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    Apple TV

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by polarlinks, Aug 15, 2007.

  1. polarlinks

    polarlinks Notebook Consultant

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    Anyone have this unit? How good is the content on iTunes? I tried the first version of i-Tunes and didn't like it. Are shows like the office avail for free? I could see it having potential for me as a TIVO style replacement. Download tv shows and watch when I have the time.

    Anyone pair it up with a logitech harmony?

    Thx.
     
  2. Sam

    Sam Notebook Virtuoso

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    TV shows aren't free on the Apple TV. You have to download them on iTunes and then connect the Apple TV wirelessly with your PC/Mac and watch whatever you have on iTunes on your Apple TV. So yeah, everything you want on the Apple TV you have to get from somewhere, such as iTunes.

    There's rumours of Apple launching a movie rental service with the Apple TV. You download movies off iTunes for say $3.99, and you sync Apple TV with the computer, watch the movie on the Apple TV and with DRM the movie will expire in a few days. That'd be nice.
     
  3. tsunamifury

    tsunamifury Notebook Consultant

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    Apple TV is not a replacement for TIVO... it does not record TV, everything comes at a premium and it is very expensive for what it is. I almost guarantee you will be disappointed.
     
  4. Sam

    Sam Notebook Virtuoso

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    Just like everything Apple makes is disappointing to you, isn't it tsunamifury? ;)

    But I agree, Apple TV is not a replacement for TiVo. Unless Apple starts offering movie rental downloads I wouldn't buy it either.
     
  5. tsunamifury

    tsunamifury Notebook Consultant

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    haha well yes, but in particular this user really would be disappointed if he expected Tivo functionality, hooked it up, and realized it was just a media extender, no?

    But... the powerbook 12" was not a disappointment to me, nor the original TiBooks... truly great machines. Since then yes... most product directions seem to disappoint me these days. Apple TV is a good example of that... a product with a few changes really could be GREAT, but Apple lately cannot see past its own business plan to the customers. And originally all their great successes were built around that very idea. Now they are into crippling and arbitrarily limiting their hardware and software. It bums me out!
     
  6. polarlinks

    polarlinks Notebook Consultant

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    Any chance of it being able to play mpeg4 and divx? I could stream those to it.
     
  7. Sam

    Sam Notebook Virtuoso

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    You will have to move anything you want (music, videos) onto iTunes if you want to see it on Apple TV. Of course, photos from your iPhoto library, but that's another thing.
     
  8. polarlinks

    polarlinks Notebook Consultant

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    So if I move a divx movie file to iTunes from my hard disk it will play that?
     
  9. tsunamifury

    tsunamifury Notebook Consultant

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    no AppleTV does not natively support DivX you could hack it... but yea... kinda defeats the purpose of an "easy" solution.
     
  10. polarlinks

    polarlinks Notebook Consultant

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    Is this a correct statement? If you want to watch movies it must be physically on the hard drive, or with a usb attached hard drive to the apple tv.

    So I can't just get a file listing of everything on my PC and stream it over real time?
     
  11. jsis

    jsis Notebook Evangelist

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    AppleTV is a ripoff. stay away.
     
  12. polarlinks

    polarlinks Notebook Consultant

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    I bought a DVI -> S-Video adapter to hook up my MBP to the tv and use it. Not really buying one, just curious.