40 per series to get those shows in high definition. For four shows, that's $160 per year, a $1040 savings over Comcast (okay, it's actually less because I do pay $14/month for limited basic). I watch those shows when I want (including multiple viewings if I care) and don't have to skip commercials. I can also transfer them to my iPod or iPhone for viewing on the road or on the bus. It's a win-win for me.

I do occasionally view photo slideshows, my own locally stored photos and those I host on MobileMe, as well as viewing my friends' Flickr feeds. I wish I could specify the music, especially for my own slideshows - what I'd like is to be able to set up a slideshow in advance with iPhoto and have it viewable on my AppleTV.

I also watch some YouTube subscriptions on my AppleTV and occasionally rent movies.

It's a near-perfect box. As I said, I'd love a faster processor so that higher-quality video could be viewed, regardless of its format (my box is hacked with Boxee which I use for viewing DivX and online content). I'd also like a larger hard drive so that I can store more of that HD video locally, rather than having to stream it.

Everybody's told me District 9 is great. I have to see it.
Apple does need a library update especially for older titles.

SimplifyMedia Did it.

It wasn't?

Funny! I know, I had to keep saying, 'OK this is the romantic part!' Right before somebody got shot 20 times!

Yeah, the camera work is a little herky-jerky and the south african accents take a bit of getting used too...but once it gets going it's good and the special effects were some of the best I've seen. Very realistic. I mean, as far aliens go!

I agree about the organization of the 'classics' but I have to believe 80% (if not more) of the iTune's movie downloads are new releases. Sometimes I will dig deeper into the trailers but mainly now just do the new releases or if I read a recommendation I will do a 'search.'

If you don't cannibalize your products, pretty soon others will eat you alive. It isn't as if Apple isn't aware of this. They actually used the word 'cannibalize' in their earnings conference call. Here is a quote from an article on this very site

"We expect our traditional MP3 players to decline over time," Oppenheimer said during Tuesday's earnings report conference call, "as we cannibalize ourselves with the iPod touch and the iPhone."

Later, Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook also used the word "cannibalization" to define the iPhone chipping away at traditional iPod sales.


Why couldn't Apple make a deal with the cable providers to sell its set-top box and get a cut of the revenues. If Apple feels that there is a market for something, they will do it. To be so wedded to your own solution that you ignore ones that the market prefers is, frankly, stupid - and Steve Jobs isn't stupid.

Apple TV hasn't exactly set the world on fire (to be fair, none of the competing products have, either) and if something like that is likely to catch on, they'd be fools not to do it. I am not saying that this is what they will - just saying that it is premature to categorically rule out DVR/Blu-ray on the Apple TV.

- HCE

Yep, very similar, just a few shows, 'This Week with George Stephanopolis,' 'GPS with Fareed Zakaria,' Formula One, Golf (when Tiger is playing) and MNF (when Brady is Playing). I record them on EyeTV which automatically streams them over to AppleTV for viewing!

Vomiting is what happens when you wander into the Political Outsider cesspool...er, forum.

I ditched my AppleTV (well, gave it to my Mom who doesn't use it) and replaced it with an old MacBook... I use it mostly for watching video podcasts and a few movies I ripped from DVD and to browse the web from the couch.

I find no reasonable method to a) reduce my dish bill or b) get rid of it. My fiancee and I watch much different programming and there are always movies on HBO to watch. I have about 6 or 7 shows that I watch regularly and she has 3 or 4 more and to rent all of the movies we have watched on HBO/Cinemax would end costing more than the dish bill.

Apple would really have to come out with something really compelling to get me to buy again but I doubt an AppleTV could do anything that a MacMini or the like could do. There is no one device that will get rid of them all.

At the same time, I have 4 devices attached to my TV [Xbox360, PS3, MacBook, and even the Wii] that duplicate certain functionalities (music, movies, and pictures) and I have never chosen a single device to use all of the time. It should be the MacBook, but it isn't. Most of the time, it ends up the PS3 (due to Blu-ray player) using the MediaLink software running on my iMac. Gives me access to all of my pics and music and then movies via the blu-ray drive.

If Herman Munster is correct about the Apple TV upgrade at the Apple Event on 09.09.09, count on the Tablet being there too. Then again, Steve will show, Steve won't show.......who knows and are these analysts ever correct?

Alpharetta! Went to high school in Rosewel! Cheers

AppleTV does use IDE laptop HDD.

I have never bought or rented a movie using my AppleTV, just ripped a few DVD's. I have played the HD trailers. Yes it does look pretty good, but not as good as OTA HD or Blu-ray.

So I guess I really meant to say for AppleTV to improve the HD picture quality, the current AppleTV may be left behind. Or Apple could leave no one behind and keep the quality between DVD and Blu-ray.

1080P HD!

Until the real HDTV standard is used, Apple TV remains a "hobby" device. I don't buy toys.

Are you saying the selection is bad?

I've found enough selection to keep me entertained. Quite nice to be able to download video when sick or snowed in. I can do quite a bit of damage under these circumstances.

It must have been such a sad childhood..........

the DVR option is probably a no go

to make me think about buying one, i want to see

blu-ray drive
1TB hard drive
ability to run iphone apps like Pandora and games. a lot of iphone games can double as party games
play Mac Games

otherwise it's just an extra box for a niche market

Eww.... what a love-fest!

Gag me with a spoon!

It uses a 1.8" HD, not a 2.5" laptop drive.

anantksundaram Did you used to play golf on the LPGA?

No, I don't play golf.

I like that post coming from "Trajetory"!

Sounds like you would prefer to watch Bill Gates on Charlie Rose tonight and really get hateful.

I think the future of the Apple TV lies in Apps. THink of it, Apple can position it as anything you want it to be. All you have to do is customize it with apps. I think Apple tv will be repositioned as a gaming and media hub for your living room. Get itunes media content and games etc from the app store.
Oh, and there will never be a DVR in an Apple TV. That wouldn't make sense. If you have cable then you probably get a DVR through your provider.

Well then, will there be an App called Safari which I've wanted for over 2 years now?

I have to agree. Burn me once- that's enough. Next time it's a Mini for me. It would need a Blu-ray to get me to buy it again.
And Apple needs to really get behind it now and stop with the "Hobby" BS. Blu-ray has won the format war (1 1/2 years ago) and Apple is no longer just a computer company as it was 3 years ago.

No. It is 2.5" not 1.8" HDD.

I own @TV, and I like it - got what I paid for - but I have to agree with you. It is a product with such incredible potential to transform your family room, and yet, Apple has barely tried.

I was willing to wait a year or so when I first got it, but now I am getting a tad impatient. It's time for Apple to call it quits, or take it to the next level. If the latter, I hope they'll upgrade/update in a way that we early adopters get thrown a bone - after all, what is the point of that stupid USB socket they've had in the darn thing for all this while!?

Blu-Ray is still pie in the sky, imho. Cable pipes don't have the bandwidth to support it, discs are ridiculously expensive (and few). And, even if Blu-Ray was technologically feasible (at a decent price), perhaps it's an age thing, but my eyes can't really tell the difference......

I love AppleTV for movie viewing, and my only issue is that if studios want the system to take off [and they might not], the digital rentals need to be available the same day as store rentals- none of this one month "buy only" crap. If someone wants to watch something, they're not going to wait a month and they're not going to just "buy it" instead of waiting. Rentals need to be day and date the same as DVD counterparts. The only other thing that burns my britches is all the catalogue titles that have become available in the US but 6 months later STILL aren't available here in Canada. Unless there are rights issues involved, these rollouts should be able to happen near simultaneously.

1080p will ultimately come, but may actually work best as a HD+ feature. If you have the time, internet connection and screen size to merit downloading 1080p, you can do so for no extra charge, but for most people [though most would deny it] there might not be any extra benefit depending on screen size and how far you are away from it.

The killer feature for me would be TV show rentals, or a tiered subscription service that would allow me to dump my basic cable package. I rewatch TV shows even less than I do movies, so the last thing I need is seasons of shows eating up space on my hard drive. $.99 SD and $1.99 HD TV rentals would suit me just fine.

And I'm still holding out hope that Apple can leverage their ProRes codecs at the AppleTV level- to get an even better [or 1080p] HD picture out of the same or marginally more bandwidth.

Still, I don't regret my purchase for a minute.