http://www.switched.com/2007/11/27/is-there-hope-for-the-apple-tv/ Switched Comments for Is There Hope for the Apple TV? http://www.switched.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.switched.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.switched.com/2007/11/27/is-there-hope-for-the-apple-tv/http://www.switched.com/2007/11/27/is-there-hope-for-the-apple-tv/
1) Usability is awful. pre-1980's
2) It cannot wake-up iTunes media sources, so this means frequent trips upstairs to the the relevant computer to wake it up.
3) You cannot use Apple-TV to browse or purchase content from the iTunes store. This means more trips upstairs to a computer to order content.
4) The YouTube support is a very small subset of YouTube content and the search interface is awful. You have to use the remote to navigate a keyboard and there are no suggested completions on search.
5) You cannot synchronize more than one iTunes media source nor can you be connected to more than one source.
6) If you are using synchronization, then when you download new content, your network will be saturated by two downloads - it would be nice if you could direct it to download to the Apple TV
7) When you download a TV series, they are not sorted chronologically on the display and the entire title is not displayed so you have to hunt for the next episode.
8) I purchased an Airport Express so that I could attach a hard drive for my media. However, Apple-TV has to go through one of my computers to get at the content, it would be nice if it would work against the attached storage, but I suspect that means the Airport express would need to run iTunes.
9) Media support - I watch a lot of DRM'd content and converting this to iTunes to run on apple-TV is a royal pain.
10) it would be great if it could run iChat in my media room.

After looking at all these issues, I realized I should rather have purchased a Mac Mini for my media room and then attach my network drives to it to use it as a media server.]]>Nov 27th 2007 5:06PMhttp://www.switched.com/2007/11/27/is-there-hope-for-the-apple-tv/http://www.switched.com/2007/11/27/is-there-hope-for-the-apple-tv/
First, I would like to correct one of Terrence's remarks concerning video quality.

Using H.264 you are actually able to get full 720p, and the file size is still quite reasonable for those with the 40Gb model. This video format is arguably better than DivX, Xvid or WMV for high definition content, and is currently being utilized by most of the satellite providers for beaming their HD content. Transcoding content to either of the two supported formats is easy and painless, even for novice users. Though ultimately I do agree that greater format support should have been included out of the box.

Citing the lack of cables is pure nit-picking. If you can afford an Apple TV and an HD display, then you most likely will be able to afford your own cables. Personally, I would have found both a stereo RCA and HDMI cable to be useless, as I use fiber for my surround system and component for the display. Apple would have needed to ship four cables, two of which would have been shelved immediately by every owner.

As for comments made by Shongololo, I disagree with points 1, 4 and 9:
1) The interface is not antiquainted. Simplistic perhaps, making something easy should not be an indication of poor quality. Most, if not all, of the best designs come from distilling the core functionality to the barest essentials.
4) YouTube content, when announced, was clearly going to be an ongoing process of converting all of the content to H.264. At one point, it was true that not all content had been converted, but that conversion has either completed, or will soon.
9) Converting DRM content *should* be a pain in the ass by definition. Those controls are in place because the federal government has not yet stepped to the plate and mandated reasonable fair-use legislation regarding digital content. This is something we will likely have to live with for another 5-10 years.

As for my own complaints of the system, I agree with the other points brought up by Shongololo, and would also add:
11) Lack of organization for Movie, TV Show, and Podcast content. Every piece of content ends up in a big bucket, co-mingling with the others, making it hard to organize things by genre. I would have preferred to organize my toddler's movies in a separate place from my sci-fi, and my wife's drama content.
12) Lack of cover flow interface. It would be a thing of beauty if I could navigate through my 200+ movies, or 1000+ albums by cover.
13) Lack of a page up/down button. With the amount of content I have, it would be nice if I could scan more quickly than what's currently offered.]]>Dec 31st 2007 3:29PMhttp://www.switched.com/2007/11/27/is-there-hope-for-the-apple-tv/http://www.switched.com/2007/11/27/is-there-hope-for-the-apple-tv/
As DivX & XviD weren't used by any legitimate download service I assume he's referring to illegal downloads in which case just download the increasing amount of H.264 torrents - most work without conversion & look great (the other formats can be converted within iTunes anyway)

The real problem with AppleTV is that it was launched 12 months too early and is in need of a 1st birthday present.

McD
]]>Dec 7th 2007 5:29AMhttp://www.switched.com/2007/11/27/is-there-hope-for-the-apple-tv/http://www.switched.com/2007/11/27/is-there-hope-for-the-apple-tv/
]]>Nov 28th 2007 10:17PMhttp://www.switched.com/2007/11/27/is-there-hope-for-the-apple-tv/http://www.switched.com/2007/11/27/is-there-hope-for-the-apple-tv/
Just what we do not need more cables that end up in land fill, People need different lengths and types of cables. And other people already have them.

I love my apple TV.

Also who knows what the future will hold - will the Apple TV be the next hit / i-Pod in 5 to 10 years time ? It could be.
]]>Nov 28th 2007 11:44PMhttp://www.switched.com/2007/11/27/is-there-hope-for-the-apple-tv/http://www.switched.com/2007/11/27/is-there-hope-for-the-apple-tv/
I will buy the Next Gen Apple-TV2 when it's out. ]]>Nov 28th 2007 11:51PMhttp://www.switched.com/2007/11/27/is-there-hope-for-the-apple-tv/http://www.switched.com/2007/11/27/is-there-hope-for-the-apple-tv/Nov 29th 2007 5:12PMhttp://www.switched.com/2007/11/27/is-there-hope-for-the-apple-tv/http://www.switched.com/2007/11/27/is-there-hope-for-the-apple-tv/Dec 28th 2007 7:48PM