Apple first introduced the Apple TV product last year when it was originally known under the project name “iTV”. Back then, we knew very little about the device except that it was Apple’s first foray into the home living room space. As the months went by, additional information was leaked and finally early this year, Apple announced that iTV was going to be formally branded as “Apple TV” and was nearly ready for launch. After weeks of delays, Apple TV finally began shipping during the last week of March. I actually purchased the Apple TV device back in late March at a local Apple store in Santa Monica, CA. I’ve spent several weeks with the device now and today, I’m finally ready to talk about the device that brings Apple into the living room environment.

Of course by now, I’m sure you’ve read many number of reviews regarding Apple TV so let’s get the obvious out of the way - Apple TV is best summarized as a glorified, networked Apple iPod for the home. That’s not a bad thing of course given the immense success that the iPod has has over the first five years of it’s existence. The challenge is - can Apple TV do to the home living room market what the Apple iPod did to the digital audio player market? Can it redefine what it means to be a networked media player? Let’s find out!

One more thing before we jump into the review. This is mainly a look at the Apple TV device - from features to the user interface to what it’s capable of doing. I’ve stayed away from mentioning the many hacks and mods that have appeared in the last few weeks. However, if you are interested in those hacks and mods, do a simple “Google” search for them and I’m sure you’ll find hundreds if not thousands of links available.

System Requirements:

Here are the system requirements according to Apple.

Macintosh computer:

• Mac OS X system software version 10.3.9 or 10.4.8 or later
• 1GHz Power PC G4 or G5, or an Intel processor
• QuickTime 7.1.5 or later
• 256MB of RAM
• 16 MB video RAM

Windows based computer:

• Windows XP (Home or Professional with SP2)
• 2 GHz Pentium processor or better
• QuickTime 7.1.5 or later (included with iTunes 7.1)
• 512MB of RAM
• 32 MB video RAM

Other requirements:

• iTunes 7.1 or later
• Widescreen ED or HDTV with HDMI, DVI, or component video port and analog audio or optical digital audio ports
• HDMI, HDMI to DVI, or component video cable and analog or optical digital audio cables
• Ethernet or wireless network and a broadband Internet connection
• iTunes account and iTunes content

Packaging:

One look at the Apple TV packaging and you’re reminded of the Apple iPod packaging. It’s basically an elongated iPod box if you ask me!

Here is the front of the packaging.

Here’s the back of the packaging.

Pull out the inner box, and you’ll see the familiar motto - “Designed by Apple in California.” Ahh.. but I wonder who actually manufactures these devices?

Here’s a shot of the inner box opened up. The left side is the Apple TV device while the right side holds the small Apple remote.

The power cable and documentation is found below the Apple TV box. One interesting note - there’s no CD included with the box which means you’ll need to download iTunes yourself from the Apple website.

Here’s a look at everything out of the box:

The front of the Apple TV looks as follows.

Yes that’s it. There’s not much to it, is there? The front right section has two circles. The smaller circle is the status light while the larger circle is the IR receiver for the Apple remote.

Here’s a shot of the back:

From right to left you get:

• Power cable port
• USB port
• Ethernet port
• HDMI port
• Component Video ports
• Analog audio ports
• Optical digital audio port

Everything makes sense except for the USB port. In the Apple TV documentation, the USB port is listed for service and diagnostics. There’s additional information on various other websites about USB possibilities with Apple TV.

Finally, here’s the bottom of Apple TV:

Hooking everything up:

Yes - the Apple TV is a bit of a snob isn’t it? The device requires you to have at least a component video connection or better. Sorry - composite and s-video connections need not apply here. This isn’t to say that you have to have an HDTV. Standard definition television sets with component inputs will work just fine with Apple TV - as long as you can deal with the widescreen output format. Truth is - Apple TV really doesn’t fully utilize HD displays at this time anyhow (but who knows when that will change for the better) so there’s no real rush to get an HDTV because of this device.

Time for a minor gripe. Apple chose not to bundle any sort of cables whatsoever with Apple TV. This means you’ll need to obtain your own set of component cables or HDMI cables depending on your needs. Now granted, these cables can be expensive and Apple doesn’t know what you’ll ultimately need. However, Apple could have at least bundled component cables since most modern television sets come with at least component inputs.

As I listed above, Apple TV supports component video output or HDMI output. For my setup here at home, I chose to use component mostly because I was all out of HDMI inputs. (Companies really have to make an affordable HDMI switching receiver with more than 2 HDMI inputs!).

My setup process was as follows:

1. Connect the component cables and optical cable to the back of the Apple TV device.

2. Connect the Ethernet cable.

3. Connect the power cable.

4. Connect the optical cable to my receiver. (Sorry no pictures here - forgot to take one)

5. Normally, I’d connect my component cables to my receiver but again - I’m out of video inputs on my Onkyo receiver so I’ll be connecting the component cables to my Samsung LCD television set instead.

For my home AV system, I have the Apple TV device connecting to the CD input of my receiver. The Onkyo receiver allows me to rename input channels so the receiver displays “Apple TV” instead.

As you can probably tell, the way I have the device set up isn’t exactly the ideal scenario. I would prefer to hook things up via a single HDMI cable. Instead, I have to make sure my TV is on the right input video source and then I have to make sure my receiver is also set to the proper input source for audio. However, thanks to my Logitech Harmony 890 remote control - everything works seamlessly with a push of a single activity button. Alas - a review of this remote will come later on in the month! (And yes, I did get my 890 remote to work with the Apple TV device).

Starting things up:

This is the first screen you’ll see from Apple TV when everything is connected - the language selection menu. We’ll use English here.

The next screen sets up the display resolution. I have a 46 inch Samsung 1080p LCD display but since Apple TV supports at most 720p/1080i, I’ll stick to 720p for now.

Apple TV will set the output to 720p and then test the display. You need to confirm or cancel the setting. We’ll go ahead and confirm.

After the display setting is checked, Apple TV performs a network connectivity check. This network check also includes a check for Internet access as Apple TV uses your Internet connection to obtain information about the top iTunes movies, music videos, music, and TV shows.

Earlier, you might have noticed that I never mentioned anything about a power button. That’s because the Apple TV doesn’t have one at all. Once you plug the power supply into the device, Apple TV is designed to stay on for good (or at least until a reset). Speaking of resets, you could reset the unit via the remote control if need be. What about power consumption? It’s doubtful the box consumes much power especially since we’re dealing with a mobile processor in the form of the Intel Pentium M and a notebook oriented hard drive.

iTunes, Syncing, and the Apple TV

There are two ways you can get content onto the Apple TV. You can upload/synchronize content onto the box much like an Apple iPod. To accomplish this, you need to have Apple iTunes running on a computer on the same network as the Apple TV device. Alternatively, you can stream content from any system running iTunes on the same local area network. Apple TV is able to connect to at most five different computers via streaming (although you can only interact with a single system at a time of course).

Make sure first of all that you have the latest version of Apple iTunes. Apple TV requires iTunes version 7.1 or greater.

Whether you’re syncing or streaming to an Apple TV device from iTunes, the initial setup is the same. Once you start up iTunes, you will see the Apple TV icon on the left hand side. Click on “Click to set up” and you’ll be asked for the 5 digit passcode from Apple TV.

Apple TV will provide that passcode for you when you want to connect to a new computer system or during the very initial setup of the device. Note - a new unique passcode is generated everytime you want to connect to a new system.

The very first time you are setting up the Apple TV device via iTunes, you can define a new name for the box.

Syncing content to Apple TV

Once Apple TV is authorized for your iTunes, you can begin syncing content to the device from your PC or Mac. iTune’s default action is to automatically sync all of your iTunes content onto the Apple TV device. This might be ok if your library is less than 40 GB in size(actually much less than that - more like 32 GB after all the system software etc) but if you have a larger sized library, then you’ll want to pick and choose what files you want to sync.

Apple TV syncs content according to a priority list. Priority is given in the following order:

• Movies
• TV Shows
• Music
• Podcasts
• Photos

This priority is reversed when it comes time to remove content from the device in order to make room for other content.

Every major multimedia category has it’s own tab within iTunes. Depending on the multimedia format, you can either choose to sync playlists or specific movie files or television shows etc. Yes.. it’s a bit inconsistent if you ask me.

Here’s the tab for movies.

Here’s the tab for TV Shows:

For music, I created a playlist which I called “Apple TV”. I then dragged all the albums that I wanted to sync to the device and then sync’d this playlist to Apple TV. This was far easier than trying to sync my entire music library.

Here’s my unused Podcast tab (yes.. I don’t listen to podcasts… oh well)

For photos, you can sync folders within the “My Pictures” folder or “Pictures” folder under Windows/Windows Vista or you can sync albums from Photoshop Album/Elements.

Content - iTunes to your home media collections

If you think of the Apple TV device as a networked Apple iPod for the television set, then you can expect the device to play the same music file formats as the iPod. This includes MP3, AAC, protected AAC, Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV file formats.

For video, you get support similar to the iPod video device. Apple TV supports H.264 video files (protected and unprotected), iTunes Store purchased content, and MPEG-4 video files.

For pictures, Apple TV supports JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, and PNG file formats.

As you can see, there’s no support for third party formats like DivX, OGG etc. Thus if you have a large collection of DivX video files, then you’ll need to convert them into either MP4 or H.264 formats. According to Apple’s technical specifications, the video files have to fall into the following specifications.

For H.264, the files can have a maximum bitrate of up to 5 Mbps, and utilize the Progressive Main Profile (CAVLC) with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps. The maximum resolution is 1280 x 720 at 24 fps or 960 x 540 at 30 fps.

For MPEG-4, the files can have a maximum bitrate of up to 3 Mbps, and utilize the Simpe Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps. The maximum resolution is 720 x 432 at 30 fps.

There are a number of third party applications which can help you convert content from one video format into one that is compatible with Apple TV. Keep in mind that video conversion is something that is typically very CPU intensive. I’m currently working with Ahead’s Nero 7 software to re-encode video into something compatible with Apple TV.

Another possibility for getting television shows onto the Apple TV box is to utilize BroadClip’s MediaCatcher software which was originally designed for the iPod but should work equally well for Apple TV.

The Apple TV User Interface

Apple TV’s user interface is truly one of simplicity. If you’re used to an Apple iPod (and really.. most of you reading are), then this will feel right at home. Everything about the Apple TV device is controlled via the small Apple remote. Here’s a snapshot of the top level screen for Apple TV.

From top to bottom, you get:

• Movies
• TV Shows
• Music
• Podcasts
• Photos
• Settings
• Sources

To scroll down the menu, you simply press the +/- buttons on your Apple TV remote. To select a menu item, you press the play/pause button. To go back up a menu, you press the “menu” button. There are good and bad things to like about the Apple remote. First the good things. It’s easy to use and if you’re familiar with the iPod, then you’ll feel right at home here. Unfortunately there’s no scroll wheel which means navigating through long lists of files means holding down a + or - button. Similar to how the Microsoft Zune works, the menu items will scroll by faster the longer you press and hold a button.

Now the bad - the remote is a bit too simplistic. Since Apple TV does not support a search/query interface you can’t type out the name of a movie or artist that you’re looking for. But even if it did have such an interface, you’d have a problem entering letters using the included remote. Additionally, Apple could have updated the remote for the Apple TV device. The +/- buttons make you think you can control the volume level when in fact you can’t. What’s up with that? Of course you wouldn’t be controlling the volume anyhow since the device is designed to work with an external amplifier.

Movies

Click into the “Movies” section and you’ll get something that looks as follows:

The right hand side will list the top movies in iTunes, the latest trailers available online and the movies stored on your Apple TV device. These could be movies purchased via iTunes (which is what Apple will want you to do of course) or they could be movies you ripped/encoded yourself. The snapshot here shows two movies purchased via iTunes - The Danish Poet and Star Trek VIII:First Contact. The left hand side is reserved for either a snapshot of the currently selected movie or a picture of the movie poster if downloaded via iTunes. You’ll also find additional content about the movie (such as movie rating, description, cast, length etc) if it was purchased via iTunes.

If we click over to the “iTunes Top Movies” menu item, you’ll get all the top movie poster pictures scrolling by along the left hand side. Clicking into the iTunes Top Movies will show you something like this:

Again, movie information (including the poster art) is displayed on the left hand side. If you select one of these iTunes Top Movies, you’ll see a quick trailer preview for the movie. Unfortunately you can not purchase movies directly via Apple TV. This list of Top Movies is strictly for previewing purposes only. If you wish to then purchase the movie, you need to go to your PC or Mac and buy it via iTunes.

Clicking into the “Theatrical Trailers” section also reveals a similar display of movies and information. Think of this as basically a new way of displaying the movie trailers section on Apple’s website. When you select a trailer, Apple TV will download the trailer directly from the net and display it onto your screen. Apple TV will not download the HD versions of the trailer which is a shame should you have an HDTV display. We suppose this is to ensure videos are downloaded and streamed to your display in a timely manner but I wouldn’t mind waiting a bit if it meant that I could see a higher quality trailer.

So what about movie playback? As most of you already know by now, Apple iTunes does not currently sell HD quality videos which means the content being purchased on iTunes really is not a good fit for those of you with HDTV displays. We’re sure that Apple will eventually sell HD quality videos via iTunes but for now, don’t expect much from iTunes.

On a side note - One wonders what will happen when Apple does launch HD video downloads. What about all the movies that have already been purchased in lower resolutions? Will these users have to pay a full price again to get HD quality or will there be a discounted price for HD movies if you’ve already purchased the movies before. The Xbox 360 pricing model actually works well in this case. If you purchase an HD movie, you are also eligible to download the standard definition quality version. Here’s hoping Apple will do the same too.

Here’s a snapshot of the movie playback quality.

On a 46 inch 1080p display, it’s clear that the video quality really isn’t up to snuff. In fact, large high resolution displays will emphasize the poor quality of the movie downloads. If you’re watching on a smaller display or a standard definition display, you probably won’t mind the quality of the iTunes movie downloads. Unfortunately, I’ve been somewhat spoiled by the Xbox Video Marketplace so this just doesn’t cut it for me.

To play back movies, simply select the movie with your remote control and press play on your remote control. If you ever stop movie playback and come back to the movie, you’ll be prompted with two choices - either resume from where you were or start over:

Movies purchased via iTunes comes with chapter support which means you can skip through the movie to defined chapter points. As you skip through the chapters, Apple TV will display the chapter title as you skip through the movie (these titles should match the titles in the DVD version of the movie).

TV Shows

When you click into “TV Shows”. you get basically two types of menu items - one is the “iTunes Top TV Episodes” and the other is a list of all the television shows you have in the library. You can sort the television shows by date or by show name:

Here’s what the “iTunes Top TV Episodes” looks like when you click into it. It’s equivalent to the other iTunes Top lists. You can view a preview of the television show but that’s about it.

Interested in watching your purchased television shows? Here’s what it looks like when you click into a television show series such as Battlestar Galactica. Here I purchased a good portion of season three:

The right hand side lists all the episodes for a particular television show series. The left hand side shows poster art and information about the currently selected episde.

Here’s a snapshot of an episode being played back:

Music

When you click into the “Music” section of Apple TV, you’re presented with the following menu items on the right hand side:

• iTunes Top Songs
• iTunes Top Music Videos
• Shuffle Songs
• Music Videos
• Playlists
• Artists
• Albums
• Songs
• Genres
• Composers
• Audiobooks

The left hand side displays random album covers which are constantly being shuffled. The album cover art is dependent on the menu selection you’re currently at. I’ll spend a little bit of time on each of the menu categories.

The “iTunes Top Songs” is equivalent to the iTunes Top Movies menu selection.

Click into the menu selection and you’ll get a list of the top 10 songs on iTunes right now. You’ll also see the appropriate album cover art and information on the left hand side. Again - Apple only provides a snippet of the song here. You have no option to purchase music via the Apple TV device. You’ll need to go to your Mac or PC and purchase it through iTunes there.

The “iTunes Top Music Videos” displays the current top selling music videos on iTunes.

Again - same concepts as before. You get a snapshot of the video and if you select a song, you’ll get a snippet of the music video. No purchase option of course.

“Shuffle Songs” is exactly that - you’re telling Apple TV to shuffle through all the songs loaded onto your device.

Click into “Music Videos” and you’ll see a list of the music videos that you’ve purchased through iTunes sorted by artist.

Here, I’ve purchased a single music video from Justin Timberlake via iTunes and synced it to the device. Again- don’t expect high definition video quality.

The other menu items under “Music” are pretty much the same thing. Click into playlists, artists, albums, songs, genres, composers, and audiobooks, and you’ll get a complete listing of content organized by that genre. The album cover art changes accordingly as a result.

Music playback quality is quite good via the Apple TV device but that is of course relative to the bitrate you encoded your music in.

Playing back a song… a wee bit boring

I’ve dedicated a separate section just for the act of playing back music. Why you might ask? I find it pretty boring on Apple TV and I’m somewhat disappointed here. Consider - most of us are used to simple visualizations on our computers when we play back music. Heck WinAmp users have been using visualizations since forever now. Why do we use them? Because they’re appealing and well.. funky to look at. It’s something for the brain to wander off to.

At first glance, things look promising. You get the album cover art on the left hand side of the screen with a scroll bar on the bottom. After a few seconds, the album cover art will flip to the right.. and then back to the left. *yawn*.

Most of the screen real estate space is actually wasted with nothing but a black background. If you have a screen saver enabled, it will kick in after a few moments depending on your configurations. The screen saver itself is pretty cool because you get a nice flow of images going up the screen - flipping around every once in a while. Unfortunately even the screen saver gets a bit boring after some time. Unless you’ve loaded the device with a ton of pictures, you’ll quickly be bored with the screen saver too.

Playback visualizations is something that I feel Microsoft has actually done a great job with under Windows Media Center - espcially on Windows Vista. I hate to say it but Apple could learn a thing or two here from Microsoft!!!

Podcasts

The podcasts section will show you all the podcasts that have been sync’d to the Apple TV device via iTunes. Sorry.. I don’t use podcasts so I didn’t try this out. Yes.. I must be one of the few people out there not into podcasts. Go figure.

Photos

The “Photos” section lists the following menu items:

• Slideshow Settings
• Sync’d Albums

Under “Slideshow Settings” you can customize the following settings:

• Time Per Slide (select from 2, 3, 5, 10, 20 seconds)
• Music - (select from the library, or playlists)
• Repeat setting (on or off)
• Shuffle Photos (on or off)
• Shuffle Music (on or off)
• Ken Burns Effect (on or off.. but really.. who wants this off?)
• Transitions (select from Random, cube, dissolve, droplet, fade through black, flip, mosaic flip large, mosaic flip small, page flip, push, reveal, twirl, and wipe)

The slideshow playback feature is a pretty nifty feature although certainly not unique to this device. You simply select a sync’d photo album and Apple TV will begin playback of the pictures based on the settings you’ve selected. Apple TV will also play random music from the playlist you’ve selected to accompany your slideshow.

Photo playback is the one area where Apple TV really excels in utilizing high resolution displays. Pictures are sharp and colors are vibrant on an HD display. If there’s one complaint I have with the Photo section is the inability for me to skip through the music as the slideshow progresses through the music playlist. You’re pretty much stuck to the music playing at that moment.

Settings

The “Settings” section lists the following menu items:

• About
• TV resolution
• Network
• Screen Saver
• Repeat Music
• Sound Check
• Sound Effects
• HDMI Brightness
• Pair Remote
• Update Software
• Language
• Legal
• Reset Settings

Some highlights from these menu items:

The “About” menu item gives you a brief informational overview of your system. You’ll see how much disk space is available, what your TV resolution setting is, and network information. Here’s a snapshot of it here.

The “TV resolution” menu item is where you can change your output video resolution.

I have it set for 720p on my display. If you happen to select a display resolution/frequency which isn’t supported on your display, don’t worry - Apple TV will revert back if you can’t seem to see the output.

The “Network” menu item allows you to configure your network settings and also shows you your current IP and MAC address.

The “Screen Saver” menu item is where you can program the various screen saver related settings.

You can choose when the screen saver can kick in, when to use it, and what content should be used by your screen saver. You can choose Logos, Albums, or Photos. I currently have it set for Photos which is displaying all of my wedding pictures.

“Update Software” allows Apple TV to check online for any new software updates. This is certainly a nice must have feature of Apple TV - especially in light of the fact that there is no media slot or disk drive on the unit.

Sources

The “Sources” menu item shows you the various media sources available to Apple TV.

You can of course listen and watch content stored on your Apple TV library (which is synced from a computer on your network). You can also connect and stream content from up to five other iTunes enabled PCs or Macs. Everytime you want to add a new iTunes enabled system to your Apple TV device, you’ll need to give it a unique passcode.

Remember - you can also stream content from the same computer you sync’d from.

The Pros and Cons

Let me preface this section and remind all of you where I’m coming from. First off, I’m a Windows user so there’s probably some bias in my writing here. I’ve always respected Apple hardware and software products and there have been many instances where I wished I had an Apple system instead of a Windows based PC. At the end of the day, I’m still a Windows user (and a Windows Vista user too!)

Ok.. with that said, let’s jump into the pros and cons of the Apple TV device.

Pros:

Apple TV is all about KISS - Keep It Simple, Stupid.

Hardware setup is dead simple. Apple TV is incredibly easy to set up which goes a long way towards making sure it’s accepted by the general public and not just by the technical elite. If you know how to hook up a DVD player to your TV and/or AV system, then you already know how to connect the Apple TV device. The only difference is connecting the Ethernet cable or connecting the device to your wireless network.

Software setup is also dead simpel. Setting up the hardware is easy but setting up the software is even easier in our opinion. If you know how to sync an iPod, then syncing to an Apple TV is just as easy. The only complication comes if your iTunes library is larger than the Apple TV hard drive (which isn’t hard to accomplish). You’ll then need to pick and choose the content to sync to your Apple TV a bit more carefully. Apple chose to emphasize video content over music content with Apple TV (which is evident in how it decides to copy/remove data from Apple TV) which makes sense given the name of the product. If you wanted to just listen to music, then purchasing an Apple iPod makes much more sense than an Apple TV device.

Downloadable content to the masses? Apple TV further opens the doors to downlodable content - albeit the doors to the Apple iTunes storefront. What does this mean for you and I? More content will be available online which translates to faster access to content. Sure the Xbox 360 has that today, and in many ways offers high quality video content. However, nothing currently beats the size and popularity of Apple iTunes - whether it’s movies, music videos, or music.

Imagine a day when you say to yourself - Gee.. I want to watch this movie like.. NOW. OK. Just go on iTunes, purchase the movie, download it, and watch it right on your Apple TV device. Simple enough!

Ease of use. Keeping with the KISS tradition, Apple TV is a cinch to use. The menu system makes a great deal of sense and navigating through all the selections is simple with the included remote control. Again - if you know how to use an iPod, then Apple TV will feel right at home in your living room. As many other reviewers have mentioned before, the Apple TV is basically a networked video supporting iPod.

Portable multimedia storage. Apple TV makes portable multimedia content even more of a reality. Think of it. Just sync all of your favorite music, movies, TV shows, and photos onto your Apple TV. Disconnect it from your A/V system and bring it with you wherever you want (as long as they have a component or HDMI connector). Multimedia portability made simple if you ask us! Once you have the content on your Apple TV, you can simply take it anywhere without the explicit need for a network connection. Yes, it’s not a portable media player but that’s not what we’re talking about here. We’re talking about taking your content to someone else’s home and easily connecting it to their display with the best possible video connections like component or HDMI. Once HD content is more readily available on iTunes, Apple TV’s world will change for the better.

Cons:

40 GB Hard Drive - what gives? Hard drives are dirt cheap these days Apple. Couldn’t you have plopped in at least an 80GB hard disk drive into the device? What are we going to do with 40GB of hard drive space? I suppose we’ll end up streaming everything from iTunes then over time. Yes there are mods out there that let you upgrade the hard drive to something larger but come on.. give us more space. Didn’t you learn anything from Microsoft’s inclusion of a paltry 20 GB HDD in the Xbox 360? Load your favorite music, photos, and movies and you’ll see that 40 GB of space just doesn’t cut it.

Limited format support. Yes, this isn’t surprising. In fact, one should expect this from Apple especially when you consider they want to sell more content from iTunes as a result of Apple TV. However, it would have been nice for Apple to support other video formats such as the popular DivX format. It’s not hard for the device to support a new format and one could easily keep it updated via the Update Software setting. However, it comes down to dollars and cents in our opinion. Apple wants you to purchase legal content from their website. With that said, it’s not impossible to get content into the proper Apple TV formats. We just wish you wouldn’t have to.

ITunes video quality stinks. That might be a bit rough but it’s true. It’s an interesting situation of course. Apple first enforces the fact that the device needs at least a component video connector. But once you make sure you have all the proper equipment on hand, they disappoint you with the quality of the downloadable content. We’re sure this will change over time but who knows when Apple will introduce HD quality content. Of course the problem might be how to deliver large files over iTunes in a timely manner but come on.. the Xbox 360 allows for this! Yes you wait some time for HD content to get downloaded but the image quality is worth it! In any event, what you currently have with iTunes is content which is ultimately blurry and washed out at best. It certainly makes me wish I viewed Apple TV on my small computer monitor rather than on a 46 inch LCD display. Thus - don’t buy the Apple TV device expecting to have access to a wide array of HD or even DVD quality downloadable videos at this time.

Movie audio quality could be better. OK. You might have been wondering about audio support - especially in light of the fact that Quicktime supports 5.1 audio playback. Unfortunately, Apple TV downmixes everything to two channel stereo sound. Great. I’ve got an optical connection to my receiver and I’m sending it two channel digital sound. Sounds lovely right? Yeah.. but five discrete channels would have been better! Again, this will probably change over time but for the here and now, this is rather lacking.

Remote control - small, cute but otherwise useless. Yes it’s easy to use and yes it reminds you of iPod controls. But let’s think about it. This is a home oriented device which means you really should provide additional controls to your remote. There are times where keeping it simple just doesn’t cut it anymore. Even a simple numeric keypad would have been appreciated. A numeric keypad in conjunction with a search interface would allow users a quicker way to find their content on the device. If you’ve got yourself a large list of artists stored on the Apple TV device, then using the remote can be a pain sometimes.

Why can’t I buy directly on Apple TV? This is perhaps my biggest complaint with Apple TV. We’re teased with Apple TV’s ability to show us what is currently popular on iTunes yet we can not purchase any of that content. Of course adding support for this would probably complicate the user interface somewhat but come on - we’re all lazy right? I know I am. I don’t want to have to get up from my couch, walk over to my computer, and purchase the movie, music video, or TV show. I want to be able to do all of that right there on my Apple TV and then also have the ability to download the same content onto my computer later on. Is it so much to ask? I think not. Perhaps Apple will add this feature later on too. Anything is possible right?

Other minor complaints

Media playback stops when you go to the top level menu screen. Why? I’m playing back an album and I go to the top menu to see what else is available on the Apple TV device. Once I hit the top menu, music playback stops. Why? It’d be nice if Apple took a cue from Windows Media Center and allow music playback to continue until the user either stops playback or selects something else to play.

I mentioned this one earlier - When you’re playing a slideshow, you can’t skip through the songs being played back. This isn’t a problem if you set up a specific playlist for your slideshow but if you’re listening to your entire music collection, I’m sure there are some songs you don’t want to hear. Let us skip through it!

Oh yes - one more gripe which I mentioned earlier - what about bundled component or HDMI cables? Come on Apple - don’t be so cheap please!

Finally this isn’t really a complaint of Apple TV itself but rather the iTunes software application. Apple - please make the server component of iTunes into a background process, Windows service or daemon. It’s a bit annoying that iTunes always has to run on the desktop in order for Apple TV to stream or sync content. This isn’t a problem if all of your content is being played directly from Apple TV’s integrated hard drive of course.

Comparisons

I thought it would nice to compare the Apple TV device against two other products that I use regularly in my home - an Xbox 360 console and a Microsoft Windows Media Center PC.

Cost comparison

From a pure cost perspective, Apple TV is cheap at $299 while an Xbox 360 with a 20 GB HDD checks in at $499. However, the Xbox 360 is useful by itself - you don’t need a PC to connect to in order for the system to download content or play music, games etc. Another thing to keep in mind - you can really do far more with an Xbox 360 than a comparable Apple TV device. An Apple TV requires an external computer system to get content from which is an important consideration when you factor in costs. Of course, if you’re purchasing an Apple TV, there’s a good chance you already have a computer. Finally, a Windows Media Center PC costs the most but it’s also is an entirely self contained device. Prices will range from cheap systems in the 500 dollar range to over $3K for super high end systems.

Setup comparisons

Both the Apple TV and the Microsoft Xbox 360 are extremely easy to setup. You simply connect the cables and power up the devices and you’re up and running. Both devices require a network connection to get things rolling with the Xbox 360 requiring an Internet connection in order for you to purchase digital content. Apple TV requires a computer to sync with which MIGHT need an Internet connection should you want to purchase online content.

As for home theater PCs such as a Windows Media Center system, setting things up is far, far more complicated. You have to worry about how to connect the video output from your PC to the television set (unless you happen to have a rare HDMI output connector on your PC). You’ll probably have to deal with the underlying OS’s user interface to perform tasks such as updating the system. Let’s not forget boot times mind you. PC’s are not exactly quick starters. While booting, there’s also a chance you’ll see ugly POST screens - especially in the Windows world. Yes.. HTPC’s are far from simple to set up.

Video support comparison

Both Apple and Microsoft support their respective video file format standards. Apple TV supports H.264 and MPEG-4 video file formats. The Xbox 360 supports Microsoft’s proprietary WMV file format (but will add H.264 and MPEG-4 shortly) but is also capable of playing back DVDs thanks to it’s built in DVD player. If you feel like spending a bit more cash, you can also purchase an HD DVD player for the Xbox 360. There are additional ways for getting non-WMV content onto the Xbox 360 but we won’t get into that here. Clearly both platforms stress the importance of staying with their respective proprietary file formats. Both platforms stress the importance of staying with their respective platforms primarily due to proprietary DRM standards. You could argue FairPlay and PlaysForSure are open.. but how many devices out there support both platforms? Both platforms lack support for third party formats like DivX. The Xbox 360 presents a more complete home theater package when you consider the bundled DVD player and the ability to connect to Windows Media Center PCs as well as Windows systems on the network.

The most flexible platform would be a Windows Media Center based PC (or any HTPC platform really - it could be a BeyondTV setup, a MythTV setup, a Mac mini etc). The point is - a computer gives you the most flexibility because it allows you to install as many video codecs as possible. Unfortunately setting up a computer to work with a television set is a bit more difficult as a result.

Audio support comparison

The audio side of things is somewhat reminiscent of the video side. Both Apple TV and the Xbox 360 support MP3 file formats and they both support their own proprietary file formats as well. Of course a computer such as a Windows Media Center based PC would again provide you the most flexibility. Why? If you don’t have the proper codec, just download and install the codec yourself. Easy!

Online content comparison

For Apple, it’s all about iTunes. You can purchase all of your music, music videos, movies, and TV shows via iTunes. The only catch? You need to purchase the content from a PC or a Mac and then sync it to the Apple TV.

For Microsoft, everything is about the Xbox Live network and the various marketplaces that are available as a result. Right now, the Xbox 360 has the Video marketplace feature in place which allows console owners the ability to purchase and download TV shows, and movies. The really great thing? You can purchase the content directly from the Xbox 360 console. There’s no need to go to a PC to do any of this. You can not purchase music at this time via the Xbox Live network although you could purchase music from say the Zune marketplace and then stream such content to the Xbox 360. Otherwise, you can connect digital audio players (even the iPod) to the 360, connect external hard drives, or stream content directly from a PC.

As for home theater PCs like Windows Media Center - downloadable content is typically relegated to third party applications such as Amazon Unbox. There are several vendors which provide MCE applets which you can then purchase and download content directly from the MCE interface. Of course Media Center systems also come with applets for MTV, VH1 and other vendors as well.

User interface comparison

OK.. I’m a bit biased here. To me - Windows Media Center’s user interface rocks. Microsoft’s been working on it for many many years now and it’s a thing of beauty. This is not to say that Apple TV’s user interface is bad. On the contrary, it’s quite good although somewhat simplistic. Ironically, the Xbox 360’s Dashboard UI is a bit clunky in comparison to both Apple TV and Windows Media Center. The Xbox 360 Dashboard works well for gaming but could use a little more improvement when it comes to the Xbox Live Video Marketplace.

So what does this all mean?

Why present all this information? Because I believe in providing a clear balanced look at the Apple TV device in relation to other established competitors out there. Keep in mind that I haven’t even discussed the many other third party media center like devices out there too! The truth is - there are only a couple of devices that would be considered similar in scope to the Apple TV device. This includes the Xbox 360, the Sony Playstation 3, and even the likes of TiVo. I’ve stuck with the Xbox 360 and the Windows Media Center platform mostly because I have the most experience with these devices but don’t for a second forget about other possibilities.

Here’s what we do know from all this information thus far. Apple TV is a simple easy to use device that works in conjunction with a computer running iTunes on a local area network. Does it need a computer to be on in order for it to run? Not after the initial synchronization. Once content is delivered to the device, Apple TV simply works. Watch your movies, television shows, music videos, or listen to your music all from the comfort of your living room (or whatever room it’s hooked up to).

Everything about Apple TV is designed around ease of use. From the ease of setup, to the software synchronization, to the user interface. It’s a simple device period.

However, simplicity does come at a price. Apple TV is not the be all, end all of the digital living room and it’s not quite the revolutionary device that some of us were hoping it to be. If anything, Apple TV represents a new step in Apple’s evolutionary development. It doesn’t really propel the current state of affairs in the digital television world either except in the areas of setup and ease of use. Power users will find it lacking in capabilities and will yearn for hacks and modifications to make the device more powerful. The device lacks several key components such as true HD offerings/downloads and an integrated store front. In fact, the Microsoft Xbox 360 is in some ways more advanced in it’s video offerings than what you find with Apple TV. It has an integrated store front in the form of the Xbox Video Marketplace and it plays games to boot! Yes it costs more but it’s also more capable in many ways.

So where does this leave Apple TV? In all honestly, I thought about it for some time and I realized that the Apple TV is the platform for the rest of us! Whether we like it or not, iTunes is one of the most popular online media store fronts on the Internet and Apple TV can easily tap into all of this content. With so much content from iTunes available on so many computers out there, it’s easy to see how Apple TV could actually succeed. Users can now watch the very same television shows that they were previously viewing on their iPods on their television sets. People can listen to their music fromt he comfort of their couch. Now that’s easy living! The Xbox 360 has a ton of potential of course. Microsoft already offers downloadable HD content but their online music subscription service for the 360 is non-existent. You’ll need to go through the Zune marketplace and that represents fragmentation which simply doesn’t exist in the iTunes world. Finally, people think of the Xbox 360 as a gaming console first - not a multimedia entertainment system (even if it really is these days). Apple TV? It’s clearly a digital media box.

To summarize, I’ll repeat what I said in the beginning. Apple TV is a glorified networked Apple iPod. It’s easy to use and it just works. It’s not necessarily better than other products out there and it’s certainly not perfect but in many ways, it’s more than enough for most of us.

No Tags