MacDailyNews - Where Mac news comes first

Dec 10, 07 - 03:31 pm Comment from: deepdish

enough already. Just come out with AppleTV 2.0. That is why I am holding off. I don't understand why Apple introduces new products right after the xmas shopping season.

Dec 10, 07 - 03:32 pm Comment from: shen

how can Apple fix the Apple TV? let me use the USB for an external drive plug in and there is nothing wrong with it as far as i can see. we love ours, just wish it had a little more storage.....

I love the Apple TV that we have...but it's because we have all of our favorite shows ripped for it. Seasons and seasons.

We haven't seen a software update for a long time. (No upgrade to Leopard?) Hopefully it'll come soon.

1. It should access all kinds of online content like it does You Tube; ie Joost, Vongo, ABC.com NBC.com HUlu.com, Netflix streaming rentals, blockbuster streaming rentals, etc.
2. Video on itunes should be primarily rentals, but if you still want to purchase, let studios have the last word with prices. Honestly, I wouldn't have bought anything from iTunes if I could have rented.
3. Allow your computer to stream a physical DVD from your computer to aTV, remote control functionality.

Steve Jobs is a big big big liar. He called it a "hobby". C'mon guys, I remember how thrilled he was when he presented it at Macworld. We all know what the product is missing. Movie rentals, downloading movies from your couch, etc.

Dec 10, 07 - 03:45 pm Comment from: Macromancer

"ripping DVDs via iTunes"

This should be legal anyway, ala ripping CDs. So long as they arent shared, there should be allowances for this.

perhaps they could attached a code to the rip so to track illegal swapping and/or require that you insert the disk in the drive once per year to verify that you still own the disk.

Dec 10, 07 - 03:53 pm Comment from: ChrissyOne

@ Macromancer

Easy enough with Handbrake, but it would sure be nice to have it all in iTunes.

Dec 10, 07 - 03:54 pm Comment from: Anonymous©

The only good Forrester analysts are the ex-analysts, like Carl Howe at Blackfriars.com

Apple can rectify the Apple TV situation very simply by adding full support for resolutions up-to-and-including 1080p, providing a DVR with two HDTV tuners standard, and increasing support for non-iTunes content such as DVD. I doubt that the last two on my list will ever happen. So I also doubt that I will ever purchase an Apple TV.

The 24" iMac makes an excellent tv set but you have to add the Elgato hybrid to enable the tv function. Why Apple hasn't put tv tuners into the iMacs is beyond me. I can't help but think that if they did then a lot of people wouldn't bother with the tv set at all. In my case I have two 24" iMacs with two Elgatos so can tape two programs whilst watching two others, one with sound on and the other with sound off. I understand that beleaguered Dell has built in tuners these days, Why not Apple? And why doesn't Apple make a computer which projects onto a screen, which could be used for both Keynote/PPt presentations as well as a tv. So the upgraded Apple TV would simply be a built in tv tuner, for people who don't need or want screens larger than 24" or who would be happy with projecting tv programs from their computer onto a wall sized white screen.

I love my Apple TV, best way to display my iPhoto library to a group.

Has optical out needs 5.1 surround sound.

I want a second one for the TV in my bedroom, I am waiting for Apple TV 2.0.

Fix remote lag time on startup, after it goes into low power mode, or when syncing. Give me internet on my Big Screen TV.

Games would be nice, just family fun time wasters like what is on iPod.

Dec 10, 07 - 03:59 pm Comment from: occams razor

Chuffin Nora, iPhone voted gadget of the year on the gadget show on channel 5 in the UK. Normally they are a bit sniffy with Apple gear. http://gadgetshow.five.tv/index.htm

Dec 10, 07 - 04:03 pm Comment from: Not Bill

I am guessing El Jobso listens to a lot of music and hardly ever turns on a TV.

Dec 10, 07 - 04:05 pm Comment from: Brau

As a person who would love to buy an AppleTV, I just can't justify it when it does so very little, leaving almost all my Mac content unaccessible. I want my Apple computer content available on my TV, like the name implies, similar to how the Xbox works. My decision not to buy has nothing to do with iTMS content availability. Period. I am hoping Apple will improve this device rather than just letting it die, which is inevitable if it doesn't improve drastically.

Daniel Eran wrote a good article detailing what I hope to see from an iTunes movie rental service.

http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2007/12/07/how-apple-could-deliver-workable-itunes-rentals/

I'd buy an Apple TV right now if that ever came to fruition.

i still continue to buy tv since his release and it stills a good product,Apple only could make temperature less hot or the software less bigger.

Apple could "fix" the AppleTV by cutting its price in half and adding a cable tuner.

It would fly off shelves.

I still don't see the use of the Apple TV. I have a Mac in my living room that is patched in to my entertainment center. The Apple TV gives me nothing that my Mac cannot not already do.

If Apple were to add a decent DVR capability, that at least would let the Apple TV offer something that Mac's do not have out-of-the-box.

Being able to rip DVD's would be nice, but I realize that the studios would never allow this. That feature would be a nice way to free up my Mac when I want to do something else- I could let the Apple TV rip the content.

Oh well.

I've said it before that the ATV is a 2 prong device.
1. For content you own (store and watch)
2. For content you purchase (either buy or rent)

ATV does a great job at #1 but #2 isn't so hot for many of the reasons stated above. (Mainly lack of content and inability to download straight from ATV)

I love my ATV and am waiting for a revision to buy one for the bed room.

Dec 10, 07 - 04:38 pm Comment from: Mac4lfe

I'm afraid some of you geeks are missing what Apple does best. Make simple easy to use products. TV tuners, dvd player and the like is making a simple devise more like something Microsoft would design. All Apple TV needs is movie rentals and the sales would double. I must say that I think the only way Apple would put a dvd player on it is if the movie studios refuse to allow movie rentals on iTunes.
I currently have my G4 Powerbook working as an Apple TV using Frontrow and Keyspan remote. I love the added benefit of having the internet that the Powerbook provides but it is not necessary for the Apple to do very well. It does very well at what is was designed for. All it needs to put it over the top is movie rentals.

Dec 10, 07 - 04:38 pm Comment from: ken1w

Since Apple TV is designed to turn an HDTV into a giant iPod for the living room, it follows that it should do everything that an iPod can do. Since iPods can now surf the web and buy from the iTunes Store directly, those features should become part of Apple TV. When resolution of iTunes Store content goes up, that "problem" with Apple TV will be fixed. If video rental comes to the iTunes Store, it will also come to Apple TV.

Dec 10, 07 - 04:40 pm Comment from: toby

I wish they would fix the Superdrives on the Mac Mini BEFORE they fix anything else.


What problem? Ask anyone who has a year old Mac Mini. The driver just basically turns into a CD/DVD read only. And only Commercial produced DVDs. Nothing rips.


Needless to say, I'm a bit unhappy with Apple right now.

I hacked an original XBOX and made myself a nice media center using XBMC -- sure it's a Microsoft product, sure it's kind of a gray area in legality, sure it doesn't do HD... but it sure was cheaper.

$25 bucks... I can play Vid Podcasts straight from the unit, no syncing with my Mac, I can store movies on the HD, play games, ect...

Dec 10, 07 - 05:27 pm Comment from: Jubei

I'm still getting one after MacWorld.

Dec 10, 07 - 05:47 pm Comment from: effwerd

Lagging Mac sales? Apple's response: make compelling software content.

Lagging AppleTV sales? Apple's response: make compelling TV content?

Hey Apple!

Take some of that $15B cash war chest and buy Tivo. Bring the HD up to 1080p on the content, and give me the true Media Server I want!!!

Right now, I have to cobble up a solution based on a Mac Mini, a bunch of software, and chaining a bunch of disks together. Make it easy for me. Please!

Dec 10, 07 - 06:02 pm Comment from: KingMel

Just one small correction - repeat viewing of videos is not necessarily 'very rare.' Anyone who has kids has likely watched some videos multiple times (Shrek, Disney movies, etc.). That does not invalidate MDN's take - I agree that the video market supports a combination of buy and rent - it just shifts the parameter space a bit.

I love my AppleTV (after hacking it to play .avi files and mount drives from my desktop computer directly).

Dec 10, 07 - 06:36 pm Comment from: Luke Skywalker

Gotta have both HD video and 5.1 surround. If they only do one, it'd be like building an aircraft carrier and not putting any planes on it. Of course, a two hour 720 video/Dolby Digital 5.1 surround is going to be huge - 8 to 12 GB?

We have ripped all our kids' DVDs to AppleTV using Handbrake, and it is an amazing solution that trumps any "HDTV" for ease-of-use, price and quality. Mine hasn't re-booted since May or so!

Add to that the ability to show off pics, and it is truly great.

Sure, renting movies and more features would be welcome, but this product needs more marketing to take off -- how many "get an AppleTV" ads has Apple run?...

Sorry Apple I got sick of waiting and plumped for a Panasonic DVD recorder with a 160 gig hard drive and a digital tuner. The interface is crap, there's no zoom and the help booklet is a bastard…but it does everything I need it to do. I waited for Apple to do something about AppleTV until I couldn't wait any longer.

If there was a company that could possibly put a great media experience in front of consumers, it would be Apple. Problem is Steve doesn’t like to play with other people (content suppliers for one), so users wound up with an acceptable, but hobbled system.

At the very least I would have expected a direct link to the itunes store, DVR, multi format and 1080P capabilities to be obvious inclusions (not ‘near DVD quality’). The consumer interest was there for the product, and Apple should have stormed out of the gate with this thing. Instead, they waddled.

Asking consumers to open their wallets to ‘a hobby’ is pretty arrogant - especially at that price. They need to invest a little of the several billion lying around and rethink whatever their ‘strategy’ is - if there is one.

Is there anything wrong with the Apple TV.

I don't think so.

The only thing I see WRONG is NOT many people understand the NEED for the device. It is rather confusing at first. It is no Slingbox, it is no DVDr - yet it ties in to the DIGITAL life Apple has provided us.

If you have all Apple Products, then you understand how well this device fits. If you don't it is confusing.

WHAT Apple needs to do - is Explain the need of this device BETTER... advertise for it... show it more... get it out there...

dg

Dec 10, 07 - 07:52 pm Comment from: LorD1776

"rethink whatever their ‘strategy’ is - if there is one." That stupid remark sounds a bit "arrogant" to me.

"Apple TV is already great for sharing photos, home movies, and music on the big screen with friends and family."

That's exactly what I use mine for. I bought it (1/2 price at C.C. an open box buy) so I could easily get my iTunes content to my home entertainment center. It's great having 14000+ songs at my finger tips all playing though my home entertainment system instead of my Mac's sad little speakers. Also it's nice to see my digital pictures on the big screen too and simply use the remote to show them off. My music and photo albums have never been more enjoyable. But I don't use it for iTunes video...I tried a few of the free downloads and am not thrilled with the video quality but it's ok. I've become accustomed to HDTV signals now and Apple TV is just not on par with HDTV signal quality yet. My wife however has used iTunes to buy two missed episodes of her favorite show (Blood Ties) so that she would not get behind. While the video quality was ok (about like super VHS) it was clearly not as good as we'd like. But it was nice that my wife could easily get her missed episodes at a low price and with a few clicks of the mouse. Apple TV has potential Apple needs to keep plugging along and improving this product. I hope they do. For now I'll just enjoy the convenience it has brought to my entertainment system.

Has any other company sold 800,000 units of such a device in the first year? If we had to guess, we'd say "no." Not even close.

You're right. Nobody has. Not even Apple. They've actually only sold 400,000 AppleTVs:

Apple has sold 400,000 of the gadgets since it went on sale this spring...

Dec 10, 07 - 10:16 pm Comment from: shen

"Gotta have both HD video and 5.1 surround. If they only do one, it'd be like building an aircraft carrier and not putting any planes on it. Of course, a two hour 720 video/Dolby Digital 5.1 surround is going to be huge - 8 to 12 GB?"

yeah, that should download from the iTMS and stream to your TV real nice.....

where is my eye roll icon?

Apple needs to understand — and so does MDN — that the public will not know what to do with Apple TV until they buy one, but they won't buy one without knowing what to do with it. That's why it needs DVR. People know what DVR is, and they know they want it. Put it in there, and then sell the rest along with it.

My TEAC VHS cassette recorder is the 'hub' of my TV taping lifestyle. What? Theres something new out there?

Are HD movie downloads really a must have necessity right out of the gate? Could we be satisified with high-quality (h.264 compressed) 480p DVD-quality widescreen movie rental downloads on an interim basis for a couple of years until the nation gets more bandwidth in place?

480p movies can look pretty darn good on a big plasma screen, and it might be a reasonable short-term compromise in the march to achieve Internet-based movies. Of course, Comcast, Time-Warner, and the other cable companies won't like even this. but it might work to get the ball rolling. In the long run, Apple is going to have to partner with someone like AT&T;to provide Internet service too, because the cable companies will bitterly fight online download services, just as the DVD sales outlets are ... The already have taken steps to cap bandwidth and limit movie downloads, and then charge extra for third-party movies moved through their pipes -- or cut off Internet customers who try to opet for this instead of PPV cable mvies...

>MDN : Almost all of Apple TV's problems stem from the content providers not Apple:

Ahhhh... the typical stupid MDN response. It's not Apple's fault Apple's product sucked. And of course to MDN (and sheep) that makes perfect sense.

-----

The Apple TV isn't a complete waste. If they copied market-leader Tivo, it would sell much better.

more power - core duo 1.6 or so
802.11n

USB addons
-
HDTV tuner/'s
DVD drive
Big Hard Drive
Cable tuner/'s

Dec 11, 07 - 10:41 am Comment from: vincas

i've been seriously considering an apple tv for a while now too, and have been holding off for similar reasons posted here - maybe mostly for the lack of a DVD drive. i have tons of movies, photos, music on my imac upstairs, and so far have been hooking my macbook up to the tv below.

if i were pressed to buy one in it's current form, i might rather pay a bit more and get the low end mac mini.

Hmm...appleTV...TV... ... ... but where's the TV?

yup the biggest problem with Apple TV is that it's not a TV.

All they have to do is to fix Apple TV is rebrand it as either iTunes TV or iPod TV. I do use my Apple TV to watch video, but the main use for me (at least for now) is as the iTunes music interface to my home theater stereo.

It seems hard for the consumers to understand Airport Express as and option for piping music to your stereo and using a computer in another room as a music controller is not as good as the TV in the same room. If Apple could start with the remote iTunes message (and the photos from iPhoto) as a big selling point, then it is not as important for now that video rentals have not been worked out yet.

If there was an Apple TV (or an iPod TV) in millions of homes (marketed with the music functionality or the headless iPod), then they would have more clout to negotiate rentals with the movie companies.

It's a product without a purpose for most people.

if the iPod couldn't easily use CD based and P2P shared music it would have failed too.

Lets face it, for most IPod users ITMS could disappear tomorrow and they wouldn't care because 97% of their content comes from somewhere else.

So the problem? Make it easily capable of using the video content people really use, which is DVDs, OTA and Cable TV broadcasts, Internet downloads and for the future HD-DVD or Blu-Ray