Apple TV
By Ty Pendlebury on 21 May 2007
A lack of playable formats and limited functionality really stunts the appeal of the otherwise elegant Apple TV. Read our Australian review.
Editor's rating: User rating:Comments (53)
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Mr Me gave 9/10 on 27/07/2007 17:07
- Good: Easy to setup
Play digital media in the comfort of your lounge room
good playback from good content
- Bad: Expense for what could be done manually ie burn to disc and play on DVD
insufficent content on itunes store
i am not a fan of apple but since getting my apple tv i have used it regularly. Some may make the mistake of it being a limited media player and expensive ipod, however i suggest it is the poor content available that makes such a situation thinkable. With improved content such as they get in the states there is no doubt this will become an ever popular device for those that wish to show content from there pc in the comfort of there lounge room. Whilst it is suggested that there is other devices it also does so in an adult manner as opposede to say an Xbox.
Its dissapointing that there are the hatters out there about this product siting no PVRor supply of HDMI cable. Stating that a games machine does the same job but i put to you that this misses the point. A simple device that plays digital content from a computer that makes the procewss simple. I cant speak for others but my tiime is worth money and i now find that i use photos muscic and videos i never used to bother because of this simpleness, and can do so in my loungeroom.
No doubt the devide is not for everyone because of this specific design yet i suggest it has the same factiors present in the concept as the ipod had when it was first released. - Good: Easy to setup
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tjf323 gave 9/10 on 28/06/2007 11:18
- Good: - Upgradeable Software (Huge Potential!)
- Simple & Elegant interface.
- Does all things it claims to do very well.
- No more loosing DVD's, Scratched DVD's that won't play etc.
- Excellent Picture Quality. - Bad: - iTunes integration could be improved. I would like to see the AppleTV behave more like an iPod when connected to iTunes.
This is a great device for accessing all your media content in one central location. Especially on a wireless N network using Airport Extreme with Network Disk attached. I think this product has huge "potential" and at this stage does the basic things really well. Hopefully Apple will update the software regularly to improve functionality and features. The only downside is the slow process of ripping my entire DVD collection.
With regards to picture quality the device is producing excellent results for dvd's ripped at high qualit h.264. It all depends on the content and how you obtain it. The You Tube feature is fun and quality is respectable.
- Good: - Upgradeable Software (Huge Potential!)
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freetel gave 3/10 on 24/06/2007 10:27
- Good: -computer-tv integration
- Bad: -lack of support for other video formats
-no movies available on the australian itunes
-no ipod compatibility
-overpriced
-overrated
Read from the pros and cons...
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conno gave 10/10 on 22/06/2007 21:59
Now I have the flexibilty to enjoy any media on my TV... INSTANTLY!
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DudeAppleSux gave 7/10 on 22/06/2007 17:51
- Good: 160GB hard drive great for ripping complete seasons of TV shows
- Bad: Not enough feedback for trouble shooting.
Too dependent on its network connection.
Crappy iTunes store in Oz.
DivX is not the MP3 of video. MP4 by definition is the (successor to) MP3 of video. DivX is more like the AC3 of video- nice, but not the standard.
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russellb gave 10/10 on 17/06/2007 17:25
- Good: All your Tv recordings stream to your lounge room with trivial ease.
YOU DONT need the hard drive just stream .. the hard drive is there for upcoming services like renting movies etc - Bad: none
It make an easy trivial job of streaming your TV recordings and Itunes content to the lounge
RE: "If Apple is expecting to start a revolution in the same way that the iPod did, it needs to make it a hell of a lot better than this."
The article misses the whole point of Apple TV and the writer will be proved very very wrong.
the thing heaps of people get wrong about Apple Tv is that it is not meant to be the central do it all media hub, it is simple a spoke in the wheel that does one job very very well and it was never meant to be a do it all device .. thats why so many media centre;s failed where Apple will succeed. - Good: All your Tv recordings stream to your lounge room with trivial ease.
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Gary gave 5/10 on 13/06/2007 23:19
- Good: Plays You Am I
- Bad: nil
According to the video it plays You Am I! This thing's gotta rock!
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cmanuel gave 7/10 on 06/06/2007 19:08
- Good: HUGE 160 Gb hard drive avaible now
- Bad: lack of file formats
Goof if you only want some file formats
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Zanorath gave 4/10 on 28/05/2007 18:03
- Good: looks great, iTunes, easy to use
- Bad: When you think about the fact you can get a xbox 360 for the same price it really isnt worth buying.
Not really worth buying... for the same price you can get a xbox 360 core system (allthough id recomend you spend the extra and get a premium one) with windows media centre and pricture, music and vid sharing stright from the dashboard. Not to mention the fact the its the best game console eva and you cna download stuff stright to it and play stuff off your iPod. And the windows vista version of media center looks better anyway, :P!
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Dylan gave 8/10 on 24/05/2007 08:12
- Good: Silent, simple, slick looking, low power consumption, great picture quality, podcasts, nice screen saver delivering 10,000 hi def pictures from my archive, 802.11N, my 4 and 6 years old kids use it
- Bad: Small hardisk, so steaming is only the option for extensive Movie/Video Podcast/Music collection; DIXV/XVID support would be good (but see H.264 encoded content); more direct access to online services (youtube, flickr, etc..) would help. Might hack it (but shouldn't have to) to install one of those new 250GB 2.5" SATA drives, then it would be cooking on gas.
Surprisingly good.
I have a DIVX collection but sorry have you seen h.264 encoded content? DIVX sux by comparison at the same bit rates. I now have a viable solution to backup and stream MY PURCHASED content.
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