Apple TV to take 32% of "Connected TV Player" market this year - Page 3

Only if you buy it

I love my AppleTV and will be handing several out for Christmas gifts this year. The same reason geeks whine about the AppleTV are why the iPhone, iPad and eventually AppleTV will be the most popular.

It does a limited amount of things, but the things it does are what the vast majority people will want, and it will do them very, very well with a user experience second to none.

So while there will be whining and consternation in inside baseball threads like this, Apple will continue to slowly march on and rack up sales that are puzzling to their techie critics.

I tried out video mirroring on my iPhone 4S for the first time last night. Games designed for the Retina display look better than either the Xbox360 or PS3.

I think people have missed the point that with AirPlay, Apple doesn't need to put games on the Apple TV itself...

You take your iPhone or iPad over to their house and use AirPlay. Or you do what most people do - upload to FaceBook


Yup, because nothing ever changes... With the aforementioned upload to facebook, youtube, vimeo and the plethora of other alternatives (including AirPlay) why exactly did Apple need to continue with MobileMe? Like it or not, users of gallery or web sites on Mobile.Me were a minority. And lest you think I'm happy about it going away, I'm not since I used those features too. But I also realize I'm in the minority and there is a plethora of readily available alternatives - many are free to boot.

Seriously? This thing?


From a software perspective the Apple TV contains the least amount of innovation I've ever seen Apple put into any product they have ever made.

The Apple TV UI is an evolved Front Row that itself was a clone of Media Center from 4 years earlier.

Granted Media Center hasn't changed much in 10 years either...




...but when you compare those two to the Xbox 360 dashboard (which can be controlled via remote, motion, voice or the Windows Phone companion app) it's not hard to see who is pushing the 10 foot interface forward at the moment.

Because for well over a decade it's been proven over and over again that almost no one wants to browse the web on your TV.

Especially in the era of the iPad. Browsing is faster, easier and far more intimate on my iPad in front of my TV than with a browser on my TV.

HBOGo... Im so freaking jealous. Why apple... Why?!?

I must have hallucinated those unlocked iPhone 4s that were for sale

Nope! Still there:

You and Firefly7475 should realize these deals for HBOGO and other channels/networks are new to the 360. You guys make it sound it like it's been there since day one.

Yup - because for all the "pizzaz" of the other interfaces you show, once you get past the eye candy and try to actually use them it's a confusing mis-mash of nested menu's and arbitrary gropings of unrelated functions. And yes, I own and use all three of the boxes.

The Xbox is the worst. I haven't fired it up to update to the latest dashboard so I may have to eat my words, but I'm not too worried based on MS's past and consistent incompetence

Of course that stuff is new, but we can't ignore the new stuff in the context I was making my comment. That would be like someone complaining the iOS UI sucks because it doesn't have copy & paste.

Well, if HBO GO missing was a simple technical problem like copy and paste, they might be comparable. Since it's not a technical but business problem, it's not entirely in Apple's control to make what some people see as obvious happen.

Airplay is indeed the killer app.

It would be nice if Hulu were on the AppleTV. I'd pay for Hulu Plus and ditch cable once and for all.

1. PS3 makes a noise. Apple TV2 is silent. Sorry, the PS3 uses a fucktonne of energy. The A4 in the Apple TV2 uses little. PS3 slim uses between 75 and 95 watts, ATV uses 16-19 watts. ATV2 uses 6 watts max.
3. Apple TV2 is tiny
4. They play with only stereo audio on ps3
5. The article is reference to the Apple TV2 seeing as they no longer make the first. It's only $99 for a new more efficient environmentally friendly ATV2

For a video playback device a console is overkill, on size, noise and power consumption. Its for this reason I got Apple TV2's for the kids rooms, rather than using their consoles. Now we have 3 ATV2 in total.

There must be a lot of "professional" game players out there. My question is why would anyone older than an eighth grader want a Xbox or PS3?. Isn't there some line that says to become an adult, you have to put away childish toys?

And another... really?!?!?!?!


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I think you might have a valid argument to make but saying that iOS doesn't have copy/paste isn't one.

It's looking like deals with content owners, distributors and networks are the next step, as well as distributors creating original programming. We should see more at CES and hopefully see what Apple brings to the table a month or so after that. But that's all beside the point, right now we can we can compare some of these services. Take Netflix as a great example. You make a pejorative "Seriously? Thing thing?" comment followed by "least amount of innovation" statement yet it's the best interface for accessing Netflix from an HEC media extender. For my money I want something done right, not something that can do everyone poorly.

HBOGO is an iOS app.... It's 'seems' largely an Apple issue to put existing 'content' apps on the ATV. Although there is airplay mirroring.

You don't have to jailbreak it to be able to play 'divx' movies. The VLC streaming app can play all movies on your computer on your iOS device and via airplay on your TV.
Works great except in my case for HD movies (frame drop problems).

Another way to do the same is to re-encode your movies to m4v via Handbrake. This tool is fast and has more than excellent quality and works for mkv divx etc.
HD 720p (Apple TV cannot handle 1080p) is (depending on the source ofcourse) of the best quality I have seen on my HD tv.
Import the m4v files into iTunes (right click, open with ...) and you can view them directly on apple tv via home sharing.

J.

The only point I'm trying to make is that it's like complaining about iOS not having copy & paste "now", as in after it has been fixed.

A person can't really argue that the Xbox 360 and PS3 UI's are crap compared to the Apple TV when they haven't even used the latest UI on those systems.

You do have a point about a lot of change on the horizon. For example most of the TV stuff didn't come with the Xbox dashboard update, it's only due Q1 next year.




I also don't think the Apple TV UI is crap, it's actually ok.

However it's hard to argue that Apple are the only ones that "get it" and that everything else is crap (like IQ78 was).

Apple didn't really innovate at all when it comes to the Apple TV UI. They just took their cue from existing "10 foot interfaces" on the market and gave it some Apple polish.

I suppose the positive side to that is (for the moment) Apple haven't really shown us how they think a TV UI should work. That's something to look forward to perhaps.

Let's see, as a 31-year-old (at the time) female, I bought my PS3 because it was one of the cheapest and best Blu-Ray players on the market. (yes, I'm a dinosaur for still buying discs because I want silly things like 1080p video and lossless audio. Or maybe that means I have an 8th grade mentality.) Price-wise and feature-wise, it is STILL one of the best Blu-Ray players on the market. Besides Airplay (and no surprise that a non-Apple product doesn't have a proprietary Apple feature), it has every feature the AppleTV does and more so. And it keeps getting better with every upgrade. And it already has the concept of "apps" though Sony hasn't exploited that as much as they perhaps should. I haven't played a game on the thing in years, but it gets used constantly for movies and music.

And then funny how you call the Xbox and PS3 childish, when others are clamoring for games on the AppleTV or saying about how Airplay of games to the AppleTV is a killer feature. I guess there must be a lot of childish Apple fans on this site. You should probably tell them to grow the hell up while you're at it.

When I gave my opinion and hand-on experience with apple-tv about missing browser; one comment was if it was so important to surf nate on big tv than it would have taken off and other comment was to use ipad or iphone air play feature to beam contents to apple-tv to display on big screen.

ok.ok.. if browsing net was not needed feature than google would not have put so much efforts to try to add that on google-tv. Because some point, big players like apple, google wants to integrate internet search/browsing/streaming/apps with traditional TV stream contents. So, providing safari on apple tv is not much of a work(jailbreaking community is trying to provide such feature) but added good feature for apple-tv. Apple has to provide specifications for remote keyboard like logitech to make. With 3rd party cheap keyboard/remote can do job interfacing with the apple-tv. Moreover, I do not need to ask my son for his ipad to air play on apple-tv for large tv browsing or my daughter's iphone to browse internet while watching time warner TV shows sitting on sofa. Not everyone can lay around ipad to air play internet browsing to display on large tv.

Other member suggested hdmi input to apple-tv to feed in from Tivo like other tv/internet boxes have which is also an excellent idea/feature.

I am sure, once apple has iTV in 2012-13; it will have everything that apple-tv has plus app store, hdmi input and web browsing and more........ rest my case.

I have a PS3 and a DirecTV DVR. The reason I mention the DVR is because I use the free video on demand service quite a lot. One recent example is I downloaded the entire season of the new Starz series Boss. Unlike some people, I quite like Netflix and found a lot of good movies and shows. Watched the first 3 season of Breaking Bad and the first season of the Walking Dead on Netflix and the latest seasons free with VOD.

I find the PS3 does a great job not only with Netflix, but also playing other files from my Mac with a program called Playback which can stream and open pretty much any video as well as photos and music. No lagging, buffering, or audio issues at all. And Plyaback will play pretty much any video format without needing to convert it unlike AppleTV.

I am surprised just how few people take advantage of the free video on demand service on DirecTV and maybe other providers. After I told some friends and family about it they started using it, but they didn't even know about it prior to that. For people without cable or satellite I can see the use of buying content from Apple TV, Hulu, Amazon, etc..but if you have a DVR, no need to pay for shows you missed, just use the VOD.

I don't hear any noise from my PS3. Energy? Yep I am an energy hog with my PS3, plasma HDTV, home theater. It is the price I pay for my entertainment. If I was too concerned about energy, I would turn everything off and go on a bicycle ride.

and, again, if you have an ipad or iphone you can airplay network show using there app, its not like there is no way around it.

No you can't.

1. Yes, the PS3 makes a noise, it has a fan in it, but it doesn't make a lot of noise. My first gen Mac Mini makes a lot more noise than with of my PS3's (fat), the the thin makes hardly any.

2. The AppleTV has a limited function set, the original is a energy whore considering what it does. Also, my PS3s have a switch on the back of them, I switch them off when not using them, doesn't use any energy then.

3. Yeah? All is just a media player, there is no reason for them to be large, the PS3 does a lot more, it has an optical drive in it, and a hard drive.

4. Hmm, since you are massively wrong here, why should I believe you on anything else? All the DVD's I convert play in DD 5.1 on my PS3? Maybe you should use Handbrake and use the correct settings?

5. Yet everyone here references the original PS3 fat, the model they don't make anymore. Why should I purchase ATV2, they cost $170, and it will be another product Apple will dump and stop providing updates for.


My kids don't have TVs in their bedrooms, and the units only use energy when they are on. Why do you leave them on so much? Or do you dump your kids in front of the TV constantly? And I can purchase a lot of power for $170, can't see the benefit in spending money when it will take years (and Apple would have dumped it by then) to get any cost benefit from it.

Yes, lovely player, and locally it costs nearly 3x the price of a PS3

For the money (it's subsidized) the PS3 is a fantastic blu-ray player for people who will use all of it. It's horrid for analog audio, hasn't done SA-CD since the 2nd gen 80 Gig (which I own because my gen 1 croaked), has never supported DVD-Audio, the slim PS3s are a a lot noisier than my standalone, sizable power usage difference, form factor, integration with existing remote control. . .

In context, I was not knocking the PS3, rather stating reasons why some might prefer an AppleTV purchase over a PS3. In point, already owning or preferring a better transport for the Blu-ray experience. Like I said, I own a PS3 but not for Blu-ray and not for the home theater - the play room.

I haven't downloaded it yet, but does it work with AirPlay mirroring? If not, that's why it's not on the AppleTV.

Simply because an iOS app exists, doesn't mean the content providers will allow it to work everywhere. Look at what Google faced with the Google TV and the blocking of Hulu. This is hardly an issue limited to Apple.

Apple, Google, Microsoft, etc. are not the issue - the content providers are. Want to see it change more quickly? Fully support every Netflix, Amazon Prime or other attempts at funding content created by them. Even if you don't really care for the series that the likes of Netflix are funding - stream 'em! That's the only way the dinosaurs in Hollywood will wake up and take notice.

Clearly you just don't get it.

I realise that, I think people on this site think their solution is the best for everyone, where it won't be in most circumstances. It doesn't make sense for me to purchase two ATV2s for my TVs at $170 each, I already have a PS3 on both that work just as well (and $170 will purchase a lot of power which cancels the power argument). Plus the PS3 will handle all the blu-ray audio formats, supports 3D, handles all my DVD rips, and my iTunes music library as well

Abject nonsense is pretending these devices don't offer the same or better functionality at the same pricepoint simply to push your own agenda, whatever nonsensical agenda that is.

They're all drinking the koolaid. I hate fanboiz who blindly follow a brand regardless of its merit. It's like watching a sony forum here sometimes. Most of the time you can ignore it, but every once in a while it's so far away from reality that all you can say is "REALLY???!?!??!?"

Or clearly you just don't get it. Apple TV offers nothing the xbox or ps3 hasn't already offered for years and years... except for money that goes in apples pocket. that's new for apple.

I don't think it's everyone... but there are certainly a select few members that have gone well beyond fanatical. To try and claim the AirPlayed iPad 2 games look better than PS3 and X360 is just crazy.

I'll post one more image. This time GT4/Real Racing 2/GT5. I'll let people make up their own minds.

Mind telling me where I can get an Xbox 360 or PS3 for $99? You can't even get a Wii for $99.

Also (subjective), the functionality isn't better when the means by which to interact is worse.


Sure it doesn't.

I completely agree. You've stated the point I was struggling to make in a round about and rhetorical fashion. The solution set I have may not match someone else's but neither is wrong. It's about fit.

PEACE!

The point isn't necessarly that you can't get those devices for a set price point, the point can be, if you already own them, you don't necessarly get any benefit from purchasing a new item