Comments on: Apple TV hands-on review (with UHQ pics)

By: Neal Campbell

Neal Campbell — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 18:10:48 +0000

Excellent review! Entering the WEP key reminded us of Pong.

By: caleb elston

caleb elston — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 18:49:53 +0000

really really great article. I loved how you told us how you are actually using it, and not just a rehash of the of the Press release. Thanks.

I have a question though, do you ever turn it off? Does it sleep?

Cheers,
Caleb

By: Doug

Doug — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 19:15:28 +0000

@caleb

Thanks for the compliment on the review. I hope it was useful.

The Apple TV does not have an off switch, nor is there one on the remote - so effectively it’s on all the time - much like my TiVo. However, unlike my TiVo, I would hope that if you’re not using the Apple TV, or if there’s nothing getting pushed down from iTunes, that it would at least put its internal hard drive to sleep for a bit. So it may go into some sort of reduced power mode, but it’s never off.

By: caleb elston

caleb elston — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 19:34:35 +0000

Thanks Doug. I have a Tivo as well, so that makes sense. Keep us posted with your thoughts after a day or two of using the AppleTV. If you plan to start buying more TV shows from iTunes, or any other habitual changes

By: Jim Glidewell

Jim Glidewell — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 19:50:38 +0000

I justed picked up my Apple TV last night, and despite a little “period of adjustment” (like the fact that my music completely swamped the disk and pushed out all my iPhotos) I find it’s very, very nice.

Not only does it give me access to my (limited) collection of videos in iTunes, but it also is a great jukebox interface to the 500+ CDs I have ripped into iTunes.

I don’t expect I’ll buy a lot of video content through the iTunes store. Instead, I’ll likely snag and convert lower-res materials from some of the usual sources, as well as take some of the favorite family home videos
and put them in an Apple TV friendly format.

The Apple TV certainly has room for improvement (my #1 feature request would be streaming support for iPhoto), but the fit, finish, and out of the box usability are excellent.

Thanks for the balanced and informative review.

By: Matt

Matt — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 13:41:16 +0000

My Apple TV was delivered yesterday. My 3-word review is “Works as Advertised.” Which is, unfortunately, a rarity with tech gadgets. It’s everything one would expect out of an Apple product.

It took me a bit of fiddling with the sync settings to get it set up in a way that made sure all my videos were synced, along with some of my music and all of my photos.

Some people on other sites have complained about the resolution of the videos, but I think that they display OK on my TV. Maybe it helps that my HDTV is only 26″. They might look worse on a bigger screen.

Oh, FYI…if you hold down the “Play/Pause” button on the remote for a few seconds, the Apple TV goes into “Standby” (aka “Off”) mode. RTFM!

By: Apple TV and Toshiba HDMI Green Screen of Death - doug - toombs - dot - com

Apple TV and Toshiba HDMI Green Screen of Death - doug - toombs - dot - com — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 15:27:09 +0000

[…] my Apple TV arrived early Tuesday morning, I couldn’t wait to get it set up and start enjoying all of my iTunes content on my HD […]