Apple TV is tanking

Apple is holding the AppleTV back by limiting its support with certain file formats, as well as undoing people's modifications. Not to mention the fact that you are restricted to one source of legal content. (ie: iTunes). 

To top it off, there's also user ignorance of this class of device. They simply don't know or care of such devices to begin with.

But then, who needs an AppleTV when you can get your hands on something like this!
=> http://www.popcornhour.com/

Just look all the crap you can do with it out of the box!

A year from now, the only thing you'll be reading about Apple TV is hobbyists buying them cheap on ebay and hacking it to use it as a general-purpose computer.

These boxes do home network and internet connectivity and HD Cable with 2 tuners of DVR goodness and (with expansion) 2TB of HDD. I run a transcoding server on my PC that lets me stream pretty much anything I want to my TV and I can download pay content from Amazon Unbox. Why is it that I would want Apple TV instead? Of course it's tanking.

Beyond all the other things mentioned, it's also only 720p.

XBox 360 + Connect360 make a far better "media center" experience for Apple people. Especially with the $299 (or less) 'Arcade' unit with HDMI for 1080p playback.

I fail to see the logic in wanting this in the first place when I already have a perfectly good HD satellite setup and there is always netflix and video stores if there is something I want specifically to watch.
These companies (not just Apple) are continually trying to create new markets to make money but as the free market will prove, it's up to us, the consumer to give them their trial by fire so as to say.
Have a great day,
Glenn

The main problem with the Apple TV is that iTunes doesn't have HD content (movies, TV Shows etc.) available. They only have standard def stuff that you can put on it. 

This wouldn't be too bad except that the Apple TV kit requires a HDTV for hookup. Who wants a HDTV product that only plays standard def content?

Until Apple can make HD content available on their HD product, its nothing but a pig with lipstick on it, and won't sell. Were Apple to get its act together and make HD content available, it might be successful.

Apple designed the AppleTV for painless interoperability with iTunes. Much like the iPOD, it's a hardware extension of iTunes. It works well in that regard, but there are more comprehensive options out there such as Popcornhour's network media tank.

AppleTV supports MPEG-4, which is perhaps the best encoder on the market for files in the 768Kbps to 2Mbps range. It is way better than VC-1 or WMV-9 in my opinion.

But the problem I see is with the business model itself. IS there a market for this right now? If a movie isn't at least DVD (VOB) quality, I think most people will be disappointed. 

For me, I would rather watch a DVD than MPEG-4 no matter how convenient it is to access and no matter how interoperable it is.

Further, Windows Media Center provides access to TV programming through the Internet, which has greater value to me than AppleTV right now. I would like to be able to access all episodes of Heroes, for instance, including the current episode.

SyncTV and Joost are much better, especially for PC users.

www.joost.com

AppleTV just sucks goat nads and is probably this year's most popular flop.

'Only three per cent said they want to buy a MacIntellytosh maybe one day.'

Three percent of online adults is a stupendous number. I'll bet you'd give your left arm if three percent of web users wanted to buy anything you'd written or made.

OK, the day of _needing_ a device like an Apple TV is not yet, but, along with the analogue switch-off, it is coming. 
Now, ask yourself a simple question. When the time comes why would you want to buy a device of this ilk from anyone else? Knock off copies are seldom as good as the original and, even in this v1 guise, the Apple TV is about the only one of these things that I would allow into my living room. Maybe your living room is different.

Fun-neeee.

Wasn't it Steve The Old Jobso who said nobody wants to watch video on a crummy little screen? I guess the fella was right: people are not crazy about video on iTunes, hence no content for iTV. "My little hobby", indeed -- nice saving face line there, Jobso.

Anyhoo. If they want to get these discy little things off the shelves what they need to do is load Ubuntu on it and sell them off as cheapo office PCs for web-surfing admins and interns. If they sold it off the back of a lorry, why that would probably just be about right.

Apple TV is like the next Newton.....only the Newton had a cool add on keyboard. I like MythTV....I hope when apple discontinues this thing they put out and update that lets people SSH in to the box and add their own software with out having to hack it.

It seems to me that Apple has had previous products that were written off as dead or would never make it. I believe that was said of the iPod. So, is Apple TV a product ahead of its time? Just waiting for its market to develop?

Who would want to listen to an iPod? Seems a lot of people now...

Apple may still get the last laugh with Apple TV...