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Feb 05, 09 - 01:15 pm Comment from: Jubei

I would love ATV to stream contents to iPhone/Touch on the net. So wherever you are, you have access to your content.

All apple needs to do to get me to buy one is add a safari browser and full support for hulu. They do that and I'll dump my DVD player.

Feb 05, 09 - 01:21 pm Comment from: ericdano

The thing that has made my Apple TV 10 times better is BOXEE. Apple should snap up Boxee

Hmmmmmm. Some good ideas here. A few appeal to me. So far I have been using my Apple TV for listening to my iTunes and viewing my photos. I've bought a couple of movies, rented a few, and bought a few TV series'.
I live having the AppleTV

They should merge Apple TV and the Mac Mini into one all-purpose unit.

Feb 05, 09 - 01:38 pm Comment from: mike_in_helsinki

RD is full of it.

Apple needs a dual approach ... sell it as part of a great HD TV, or bump up a few specs and keep doing what it is doing.

RD wants to smother it so it becomes a crap box.

Feb 05, 09 - 01:40 pm Comment from: Demon

The Parade of Apple TV Rumors all started by an ASSHAT.

Feb 05, 09 - 01:44 pm Comment from: mike_in_helsinki

@Demon

You are right. And RD has become such an asshat. Cant cope with just writing tech, has to find perverted mixes of politics.

Feb 05, 09 - 01:53 pm Comment from: Macado

Apple TV needs DVR. I won't buy it until it gets it. I want TiVo capability.

Boxee Boxee Boxee. Who needs DVR when you have BOXEE!!!

Feb 05, 09 - 02:01 pm Comment from: Shadowself

When it supports 1080p/24 & 5.1 sound and all movies downloaded are 1080p/24 & 5.1 sound then I'll bite. Not before.

Feb 05, 09 - 02:03 pm Comment from: silverwarloc

@Macado: get a Tivo.

Sometimes, when I'm lazy, which is most times by the way, I don't want to wake my MacBook Pro (with glorious matte screen) from sleep...

...what was I trying to say...

*yawn*

Oh yea, I want to check the online weather before deciding if I should work today or apply for some sort of socialized support, but anyway I want to be able to do this from a remote control on my AppleTV remote and see it on my 50" HDTV.

So it's just a quick and lazy means of getting the info I need without booting my MacBook Pro.

*zzzzz*

While I agree with the DVR part (I don't really want to try to hook an Apple TV up to a cable service), I think he's wrong about DVD/BluRay.

Imagine if you could not rip your existing music collection or any new CDs you bought and, instead, had to buy new copies from the iTunes Store. Sounds like a wet dream for Apple and the music companies, but I don't think most consumers would go for it.

Similar situation here.

Most TVs that I've seen have two, maybe three at most, digital high definition inputs and then you have to start buying weird switches. So having more functionality in one box tends to be a better idea. So if I have my cable box hooked to one input and a DVD player hooked to the other input, where am I going to put my Apple TV? I'm not going to go buy some weird switch, I'm not going to go buy a new TV with more inputs, and I'm not going to throw out my DVD player. So, sorry, no Apple TV.

On the other hand, add a DVD/BluRay player to the Apple TV and I'll consider throwing out my existing DVD player. I get the best of both worlds this way.

I actually like the idea of partnering with Hulu, though, or providing some way to "rent" TV shows. I still have an episode of "24" on my Mac from last season that I watched once.

Why fix what isn't broken -- you cannot argue with the sales figures that version 2.0 has been generating, so forget about DVR, Blu-Ray, etc.

If Apple lowered prices on TV shows it would make Hulu / Boxee less attractive and probably liberate a ton of wallets (mine included). $1.99 for a 30-minute show is steep -- heck, for a 60-minute show it is still steep.

As with iTunes pricing, they need to make it possible for providers to charge different prices and see what the market will bear.

One fix worth considering: you have to "move" rented content to another device (like from iTunes to your ipod) so as to prevent it from being watched twice/simultaneously. Seems like a kludgey solution to a small problem, and one that I think imposes hassle on someone who is trying to do the right thing (buy/rent content). Putting that rented content automagically on all my devices without any hassle would be nice.

Feb 05, 09 - 02:11 pm Comment from: rdbvideo

ummm... I do want the DVR... (but not TiVo)

One with multiple tuners that will record off regular cable, or even antenna... in HD.

I have no interest in downloading content.
If Roadrunner gets a hair to meter bandwidth, I'll be downloading a lot less.

I'm quite happy with my SD-DVD collection up-rezzed to 1080.

Allow it to play iPod touch apps with a remote that has an acceleromiter.

Feb 05, 09 - 02:16 pm Comment from: Demon

ASSHAT - Daniel Eran Dilger though is mostly correct when he states what would be bad choices for the Apple TV.

If Apple Put the Axpple TV in a HD TV who would buy it?
(Let's look at the History of Apples Flat Panel Monitors)
The Current 24" model is currently about $900.00, It's a beautiful monitor without question
So, a 40" to 50" HD Apple TV (440Mhz refresh) with tuner and DVR and Built-in Blu-ray DVD Player with all the Apple TV functions and Plus a few more would cost what 1, 2, 3, 4 thousand dollars?
TV for the Apple TV - No The TV Market is cut throat and Apple isn't going to produce junk to maintain a margin.

DVR - Too many licensing nightmares and everyone has their hand in your pocket wanting bigger coin. Via a TiVo Buy... No Margin to recover the cost and for the same reason a DVR would be a no starter.

Blu-Ray Drive or DVD Drive - Content partners get nervous and the Blu-Ray licensing and security required for a device like the Apple TV is way too costly and a nightmare of redtape.

Adding additional iTunes content (like iTuneU) sure that's kind of a given. (Internet Radio in iTunes less likely)

The rest is very simple for other content it's called add Safari.

Enable the USB Port for Additional external storage.

Wow- I'm glad Dilger isn't running Apple. A lot of his suggestions are available through an easily-performed Boxee hack or are marginal value offerings. These are not 3.0 ideas.

wo of these ideas- BluRay and a built-in monitor - are asshat ideas (although I do believe some analyst probably did insist on them), but the DVR functionality would send ATV into the stratosphere in terms of sales.

The folks at Boxee can't get Netflix to run on the ATV b/c the processor lacks the chops. This would mean Apple would either have to work out some alternative encoding (like they did with YouTube) or create a rift between 1.0/2.0 buyers and those people who would have to purchase a new device. Of course, Apple isn't shy about doing this, but I think it's a bit early in the product's lifecycle to alienate your existing user base by introducing new hardware.

DVR, baby. They've filed a patent for the functionality and, if you take the time to read it through, you'll find it's amazingly detailed and well thought out. I love my Tivo, but if I can have the existing content on my TV merged with a vast vault of available content smeared with a UI friendly frosting, game over.

Feb 05, 09 - 02:52 pm Comment from: ken1w

Finally, a journalist who isn't making stupid suggestions like "make it into a cable box" or "add a DVR." Of course Apple can do those things (and they act like Apple could not have thought of those obvious things), but it would be counter to Apple's current business strategy so Apple will not do them.

Apple TV is supposed to make your iTunes content easily accessible through your HDTV. And Apple wants consumers to adopt the iTunes Store as the means to access video content, such as podcasts, TV shows, and movies. And they have partnered with other Internet video content providers, such as YouTube to provide direct access.

Therefore, the "lame" suggestions are the ones that enhance the ability to view content over cable and record broadcast programming. Apple is not trying to make that experience better. Adding a DVD player to allow the playing of movie DVDs is another typical journalist idea that does not fit Apple's strategy, because Apple does not want consumers to watch movies off DVD.

However, this particular writer knows what he is talking about, and makes suggestions that are "sensible" and in line with Apple's business strategy. Most of his suggestions are extensions of what Apple has already done.

I'd love to be able to use my Netflix through Apple TV. I realize this competes with iTunes, but I thought the only reason Apple has iTunes was to feed content to their devices, right? I would think this would help adoption of the Apple TV and then Apple could pick up customers by renting movies through iTunes that aren't available through Netflix's streaming service.

Feb 05, 09 - 03:00 pm Comment from: Harvey

The purpose of patents is to protect intellectual property. Just because Apple has patented something, it doesn't mean they are ever going to make it. Some patents work as perimeter fences to keep competitors from getting too close.

We can send all the letters to Santa Claus we want, but in the end, Apple will make products that will generate revenue for a long time. Their primary goal is not to keep gossip columnists happy, but to make their shareholders rich.

It's a well-kept secret, so don't spread it around--Apple is a major corporation.

Make touch remote control so it could be used for games too.

Some of the analysts' "worse" ideas would make for great plug-in options. Not all features need to be sold in the box.

• Please DO add a DVR option that doesn't require a subscription. Perhaps it could be controlled and remotely programmed by an iPod Touch or iPhone

• Please DO add a Blu-Ray option that sidesteps the annoying HDMI-only game: give it full-fidelity digital audio outputs, both Toslink and SPDIF as well as a video-only DVI connector that at least outputs 1080i, if not 1080p resolution.

Apple TV remains a mystery to most I guess!

Feb 05, 09 - 03:36 pm Comment from: TadDavis

[1] Make all movies rentable. There's absolutely no logic as to which movies are available for rent vs purchase.

[2] If you can't do [1], make it possible to tell, from the thumbnail display, which movies are available for rent, so I don't waste my time looking up movies that can't be rented.

I didn't buy the Apple TV as a substitute for my DVD collection. I bought it as a substitute for Netflix and Cable On Demand.

Feb 05, 09 - 03:44 pm Comment from: Spudly

All of you clamoring for DVR capabilities in the TV just don't get it. But go ahead and hold your breath...there's way too many of us so we could use the elbow room.

Feb 05, 09 - 03:56 pm Comment from: Mac-nugget

I agree wholeheartedly with Dilger on this one.

Yes to DVR capabilities. Sick of paying my cable company for the privilege...

and yet it's the 'worst' ideas which appeal!

Feb 05, 09 - 04:44 pm Comment from: Alexo

What I want to see in ATV 3.0: 1080p, "Off" hard button (not Standby buried in some sub-menu), lower power use (the current ATV doubles as a room heater!), 500Gb & 1TB HDD (like Time Capsule), activate the USB for more external storage, a larger backlit remote with more hard button functions (too much is buried in sub-menus and there's nothing to distinguish ATV's from all my other Apple remotes), larger status light on the front of the machine, better responsiveness to remote commands (too many times a command has to be repeated multiple times to get any action).

I'll upgrade for these features

Feb 05, 09 - 05:00 pm Comment from: _Bill_

@Jubei
You can do this to some extent w/music using SimplifyMedia on the iPhone.

Feb 05, 09 - 05:03 pm Comment from: zek

"Please DO add a Blu-Ray option that sidesteps the annoying HDMI-only game"

That's blu-ray. We can only hope that it flops.

don't care a lot. almost useless outside USA

All they need to do is support DivX, Xvid and mkv and they will sell millions of those things. There are so many media players on the market right now. Why would anyone but an apple fan buy an apple TV other than to run Boxee. iPods can play mp3s that obviously weren't bought at the iTunes store. Until they do this, the Apple TV will fail plain and simple.

look, Chris, If you're trying to encourage an high quality codec, such as x.264, of course you would not support DivX and Xvid (by the way, the format of choice for pirated movies). DivX and Xvid are shitty codecs that are used by people that go by yesterday's standards and just want to get an encode done in 10 minutes. We have people begging for 60 GB Blu-Ray disk support, and we have people like you begging for 700 MB Xvid support; there has to be a middle path.

And screw you asking for DVR capabilities. Apple's approach has always been commercial-free. What makes you think they would change that. And why would you want them to?

Dilger is just listing other people's suggestions that he thinks that would be terrible for the company, and other ones that are somewhat sensible. He doesn't come up with any of them.

Apple is simply not going to support DVDs for much longer, for the same reason they don't support VHS, Audio Cassette, and vinyl records. You gotta move with the times.

If they have a subscription based unlimited access to tv shows, then i'll dump my cable provider for an apple TV.

Here's what always happens when this comes up:

Blu-ray Fan: "Apple should add Blu-ray"
DVR Fan: "Apple should add DVR capability"
Game Fan: "Apple should add gaming"
Open Standards Fan: "Apple should add Divx and other codecs"
Mac Mini Fan: "Apple should merge it with the Mini"
Etc...

And then everyone who does not want Blu-ray says, "HELL NO!!!" and so on...

However if Apple added these things and brought the Apple TV to a point where consumers would see it as a one-stop box, it would be waaaaay more attractive.

This is a very important market and Apple is poised to dominate, but they're not. In face there's lots of competition creeping up all over the place here.

It may be worth having the Apple TV as is, but then developing a much higher end Apple TV as well.

As far as buying TiVo...it used to make sense years ago so that Apple could offer it as a product and service. Not so much now. Instead it does make sense because there are incredibly valuable patents in the TiVo portfolio.

I use my Apple TV all the time. Rent a movie every weekend. Can't wait to see what comes next. Some game and web content would be nice. DVR would bring Apple no money, so I don't see it.

Feb 05, 09 - 10:15 pm Comment from: TowerTone

I just wish mine would work again.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1863475

Feb 05, 09 - 10:21 pm Comment from: TowerTone

Oh, and as far as what I wish for the future...
get an agreement with Sony for Blu-Ray,
and then buy Nintendo
and sell the WiiBlu-Ray with full internet and DVR.
I know I'm dreaming, but I gotta feva,
and the only prescription is
less clutter in the living room.

All I want is tv show rentals at a good price.