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David Pogue Reviews the Apple TV

Posted by Zonk on from the applevision-as-the-wave-of-the-future dept.

necro81 writes "David Pogue of the NY Times has devoted his weekly column to the newly released Apple TV. He also has a video blurb to go with it. He compares it to the XBox360 and Netgear's EVA8000, which also deliver content traditionally trapped in a PC onto a TV set. Apple TV Pros: setup is as easy as can be, it's small and silent form factor will be good for home theaters, and the interface and remote control are intuitive. Cons: HDTV only, playback is limited to formats playable within iTunes, and no internet functionality other than movie trailers."

6 of 270 comments (clear)

  1. Not quite by Hawthorne01 · · Score: 4, Informative

    It will play on 480i, you just need component video to do it.

    --
    "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
  2. hacked by jamienk · · Score: 5, Informative

    AppleTV can now play Xvid -- http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?s= &threadid=2391956

    1. Re:hacked by Karlt1 · · Score: 5, Informative

      "That is a lot of crap to do just to support a non-DRM encrusted format. The blurb even said you need QT Pro, which means more money for Apple to just play a file. No thanks, I will stick to MythTV."

      How in the world is this marked "insightful"? There is so much misinformation in those two sentences its ridiculous.

      1. The AppleTV plays MP3, AAC, AIFF, WAV, Apple Lossless, Mpeg4 and H.264 all non DRMd formats.
      2. You don't need Quicktime Pro for any AppleTV functionality. You can use Handbrake (free open source software available for Windows, Macs, and Linux) to rip DVDs to either MPEG or H.264
      3. You don't even need QTPro to re-encode into an AppleTV format. There are plenty of free tools that can convert from Divx to Mpeg. If you're using a Mac, you download the codecs for QT, and you import the Divx movie into iTunes (Movie2Itunes) and then choose the "Convert to iPod format.

  3. hmm by mastershake_phd · · Score: 5, Informative

    Right now my Xbox with Xbox Media Center is more functional than this. It will play just about anything. Including realmedia files inside of a rar.

    --
    Libertarian Leaning Political Discussion Forum.
  4. Re:HDTV (component 480i counts) only? by Jeff+DeMaagd · · Score: 4, Informative

    Sorry, but no, 480i is not HDTV, even if it is in component video form. The connector type doesn't define whether it is HD.

    I had an SDTV that I bought in 2000 had 480i component, and that TV was not capable of progressive or HD video.

  5. Re:The Apple deal by blankaBrew · · Score: 5, Informative

    "What OSS has it released?"

    How about Bonjour, Darwin Streaming Server, XNU Kernel, Launchd Services and the forthcoming iCal Server which might help the OSS community finally have a competitor to Exchange.

    "Apple loves to use OSS... What OSS has it released? Why isn't OS X open sourced?"

    Oh....sure.... apple should open source their whole operating system...that makes a lot of sense for them and their shareholders. You sir are a moron or a troll.