AppleTV Plucky's Take

[PLUCKYHD]

So I broke down and bought a AppleTV this weekend to see what Apple had to offer and I like new toys . So below are my initial thoughts. I bought this box mostly for Netflix content as the playon solutions quality is too low for my theater room.

Positives

• Netflix playback is great and image quality is really good imho at least as good as my ps3 if not a bit less artifacted)
• UI is a+ all the way simple, clean and easy to navigate. Anyone can pick up the remote and navigate the UI.
• Airplay feature is really cool and nice to use. Has some initial kinks but overall nice feature sending a video from a mobile device or laptop direct to the tv is very nice.
• Apple Remote for IDevices is a huge plus for me since we have them and doesn't make me rely on IR or RF.
• The box is small and clean and simple so of course a+ on hardware design

Negatives

• Very limited codec support. (relies heavily on itunes which isn't great if you don't have macs)
• 720p (although I am not sure this as much of a negative to mass appeal market as people on this type of forums do.)
• Codec support is of course apple standard bad

In the end, I will end up keeping it for now as the wife really likes it and we already have all our content in Itunes for our I devices so it fits. I see the mass appeal of this thing definitely and I myself would recommend it over a roku box, especially if you have other Apple devices in your household.

my 2 cents

plucky

[PiX64]

traitor!

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by PiX64

traitor!

Heh..

I use XBMC,WMC as well I keep my options open and always play with gadgets. Sagetv still holds the house for the most part.

[Skirge01]

Am I mistaken or did you list codec support as a negative two times?

Uh oh... Plucky's jumping ship! The apocalypse is near...

[paulbeers]

I am planning on picking one up as soon as iPad 2.0 (or will it be 2G?) comes out. It might be a device I use a couple times for it's cool factor, but then again it might become something I use all the time. No idea right now, but as a mostly Mac family (other than our Sage Server and my Wife's laptop), we use itunes almost exclusively so the integration to that alone is worth it.

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by Skirge01

Am I mistaken or did you list codec support as a negative two times?

Uh oh... Plucky's jumping ship! The apocalypse is near...

Yes twice it is worth mentioning twice.

Nope not even close to jumping ship trust me to much invested in sage more time than money at this point .

Originally Posted by paulbeers

No idea right now, but as a mostly Mac family (other than our Sage Server and my Wife's laptop), we use itunes almost exclusively so the integration to that alone is worth it.

With airplay you will probably use it more than you think. Especially if you start buying those little $100 audio adapters for whole home audio use (oops might have cost you more money just then ). In all fairness it does work well like most things apple do if you are willing to live within it's constants.

[matt91]

One friends got one this weekend too. I've been casually trying to talk them into Sage for a couple of years now. However, I never pushed too hard as I didn't want to end up being the "support person" for them.

Since they aren't really 'tinkerers', I think that the appletv is probably a better solution for them anyway.

[madpoet]

I keep trying boxes in hopes of a good all in one solution, but ultimately I haven't found one. Boxee could be that if they can ever work out their content deals (and numerous bugs) but it's not there yet.

[mistergq]

I was able to play with one at my brother's house. Overall, I was not a fan.

What I did like was the photograph slideshow. I hope sage or someone develops a plugin similar.

[Dreameriz]

I will stay with sage until there is no more over the air tv. Any other device going forward will not have dvr options for a while sadily and i agree i cant what tell there is a all in one solution. Unforently i do think that Apple is going to lead this really if they would support dvr option with the hdhomerunner would be great. Hdhomerunner's are truly the way for dvr tunner's.

Nothing againses apple really i am just not a big fan of DRM. But that comes will the world going digtal and i will avoid it aslong as possible.

[Scriber]

Now we just need an Atv vs RokuXD/S review (from a Sage user's perspective).

[PLUCKYHD]

Well to me appletv got a whole lot more interesting running Plex software (xbmc for apple basically). I haven't had a chance yet but I am going to flash mine and will report back. I like they are added more codec support in the future that could make it very interesting.

http://www.missingremote.com/news/20...a-new-apple-tv

[sandor]

one question-

does the iOS VLC app work with Airplay? I have had great success playing back a myriad of different formats on my iPhone thanks to VLC. not sure if it is updated for Airplay though...

[flavius]

Originally Posted by sandor

one question-

does the iOS VLC app work with Airplay? I have had great success playing back a myriad of different formats on my iPhone thanks to VLC. not sure if it is updated for Airplay though...

It appears there will be updates next year.

http://www.macrumors.com/2010/11/30/...-apps-in-2011/

[flavius]

I like the new Apple TV quite a bit, works great with Netflix and I finally have found a good way to make all the music available (which is all in iTunes).

I have one that's wired and upstairs another wireless one, both work equally well.