Apple TV MC572LL/A (2010)
From Apple
Product Description
Apple TV has been redesigned to be small in size but great fun. Rent from the largest selection of HD movies - many available on the same day coming out on DVD. Netflix instant watch titles. Rent TV shows, commercial free in HD. And stream photos and music from your computer to your widescreen TV. The sleek new Apple TV has been completely recalibrated for your enjoyment. And '80 percent smaller than the previous generation - with a built-in power. What makes it perfect to sit neatly on a widescreen TV stand or squeezing into a crowded media cabinet. Not only does the new Apple TVs have an incredibly small footprint, it is also incredibly energy efficient. It stays cool without a fan, so it is never noisy. And when you fill your living room with drama, romance and comedy, it uses less energy than a night light.
I'm not an Apple Afficianodo. I do not wear jeans and black turtleneck in reverence to Steve Jobs. Do not hang out at the Apple Store and want to become a 'genius', but I have to give credit where credit is due. The recent Apple products highlighted - the iPod, iPhone - were amazing and changed the consumer electronics and media / software landscape. Apple TV is now positioned to do the same, but it will take longer to fully realize the potential of this device.
Apple TV allows actual flow of whatever is on your iTunes to your TV and home theater system. In addition, it has a built-in support for Netflix, YouTube and some other Internet-based multimedia content providers. The image quality and performance of these services are worth the ticket price. There is a significant potential to advance the platform - just give it some 'time.
System Overview: My Apple TV is connected to a Samsung 60-inch 1080p LED HDTV via HDMI (video) and a Yamaha home theater receiver via Toslink optical cable (audio).
I have AT & T with their Uversa 802.11g Residential Gateway (combination of DSL modem and wireless router) with their Elite DSL service (6 MB per second).
iTunes is running on a Dell desktop with 4GB of memory, Intel Core 2 Duo processors and 500 GB hard drive running Windows Vista (64 bit) and blocked with Norton 360 (firewall, antivirus, etc.). The network manages the desktop , 2 iPhone, a Blackberry, an iPad, Apple TV, 4 laptops, a wireless printer and a wired network printer. Gateway Computers / residential Den and TV / Home Theater / Apple TV in the family room. The two bedrooms are about 100 meters apart and are separated by five walls.
Set Up: Easy as pie. It took five minutes to connect the HDMI cable, optical cable, the power outlet and then adding the wireless network. Sharing iTunes on my desktop for Apple TV took another 20 minutes, since I had to download the new version of iTunes and restart the computer and Apple TV. Apple makes it really easy - I did not have to make any changes to my firewall settings on the desktop to share iTunes with Apple TV.
I also downloaded the Apple Remote on my iPhone and iPad, which took another 5 minutes.
User Interface: Apple's secret ingredient is the simplicity of their products. Apple TV is no different.
The menu is very simple - Movies, TV, Internet, computer and settings. Movies and TV are for rent content from iTunes to Apple TV. Internet provides access to Netflix, YouTube, computers, etc. can access the iTunes on your computer. Settings lets you change the options of Apple TV. The remote is the usual model of Apple minimalist efficiency, with a menu button, a play / pause button and an iPod as a controller. The included remote works well with Apple TV, but is a bit 'bulky when you have to enter data (for example, e-mail, search on YouTube or Netflix). A much better solution is to download Apple Remote on your iPhone or iPad.
It is essentially an iPhone or a touch pad iPad great that lets you use gestures to control the Apple TV (for example, scroll left, right, crawling, double-click, etc..) Moreover, it automatically when the keyboard is asked to enter text (for example, for research). Apple Remote is free on the App Store.
Netflix Streaming Quality / Video: Netflix Set was fast - in fact just enter your e-mail address / password and you're ready to go. I watched BBC TV, a foreign film and Iron Man
Every program that loads quickly - less than 30 seconds. The picture quality is good for large, depending on the source material. Image quality is comparable to DVD for SD material (maybe slightly better), but slightly weaker than upconverted DVD or Blu-ray. HD Programming HD looked like on-demand programming through the Uversa. There was enough of a buffer that was not there, jittering pixelation or stuttering on the stream to the TV. The sound quality was good on the stream - I do not think a 5.1 stream, so that the video stream does not leverage the subwoofer.
Considering that I'm running a wireless 802.11g heavily taxed with a distance of 100 feet between Apple TV and the gateway, the image quality and streaming performance are impressive. Having this quality of Netflix compatibility is worth the ticket price alone.
Streaming iTunes: I have a streaming music from my playlist from your computer. The sound quality is good but not great. My Yamaha CD player sounds better, but it can only hold 5 CDs. Having access to my entire library is very useful in order to lose the sound quality, but convenience gain. iTunes flows not only music, but also on the cover.
After a few minutes, Apple TV goes into screensaver mode and starts to transmit images to a TV with the music. I also have some streaming video from my computer and the streaming was flawless again. One of the problems with Apple TV is that Apple only supports video standards, namely, MP4. I had some DIVX files I converted to MP4 using DVD Fab and imported into iTunes.
So if you have a library of AVI, Divx, Xvid, etc, this will require the conversion of these files to streaming audio from your computer.
from within the iTunes Apple TV: There is access to the iTunes store on Apple TV as well. They have a different pricing structure, as TV programs and movies are available for rent. They have a limited number of titles at this point - first the BBC, ABC (since Steve Jobs sits on their board) and Fox. CBS and NBC are not on Apple TV. Film selection is decent - they have all the latest movies. The selection of Apple TV can be easily increased by just downloading the content you want from iTunes on the desktop and streaming to Apple TV.
YouTube Streams: Surprisingly good. The You Tube pieces HQ / HD look razor sharp on the TV.
The older content that was intended to look into a small window on your computer seemed a little 'grainy, but acceptable.
Apple has built a great platform with great potential.
With what is available right now - Apple TV is a fairly impressive for $ 99. It's worth it just for streaming Netflix and the integration with iTunes. Since Apple TV is actually built on the same hardware (at least the processor chip) as the iPhone and iPad and has the same operating system, would not be surprised if there are any 'apps' that eventually make the Apple TV to improve further the Apple TV (for example, ABC Streaming, Games, Amazon On Demand, etc..) There should be an update to the operating system with a new version of Airplay coming out in November 2010. This will allow you to stream from an iPad or iPod to the Apple TV as well.
I looked the other streaming devices (such as Roku, using my Panasonic Blu-ray Netflix, etc.) and none of them had the simplicity and reliability that the Apple TV offers. 'Stick' Wi Fi for my Blue Ray player is $ 80 in each case and the integration of Netflix is not anywhere as robust as Apple TV.
Uversa also stream music and image with Microsoft Media Center built in - however, has prompted some network configurations, and crashes quite often. I do not buy a Roku, but a friend of mine has had a number of problems with the streaming performance. Less than $ 100, Apple TV has a price competitive with other streaming options. Now just bring on 'applications'.
Update on 4/1/11:
I had the Apple TV for a couple of months and I still love it. Apple has introduced Airplay, which is worth mentioning because it has the potential to be a technology gamechanger. In addition, there has been a significant activity on the front 'jailbreaking' the Apple TV.
Airplay is the Apple system to transmit audio / video wirelessly between compatible devices. Apple TV, iPhone and iPad Airplay are all compatible. This has proven to be particularly useful as I stream video from my iPad for Apple TV and appear on my TV. For example, I have a digital copy of a movie on my iPad (maybe purchased through iTunes or came with a DVD purchase).
Through Airplay chart, I can send the movies directly from my Apple iPad for the TV and watch the movie on TV.
Similarly, if a friend has an iPhone and want to listen to their latest selection of music, we are able to stream their music directly from their iPhone to my stereo via Airplay. The real gamechanger Airplay is streaming video from websites on my Apple TV so you can watch on TV. For example, I could be on the TED site and have a video from a TED conference. Can I stream the video directly to my Apple TV and watch the video screen 60 inch TV instead of my 10-inch screen iPad. Many Web sites have already implemented the compatibility Airplay in their videos, like CNN and TED. Airplay I think is going to have an interesting cycle adoption - traditional media companies (eg, TV networks) probably will not endorse Airplay since it goes against their business model. Other sites that rely on video for the traffic (eg, adult sites, news sites, blogs, etc.) will probably take Airplay get more traction with consumers.
