Apple Starts Shipping Apple TV

[SOCOMRAIDER]

[picaman]

Fake Steve Jobs on the WSJ/Mossberg Apple TV story

From the blog:

"Check out his review of Apple TV in this morning's Wall Street Journal. As Walt points out, our product:

* won't work with older TVs;
* can't record cable or satellite TV;
* can't play DVDs;
* can't stream video or audio directly from the Internet;
* won't let you buy media directly from iTunes;
* won't play music in Microsoft's formats, even from a Windows PC;
* won't let you change volume using the Apple remote;
* won't let you plug in an extra hard drive for more capacity.

...

So, should you buy Apple TV? Absolutely, says Walt. He gives it four thumbs up, raves about its simplicity and elegance, and tells you not to worry about the features we don't have, because even though Apple won't discuss these issues, Walt is sure that many of these features will become available in the future."

LOL. I like reading Mossberg's stuff, but FSJ nails this one on the head.



Jamie
_________________
I'm Jamie, and I approved this message.

[Yvan256]

[g5g5]

[archer75]

It's priced about $100 too high. And it's lack of support for more video and audio formats is what's killing it for me. I will never purchase DRM content from itunes.

Along with lacking HD DVR support. The thing is virtually useless to me.

You can get a sling box media extender for cheaper and plays all formats, streams video from the net, anything at all.

[Pleiades]

[RickB]

Anyone here get theirs? If so, how do you like it?
_________________
1.66GHz, 1.83GHz and 2.0GHz Mac minis
2.2GHz MacBook Pro
250GB LaCie mini
50" Sony and 20" ACD
Apple wireless keyboard and Mighty Mouse
3G iPad and iPhone 4S

[nanomano]

[g5g5]

[DCGuy]

f...apple care. wait for a recall

[g5g5]

[DCGuy]

[Yvan256]

Here's the facts for those without a widescreen TV:

- for some strange reason, the Apple TV supports 480i even though it only has components and HDMI outputs
- there is no "4:3 or 16:9" setting, the box assumes your display has a 16:19 ratio
- it works on my 36" Toshiba, which is a 4:3 CRT. However all the content is vertically stretched, like anamorphic (not sure if it's the right term)
- My HandBrake rips seem to work very well so far (the two I copied/streamed), in both H.264/AAC and MPEG-4/AAC (both .mp4 files, not .avi)
- The specifications listed are for maximums, not minimums. The Apple TV plays my 352x288 MPEG-4/AAC rips just fine too. Before you ask, these are rips for my Nintendo Play-Yan micro.
- 4:3 videos have black borders on the left and right, which is the proper way to display them on widescreen LCDs. Which looks odd on my TV since it ends up with a black border all around it.

If my television had a "letterboxing" feature/setting I would be ok. But it doesn't. What bugs me is that a simple software setting could fix that. Let the Apple TV render everything in widescreen but simply rescale to 4:3 before outputting. I don't want to buy another TV when a simple firmware update could do the trick.

[nanomano]

[Bandit Bill]

I would have to agree with Apple. If the exterior wasn't warm that would mean that the heat had remained on the items were producing the heat.

I'm not saying that the TV doesn't run too hot. I've never touched one. But I welcome you to touch a heat sync. They're hot for a reason, they are doing their job.