Primarily a software update, the revamped AppleTV offers a host of new features. Chief among them is the ability to rent (but not purchase) movies from the iTunes Store –many of which are available in high definition. Additionally you can purchase television episodes and music. Also, you can now connect to your Flickr or .Mac gallery and browse those photos on your TV. Last but not least is the integration of YouTube.
Careful not to upset existing AppleTV owners, the newly-redesigned interface and feature set – including movie rentals – is available as a free, downloadable software update. It should get picked up automatically, but if it doesn’t, you can manually force the update from the “Settings” menu.
If you’re planning to purchase a new AppleTV, it’s available in two flavors with the only difference being capacity: 40GB or 160GB. The 40GB model runs $229 and holds up to 50 hours of video/TV. The big boy is $329 and holds up to 200 hours. The 160GB model makes a lot of sense if you have a large music or video collection in iTunes and you want to synch all of those files with your AppleTV. If you’re primarily interested in renting movies, go for the 40GB. Rentals last for 30 days, but once you push Play you only get 24 hours to finish watching it. I’d like to see that get bumped up to 48 or 72 hours because, well, life happens. After the 30 days, rentals get deleted automatically reclaiming that space on your hard drive.
On the subject of synching, it should be noted that the AppleTV doesn’t have to store your music, photos and videos on its own hard drive. You can configure it to do so from iTunes on your computer – similar to how you tell it what to synch with your iPod – but you can also let AppleTV stream that content over your home network thereby saving space on the AppleTV’s drive. The only negative with this scenario is that it requires your computer (and iTunes) to be running.
Measuring less than eight inches square and just over an inch high, the AppleTV box is undeniably sleek. With no buttons on the box itself and an iPod Shuffle-esque remote control, simplicity is the name of the game. The remote is easy to use but my big hands prefer something larger. Configuring the AppleTV is a piece of cake and it can be networked with a hard wire or wirelessly thanks to integrated 802.11n.
After discovering a bad wire which was causing intermittent connectivity issues, I was eager to evaluate the rental service. Catalog rentals are $2.99, new releases are $3.99 and HD costs an extra buck. To start, I downloaded the HD version of Warner’s August Rush with Keri Russell and Jonathan Rhys Meyers – a predictable but entertaining flick with some truly great music. The 720p video began downloading and was ready to watch a few minutes later. Although those few minutes seemed to last forever, it was certainly faster than waiting for a Netflix envelope. Video quality was extremely good but it didn’t quite achieve the detail visible on my 1080p Blu-ray Disc of the film. Apple certainly has new release titles covered but I’d like to see more HD as well as more catalogue and genre titles.
Television content downloaded much faster. Video quality was fine but I was disappointed by the 4:3 aspect ratio since Season One is widescreen on DVD. It seems as though video quality and aspect ratio varies from show to show but newer stuff (like Season Two of “Jericho”) looked great with primarily 480p widescreen presentations. As for YouTube, clips look a bit grainy, but there’s something to be said for watching this stuff without looking over your shoulder to see if your boss is coming.
The latest iteration of AppleTV definitely means business and should be viewed as a serious threat to competing Video-On-Demand boxes such as VUDU and the upcoming Netflix/LG device. yy
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I think the AppleTV is completely awesome! We take a lot of photographs and it's so great getting friends together and viewing on the big screen, as well as music, movies, etc. It's well worth the money!