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 was just talking to a good friend of mine and we both thought it odd that Apple would be announcing that iTunes 9 would have Blu-ray support and yet not have any product with an actual blu-ray laser/reader in it. Then it dawned on us that the AppleTV must be getting Blu-ray next week as its upgrade. This way you get CD, DVD, and Blu-ray playback as well as the ability to rip the CDs (possibly DVD but I doubt it) directly in the ATV. We shall see - it should be very interesting.
BTW the discs aren't that bad- they've come down a lot- check out Amazon. Unforgiven is now $8.99.
I wrote Apple what I thought was needed with AppleTV:
Just like Sony's mistake of not allowing buyers of the Walkman Digital devices to play mp3 on their Walkman, Apple's decision not to allow buyers of AppleTV to play the most common video formats like .avi/dvix, .flv, real video, means the AppleTV is not very useful--not too many users will spend the long time to convert their videos to the ones supported by AppleTV just as with few people agreed to convert to Sony's Walkman's proprietary format.
You want people to buy AppleTVs? it should play all the videos in one's hard drive: .avi/dvis, .flv, real video, .mov, etc. No conversion, no fiddling around, just search, add to list, play.
I was just talking to a good friend of mine and we both thought it odd that Apple would be announcing that iTunes 9 would have Blu-ray support and yet not have any product with an actual blu-ray laser/reader in it. Then it dawned on us that the AppleTV must be getting Blu-ray next week as its upgrade. This way you get CD, DVD, and Blu-ray playback as well as the ability to rip the CDs (possibly DVD but I doubt it) directly in the ATV. We shall see - it should be very interesting.
BTW the discs aren't that bad- they've come down a lot- check out Amazon. Unforgiven is now $8.99.
I recently bought an AppleTV so my kid can pick from a movies I ripped, but I may not even wait for Christmas before going Blu-ray with movie prices that low. Too bad I can't rip the Blu-ray movies onto AppleTV now.
I just got an notification from Nintendo today that their Internet channel is free now with the Opera browser and flash.
All those rumors about Netflix coming to the Wii just got one step closer. I tried viewing a downloadable move but it stated my OS wasn't supported (darn).
NetFlix is coming to the Wii though and AppleTV is going to get dinged unless Apple gives it a big update with games from the iPhone devs and subscriptions to movies and television series.
I think he might mean a tv tuner so you can connect cable/sattilite feeds and record your fav shows in HD. Thing is. How does one justify say buying Lost episodes when seasons 1-5 are online and FREE streamed at HD? What apple needs is to create apple Tv with tuner, DVR, sell them for $99 and have the ability to take anything recorded and play it back in real time over your home network or at the very least, transfer/convert to iPod/iPhone size or like zine, larger files to stream from iPhone to another device when visiting a friends house nits bad enough all movies and shows are on usenet, but torrent plus most networks offer most of the seasons. Apple needs to take the apple tv up a few notches. Also add blue Ray playback burning tuner dvr. Then they will sell and intergrate with new Apple TVs in a few years. Apples business model is like Intels now, release small upgrades, wait a fee months, then release it again. Eg logic 9 is 32 bit I believe. Everyone buys then snow comes out and they release 64 bit version with double the plug INS oerfomance and people buy it all over again.
I recently bought an AppleTV so my kid can pick from a movies I ripped, but I may not even wait for Christmas before going Blu-ray with movie prices that low. Too bad I can't rip the Blu-ray movies onto AppleTV now.
A TV huh? hope they don't call it AppleTV, wouldn't want it to be confused with any other product line.
Wonder if they would have a white model and then a Pro version that's all aluminium.
Well if they did release their own TV, it could be a another game changer for the industry. It would have tight software integration and probably a much easier menu but I bet the remote would have one button.
And you know the iPhone could be used as the remote as well. I think it would be interesting if Apple really does release a TV but I just don't think they would. I just don't know how well it would do. I mean considering how small most of the Apple stores are and how big TV's are, they really wouldn't have the floor space for displaying them in the bright Apple stores and there's a lot of expense in shipping those around not to mention it's an already competitive market to just get into. But I'll wait and see.
Really? The HD movies I've bought and play thru my ATV look pretty damn good to me.
They're watchable, but a million miles away from blu-ray level. Compared 1280x720@5mbits with 5.1 Dolby Digital to 1920x1080@45mbits with 7.1 lossless Dolby True HD/DTS Master...
Blu-ray is so much better, but for throwaway movies which don't need the PQ then an Apple TV download is okay.
I love AppleTV and use it daily. I have hundreds of movies, thousands of songs and thousands of pictures that I can access from it. It's great. I can play my music in multiple rooms for the price of an Airport Express.
I have been wanting to buy another for my bedroom for some time now, but I have held off in anticipation for new hardware. Although I do like my AppleTV, it does need more power.
They're watchable, but a million miles away from blu-ray level. Compared 1280x720@5mbits with 5.1 Dolby Digital to 1920x1080@45mbits with 7.1 lossless Dolby True HD/DTS Master...
Blu-ray is so much better, but for throwaway movies which don't need the PQ then an Apple TV download is okay.
I agree, Apple TV is no substitute for Blu-Ray at the moment, but stick it through a good amp and it's just as good as and far more convenient than DVD. Most of my video content has been transcoded at high quality from DVD with only rental and TV shows being downloaded from iTunes.
I hope it's not long before we get 1080p and high bit rate content in iTunes.
and which manufacture who makes a TV current, would choose to make one BETTER then theirs for Apple?
This doesn't make any sense. Now a LARGE screen monitor, that they promote as a monitor, that does it all (what ever in hell that would be), at a great price, at a great hi-res system, that folks can't do without, or are willing to put their current 52" very nice, very expensive TV in the kids room or cellar, just a have this new Apple monitor ? see what I mean, this just doesn't fly.
Skip
PS NOW if it was a touch screen TV, that would work
The new AppleTV needs to allow other online media providers to provide apps / plugins to interface with their programming systems. For example in the UK we have iPlayer and 4od (and Virgin On Demand, and Dave On Demand, and others, but the others are the primary players in the market) which provide free on-demand programming from their back catalogues and recently shown on TV stuff. These providers will not want to provide their content via a third-party "store", especially as they've already got their own infrastructure to provide the shows for free.
It's quite simple in that I will not buy an Apple TV until it incorporates the ability to interface with other programming providers, even if the other providers have to program their own add-in functionality for the device and provide it via an AppleTV App Store (or automatically downloaded once the AppleTV knows which country it is running in). I can understand these plug-in applications being forced to use a certain UI style and mode of operation, and I can understand that media that they download should be put into the single repository on the device (or media server connected to the device) instead of having separate browsable libraries. But without iPlayer and 4od support in the UK, the device is irrelevant.
Also: HDMI 1.3a (or 1.4) output.
Also: Future external BluRay drive (that fits neatly on top, interfacing via USB). This does require the next AppleTV to be capable of decoding and outputting 1080p at 45mbps though.
Also: 802.11n, Bluetooth remotes with more than 6 buttons that are big enough to remain visible.
I hope they change the UI and the remote. Both give a very poor user experience at the moment. I really don't like having to scroll down to the 4th or 5th menu option to access my library and having to hold down buttons to perform basic functionality. I'm surprised such inadequencies slipped through Apple's QA.
a MUCH bigger announcement then iTV, iPods or even the iTablet?
Hey, the moon and stars don't lie
Skip
iTablet is NOT GOING TO APPEAR IN 2009! Why do people always want the tablet out so fast? I'll rather wait till 2010 after Apple has properly sorted out everything and announces it in January ( Consider the tablet a Mac ) rather than an iPod and music event. ( Consider the tablet as a large iPod )
I hope they change the UI and the remote. Both give a very poor user experience at the moment. I really don't like having to scroll down to the 4th or 5th menu option to access my library and having to hold down buttons to perform basic functionality. I'm surprised such inadequencies slipped through Apple's QA.
Ever use Apple Remote on the iPhone. That seems like the logical form of travel, I think. Would be pricey but if they bundle an iTouch Mini (Nano) with the AppleTV that would be neat. Then we are looking at a $499 price point if you add in App Store, Wireless joystick like controllers, BD Drive support and integrated Internet TV. Come to think of it, like that I might buy one myself.
Apple is well known for their idiosyncrasy. Kinda what makes them unique.
I hope that current Apple TV owners won't be left behind with whatever the new upgrade will be. Hopefully the update will include the software and crappy interface.
Yeah jeez, they really should throw us current owners a bone here, we've been waiting for some kind of official increase in functionality for some time how, there's gotta be a bit more they can squeeze out of the current hardware.
Comments
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 was just talking to a good friend of mine and we both thought it odd that Apple would be announcing that iTunes 9 would have Blu-ray support and yet not have any product with an actual blu-ray laser/reader in it. Then it dawned on us that the AppleTV must be getting Blu-ray next week as its upgrade. This way you get CD, DVD, and Blu-ray playback as well as the ability to rip the CDs (possibly DVD but I doubt it) directly in the ATV. We shall see - it should be very interesting.
BTW the discs aren't that bad- they've come down a lot- check out Amazon. Unforgiven is now $8.99.
Just like Sony's mistake of not allowing buyers of the Walkman Digital devices to play mp3 on their Walkman, Apple's decision not to allow buyers of AppleTV to play the most common video formats like .avi/dvix, .flv, real video, means the AppleTV is not very useful--not too many users will spend the long time to convert their videos to the ones supported by AppleTV just as with few people agreed to convert to Sony's Walkman's proprietary format.
You want people to buy AppleTVs? it should play all the videos in one's hard drive: .avi/dvis, .flv, real video, .mov, etc. No conversion, no fiddling around, just search, add to list, play.
I was just talking to a good friend of mine and we both thought it odd that Apple would be announcing that iTunes 9 would have Blu-ray support and yet not have any product with an actual blu-ray laser/reader in it. Then it dawned on us that the AppleTV must be getting Blu-ray next week as its upgrade. This way you get CD, DVD, and Blu-ray playback as well as the ability to rip the CDs (possibly DVD but I doubt it) directly in the ATV. We shall see - it should be very interesting.
BTW the discs aren't that bad- they've come down a lot- check out Amazon. Unforgiven is now $8.99.
I recently bought an AppleTV so my kid can pick from a movies I ripped, but I may not even wait for Christmas before going Blu-ray with movie prices that low. Too bad I can't rip the Blu-ray movies onto AppleTV now.
All those rumors about Netflix coming to the Wii just got one step closer. I tried viewing a downloadable move but it stated my OS wasn't supported (darn).
NetFlix is coming to the Wii though and AppleTV is going to get dinged unless Apple gives it a big update with games from the iPhone devs and subscriptions to movies and television series.
Why would you need a DVR for an IPTV service?
I think he might mean a tv tuner so you can connect cable/sattilite feeds and record your fav shows in HD. Thing is. How does one justify say buying Lost episodes when seasons 1-5 are online and FREE streamed at HD? What apple needs is to create apple Tv with tuner, DVR, sell them for $99 and have the ability to take anything recorded and play it back in real time over your home network or at the very least, transfer/convert to iPod/iPhone size or like zine, larger files to stream from iPhone to another device when visiting a friends house nits bad enough all movies and shows are on usenet, but torrent plus most networks offer most of the seasons. Apple needs to take the apple tv up a few notches. Also add blue Ray playback burning tuner dvr. Then they will sell and intergrate with new Apple TVs in a few years. Apples business model is like Intels now, release small upgrades, wait a fee months, then release it again. Eg logic 9 is 32 bit I believe. Everyone buys then snow comes out and they release 64 bit version with double the plug INS oerfomance and people buy it all over again.
You watch. This is what they are doing.
Peace out.
I recently bought an AppleTV so my kid can pick from a movies I ripped, but I may not even wait for Christmas before going Blu-ray with movie prices that low. Too bad I can't rip the Blu-ray movies onto AppleTV now.
Handbrake won't rip BR?
(I honestly don't know, anyone try it?)
I just got an notification from Nintendo today that their Internet channel is free now with the Opera browser and flash.
Opera 10 only?
Or am I thinking Opera Mobile on all those Androided/Symbian handsets getting free access to NIN's stuff?
Opera 10 only?
Or am I thinking Opera Mobile on all those Androided/Symbian handsets getting free access to NIN's stuff?
I'm not sure. Here's a link to the announcement.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10322948-1.html
Wonder if they would have a white model and then a Pro version that's all aluminium.
Well if they did release their own TV, it could be a another game changer for the industry. It would have tight software integration and probably a much easier menu but I bet the remote would have one button.
And you know the iPhone could be used as the remote as well. I think it would be interesting if Apple really does release a TV but I just don't think they would. I just don't know how well it would do. I mean considering how small most of the Apple stores are and how big TV's are, they really wouldn't have the floor space for displaying them in the bright Apple stores and there's a lot of expense in shipping those around not to mention it's an already competitive market to just get into. But I'll wait and see.
Really? The HD movies I've bought and play thru my ATV look pretty damn good to me.
They're watchable, but a million miles away from blu-ray level. Compared 1280x720@5mbits with 5.1 Dolby Digital to 1920x1080@45mbits with 7.1 lossless Dolby True HD/DTS Master...
Blu-ray is so much better, but for throwaway movies which don't need the PQ then an Apple TV download is okay.
I have been wanting to buy another for my bedroom for some time now, but I have held off in anticipation for new hardware. Although I do like my AppleTV, it does need more power.
They're watchable, but a million miles away from blu-ray level. Compared 1280x720@5mbits with 5.1 Dolby Digital to 1920x1080@45mbits with 7.1 lossless Dolby True HD/DTS Master...
Blu-ray is so much better, but for throwaway movies which don't need the PQ then an Apple TV download is okay.
I agree, Apple TV is no substitute for Blu-Ray at the moment, but stick it through a good amp and it's just as good as and far more convenient than DVD. Most of my video content has been transcoded at high quality from DVD with only rental and TV shows being downloaded from iTunes.
I hope it's not long before we get 1080p and high bit rate content in iTunes.
Hey, the moon and stars don't lie
Skip
This doesn't make any sense. Now a LARGE screen monitor, that they promote as a monitor, that does it all (what ever in hell that would be), at a great price, at a great hi-res system, that folks can't do without, or are willing to put their current 52" very nice, very expensive TV in the kids room or cellar, just a have this new Apple monitor ? see what I mean, this just doesn't fly.
Skip
PS NOW if it was a touch screen TV, that would work
It's quite simple in that I will not buy an Apple TV until it incorporates the ability to interface with other programming providers, even if the other providers have to program their own add-in functionality for the device and provide it via an AppleTV App Store (or automatically downloaded once the AppleTV knows which country it is running in). I can understand these plug-in applications being forced to use a certain UI style and mode of operation, and I can understand that media that they download should be put into the single repository on the device (or media server connected to the device) instead of having separate browsable libraries. But without iPlayer and 4od support in the UK, the device is irrelevant.
Also: HDMI 1.3a (or 1.4) output.
Also: Future external BluRay drive (that fits neatly on top, interfacing via USB). This does require the next AppleTV to be capable of decoding and outputting 1080p at 45mbps though.
Also: 802.11n, Bluetooth remotes with more than 6 buttons that are big enough to remain visible.
a MUCH bigger announcement then iTV, iPods or even the iTablet?
Hey, the moon and stars don't lie
Skip
iTablet is NOT GOING TO APPEAR IN 2009! Why do people always want the tablet out so fast? I'll rather wait till 2010 after Apple has properly sorted out everything and announces it in January ( Consider the tablet a Mac ) rather than an iPod and music event. ( Consider the tablet as a large iPod )
I hope they change the UI and the remote. Both give a very poor user experience at the moment. I really don't like having to scroll down to the 4th or 5th menu option to access my library and having to hold down buttons to perform basic functionality. I'm surprised such inadequencies slipped through Apple's QA.
Ever use Apple Remote on the iPhone. That seems like the logical form of travel, I think. Would be pricey but if they bundle an iTouch Mini (Nano) with the AppleTV that would be neat. Then we are looking at a $499 price point if you add in App Store, Wireless joystick like controllers, BD Drive support and integrated Internet TV. Come to think of it, like that I might buy one myself.
Apple is well known for their idiosyncrasy. Kinda what makes them unique.
I hope that current Apple TV owners won't be left behind with whatever the new upgrade will be. Hopefully the update will include the software and crappy interface.
Yeah jeez, they really should throw us current owners a bone here, we've been waiting for some kind of official increase in functionality for some time how, there's gotta be a bit more they can squeeze out of the current hardware.
Handbrake won't rip BR?
(I honestly don't know, anyone try it?)
WHo owns an external BR drive? anyone?