All-New Apple TV

[pwiles1968]

The package looks great and not bothered about it not having any internal storage but at First Glance it looks like a Video Airport Express, it talkes about Streaming To the AppleTV from I tunes or a device such as an iPad.

There is nothing about it being able to operate as a stand alone player and Pull Music etc from a NAS if you can not do this I will be Gutted was looking at using one of these as a media device on the HiFi.

Have I missed something?

 

[AlmaataKZ]

Indeed, a bit unclear what it does and what it does not... So far looks like a streamer with video (no 1080?), photo and widgets. Audio quality credentials not clear - e.g. will it be limited to 16/44 as before or is it better? no analog audio out, no usb connection that can play from local hd...

Expanding to the other apple announcements:

ipod touch - very nice to have the cameras, especially the front one, the new screen and to keep the old shape. a bit disappointed with lack of 128 gig bump in capacity (comignlater in a minor update?). other new features - neutral. So, can I now make skype video calls?

ipod nano - really do not get it. screen too small for pics, album art or controlling. a bit pointelss IMO.

shuffle - buttons are back. good.

itunes 10 - converging with social networking will certainly boost music sales but why no audio quality improvements? why do this instead of quality and not in addition to it??? still no auto sample rate switching? still no higher-rez music on itunes store? drop the CD picture from the logo but not offer real CD quality e.g. in apple lossless? Hmmmm....

 

[Tonestar1]

New apple tv?

Think my airport is now ebay bound. I've also just bought a mini display port to hdmi adapter for getting my mac on tv as well as an extra optical for sound. Not even them delivered yet so I'll be looking to return or sell on asap. If only I had waited a week, just my luck!

 

[pwiles1968]

If you can only stream and Have to have a PC on in order to Play, than I will be sticking to the Express, may call apple sales tomorrow with some complicated questions see if that have had any product training yet

.

 

[DrizztDan]

yeh let me know what they say as i was gonna buy an airport express. But if I can stream msuic with the apple tv now.. without having the pc on then i saved myself some money.

 

[John Duncan]

I'm presuming you can't, which in a way is a step backwards. The cool things it does do (since nobody buys or rents movies from the iTunes store, do they?) like Netflix integration are all available in a Sony 370, with the advantage of it having a blu-ray player attached...

Having said that, of course, why would anyone buy an airport express now?

 

[Anonymous]

There are much better media streamers out there.

If u are looking to stream video as well as music from a central location such as a NAS then Apple TV would be a poor choice in my opinion - lack of format support, low resolution, and low bitrates.

 

[professorhat]

What would be a good choice? (and I ask that as an educational question, not in any confrontational manner

)

 

[Anonymous]

I hope the USB port on the new one will allow external storage.......(likelyhood of that isnt high though)

Hopefully the audio capabilities have improved.....

Otherwise right now........I just dont get it

 

[axman]

720p good enough for me. Can rely on my Pioneer to do the upscaling. As far as I know only Blu-Ray does 1080p. And it takes up too much space and can have issues while streaming. TV shows are anyway only 1080i (upscaled from 720p, I guess).

That optical connection must be an output (can't think of a good reason why it would be an input). If so, that is very useful to run audio through a DAC!

It will stream directly from ipad/ipod/iphone. That is cool. Bye bye Airport express!

 

[AlmaataKZ]

Vinny7:

I hope the USB port on the new one will allow external storage.......(likelyhood of that isnt high though)

Hopefully the audio capabilities have improved.....

Otherwise right now........I just dont get it

spec on apple site says usb is only for service

 

[Anonymous]

possibility exists I suppose that in the future something like ATV Flash will come along and allow external storage I guess in which case I might be tempted if my original ATV should die. At the moment with a 2TB usb drive attached I'd not be in a hurry to "upgrade".

 

[axman]

This is even more interesting: Airplay (which replaces airtunes) can stream wirelessly and directly to Airplay enabled devices, thus there is no need for an airport express or Apple TV.

Apparently, airplay enabled devices would include Denon receivers, B&W speakers (I guess, ipod dock, without the dock).

 

[manicm]

AlmaataKZ:

Indeed, a bit unclear what it does and what it does not... So far looks like a streamer with video (no 1080?), photo and widgets. Audio quality credentials not clear - e.g. will it be limited to 16/44 as before or is it better? no analog audio out, no usb connection that can play from local hd...

Expanding to the other apple announcements:

ipod touch - very nice to have the cameras, especially the front one, the new screen and to keep the old shape. a bit disappointed with lack of 128 gig bump in capacity (comignlater in a minor update?). other new features - neutral. So, can I now make skype video calls?

ipod nano - really do not get it. screen too small for pics, album art or controlling. a bit pointelss IMO.

shuffle - buttons are back. good.

itunes 10 - converging with social networking will certainly boost music sales but why no audio quality improvements? why do this instead of quality and not in addition to it??? still no auto sample rate switching? still no higher-rez music on itunes store? drop the CD picture from the logo but not offer real CD quality e.g. in apple lossless? Hmmmm....

Apple made the right choice with the Nano - the click wheel had become a painful dog. From what I can see the screen is fine for album art. And it has dedicated hard volume controls as well.

 

[pwiles1968]

edsib1:There are much better media streamers out there.
If u are looking to stream video as well as music from a central location such as a NAS then Apple TV would be a poor choice in my opinion - lack of format support, low resolution, and low bitrates.

Yes there are better (And More expensive) Players on the market I was looking at the Sonos, I like the iTunes HMI Genius Mixes etc so the TV was a good fit for me, as I have to re-rip everything in to losless anyhow then Apple Lossless was as good a choice as any of the other formats, but I had wanted to use the TV as a stand alone streamer for when I did not have or want the PC on in the back room which the New TV does not look like it will do.

John I believe you have used the Current Apple TV how do you rate it as a stand alone player when combined with a NAS? Will it even Pull data directly from a NAS?

 

[John Duncan]

I don't any more, I got rid, but it was much better than the Airport Express into a DACMagic, primarily because it had a hard drive in it and therefore removed any wireless glitchiness problems (sonically there might have been a slight improvement, but I could have imagined it). So to my mind losing the storage is a definite minus point, since it now becomes an airport express with a UI when hooked up to a telly (though only an HDMI-equipped telly, note...).

Nothing wrong with that per se (I may buy one to replace my AX, tbh), but it's kind of lost much of it's original raison d'ˆtre for me - there are other similarly-priced players which will do the same thing and more, though perhaps without such a gorgeous interface.

EDIT - I now see you said "have used" as opposed to "have", so forget the first seven words or so...

 

[pwiles1968]

JohnDuncan:I don't any more, I got rid, but it was much better than the Airport Express into a DACMagic, primarily because it had a hard drive in it and therefore removed any wireless glitchiness problems (sonically there might have been a slight improvement, but I could have imagined it). So to my mind losing the storage is a definite minus point, since it now becomes an airport express with a UI when hooked up to a telly (though only an HDMI-equipped telly, note...). Nothing wrong with that per se (I may buy one to replace my AX, tbh), but it's kind of lost much of it's original raison d'ˆtre for me - there are other similarly-priced players which will do the same thing and more, though perhaps without such a gorgeous interface.EDIT - I now see you said "have used" as opposed to "have", so forget the first seven words or so...

Agree with the interface, it is the iTunes interface that has sold me on going down the apple route in the first place, if I can pick one up for the right money I may go for the original 160GB TV, do you know can I run that in conjunction with a NAS drive or is it PC+iTunes to TV or onboard storage? If it is the on-board i think I can fit a reasonable amount of Lossless in to 160GB and it is not the end of the world to fire up the PC or netbook if I want a bigger choice.

 

[John Duncan]

I don't think any NAS really works with @TV - you need to have a PC running iTunes on. There are free hacks to enable the USB slot for an offboard drive (or you cam pay for the ATVFlash bundle of tricks), but I never tried it - I settled for attaching a drive to the mac and having it on all the time (which it is anyway).

 

[daveh75]

Can't see the point of ATV now Sonos is getting Spotify...Mines gonna be getting ebayed alongside my Mac Mini and replaced by a brace of ZP90s + controller...

 

[landzw]

Wow have you looked on eBay lately , lots of apple Tv's for Sale

 

[Gozaradio]

professorhat:
What would be a good choice? (and I ask that as an educational question, not in any confrontational manner

)

Xtreamer for Video, Sonos or Squeezebox for Audio.

Boxee box looks interesting but not out yet.

 

[Anonymous]

I've got an Apple TV along with ATV Flash which I bought mostly so as to be able to us the USB port for an external drive. ATV Flash brings Boxee to the party and it works very very well.