Anyone using AppleTV?
 

I'm considering it...

Currently we have a Direct TV subscription which (to me anyway) seems like pissing money away every month. I never watch (maybe a show a week, maybe a football game on Sunday this time of year, etc.) My wife likes a couple of shows but it seems stupid to be forking out almost $100 a month to get (realistically) less than five channels we tune in for a combined total of maybe 15 hours a month.

My understanding is that AppleTV is that it allows you to buy only the programs you want, when you want and you pay per show. Not bad. Anyone know about which programs/channels you can/can't get and generally speaking how well/poorly this thing works?

We're in an area which gets one over-the-air antenna station (in Spanish) so we have to retain some sort of "wired" or satellite-based service as a practical matter.

I've had one for a while now and love it.

Huge selection of films, TV shows, documentaries etc. Very current offerings of most films.

A little weak on art-house stuff, but all in all brilliant. The system is simple and works flawlessly. Easy to install yourself. And the pay per view is cheap—about half the cost of renting the DVD here.

I love my Apple TV. The shows and movies available are on Itunes. If you look there you can get an idea of what is offered. Recently, Apple started offering rentals of tv shows. That has been great because if I watch an episode once that's usually it for me.

I've been interested in Apple TV and similar products.

Right now we have cable triple-play (Internet, TV, phone) and TiVO. The TV part of the cable, plus the TiVO, probably cost about $60/month in subscription fees. At $1 per 24-hour rental of a TV show, that would be 60 shows/month on Apple TV. Suppose each show is average 45 minutes (mix of 1/2 hour and 1 hour programs) and we skip the 30% that is commercials and credits, that's 31.5 minutes of viewing, or 31.5 hours per month for 60 shows/month. Divided by 4 people is about 7.9 hours/person/month of viewing, or 1.8 hours/person/week.

We do watch more than 1.8 hours/person/week. So the simplistic math doesn't favor Apple TV, for our situation.

The other thing is, I tend to keep lots of old shows on the TiVO, and watch them repeatedly. Cooking shows, mostly - when I need an idea for what to cook, or forgot how to cook something, I'll often browse through saved shows by Brown, Batali, Burrell, etc. I'll also get on a kick for some TV series, often an old one, record every episode and watch it for awhile, then move on to something else. I have a 1TB drive on the TiVO, enough for around 1,000 shows.

That usage would be inconvenient or expensive to do with Apple TV's rental model.

I do love seeing models like Apple TV, NetFlix, etc proliferate, since the ideal model is different for each family.

So, how does it work? Do you need to have your TV hooked up to your computer? Do you need a separate computer for each TV, or can you run multiple wires from the TV. I assume you need a special card for the computer, or can it all run on USB?

Apple TV plugs into your tv or projector the same way a DVD player plugs in. It needs to also plug into your internet modem. The box is about a third the size of a cable box

I have 1 of the old 1's. The new 1 is streaming only. At 99$ it's a no brainer, I'll buy it to get "AirPlay". For cooking shows, etc you can use podcast's and youtube..... Apple - Apple TV - Rent HD movies and TV shows, stream Netflix, and more

I think I just found my wife's Xmas present...

Bonus - it's a gift for me too 'cause I get to be rid of the stupid Direct TV bill!

The more digging around I do online about this the better it sounds. Very neat. It makes me feel REALLY stupid for what I've been doing, which is spending a lot of $$$ every month for dozens of crap channels with no content worth a poo and that I'll never watch, only to get the same stuff I can d/l for very limited cost.

This is seriously changing how I look at television. The holy grail for years has been to get rid of the commercials and get rid of all the stupid channels/content that is worthless. This allows you to do exactly that, and on top of it you're not beholden to network broadcast schedules (although Tivo freed everyone from that years ago).

I can only hope that if stuff like this catches on/continues to catch on, studios will start competing on the basis of content & sellability of their product direct to the end viewer, rather than selling it to some bandwidth provider (or paying them for the privilege of having it included as part of their service packages) only to clutter up my station list.

This is really sounding better & better... Another win for Apple from the sound of it. More later when I get a chance to get to the local Apple store to play around with it and ask a few questions of the staff directly.

Thats the whole deal, how many of these do you think they'll sell for christmas? It cost them 67$ to make this product and yet they are going to sell it at 99, WHY.... to put ADDED stress on the executives who control content

Yup.

In the couple of years we've had Apple TV we have not turned on cable television.

No more crap. No more commercials.

Great way to go.

Does Apple TV get stuff like Speed channel, DIY Network, Cooking Channel, HD Theater, Fox Soccer Channel?

It doesn't get channels. That's the whole point.

You access the content from The Apple library and pay for this as you view it.

So you can watch—for example— however many dozen years there are of Top Gear episodes without interruptions or commercials. Or any other TV show. Or Film. Or documentary. Or You Tube. Or you can watch your own slide shows eg. on your flat screen.

All very simple and elegant.

Thanks to all for the information. I will definately have to look into it.

Does the Apple TV allow for streaming of Pandora? What about movies off an external HD?

not sure how thats going to work, possibility is AirPlay from iphone or ipad.... just guessing. I want Pandora as well

Right now I am using an Airport Express and AirFoil on my laptop. It works pretty well... I would like it all in one device though.

Can you pause a show you've started and pick it up again later?

If you buy a movie or TV show on Apple TV does it stay bought or expire in 24 (or less) hours? Oh and besides movies how does one access live sports - MLB playoffs for example.

I think I found one of your programming issues:

The good football games are played on Saturdays.

Apple TV will also stream all of your iTunes Video and music so think of the possibilities. Handbrake is your best friend!!

Bear in mind that Apple TV is not a TV. It is just a small box that provides a different interface for your existing TV.

So to get your live sports, you switch your TV from "Apple" to "Cable" and Bob's your uncle.

Yes I get that Apple TV is basically a special tuner that gets internet content and interfaces Apple i-Applications running on a local Mac. I have not researched enough to know if local/world news and live sports (MLB/NFL/Speed/etc...) are available feed over internet w/Apple TV. And the movies and TV shows you pay for - how long do you have access after releasing your $?

With newer TV's having built-in WiFi and applications what exactly does Apple TV bring to the game?

If you buy a movie or tv show it is stored on a hard drive for as long as you want it. If you rent a movie or tv show you have 30 days to start watching. Once you start watching you have 24 hours to finish it or it automatically erases. You can start, stop, pause, rewind and fast forward at any time. With Apple's home share you can share stuff on the AppleTV with your PC. We can stream slideshows wirelessly from the laptop to our projector through the AppleTV and it will add music from our Itunes library.

What I like about the AppleTV: I have Directv Basic. I can download whole seasons of shows from HBO, Showtime, and other Premium channels. I can download movies and shows from the 60's and 70's. Recently rented Old Yeller and Lost in Space episodes for my 10 year old.

I wouldn't bother with cable. I don't want the monthly bill from them (or Direct TV, or dish, or any of those clowns). I just want to cut the cord and be done with paying too much for their crappy programming altogether.

I think you can stream NFL Gameday, or I can just go to the local sports bar if it matters that much I guess. I can think of few if any reasons to be beholden to live broadcasting these days (maybe playoffs/superbowl) I don't mind waiting a few hours if there's a time delay but in the case of NFL Gameday I'm not even sure there is.

Unfortunately in my area the antenna doesn't pick up anything (one channel in Spanish - I actually watched about 5 minutes of "Predator" in Espanol the other night - kinda' funny).

I'll do some more research online but it sounds like this is the way to go. No more crap and no more stupid bills for things I'm not getting any mileage out of.

To answer the above question, if it's like iTunes (which I suspect) you typically can either buy or rent the programs. A buy is just that - you watch whenever you want. A rent gives you I think 30 days to view and once you start watching, 48 hours to finish. I don't particularly care for the latter part of that but I don't make those rules. Some programs ONLY give you the option to rent.

I suppose if you were really hung up on it, you could record the output to a .mp4 or a VHS tape or something if it really mattered so you could watch later.

I should also point out HULU. We have friends that cut the cord and watch all their tv of of HULU for free. Hulu.com

so what does it cost to rent a show?

$3.99 for movie and $.99 per show I believe.

.99 per show. If I wanted to watch an entire season of some show that could get expensive.

Can you get F1 on Apple? Live??

From the Apple website and movies START at $3.99, it could get very pricey.


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Any one here using Roku? Every review I've read puts Roku ahead of Apple TV in choice of content and cost to aquire content comparisons. I know there are other options out there like Boxee, Google TV and Sling Box - anyone a techie that can break down the pros and cons of these?

That's about right, though these can vary.

There are discounts for renting and buying whole seasons of a show.

Some shows are even free.

As a rule of thumb you pay less than half of what it would cost to rent the equivalent content at Blockbusters.

Not that I know, no... If that were the case I'd have cut the cord years ago ! That and WRC ;-)

I currently have a Tivo with a Netflix subscription, and am getting killed on the cable bill because I want a) digital television and b) the Speed Channel for F1. To get digital is an expense, and to get the "tier" that Speed is in, I have to buy two other tiers, which mostly contain stations I never watch.

Netflix is streaming more and more TV content - not new content, but they are pretty good about putting previous seasons up. If I could get a DVR (not a Tivo, because of the monthly subscription) that did Netflix streaming (and maybe Hulu), with the option to buy individual episodes of Mad Men/F1/History or Discovery channel shows, I'd ditch the cable tomorrow. Heck, I'd be willing to pay a buck an episode for shows like Mad Men.

Unfortunately, the Tivo/AppleTV/GoogleTV only do a few of these things - for example, if the AppleTV had a DVR, I'd pick one up tomorrow. If Tivo could stream stuff from iTunes, same. I'm hoping that in the next few years, they'll have a "do everything" box, and more and more programs will be available for individual or season purchase.

F1 should license a season of streaming races/qualifying/practice for some set rate - $100, or something. Plenty of people would pay it, and I doubt they would lose any money from current TV revenue. Why more content providers are not getting in the game themselves baffles me, as in a lot of cases, they are letting folks like Apple and Tivo get a cut of pie that could belong completely to them.

I'm curious too... We just got a ROKU XD at work. We dont even have a Radioshack SKU so we can't sell it yet. It looks like a nice option.

I wonder if I should feel bad because I have not even a shadow of a wisper of a clue as to what you guys are even talking about let alone what you are saying.

I'm a huge fan of Apple TV, had mine for about a year. Think of it as a hard drive with a menu

I'm going to dig up this thread to restart this conversation on another level.

There are two things that have reignited my interest in the AppleTV2. One was our recent conversation regarding ALMS only being available online on ESPN3.com, http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/587992-real-sports-car-racing-tv-bye-bye.html?highlight=alms. The other was the successful port of XMBC to the AppleTV2, XBMC . XBMC happens to have a plugin for ESPN3. I am really interested in possibly using this combo for ALMS races, as well as streaming other online content to my TV.

I'm going to try some experiments by building a Linux-based XMBC setup with some stuff I have lying around. That way I'll know if the basic functionality of what I want is there before I lay out $100.

But, my question is, "Anyone here running XBMC on their AppleTV2?"

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I got one. Played with it today and as soon as I figured out you can watch podcasts on it I was sold.