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Apple TV?

post #1 of 21
1/30/08 at 12:36am
Thread Starter 
Do I need or really want an Apple TV for my new flat screen? Please discuss.
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post #2 of 21
1/30/08 at 12:44am
Need? No.

Want? If you already wanted one, you'd probably know it. Are you trying to convince yourself to buy one?
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post #3 of 21
1/30/08 at 12:52am
I have one and it's worth it. I can play my music, display my photos, rent movies, watch my downloaded video collection. Think of it as your home's entertainment hub. Awesome product! I wish I could be as enthusiastic with Apple's latest offering, the MacBook Air. That's a separate thread.
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post #4 of 21
1/30/08 at 12:53am
What do you want to do with it? A friend of mine recently got one, and the most surprising thing about it is how useful it is as an iTunes extender because it can play protected files bought from the iTunes store, and unlike the Airport Express, you can actually navigate your music.

It was also a surprisingly social experience because it scrolls album art as a screensaver while playing music, so we discovered all sorts of common musical bonds as I saw his library of albums float by. It's brought back one of the few good things that was lost when we went from vinyl to CD --- the large album art that you could pick out from across the room.

I'd get it for the music, not the video.

--Andre
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post #5 of 21
1/30/08 at 4:26pm
Thinking about it as well. I'd be curious to see what titles they will come up with for the video rental. I see it as an alternative to Netflix, Blockbuster, etc. since I probably do not watch enough movies monthly to justify the cost. Another positive is that you can buy movies in HD. Would I buy a superbad style movie in HD, probably not, don't need to see the teenage acne up close, but I would imagine some great action movies would like nice on the plasma and through the home theatre. I also do agree about the ability to extend your iTunes library. That will be a very useful feature.
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post #6 of 21
1/30/08 at 4:58pm
Well, it is the future of the entertainment system. Blu-ray and HD-DVD are retarded concepts. Physical media is on the way out. They're going to get leapfrogged by digital and web storage media fairly soon IMHO.

Let's see, buy a $30 Blu-ray disc to play on a $1000 Blu-ray player (or ps3 if you ahve one), or download that same movie for $10 on a $300 digital entertainment system?

I used to buy dvd sets of certain shows on TV (like South Park or Family Guy), but now it's cheaper and faster for me to just download the entire season from iTunes, put it on my ipod and plug it into my TV and watch like that.

Anyway, I'm planning on getting an Apple TV 2 in the next year.
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post #7 of 21
1/30/08 at 6:12pm
I don't see the point, especially if you have something like a Tivo around. My Tivo can still serve video, images, streaming media and music from my computers to the TV and download rented/purchased films from Amazon Unbox.
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post #8 of 21
1/30/08 at 6:17pm
It's very tempting if you dont have Tivo and don't want a subscription, and already have an extensive Itunes collection. I may try to get my roomate to get it when I get a place
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post #9 of 21
1/30/08 at 6:57pm
It doesn't fit my needs. I think if it had a TV tuner then I would consider it. But until cablecard 2.0 or whatever it is gets finalized, I doubt Apple will drop that in there. This is one of the few products that Apple doesn't put a huge markup on.
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post #10 of 21
1/30/08 at 7:00pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by celery View Post
Well, it is the future of the entertainment system. Blu-ray and HD-DVD are retarded concepts. Physical media is on the way out. They're going to get leapfrogged by digital and web storage media fairly soon IMHO. Let's see, buy a $30 Blu-ray disc to play on a $1000 Blu-ray player (or ps3 if you ahve one), or download that same movie for $10 on a $300 digital entertainment system? I used to buy dvd sets of certain shows on TV (like South Park or Family Guy), but now it's cheaper and faster for me to just download the entire season from iTunes, put it on my ipod and plug it into my TV and watch like that. Anyway, I'm planning on getting an Apple TV 2 in the next year.
Because people have the storage space for all that media. Because someone has invented such storage space in compact form. Because broadband is used so much more than people that have dvd players. And because common forms of boadband allow for such high data transfer rates. Right? And what you download on itunes is at a much lower resolution.
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post #11 of 21
1/30/08 at 8:00pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by celery View Post
Let's see, buy a $30 Blu-ray disc to play on a $1000 Blu-ray player (or ps3 if you ahve one), or download that same movie for $10 on a $300 digital entertainment system?

Also, in any major metro area, its fairly easy to find $19.95 Blu Ray disks and sub $300 Blu Ray players.

I love people who don't keep up with the times and then have the audacity to tell you about the future...

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post #12 of 21
1/30/08 at 8:20pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tokyo Slim View Post
Also, in any major metro area, its fairly easy to find $19.95 Blu Ray disks and sub $300 Blu Ray players.

I love people who don't keep up with the times and then have the audacity to tell you about the future...


I'm waiting for DAT players to get cheaper, myself.
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post #13 of 21
1/30/08 at 8:23pm
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Originally Posted by lawyerdad View Post
I'm waiting for DAT players to get cheaper, myself.

You missed your chance man.. In the early 2000's, they were dirt cheap. Now they are retro and cool again... so you'll have to wait another six or seven years.
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post #14 of 21
1/30/08 at 9:24pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by haganah View Post
Because people have the storage space for all that media. Because someone has invented such storage space in compact form. Because broadband is used so much more than people that have dvd players. And because common forms of boadband allow for such high data transfer rates. Right?

And what you download on itunes is at a much lower resolution.



You're absolutely right, technology is going to stagnate exactly where it is right now and we won't see any of those things happen within the next 5 or so years.
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post #15 of 21
1/30/08 at 9:58pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by celery View Post
You're absolutely right, technology is going to stagnate exactly where it is right now and we won't see any of those things happen within the next 5 or so years.

This is what I don't get.

There's kind of a pie-in-the-sky optimism when it comes to direct download replacing hard media. What makes you think that in five years, people are going to throw away the DVD players, Blu-Ray players, home entertainment libraries, and etc. that they've been building for like... 13 years now? (It will be almost 18 years when the mythical 5 years from now rolls around) I know people, yes besides myself, who still own VHS tapes!

As long as people's hard media functions, they will sell players. As long as they sell players, they will sell media.

Downloadable media will be an option for many people, sure, and they will probably use it to supplement what they already have... But I cannot, in the foreseeable future, imagine a scenario where it completely usurps hard media. Even when the technology becomes available for nearly instantaneous transmission, there are still so many benefits to an actual disk, that you'd be taking a technological step BACKWARDS by tethering it to your television.
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