Fed Up With Format War!

[ack_bak]

Ditto on being an Apple fan. I am also becoming a big fan of the Apple TV. I think many people forget that this is a first generation effort. Steve Jobs mentioned that this is his hobby. I fully expect that this device will continue to expand in the future and look very forward to the addition of iTunes HD content online for it.

Actually the Apple TV does support 5.1 surround--it has an optical jack to pipe to a receiver. Unfortunately, there is no 5.1 content on iTunes to my knowledge as of yet. You can rip your own content using Handbrake with 5.1 sound though.

I don't use much lossless audio (I don't have that discriminating of an ear) but according the the Apple TV specifications it supports. I do my encodes for audio at 256K AAC which sounds pretty close to the CD to me. I've read that 256K AAC is about the same as 320K MP3. I've tinkered with the Apple lossless before but I couldn't discern enough a difference to make me want to use it. It also eats up about three times the space of 256K AAC encodes.

I also saw that Apple is now selling 160GB versions of the Apple TV. I have two of the 40GB versions but store very little content on the box itself (1 GB Photos, about 7GB of Tunes, and about 2GB of video Podcasts). I find the streaming to work just as well as coping to the actual box but that would depend on your wireless setup/use of server. The larger hard drive can make sense to many users though and is only $100 over the base model.

I look forward to round 2 as well. Apple could integrate a HD drive (likely Blu-Ray) in the next generation. I'd also like to see them add support for other video codecs but doubt they will. I personally just use iSquint to convert everything to MP4. Adding on-demand rental content would also be awsome.

Sorry, your right I should have clarified that Apple TV does not offer 5.1 sound via iTunes. Agree with you on the storage thing, 1TB drives are getting cheaper and cheaper. I have 1GB Ethernet in my media room, but some of the reviews and tests I have seen with the Apple TV over wireless (G and draft N) have been a little disappointing.

I am really into HD, and I like my surround sound and the convenience with iTunes, so I think the concept is awesome. For the record, I am not knocking the Apple TV. For most people, they will be happy with it, and it is perfect for College dorms and if you have roommates, etc. I think Round 2 will be much better. I read that Apple is making little to any money on the hardware, and hardware and costs will drop over time. I am definitely watching this closely. I think Apple TV may be where I want it in just a few short years..

[JRNorwood]

I am a huge Apple fan, but Apple TV is still not there yet for me. No 5.1 surround (let alone lossless support), limited storage and bandwidth, and wireless is just not there yet.. I will wait for round 2 from Apple...

Ditto on being an Apple fan. I am also becoming a big fan of the Apple TV. I think many people forget that this is a first generation effort. Steve Jobs mentioned that this is his hobby. I fully expect that this device will continue to expand in the future and look very forward to the addition of iTunes HD content online for it.

Actually the Apple TV does support 5.1 surround--it has an optical jack to pipe to a receiver. Unfortunately, there is no 5.1 content on iTunes to my knowledge as of yet. You can rip your own content using Handbrake with 5.1 sound though.

I don't use much lossless audio (I don't have that discriminating of an ear) but according the the Apple TV specifications it supports. I do my encodes for audio at 256K AAC which sounds pretty close to the CD to me. I've read that 256K AAC is about the same as 320K MP3. I've tinkered with the Apple lossless before but I couldn't discern enough a difference to make me want to use it. It also eats up about three times the space of 256K AAC encodes.

I also saw that Apple is now selling 160GB versions of the Apple TV. I have two of the 40GB versions but store very little content on the box itself (1 GB Photos, about 7GB of Tunes, and about 2GB of video Podcasts). I find the streaming to work just as well as coping to the actual box but that would depend on your wireless setup/use of server. The larger hard drive can make sense to many users though and is only $100 over the base model.

I look forward to round 2 as well. Apple could integrate a HD drive (likely Blu-Ray) in the next generation. I'd also like to see them add support for other video codecs but doubt they will. I personally just use iSquint to convert everything to MP4. Adding on-demand rental content would also be awsome.

[HomeTheatreFreak]

Ditto on being an Apple fan. I am also becoming a big fan of the Apple TV. I think many people forget that this is a first generation effort. Steve Jobs mentioned that this is his hobby. I fully expect that this device will continue to expand in the future and look very forward to the addition of iTunes HD content online for it.

Actually the Apple TV does support 5.1 surround--it has an optical jack to pipe to a receiver. Unfortunately, there is no 5.1 content on iTunes to my knowledge as of yet. You can rip your own content using Handbrake with 5.1 sound though.

I don't use much lossless audio (I don't have that discriminating of an ear) but according the the Apple TV specifications it supports. I do my encodes for audio at 256K AAC which sounds pretty close to the CD to me. I've read that 256K AAC is about the same as 320K MP3. I've tinkered with the Apple lossless before but I couldn't discern enough a difference to make me want to use it. It also eats up about three times the space of 256K AAC encodes.

I also saw that Apple is now selling 160GB versions of the Apple TV. I have two of the 40GB versions but store very little content on the box itself (1 GB Photos, about 7GB of Tunes, and about 2GB of video Podcasts). I find the streaming to work just as well as coping to the actual box but that would depend on your wireless setup/use of server. The larger hard drive can make sense to many users though and is only $100 over the base model.

I look forward to round 2 as well. Apple could integrate a HD drive (likely Blu-Ray) in the next generation. I'd also like to see them add support for other video codecs but doubt they will. I personally just use iSquint to convert everything to MP4. Adding on-demand rental content would also be awsome.

Your right most likely Apple will not add more codecs to AppleTV's lineup as they want people to go the iTunes store route but that doesnt stop users from creatin software that will enable different codecs and that was what I Was talking qbout when Isaid I was looking forward to the user created content. I hate having to rencode everything for it to play and a hack that allows AVI support is what I am really keeping my eyes out for and I guarantee without a single doubt we will see it within the next 3-4 months.

As for Apple itself, I am not just an Apple fan, I am obsessed with Apple products and have never owned a PC in my life. Besides the Amiga500, Commodore64 and Commodore128 every other computer I have owned has been an Apple. The funny thing is I still have every single Apple I have ever purchased and they are all still 100% functional. I actually have a room in my basement dedicated to all of my old Apple computers. Its like a mini Apple museum and drives my wife insane. They include:

- Apple II
- The Macintosh 128k (Very First Mac)
- Macintosh Classic
- Macintosh Color Classic II
- Macintosh Portable
- Power Mac 5400
- Power Mac 7500
- Power Mac 9600
- Power Mac Blue and White G3 (450 Mhz Model)
- PowerBook G3 Laptop (300 Mhz Wallstreet Series II Model)
- iBook G3 Laptop (300Mhz Tangerine Model)
- Power Mac G4 (Dual 1.25Ghz MDD Model)
- Power Mac G4 Cube (500 Mhz Model)
- PowerBook G4 (Aluminum 17" Model)

I currently use these 4 models.

- Quad Power Mac G5 (2.5 Ghz Model)
- Apple Mini (Core Duo 1.83 Model)
- MacPro (3 Ghz Model)
- MacBok Pro (17" 2.4 Ghz Model)
- iMac Core 2 Duo (24 Inch Model) - My Wifes Computer

Thats not including a bunch of misc crap that I collect from Apple like some old school Newtons and such. Anyways I really do have a problem when it comes to Apple computers. Whenever they announce a new model I just have to have it, lol.

I honestly consider Apple to be the single best manufacturer in business today, in terms of form, funtion and quality. I dont think any company in history has had the ability to take form and funtion and mold them together as successfully as Apple has. I loved this company so much that I have continually invested money into the company since I was 16 years old and continued to do so even when it looked like they might go under right before the microsoft partnership. I was literally investing money into the company not for profit but in hopes that the money I was investing would help get them back to a healthy state again. I have never felt that kind of bond with a company before and I really cant explain why people, including me, are so passionate about this company.

Well obviously tings are very different now in terms of Apple's success and they are on the cusp of taking a serious percentage of people away from PC and if I were MS or Dell or HP I would be seriously worried. They just cant compete with Apple quality. They never have been able to and they never will be able to in my opinion. If you dont use Apple now is a great time to jump on board as you cannow run 100% of Mac softwre and 100% of PC software, even the games. Gotta love that.

Anyways I am beginning to ramble on which is what I do when I start talking about Apple. Bottom line is Apple is now in the home theatre market with AppleTV and I for one think in time its going to be a huge success. I think the user created content combined with new features and software released by Apple will propel this device past everything else on the market and as I said before, the YouTube through AppleTV is just the first of many great features that I expect to be on thier way. They really are not that expensive either.

More and More I think home networking is just the way to go.

[JRNorwood]

Your right most likely Apple will not add more codecs to AppleTV's lineup as they want people to go the iTunes store route but that doesnt stop users from creatin software that will enable different codecs and that was what I Was talking qbout when Isaid I was looking forward to the user created content. I hate having to rencode everything for it to play and a hack that allows AVI support is what I am really keeping my eyes out for and I guarantee without a single doubt we will see it within the next 3-4 months.

As for Apple itself, I am not just an Apple fan, I am obsessed with Apple products and have never owned a PC in my life. Besides the Amiga500, Commodore64 and Commodore128 every other computer I have owned has been an Apple. The funny thing is I still have every single Apple I have ever purchased and they are all still 100% functional. I actually have a room in my basement dedicated to all of my old Apple computers. Its like a mini Apple museum and drives my wife insane. They include:

- Apple II
- The Macintosh 128k (Very First Mac)
- Macintosh Classic
- Macintosh Color Classic II
- Macintosh Portable
- Power Mac 5400
- Power Mac 7500
- Power Mac 9600
- Power Mac Blue and White G3 (450 Mhz Model)
- PowerBook G3 Laptop (300 Mhz Wallstreet Series II Model)
- iBook G3 Laptop (300Mhz Tangerine Model)
- Power Mac G4 (Dual 1.25Ghz MDD Model)
- Power Mac G4 Cube (500 Mhz Model)
- PowerBook G4 (Aluminum 17" Model)

I currently use these 4 models.

- Quad Power Mac G5 (2.5 Ghz Model)
- Apple Mini (Core Duo 1.83 Model)
- MacPro (3 Ghz Model)
- MacBok Pro (17" 2.4 Ghz Model)
- iMac Core 2 Duo (24 Inch Model) - My Wifes Computer

Thats not including a bunch of misc crap that I collect from Apple like some old school Newtons and such. Anyways I really do have a problem when it comes to Apple computers. Whenever they announce a new model I just have to have it, lol.

I honestly consider Apple to be the single best manufacturer in business today, in terms of form, funtion and quality. I dont think any company in history has had the ability to take form and funtion and mold them together as successfully as Apple has. I loved this company so much that I have continually invested money into the company since I was 16 years old and continued to do so even when it looked like they might go under right before the microsoft partnership. I was literally investing money into the company not for profit but in hopes that the money I was investing would help get them back to a healthy state again. I have never felt that kind of bond with a company before and I really cant explain why people, including me, are so passionate about this company.

Well obviously tings are very different now in terms of Apple's success and they are on the cusp of taking a serious percentage of people away from PC and if I were MS or Dell or HP I would be seriously worried. They just cant compete with Apple quality. They never have been able to and they never will be able to in my opinion. If you dont use Apple now is a great time to jump on board as you cannow run 100% of Mac softwre and 100% of PC software, even the games. Gotta love that.

Anyways I am beginning to ramble on which is what I do when I start talking about Apple. Bottom line is Apple is now in the home theatre market with AppleTV and I for one think in time its going to be a huge success. I think the user created content combined with new features and software released by Apple will propel this device past everything else on the market and as I said before, the YouTube through AppleTV is just the first of many great features that I expect to be on thier way. They really are not that expensive either.

More and More I think home networking is just the way to go.

You do have an impressive collection of Apple products. I just came to Apple with the release of OS X Tiger, but I have replaced nearly all my Windows gear since then. I now have:

iMac Intel Core Duo 24"
MacBook Intel Core Duo
AEBS 802.11n
Apple TV x2
iPod 80GB Video
iPod 2 and 4GB Nano
iPod Shuffle x2

I'm planning a MacPro down the road once my last two PCs end their service life.

I too am very finacky about my Apple collection--I even save all the packaging. Their attention to detail is, IMHO, peerless. I have a serious Jones going now for the iPhone to add to my collection.

One big advantage to having networked content is the ability to use it on multiple platforms. It is a snap to move content to a Video iPod or laptop for viewing on the road. The same content can then be streamed throughout the house. And with Apple TV, it is now easily available in the living room.

I used to use a Mac Mini in the living room but sold it when the Apple TV came out. I should have held on to it though as I hear rumors that may be discontinued this year. I've also heard rumors that the form factor for the mini may be changed to the same as the Apple TV so we'll have to see what, if any, changes they make.

Have you heard anything about Apple adding Blu-Ray to their computer product line? I'm primarily interested in data storage capacity--50GB on a disc would be convenient. It also would be convenient for encoding content as well. I don't know if the fine folks that make Handbrake would be as adventurous with Blu-Ray as they were with DVD but anything is possible. Your thoughts?

[HarakoMeshi]

@HTF, makes sense, as someone in a creative business, Adobe put their tools on Apple first.

[Xyz123]

I'm a bit confused. What makes Apple TV special? Haven't Windows Media Center computers been around for a long time (and media center extenders plus new Vista Premium computers) and doesn't Microsoft have the ability to do the same thing either through the 360 or through the PC/extender route?

Won't our PS3s also offer the same possibilities with better sound and video?


I really like my 80gb IPOD (form/function/value), but I'm not going to annoint Apple the be all and end all for everything else.

[HarakoMeshi]

I'm a bit confused. What makes Apple TV special? Haven't Windows Media Center computers been around for a long time (and media center extenders plus new Vista Premium computers) and doesn't Microsoft have the ability to do the same thing either through the 360 or through the PC/extender route?

Won't our PS3s also offer the same possibilities with better sound and video?


I really like my 80gb IPOD (form/function/value), but I'm not going to annoint Apple the be all and end all for everything else.

Ditto. I have iPods (three of them) and like them, but the iTunes software blows so I'm not really sure I want another Apple media download service if its anything like iTunes. Apple TV is nowhere on my radar.

[JRNorwood]

I'm a bit confused. What makes Apple TV special? Haven't Windows Media Center computers been around for a long time (and media center extenders plus new Vista Premium computers) and doesn't Microsoft have the ability to do the same thing either through the 360 or through the PC/extender route?

Won't our PS3s also offer the same possibilities with better sound and video?


I really like my 80gb IPOD (form/function/value), but I'm not going to annoint Apple the be all and end all for everything else.

I understand what you're saying. If you have an Apple store nearby, stop by and take a look at the Apple TV for comparison. You're completely correct, there are other options rather than Apple. I know that many argue that Windows Media/xBox 360/and soon PS3 provides all the functionality (even more in some cases) than the Apple TV. But there are a few things to consider when comparing:

- The Apple TV has a very small form factor
- It is exceptionally quiet
- HD content is coming to iTunes. HD Video Podcasts are already available and commercial content will be added soon.
- It provides exceptional streaming capabilities
- With the update this month will fully support YouTube
- Provides up to 1080i HDTV connectivity/5.1 Audio
- Setup and configuration is fairly easy
- Fully integrated with iTunes

I have an xBox 360/PS3/Wii and have played around with extending video to the living room with xBox 360 and PS3--honestly, I wasn't that impressed. The Apple TV on the other hand, even though a 1st generation product, IMO shows the most promise. This is a work in progress and will not appeal to everyone but it has the potential to litarally be the next iPod. Expecially considering the format war between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, piracy (thanks to the defeat of copy protection on both HD formats and DVD), and confusion among consumers. This is the same scenario that drove the development of the iPod and iTunes. Time will tell, it could also be another Newton but I really doubt it. I know I may be coming across as an Apple fanboy but I do have a lot of respect for their engineering/vision.

Your points are all well recieved and appreciated. I for one am happy to see constructive reveiw of available HD technology on this forum.