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Re: Apple TV?
I don't have one, my perception is that it is one major rev away from greatness tho. They need to put one of the new CPUs in it with a badass graphics chip in it plus make an 'app store for apple tv' and this could be a great product. Until then its functionality is just redundant with so many other gadgets you might have, its price is a bit high, although nothing touches it for user exoerience but Boxee is giving them a run for the money.
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JohnRice
- John Rice
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I'm wondering about an Apple TV mainly for streaming music. In fact, I would probably buy a monitor for it and not even hook it up to a TV. For now, anyway. I might eventually hook it up to both, so I can play music without turning on the main TV. Does anyone know how long this model has been out, or is it still the original one from, what, 2007? If so, I would be expecting an update sometime soon. I know someone who probably could tell me, but also probably won't due to confidentiality agreements.
Maybe it will help if I give a little more info. I am not loaded with gadgets by any means. No iPhone, no iPod, but I do have over 60 days (and constantly growing) of music loaded into iTunes, mostly at 320 Kb/s encoded with LAME, which I like to stream to any or all of three audio systems around the house. I may start reconverting some to lossless, since storage is so cheap. Currently I am using 2 Macs to stream music. One upstairs and one downstairs, both sharing the same files loaded on a drive connected to an AirPort Extreme and then fed to AirPort Expresses as well as the Macs themselves. All this music is unemcumbered, BTW. All converted from CD. No online purchases. The hassle is, neither Mac is actually in the same room as the best two audio systems. So, playback isn't as versatile as I'd like.
Anyway, the basic 40GB Apple TV seems like a nice way to go since I would be using external storage.. What I really want is something like using Front Row, but without the cost of a full computer. It would be nice to be able to watch movie trailers like in Front Row though. Does it do that?
BTW, how do you play back movies stored on your computer with this? I've never done it with Front Row and have no idea how.
Edited by JohnRice - 7/5/2009 at 07:02 am GMT
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JohnRice
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Thanks for the info Dave. No TIVO. No cable or satellite. I just use an antenna for the little TV watching I do. I guess I will finally get the network set up properly and add an Apple TV. No doubt as soon as I get it there will be a major update. At least it is reasonably inexpensive.
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JohnRice
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Yes, it does seem a bit limited compared to what it should be able to do. This seems to have been partly intentional, such as with the worthless usb port, which is a little annoying. DVR capabilities would be nice, but it can access that if the main Mac is set up for it. However, it will do what I mainly want, which is to easily access the nearly 2,000 hours of music I have on the server. Definite coolness factor too. When you look at it, $200 is pretty reasonable.
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JohnRice
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You know Dave, it seems to me that it already has some of that. You can have DVR capabilities on the main Mac, and then it can access it. While unlimited external HD support is an obvious feature, you still can configure iTunes on the main Mac to store files wherever you like, including an external drive, then it will access the files. Maybe it's not quite as smooth as it should be, but there is actually external drive ability. I expect the ripping feature is a sticky issue. Not sure you'll see that any time soon.
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JohnRice
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
Joe Casey 
Just curious why you'd consider converting lossy files to lossless. Granted, 320kbps is decent but you won't regain any of the lost information. It'd just be a waste of HD space.
I had already stated that all of my music came from CD, and when I said "reconvert to lossless" I meant going back to the original CDs and reconverting them, but this time using lossless.
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JohnRice
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Dave, maybe you have already done this, but look at the aTV as a component. Instead of buying all this stuff over that you already have in the main computer, the aTV is simply a portal to easily get that stuff to your HT. The main computer actually does all the brain work, To me, it actually makes a lot of sense. Maybe Apple should also offer essentialy a Mini configured as a stand alone unit, but for all those people who already have the main computer, the aTV seems to be an extremely inexpensive to let it reach out to the HT. Admitted, it is a work in progress, hopefully.
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JohnRice
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Maybe I misunderstood you Dave. I had the impression you were saying there is no reason for anyone to use an aTV. In my situation, where I have no interest in having a DVD library at my fingertips either (I prefer to just play the DVDs) and since the little TV watching I do is strictly OTA, Tivo doesn't make much sense. If I want some DVR capabilities from digital broadcast, I can add that cheaply to the main Mac and access it with the aTV. What it does do is give me nice access to all my music, without having to turn on the TV. Just hook a small monitor up.
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JohnRice
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
DaveF
I don't understand your comment about listening to music from the aTV without turning the TV on. How do you do the menus?
The rest of that post said something about just a monitor for the menus. That may bring people in saying how absurd the idea is, but go back to my main purpose of the aTV being a menu system for all my music. At this point, I don't have much interest in streaming video. My HT is used just as much for music alone as for movies. The way I see it, for roughly the price of a middle of the line Oppo (when there was one) I get a nice menu system for music. Let's face it, people spend twice that much on a programmable remote.
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JohnRice
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Thanks for the info Andrew. I would initially use it wireless, though the rest of the network is wired with Cat6 and a Gigabit AirPort Extreme, which would only be about 20 ft from the AppleTV. If it turned out to be flaky, it can easily be wired though. The only things I am actually using wireless are my AirPort Expresses, which to this point have only been used for music.
I will look at the Roku though. I know I looked it up some time ago, but then the whole idea was just a pipe dream.
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