steve
Chicago, IL

my 3 year old thinks this is how TV works

4 star rating

I only watch TV on my schedule, married, very happy with this product, willing to pay for quality, practical, Mac Fanboy
Pros

    Immediate access to all iTunes content, Streaming video is awesome, Easy interface, Easy to set up

Cons
    Max resolution is 720p, 40GB is too small to be standalone unit

SEP
28
2007
When I bought my Apple TV, I did it with the sole intention of using it as a bridge between my iTunes library and the TV in my living room to play music. I live in an older house that my wife wanted to keep the 1st floor living area free of stacks and stacks of electronics. Also, my hearing isn't what it used to be so playing music thru a TV was just fine with me. I'm sure there are those out there who cringe at the audio quality, but when you are listening to Mary Poppins with your kids, TV speakers are good enough.

The Apple TV allowed me to make my entire CD collection available to the whole house. The 40GB limit didn't seem to matter since you can stream everything off a remote computer as long as iTunes is running. The only thing you need to have installed on the local hard disk are pictures if you want to use the snazy CoreImage driven screensaver.

But then I decided to put my DVDs into my iTunes library (using Handbrake on the Mac) so all my movies are available on-demand. This turned out to be a big hit with my 3 year old daughter as now she could instantly pull up The Little Mermaid or Finding Nemo. And the interface is so easy to use -- even a 3 year old can figure it out!

Finally, I have a ReplayTV which I use to record TV shows my wife doesn't like to watch with me (like The Colbert Report -- I don't get it either, that show rocks). Using DVArchive (dvarchive.org), I can transfer the recorded shows to my Mac (or PC since it is a Java app). From there it is a conversion thru VisualHub ($23) and now I have TV shows in iTunes. Many times I'll take the extra steps using MPEG Streamclip (squared5.com) to cut out the commercials if I think I'll keep it a long time -- like those episodes of SpongeBob that my daughter just watches over and over and over. She doesn't need to see all those ads for things she doesn't need. If you don't have a ReplayTV, there are many products available (such as from elgato.com for the Mac) to capture TV into your computer. Also, if you want to give your video files a little more polish, Lostify (on the Mac) lets you set all that iTunes metadata like rating, summary, dates, etc.

So what started as a way to not have a stereo in a room that only had a TV, turned into much more. If you buy into the Apple crack and use iTunes to manage your media then the Apple TV is a great product. You'll just need lots of disk space to keep all this stuff (I like the ReadyNAS, but that will be a seperate review!)

Last edited on Sep 28, 2007



I_thumb_up Apple - TV (Home Theater) is recommended by steve

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I_comment_shdw24 Comments about steve’s Review

 


4 star rating
"Great access to iTunes content but average video quality."
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5 star rating
"Makes TV fun again."



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