I think the best improvement for the Airport Extreme would be to add a femtocell that works with all the major carriers. It is a natural fit that would improve cell reception indoors, and decrease the load on the voice network. Apple could configure the device in the Airport Utility application. There should be no monthly fee from the cell carrier.
No compelling reason to get it? How about having whole movie collection stored on your computer, like I have, but I really want to watch my collection in the lounge rather than my desk. There's a compelling reason for you!!!
But why would you want your whole movie collection on your computer? I admittedly started it once but now really don't see the point. I hardly ever watch a film more than once and putting a DVD in a DVD player takes less time than ripping it. Plus as the apple tv isn't big enough to store all my films I would have to turn my mac on every time I want to watch a film. Seems great that it can do it but I just don't get why I would pay £250 to do somthing that seemingly has absolutely no advantage.
But why would you want your whole movie collection on your computer? I admittedly started it once but now really don't see the point. I hardly ever watch a film more than once and putting a DVD in a DVD player takes less time than ripping it. Plus as the apple tv isn't big enough to store all my films I would have to turn my mac on every time I want to watch a film. Seems great that it can do it but I just don't get why I would pay £250 to do somthing that seemingly has absolutely no advantage.
Actually the advantage is storage space of DVDs. A large hard drive takes up much less space than drawers and shelves full of DVDs.
But why would you want your whole movie collection on your computer? I admittedly started it once but now really don't see the point. I hardly ever watch a film more than once and putting a DVD in a DVD player takes less time than ripping it. Plus as the apple tv isn't big enough to store all my films I would have to turn my mac on every time I want to watch a film. Seems great that it can do it but I just don't get why I would pay £250 to do somthing that seemingly has absolutely no advantage.
Dorotea has a point. It takes up less room and it's faster, while also being easily backed up for protection. Think about how many DVDs fit onto a 2TB drive. Is it about 2k or 20k?
Of course you don't have to keep buying DVDs and I suspect the future will forego optical altogether as the primary method for many users pushing it to Blu-Ray for the really cool stuff. And you don't have to use an AppleTV. There are plenty of media extenders for the home with online rentals and purchases. I expect to see many more at CES this year.
Can someone tell me why having my content (whether iTunes purchased or DVD ripped) sitting on both my AppleTV and my computer in the same residence is ideal?
Furthermore, exactly how many more AppleTV revisions is going to take for me to view my iMovie library content streamed from my Mac to an AppleTV?
Can someone tell me why having my content (whether iTunes purchased or DVD ripped) sitting on both my AppleTV and my computer in the same residence is ideal?
Ideal certainly doesn't fit everyone's needs but it does provide a a bit of redundancy. Plus, yoy don't have to use the internal drive, you can stream from
your home's PCs instead. The AppleTV really needs to be remade from the ground up and I think it is coming shortly.
I'd also like to see a Windows Home Server competitor. Time Capaule is okay for centralized Time Machine backups but I think a home server with RAIDed drive would be a big hit for our ever increasing digital libraries and increased networking needs.
Quote:
Furthermore, exactly how many more AppleTV revisions is going to take for me to view my iMovie library content streamed from my Mac to an AppleTV?
Why not just put the completed videos into iTunes so you watch them on the AppleTV. I didn't even know iMovie had a library section.
Edit: It occured to me that you nay have meant the Movies folder in your user account, not iMovie. That would be nice to add, as well as shared folder access for media and a way to add various codecs.
Another strike against Apple TV is that it primarily only works with HDTVs. That really limits your market. It may take 5 to 10 years for that market share to become more accepted.
It would be a Wii competitor...not the 360 or PS3.
Nintendo would have better games wile the aTV better for media. For casual games it would be good enough and with iPhone and iPod Touch controllers a lot of the accelerometer gameplay based games would work.
Game-console sales are driven by content, especially exclusive content. Nintendo has Wii Fit, Wii Sports and Mario. These are big name franchises and are only available on a Nintendo system. Casual games are simply not system sellers. If you have a AppleTV you might then buy casual games for it, but very few new customers will buy a AppleTV for casual gaming.
In addition, unless Apple sells a lot more AppleTVs (or at least get the public excited about it), developers won't bother with the platform and will focus their resources elsewhere.
1) "AppleTV should have a DVD player" Why? Don't you already own a DVD player?
2) "AppleTV should let me import my DVDs" You would have to be living in a cave if you have never heard of HandBrake.
3) "AppleTV should be a cable/sat box with DVR." Apple only wants you to buy from iTunes. They won't spend the licensing fees to build a box compatible with DirecTV, DishNetwork, and CableCards.
Amazing what dreams people have for a low selling product. I highly doubt that Apple spent millions on this hobby. It doesn't take much to write some software and build a cheap logic board based on an outdated Pentium processor.
Blu-ray machines have sold this holiday season through the roof- only $150 now and disks only $15! And they are WiFi now and you can rent on them as well. No need for iTunes .
AppleTV isn't even really true HD- it's ship has sailed on. iTunes movie's sound sucks and the actual film content available is mediocre at best.
Not to worry - even Ford in its heyday produced the Edsel.
That's cool info if you have an iMac or big machine, but for me, it means having to constantly set up and dismantle the whole external drive from my notebook every time I leave for work. When I take my notebook from the house, my wife wouldn't be able to use this setup to watch media on the TV until I come home and set it all up again. The whole reason I bought the WDTV in the first place was that it freed up my notebook and offered a permanent solution for both of us.
Um what post were you reading???
Did he ever mention to connect it to your "notebook"??
What he was suggesting was to put a central always on PC/Mac in your house with the drive holding your itunes directory. If you want to take your laptop to work, guess what..... you can
If your wife wants to watch/listen to something guess what..... she can too!!!
If you wanted to take music with you all you need to do is set up a playlist to coy to your mac/phone/touch etc and the songs can be copied there without affecting anyone else on the network.
Seriously if people were to take the time to actually look at what their home network does and realise that most of the stuff they bitch about can resolved with a little tweaking this place would be silent.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MacTripper
I would like to see the AppleTV take off, be another Netflix, unfortunately in order to get decent downloads you need cable...and Comcast just bought NBC...ouch.
AT&T is going to hang up land lines, so there goes DSL.
Yeah the only thing that i really want an ATV to do is play non proprietary formats. even if by official paid codec pack add ons.
But then thats what i want itunes to do so im thinking that it may be more an itunes limitation than an ATV one.
A smaller footprint, maybe flash/ssd instead of physical HD, that way we can forgo this whole DVD/BRD argument all together. The device will be physically too small to fit one. Lastly 1080p playback.
On saying that heres hoping the 2010 iPhone update supports HD podcast playback finally. sick of having to download them twice.
Apple needs to drop this 2.5" drive nonsense and get a nice 2TB 3.5" drive in there ASAP. Put that with DVR capabilities, a wider range of codec support, a built in dock for iPods and a reasonable price point, and even if it were ugly, it'd sell like hotcakes. And as for you naysayers who go on about this eliminating the need to go to iTunes, quiet. Content bought from iTunes would still be more versatile, often of higher quality, logo free and always the most convenient. Like dropping the Fairplay in music nonsense, this would prove a boon!
maybe not. there is a very good case to add an optional BD drive to AppleTV. because it would allow Apple to continue to avoid adding BD to desktop and laptop Macs. any computer with BD must be HDCP compliant. which means the entire OS must be programmed to enforce its DRM, even blocking playback of unauthorized media (if a "flag" is triggered by content owners, which to date has not happened). we know Jobs/Apple do not want any third parties to have any control over any part of OS X, ever.
but the AppleTV is already HDCP compliant, so adding BD to it raises no new DRM issue. so it would make sense to sandbox it there, in a peripheral device.
i do not think Apple will do this tho, because Jobs clearly wants to shift the market away from physical media like DVD's and BD to on-line sales instead.
so i bet the next 2010 AppleTV will support full 1080p HDTV streaming.
when will Apple's giant server farm in North Carolina be ready?
Steve Jobs calls it a hobby so everyone else calls it a hobby. Funny how everyone focuses on what Steve Jobs say, isn't it?
Couldn't call it a complete failure to understand what the customers are looking for.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dorotea
Actually the advantage is storage space of DVDs. A large hard drive takes up much less space than drawers and shelves full of DVDs.
Yes it does. However, the problem is that unlike digital music, you have to keep those shelves and drawers and you have to build up your digital library from scratch.
Game-console sales are driven by content, especially exclusive content. Nintendo has Wii Fit, Wii Sports and Mario. These are big name franchises and are only available on a Nintendo system. Casual games are simply not system sellers. If you have a AppleTV you might then buy casual games for it, but very few new customers will buy a AppleTV for casual gaming.
In addition, unless Apple sells a lot more AppleTVs (or at least get the public excited about it), developers won't bother with the platform and will focus their resources elsewhere.
if AppleTV allowed you to mirror your iPhone/touch games simultaneously on your big screen HDTV, that would be terrific fun. that would mean there are already tens of millions of game controllers in consumer homes today. that would mean there are already tens of thousands of games available - many being "exclusive content". that would mean kids and adults already have favorites and know how to play them. Then all they would need to bridge the connection wirelessly is a $229 AppleTV - which btw also does some other things too.
iPhone games keep becoming more varied and sophisticated. multiplayer games are now being developed too. yes, they are very different than traditional game counsel or PSP/DSI games - but that is actually a very compelling reason to buy them - something new and different! and the games prices are so much lower than Sony/Nintendo charge, it would undercut their market savagely.
maybe not. there is a very good case to add an optional BD drive to AppleTV. because it would allow Apple to continue to avoid adding BD to desktop and laptop Macs. any computer with BD must be HDCP compliant. which means the entire OS must be programmed to enforce its DRM, even blocking playback of unauthorized media (if a "flag" is triggered by content owners, which to date has not happened). we know Jobs/Apple do not want any third parties to have any control over any part of OS X, ever.
but the AppleTV is already HDCP compliant, so adding BD to it raises no new DRM issue. so it would make sense to sandbox it there, in a peripheral device.
Macs already have HDCP in the hardware as you can run Windows on a Mac with a BRD an play at full resolution. If You say Apple won't support it on OS X then that excludes the AppleTV which happens to be the closest flavour of OS X to Mac OS.
if AppleTV allowed you to mirror your iPhone/touch games simultaneously on your big screen HDTV, that would be terrific fun. that would mean there are already tens of millions of game controllers in consumer homes today. that would mean there are already tens of thousands of games available - many being "exclusive content". that would mean kids and adults already have favorites and know how to play them. Then all they would need to bridge the connection wirelessly is a $229 AppleTV - which btw also does some other things.
iPhone games keep becoming more varied and sophisticated. multiplayer games are now being developed too. yes, they are very different than traditional game counsel or PSP/DSI games - but that is actually a very compelling reason to buy them - something new and different! and the games prices are so much lower than Sony/Nintendo charge, it would undercut their market savagely.
I'd like to see 3rd-party apps for the AppleTV but I think one of two things need to happen first.
1) They need to get a large enough user base in plae so developers will come.
2) They'll need to alter te iPhone SDK in some very amazing ways in order to simulate every touch screen action with a remote if you expect every game to simple work great on the AppleTV. Frankly, I don't see it.
maybe not. there is a very good case to add an optional BD drive to AppleTV. because it would allow Apple to continue to avoid adding BD to desktop and laptop Macs. any computer with BD must be HDCP compliant. which means the entire OS must be programmed to enforce its DRM, even blocking playback of unauthorized media (if a "flag" is triggered by content owners, which to date has not happened). we know Jobs/Apple do not want any third parties to have any control over any part of OS X, ever.
but the AppleTV is already HDCP compliant, so adding BD to it raises no new DRM issue. so it would make sense to sandbox it there, in a peripheral device.
i do not think Apple will do this tho, because Jobs clearly wants to shift the market away from physical media like DVD's and BD to on-line sales instead.
While it is true that we can download all the media we need too install the OS on our Macs via the net there is one thing that cant be downloaded.
That is what to do when the hard drive dies and you need to do a full reformat (although rare does happen and some people like doing it with every major point release)
When this day comes that we no longer need physical discs like DVD/BRD, Companies like Apple will just change the media format to something like a NON re-writable version of something like this...
*** Imation Atom USB***
It would mean that they have eliminated the need for an optical drive and at the same time reduced packaging and allowed those that want/need physical media the ability to do so.
1) "AppleTV should have a DVD player" Why? Don't you already own a DVD player?
2) "AppleTV should let me import my DVDs" You would have to be living in a cave if you have never heard of HandBrake.
3) "AppleTV should be a cable/sat box with DVR." Apple only wants you to buy from iTunes. They won't spend the licensing fees to build a box compatible with DirecTV, DishNetwork, and CableCards.
Amazing what dreams people have for a low selling product. I highly doubt that Apple spent millions on this hobby. It doesn't take much to write some software and build a cheap logic board based on an outdated Pentium processor.
1) Yes I have a DVD (well xbox) but like a lot of people I want to minimize the number of box's and remotes I have.
2) Yes I have heard of handbrake but only because I'm a computer geek. The average person will be expecting iTunes to do it.
3) Why shouldn't it be a set top box? It's not like any of these ideas arnt already availiable in cheaper alternatives. Maybe not all together but the fact is so far despite being positioned to be able to sell the most has so far come up with the worst set of features and priced it at the top.
Comments
most of this should be done in a device at about the same price. just has to be slightly larger, for hard drive.
the blu-ray could be added on a higher end model. so if people don't want BD, they don't have to get it.
Absolutely unrealistic.
No compelling reason to get it? How about having whole movie collection stored on your computer, like I have, but I really want to watch my collection in the lounge rather than my desk. There's a compelling reason for you!!!
But why would you want your whole movie collection on your computer? I admittedly started it once but now really don't see the point. I hardly ever watch a film more than once and putting a DVD in a DVD player takes less time than ripping it. Plus as the apple tv isn't big enough to store all my films I would have to turn my mac on every time I want to watch a film. Seems great that it can do it but I just don't get why I would pay £250 to do somthing that seemingly has absolutely no advantage.
But why would you want your whole movie collection on your computer? I admittedly started it once but now really don't see the point. I hardly ever watch a film more than once and putting a DVD in a DVD player takes less time than ripping it. Plus as the apple tv isn't big enough to store all my films I would have to turn my mac on every time I want to watch a film. Seems great that it can do it but I just don't get why I would pay £250 to do somthing that seemingly has absolutely no advantage.
Actually the advantage is storage space of DVDs. A large hard drive takes up much less space than drawers and shelves full of DVDs.
But why would you want your whole movie collection on your computer? I admittedly started it once but now really don't see the point. I hardly ever watch a film more than once and putting a DVD in a DVD player takes less time than ripping it. Plus as the apple tv isn't big enough to store all my films I would have to turn my mac on every time I want to watch a film. Seems great that it can do it but I just don't get why I would pay £250 to do somthing that seemingly has absolutely no advantage.
Dorotea has a point. It takes up less room and it's faster, while also being easily backed up for protection. Think about how many DVDs fit onto a 2TB drive. Is it about 2k or 20k?
Of course you don't have to keep buying DVDs and I suspect the future will forego optical altogether as the primary method for many users pushing it to Blu-Ray for the really cool stuff. And you don't have to use an AppleTV. There are plenty of media extenders for the home with online rentals and purchases. I expect to see many more at CES this year.
Furthermore, exactly how many more AppleTV revisions is going to take for me to view my iMovie library content streamed from my Mac to an AppleTV?
Can someone tell me why having my content (whether iTunes purchased or DVD ripped) sitting on both my AppleTV and my computer in the same residence is ideal?
Ideal certainly doesn't fit everyone's needs but it does provide a a bit of redundancy. Plus, yoy don't have to use the internal drive, you can stream from
your home's PCs instead. The AppleTV really needs to be remade from the ground up and I think it is coming shortly.
I'd also like to see a Windows Home Server competitor. Time Capaule is okay for centralized Time Machine backups but I think a home server with RAIDed drive would be a big hit for our ever increasing digital libraries and increased networking needs.
Furthermore, exactly how many more AppleTV revisions is going to take for me to view my iMovie library content streamed from my Mac to an AppleTV?
Why not just put the completed videos into iTunes so you watch them on the AppleTV. I didn't even know iMovie had a library section.
Edit: It occured to me that you nay have meant the Movies folder in your user account, not iMovie. That would be nice to add, as well as shared folder access for media and a way to add various codecs.
Another strike against Apple TV is that it primarily only works with HDTVs. That really limits your market. It may take 5 to 10 years for that market share to become more accepted.
You need to get out more.
It would be a Wii competitor...not the 360 or PS3.
Nintendo would have better games wile the aTV better for media. For casual games it would be good enough and with iPhone and iPod Touch controllers a lot of the accelerometer gameplay based games would work.
Game-console sales are driven by content, especially exclusive content. Nintendo has Wii Fit, Wii Sports and Mario. These are big name franchises and are only available on a Nintendo system. Casual games are simply not system sellers. If you have a AppleTV you might then buy casual games for it, but very few new customers will buy a AppleTV for casual gaming.
In addition, unless Apple sells a lot more AppleTVs (or at least get the public excited about it), developers won't bother with the platform and will focus their resources elsewhere.
1) "AppleTV should have a DVD player" Why? Don't you already own a DVD player?
2) "AppleTV should let me import my DVDs" You would have to be living in a cave if you have never heard of HandBrake.
3) "AppleTV should be a cable/sat box with DVR." Apple only wants you to buy from iTunes. They won't spend the licensing fees to build a box compatible with DirecTV, DishNetwork, and CableCards.
Amazing what dreams people have for a low selling product. I highly doubt that Apple spent millions on this hobby. It doesn't take much to write some software and build a cheap logic board based on an outdated Pentium processor.
Blu-ray machines have sold this holiday season through the roof- only $150 now and disks only $15! And they are WiFi now and you can rent on them as well. No need for iTunes .
AppleTV isn't even really true HD- it's ship has sailed on. iTunes movie's sound sucks and the actual film content available is mediocre at best.
Not to worry - even Ford in its heyday produced the Edsel.
That's cool info if you have an iMac or big machine, but for me, it means having to constantly set up and dismantle the whole external drive from my notebook every time I leave for work. When I take my notebook from the house, my wife wouldn't be able to use this setup to watch media on the TV until I come home and set it all up again. The whole reason I bought the WDTV in the first place was that it freed up my notebook and offered a permanent solution for both of us.
Um what post were you reading???
Did he ever mention to connect it to your "notebook"??
What he was suggesting was to put a central always on PC/Mac in your house with the drive holding your itunes directory. If you want to take your laptop to work, guess what..... you can
If your wife wants to watch/listen to something guess what..... she can too!!!
If you wanted to take music with you all you need to do is set up a playlist to coy to your mac/phone/touch etc and the songs can be copied there without affecting anyone else on the network.
Seriously if people were to take the time to actually look at what their home network does and realise that most of the stuff they bitch about can resolved with a little tweaking this place would be silent.
I would like to see the AppleTV take off, be another Netflix, unfortunately in order to get decent downloads you need cable...and Comcast just bought NBC...ouch.
AT&T is going to hang up land lines, so there goes DSL.
Yeah the only thing that i really want an ATV to do is play non proprietary formats. even if by official paid codec pack add ons.
But then thats what i want itunes to do so im thinking that it may be more an itunes limitation than an ATV one.
A smaller footprint, maybe flash/ssd instead of physical HD, that way we can forgo this whole DVD/BRD argument all together. The device will be physically too small to fit one. Lastly 1080p playback.
On saying that heres hoping the 2010 iPhone update supports HD podcast playback finally. sick of having to download them twice.
Go Apple, go.
Absolutely unrealistic.
maybe not. there is a very good case to add an optional BD drive to AppleTV. because it would allow Apple to continue to avoid adding BD to desktop and laptop Macs. any computer with BD must be HDCP compliant. which means the entire OS must be programmed to enforce its DRM, even blocking playback of unauthorized media (if a "flag" is triggered by content owners, which to date has not happened). we know Jobs/Apple do not want any third parties to have any control over any part of OS X, ever.
but the AppleTV is already HDCP compliant, so adding BD to it raises no new DRM issue. so it would make sense to sandbox it there, in a peripheral device.
i do not think Apple will do this tho, because Jobs clearly wants to shift the market away from physical media like DVD's and BD to on-line sales instead.
so i bet the next 2010 AppleTV will support full 1080p HDTV streaming.
when will Apple's giant server farm in North Carolina be ready?
Steve Jobs calls it a hobby so everyone else calls it a hobby. Funny how everyone focuses on what Steve Jobs say, isn't it?
Couldn't call it a complete failure to understand what the customers are looking for.
Actually the advantage is storage space of DVDs. A large hard drive takes up much less space than drawers and shelves full of DVDs.
Yes it does. However, the problem is that unlike digital music, you have to keep those shelves and drawers and you have to build up your digital library from scratch.
Game-console sales are driven by content, especially exclusive content. Nintendo has Wii Fit, Wii Sports and Mario. These are big name franchises and are only available on a Nintendo system. Casual games are simply not system sellers. If you have a AppleTV you might then buy casual games for it, but very few new customers will buy a AppleTV for casual gaming.
In addition, unless Apple sells a lot more AppleTVs (or at least get the public excited about it), developers won't bother with the platform and will focus their resources elsewhere.
if AppleTV allowed you to mirror your iPhone/touch games simultaneously on your big screen HDTV, that would be terrific fun. that would mean there are already tens of millions of game controllers in consumer homes today. that would mean there are already tens of thousands of games available - many being "exclusive content". that would mean kids and adults already have favorites and know how to play them. Then all they would need to bridge the connection wirelessly is a $229 AppleTV - which btw also does some other things too.
iPhone games keep becoming more varied and sophisticated. multiplayer games are now being developed too. yes, they are very different than traditional game counsel or PSP/DSI games - but that is actually a very compelling reason to buy them - something new and different! and the games prices are so much lower than Sony/Nintendo charge, it would undercut their market savagely.
maybe not. there is a very good case to add an optional BD drive to AppleTV. because it would allow Apple to continue to avoid adding BD to desktop and laptop Macs. any computer with BD must be HDCP compliant. which means the entire OS must be programmed to enforce its DRM, even blocking playback of unauthorized media (if a "flag" is triggered by content owners, which to date has not happened). we know Jobs/Apple do not want any third parties to have any control over any part of OS X, ever.
but the AppleTV is already HDCP compliant, so adding BD to it raises no new DRM issue. so it would make sense to sandbox it there, in a peripheral device.
Macs already have HDCP in the hardware as you can run Windows on a Mac with a BRD an play at full resolution. If You say Apple won't support it on OS X then that excludes the AppleTV which happens to be the closest flavour of OS X to Mac OS.
if AppleTV allowed you to mirror your iPhone/touch games simultaneously on your big screen HDTV, that would be terrific fun. that would mean there are already tens of millions of game controllers in consumer homes today. that would mean there are already tens of thousands of games available - many being "exclusive content". that would mean kids and adults already have favorites and know how to play them. Then all they would need to bridge the connection wirelessly is a $229 AppleTV - which btw also does some other things.
iPhone games keep becoming more varied and sophisticated. multiplayer games are now being developed too. yes, they are very different than traditional game counsel or PSP/DSI games - but that is actually a very compelling reason to buy them - something new and different! and the games prices are so much lower than Sony/Nintendo charge, it would undercut their market savagely.
I'd like to see 3rd-party apps for the AppleTV but I think one of two things need to happen first.
1) They need to get a large enough user base in plae so developers will come.
2) They'll need to alter te iPhone SDK in some very amazing ways in order to simulate every touch screen action with a remote if you expect every game to simple work great on the AppleTV. Frankly, I don't see it.
maybe not. there is a very good case to add an optional BD drive to AppleTV. because it would allow Apple to continue to avoid adding BD to desktop and laptop Macs. any computer with BD must be HDCP compliant. which means the entire OS must be programmed to enforce its DRM, even blocking playback of unauthorized media (if a "flag" is triggered by content owners, which to date has not happened). we know Jobs/Apple do not want any third parties to have any control over any part of OS X, ever.
but the AppleTV is already HDCP compliant, so adding BD to it raises no new DRM issue. so it would make sense to sandbox it there, in a peripheral device.
i do not think Apple will do this tho, because Jobs clearly wants to shift the market away from physical media like DVD's and BD to on-line sales instead.
While it is true that we can download all the media we need too install the OS on our Macs via the net there is one thing that cant be downloaded.
That is what to do when the hard drive dies and you need to do a full reformat (although rare does happen and some people like doing it with every major point release)
When this day comes that we no longer need physical discs like DVD/BRD, Companies like Apple will just change the media format to something like a NON re-writable version of something like this...
*** Imation Atom USB***
It would mean that they have eliminated the need for an optical drive and at the same time reduced packaging and allowed those that want/need physical media the ability to do so.
Movies are only a small limiting factor nowadays.
So many stupid people.
1) "AppleTV should have a DVD player" Why? Don't you already own a DVD player?
2) "AppleTV should let me import my DVDs" You would have to be living in a cave if you have never heard of HandBrake.
3) "AppleTV should be a cable/sat box with DVR." Apple only wants you to buy from iTunes. They won't spend the licensing fees to build a box compatible with DirecTV, DishNetwork, and CableCards.
Amazing what dreams people have for a low selling product. I highly doubt that Apple spent millions on this hobby. It doesn't take much to write some software and build a cheap logic board based on an outdated Pentium processor.
1) Yes I have a DVD (well xbox) but like a lot of people I want to minimize the number of box's and remotes I have.
2) Yes I have heard of handbrake but only because I'm a computer geek. The average person will be expecting iTunes to do it.
3) Why shouldn't it be a set top box? It's not like any of these ideas arnt already availiable in cheaper alternatives. Maybe not all together but the fact is so far despite being positioned to be able to sell the most has so far come up with the worst set of features and priced it at the top.