Apple TV vs. other video solutions

I have been using the EyeHome for some time and have been very happy with it. It seems much more flexible concerning the formats it will play e.g. .avi. As far as I can tell the Apple TV will only let you play movies that iTunes will recognise. Will Apple TV only allow users to watch movies that you have bought through the Apple store??

Tony

antony [antonydemanuele.net] wrote:

> I have been using the EyeHome for some time and have been
> very happy with it. It seems much more flexible concerning
> the formats it will play e.g. .avi. As far as I can tell the
> Apple TV will only let you play movies that iTunes will
> recognise. Will Apple TV only allow users to watch movies
> that you have bought through the Apple store??

You can transcode other video files to MP4 and then import them into
iTunes, this should allow the Apple TV to play them. But I don't
consider that a real solution: transcoding will degrade the picture and
sound quality, and it's an extra step that takes time (lots of time,
when you have hundreds of hours of video in formats like Xvid, like me).


I must say I'm a bit disappointed about the Apple TV:
- no tuner, so you can't record anything yourself.
- Video playback limited to MP4
- Access only via the iTunes interface

To me it seems the Apple TV is too specialized. Then again, I may not be
Apple's target market. I currently timeshift everything I watch on TV,
either using a VHS VCR or by downloading from the filesharing networks.
I prefer downloading these days, because this'll give me better picture
quality than my VCR/TV setup, and because I like the computer's controls
more than the VCR.
Looks like building a MythTV box is still my best bet for the time
being.

Harro de Jong

At 1:41 pm -0800 22/01/2007, Harro de Jong wrote:
>I must say I'm a bit disappointed about the Apple TV:
>- no tuner, so you can't record anything yourself.
>- Video playback limited to MP4
>- Access only via the iTunes interface

What excites me about the Apple TV is not what it _doesn't_ do as an
add-on to your television, but the new things it _does_ do as an
add-on to iTunes.

Until now, playing iTunes audio content in your living room has meant
either (a) having a computer in your living room so you can control
iTunes on the spot, or (b) playing blind through an AirPort Express
from an iTunes server elsewhere in the house (in which case you'd
still need a computer in the living room running VNC or equivalent to
choose playlists etc).

Now, with Apple TV, you have visual control over selection of iTunes
audio content without even getting up from your sofa and, by adding
Shared Music Monitor from Doug's Scripts, your smart playlists should
update in real time in a way that doesn't even happen under
computer-to-computer iTunes sharing.

http://www.dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=sharedmusicmonitor

Similarly, playing video content from iTunes to date has either meant
connecting your computer directly to your television, burning content
to DVD, or putting it on a video iPod and connecting that to the
television as required. Again, the Apple TV vastly simplifies the
process of bringing your iTunes content into your living room.

It's not just me -- Apple also seem to view the Apple TV primarily as
a spoke in the iTunes hub: it's listed on the Apple Store in the iPod
section, is priced comparably with the video iPod, and the supposed
limitations quoted above are consistent with the limitations of
trying to use an iPod as a PVR. (If you want more features from an
Apple device, pay twice the price for an entry-level Mac Mini.)

As for the video playback restriction to MP4, well heck, even the
settings for my first-generation iPod Shuffle offer the option to
convert higher bit-rate songs to 128 kbps AAC on-the-fly during
synchronisation, so until we actually get our paws on an Apple TV
(and the new version of iTunes that will surely be released to drive
it) we've no way of knowing whether there'll be anything similar to
convert non-compatible video formats to MP4.

>To me it seems the Apple TV is too specialized. Then again, I may not be
>Apple's target market.

Too specialised, or too simplified?

Just as an iTunes playback device, the Apple TV has me firmly fixed
smack bang in the centre of that target market, and carries a high
Spousal Approval Factor to boot. I can't wait to add one to my home
set-up, to the extent that I've even held back from ripping through
Handbrake the DVDs received as presents this Christmas, until I can
see what settings will work best on the Apple TV and our just-ordered
new Sony Bravia television.

(And I'm equally looking forward to marvelling at the wit and
ingenuity of the third-party hacks and uses for the USB port that
will doubtless spring up within days of the Apple TV's release, and
pondering what Steve Jobs has already got planned for the
second-generation model. Big-screen games console, anyone?)

Chris
--

Chris Reed, BBR Solutions Ltd * http://www.bbr-online.com