Apple TV is a lemon

Overpriced, underpowered. Don't know anyone who bought this, and i work in soho with a bunch of nathan barley media types who love this shit.

... write an article about a story written in May?

@El Lizardo: Obviously, nothing else to mindlessly bash Apple for right now.

"Even Micosoft's Xbox 360 can do a better job than the Apple TV, which is something that has not been featured in any of Apple's advertising."

where did you get this? do you own both? because i do and apple tv is better.

And funny thing is that xbox works much better with transcode360 than with win media player 11 :)

Nick please stop writing apple related articles, waste of time, you're very biased against apple.

I've owned two ATV's.
If you want a no fuss solution with a very wife/family friendly interface to play/stream/download music, videos, etc. then it's a very good product.

The only downside that I ever saw was that it was underpowered (no 1080i/p playback) and too restricted, out of the box it has to be apple format or nothing.

Now throw in an ATVPatch stick at c$30 and you open up another product altogether :)

Of course there are much more capable devices, such as NMT (network media tanks) but none have the ease of use or interface to match ATV.

You purchase ATV for a specific reason, it's not meant to be a jack of all trades media player. It does what it does very well.

Just my thoughts :)

RAM.

Weird, I thought they cancelled that flop long ago. Maybe they should have.

Nice reference. Perhaps the Inq should add a new bit of slang to the Inqtionary™ and start calling the Apple tablet the Newtablet

The Apple TV does exactly what I want it to do, and does it very well. It allows me to play my music and video library (including protected contents from the iTunes store) on my TV. Playing iTunes purchased movies is something that no other box out there can do.

While some out there might say there are plenty of other boxes with more features that can also play purchased movies... well, they normally only work with maybe 1 or 2 'stores' too. I don't know of a single set top box out there that just works with everything. So in reality, they aren't that different from Apple's box.

So, stop trying to be 'cool' by bashing Apple like it appears it's popular to do now. It's very clear that you are biased against Apple and their products and the really interesting thing is that many of the stories seem to be written without having actually used any of them.

If you don't want to use the Apple TV and like something else. Fine. It doesn't mean Apple's product is bad.

The AppleTV will obliterate the competition running either Boxee or XBMC in place of its default software. The functionality would soar through the roof. In fact, I intend to purchase one specifically to replace the crappy default software with one of these powerful alternatives.

Usually Nick's a bit of a twat when it comes to Apple, but he's spot on here: AppleTV is just shite. No 1080p, weak software, etc.

Shit or get off the pot, Apple.. PS3 is a much better AppleTV than your crappy AppleTV, and I _HATE_ Sony..

Really? "Playing iTunes purchased movies is something that no other box out there can do." That's an advantage in what way, exactly?
Be gone, fanboi

I will strongly agree that the hardware is lacking BUT nothing compares to itunes selection of T.V. shows. I don't pay for cable anymore, I download the shows I want , I have them forever (saving me money when the DVD's come out) and pay less monthly than I would with comcast. I will say the only thing that really pisses me off is the HD quality. Still, I prefer this to any other T.V. service.

I think Apple TV has a bright future when Steve adds a nice Safari to it, and let people do pinching on their TVs, may be with some kind of wiimote. ATV could share apps with the iProd tablet to be released later this year. But that would cannibalize some iMac sales Steve may not be sure about.

I don't understand how anybody can "review" a product without ever using it. Try ATV and you will experience it's allure. It's an absolutely fantastic entertainment package.

I bought the ATV a while back, with patches and all it will display 1080p.

The problem though, is Apple. They used to not offer any HD movies or shows to watch with it - you had to watch low resolution crap that was made for an ipod. Now they say they offer HD movies, a closer look reveals that their idea of HD is 576 lines of resolution or so. Go to itunes sometimes and try to get the actual resolution of a movie offered - its like an easter egg hunt and usually you have to go to a non-apple site to get the answer.

So, I still have my ATV, but I never actually watch it, it pretty much is only used as a glorified airtunes connected to my stereo. If I want streaming movies, I just use my XBox360 and Netflix streaming - although most of Netflix's streaming offerings are either rated less than 2 stars or more than 30 years old.

Sadly, you have you facts wrong. The Roku box is lovely for free videos but it often crashes in Netflix HD. This is a problem. Second, it does not play music. Nor does it show Youtube videos, which may seem like a gimmick but actually turned out pretty cool.

Yes, the Appletv sucks because it is part of Steve's lock em down and we keep the key tactics, but it has some decent capabilities out there.

great little box. Once you run patch stick on it.. it can do everything i need.

Roku doesn't allow plug-ins either but it's ATV that's locked down?
Does Roku allow you to buy music, films, TV shows from the sofa? (& finish them on the train?)
What happens when the play-offs & Roku get really popular and streaming does what streaming always does - it's fine for YouTube but internet streaming is no broadcast replacement.

It has a couple of questionable features over ATV and misses a whole load more. Anyone who believes this is better clearly doesn't work for a company that out-perform most of it's competition put together.

McD

Apple TV is always the "Apple experience on your TV". The Apple Experience for media is iTunes. If you love iTunes, then you will love Apple TV.
This is a great product, which is only really limited by your local Movie/TV industry and their old fashion views. However, supporting products like Apple TV will only force this idustry into the concept of digital download for $.
Really, it is what you actually want the Apple TV to solve. XBOX and PS3 do not do the same thing. However, they might be the solution you need, then great. If ATV solves what you want, then also great.

I really really wanted to digitize my DVD colleciton with the ATV. I got 65 DVDs in and found that I had more important things to do with my limited free time than write Windows Batch files for HandBrake.

Overall I am disappointed with the Apple TV. Its like having a sports car and being stuck in traffic.

The Apple TV is fine (I have one) but it's on 24/7, and gives off substantial heat - - much more than our Wii, which sits next to it, even when the Wii is on for hours and hours.

The interface is straightforward, but boring, and cold. I guess that's good, as it doesn't get in the way of the media on it.

I have transcoded 70+ dvds, and loaded them via iTunes, plus have all my music on it, so it's fine.

So, it's not bad if you want to eliminate kids from scratching DVDs, but it's expensive and must use a lot of energy to stay that hot all the time. I wish it had sleep mode.