OK - 45 years old and have been somewhat of a stereo TV addict since 1975.

Of everything I have ever bought or used - the Apple TV is the greatest source of thrill and joy I have ever experienced from a non-living thing.

We love the slideshows, the picture, the Flickr interface, Youtube and the movie rentals - best $300 I spent since my wedding ring.

B

I would agree and I dropped $450 for the bigger HD prior to the price drop.


The only issue is I still use the PC for music most of the time as my son wants the the home theatre to play video games.

Just purchased my AppleTV and have associated it with a US iTunes account so that I can rent movies online.

As noted elsewhere, this is certainly not Blu-Ray quality, but I would have to say that it is at least as good as Rogers TMN On-Demand service. Certainly, the library choices are far more appealing.

One question....should my iTunes "Digital Copy" movies sync up with the AppleTV? I have Juno, but so far it isn't making an effort to replicate itself to the device

Really? So you're in Canada, but with your US iTunes account, you're able to rent/download movies?!
Wow - I've tried to bet "US-only" video with my US iT account (I've always been able to get music), but have always had the video downloads fail on me.
I may have to try this again.....

Works for me. Renting American Gangster as we speak.

I have a US Itunes account but when purchasing movies what do you use for the billing part of your account?

Cdn credit card? or ?

Thanks

I am considering AppleTv.

I use US Apple Gift Cards, as I travel weekly either to or through the US.

I'm starting to think more serious about picking up an AppleTV box (mainly for renting and purchasing HD movies), but have a few set up questions that are not covered in the on-line set-up manual located here (http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/AppleTV_SetupGuide.pdf) .

Not really interested in "streaming" any media from my PC to the TV, just downloading movies from my couch like VOD/PPV/On-Demand, but from what I hear, with much more quality and quantity from AppleTV.

The manual seems to imply that you connect the box directly to your PC? This is problem, as I do not want to have to turn on my computer whenever I want to download a movie. I have no idea how a home network router works, but if I got a wireless one, connected the input to my cable modem, and the 1 output to my PC, and another to the AppleTV box.. would this work? Basically just using the router as a "splitter" box for the internet connection? Is installing a wireless router/home network a complicated thing to do?

Any insites appreciated.

You can download content from iTunes (only) directly to an ATV and it will synch back to your main machine the next time you start and connect to iTunes there.

Otherwise you can download anything you want on your PC, convert it to a compatible format (HisualHub or MPEGStreamclip work well) and, via iTunes, either copy it to the ATV (after which you can run without the main machine) or stream it to the ATV.

So, if you do not want to stream the larger ATV is a better choice.

You *may* have a couple of ethernet connections on your High Speed modem all ready (for example the 2Wire one, which also has 802.11bg). If that is so, then you can simply run a cable to the ATV. Otherwise I would suggest getting a cheap ethernet switch - they are usually plug and play and will give you several jacks.

Of course, if you *want* wireless then go for a wireless router - they are fairly easy to set up based on the included instructions. I'd suggest 802.11n as the ATV does use some bandwidth. Also, fi you use wireless for *both* the ATV and your main machine it will be slower than wiring one (or the other) of them

hth, m

Here's $0.02:

I use AppleTV connected directly to my home theatre. It does not require any connection to a PC, but if you have a significant iTunes library, it's very nice to link the AppleTV to your iTunes account on the PC because the AppleTV will sync (i.e. make a local copy, not stream) the content and allow you to play the music through your home theatre which is likely a much better sound system than your computer.

As for using as a VOD source, it is better than Rogers in the respect that you can order movies much sooner than TMNOD. AppleTV has releases the same date as the Blu-Ray/DVD release. The catalog is a fair size, but needs to grow.

For SD rentals, you can watch movies within seconds of ordering. For HD, my results have varied widely. It's been as quick as 15 minutes or as long as a couple of hours before I can start watching.

99semaj, how do the Apple HD rentals look when you play them on your home theatre? Better/worse than if you had rented the title from a bricks and mortar vendor like Blockbuster?

Okay, that's what I was hoping... a direct internet connection from my cable modem to my home theatre through some sort of network connection. Sounds like a physical ethernet cable is optimal, but my home theatre is quite a distance from my modem however...

From some of the reviews I've read, it is difficult to distinguish a Blue Ray Disc output from the HD AppleTV output.

> From some of the reviews I've read,
> it is difficult to distinguish a Blue Ray Disc output
> from the HD AppleTV output.

I would heartily disagree. The diference is quite plain to me even on our relatively small LCD (that is only 720P, so it hardly does justice to the BR). It is quite striking on our projection system (106" / Panasonic 1080P)

That said, it looks better to me thanwhat you get from a STB.

I'm quite happy with mine

m

I would like to hear more discussion about the quality issue although it may be too late for me. My wife and kids are giving me an Apple TV for my birthday --- tomorrow! I guess that I will let youall know what I think after the weekend sometime.

To answer the original poster's question, no, you do not need a connection to a computer to use the Apple TV. It will work completely independently of a computer.

Yes, you will need a router to split up your Internet connection. Otherwise you'll end up moving your Internet connection between your computer and the Apple TV every time you want to use one or the other. Since your modem is quite a distance from your home theatre, a wireless router is your best bet.

How difficult it is to configure a wireless home network depends on your abilities. If you're looking for a really easy to configure wireless router, an Apple AirPort Extreme is your best bet as it uses dedicated software for configuration rather than a web browser interface. Plus, if you have any difficulty, you can ask for help in the Apple discussion forums where people like me will help you with any problems you may encounter.

In side by side comparisons between Blu-ray and Apple TV HD you can see a difference. Remember that Apple TV HD is restricted to 720P resolution and it is highly compressed to make it a reasonable size to be delivered over an Internet connection whereas Blu-ray is 1080P with very little compression.

biggar, let us know how yours works out.

Here is a link to the video quality comparisons (http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/apple-tv-20-vs-blu-ray-dvd-hd-cable-the-comparison/) .

Is the AppleTV only available via apple.ca or does FutureShop/BestBuy carry them too?

How big is an AppleTV movie in HD typically? With Rogers' nasty download caps, I don't know if renting online is a viable alternative or not.

Apple TV is available at both FutureShop and Best Buy. Check their web sites for in-store availability.

To give you an idea of how large a movie is, I have 'Charlie Wilson's War' sitting on my Apple TV right now in HD. It runs about 1 hr, 42 min and is about 3.2 GB.

If you don't do any other surfing with your connection that's about 20 movie downloads a month if your cap is 60 GB.

But who doesn't do any other surfing nowadays? This is 2008. Plus the 3.2GB doesn't include TCP/IP overheads. And don't forget that the Rogers caps include download AND upload combined. When you download such a large file, you do upload a large number of packets as well. It's not all download so the 3.2GB you got consumed a lot more bandwidth than it seems.

I guess I'll stick to podcasts 'cause AppleTV would put too much on my monthly downloads.