Product Description

With Apple TV, you can rent and watch standard-definition movies with stereo sound or stunning high- definition movies with pristine Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound. Without leaving your couch. Apple TV also lets you browse millions of podcasts—including HD video podcasts—watch YouTube videos, view your Flickr and .Mac Web Gallery photos, and buy music and TV shows—all from your widescreen TV.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4176 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Apple
• Model: MA711LL/A
• Platforms: Mac, Windows
• Format: CD
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 4.05 pounds

Features

• Compatible with Mac or PC
• 802.11n Wi-Fi wireless
• 40GB hard drive for up to 50 hours of video
• Apple Remote Included

From the Manufacturer
Your computer is the center of your digital life. Your TV is the center of your entertainment life. But what if you want to watch movies, TV shows, movie trailers, podcasts, and photos from your computer on your TV? For one low price, Apple TV brings iTunes to the big screen.

Say you’ve just downloaded The Incredibles from iTunes. Instead of huddling around your computer to watch, you pop some popcorn while your computer wirelessly syncs your new flick to Apple TV. Then you pull up a seat, put up your feet, and pick up the included Apple Remote to play your movie on TV. Give yourself a hand: You've just changed the way you watch digital media.

Getting all your favorite iTunes movies, TV shows and music from your Computer to your TV is a snap with Apple TV.

Apple TV ports iTunes to Apple TV, wire free.
Apple TV connects to your TV via an HDMI port or component video and audio ports. Its built-in, superfast 802.11 wireless capability syncs your iTunes library from any Mac or PC in the house. Best of all, what's on Apple TV stays in sync: Anytime you change your library in iTunes, it changes on Apple TV — wirelessly, automatically.

Apple TV boasts a simple easy to navigate menu.

What’s on TV? Whatever you want.
Apple TV puts your iTunes library — movies, TV shows, music, and podcasts — plus movie trailers from Apple.com on your TV. And your digital photos from iPhoto on a Mac or Adobe Photoshop Elements or Adobe Album on a Windows PC appear in high definition, so you can put on a stunning big-screen slideshow.

• Just add popcorn.
  Turn your living room into a multiplex with Apple TV. From the Movies menu, you can choose from up to 50 hours of flicks from iTunes, home movies you made yourself, previews from iTunes Top Movies, even movie trailers that stream directly from Apple.com.
• Channel you.
  Be your own program director with up to 50 hours of TV shows on Apple TV. Sort shows by date or show, then watch them anytime — completely commercial free. Or check out the latest TV offerings from iTunes Top TV Shows.
• Musically inclined.
  If the best sound system in your house is connected to your TV, why play your iTunes library anywhere else? Apple TV lets you browse and play up to 9,000 songs and watch music videos, all on the big screen (and the big speakers).
• Radio on the TV.
  Thanks to Apple TV, you can enjoy podcasts on your TV for the first time ever. Listen to your favorite audio podcasts through your entertainment system speakers and watch video podcasts from the comfort of your couch.
• Get the big picture.
  Apple TV brings photo slideshows out of the den and into the living room. Pull up the best seat in the house and view your photos in jaw-dropping high definition. With up to 25,000 photos at your fingertips, you'll never cease to amaze.
• All set.
  From the Settings menu, you can set up your screen saver, your network, or your TV resolution, and get more information about your Apple TV.

Because Apple TV streams wirelessly, you can send movies or musicfrom your computer to your TV or ipod anywhere in your house.

Wirelessly in Sync
Your iPod syncs seamlessly with iTunes. Apple TV does the same — wirelessly, from wherever your Mac or PC may be. Your computer is in your office. Your TV is in your living room. Apple TV brings them together using its built-in 802.11 wireless capability and your existing wireless network. Pair Apple TV with your computer and your TV shows, movies, music, podcasts, and photos sync automatically. Through the air. Like magic.

Sync from one… Open iTunes and Apple TV appears in your devices list, ready to sync. Set iTunes to sync unwatched video. Sync new purchases. Or manually select what to sync. Set your preferences once and Apple TV automatically updates as your iTunes library changes. Everything travels over your network to Apple TV’s built-in hard drive. So once you sync, even if you turn off your computer or disconnect it from the network, you can still enjoy stored video — up to 50 hours of it — from Apple TV.

…stream from many. If you want to watch video from another computer, you can stream it live to your TV via Apple TV. Streamed media travels over your network to your TV — without taking up space on Apple TV’s hard drive. That’s perfect for multicomputer households or when the computer you sync with has more in its iTunes library than will fit on Apple TV. Just choose up to five additional computers from the Sources menu. As long as a computer’s on your network, it can stream to your TV.

It just fits.
Easy connectivity and built-in wireless make Apple TV right at home in your home entertainment system. Got a widescreen TV? Got iTunes? Then you’re ready for Apple TV. Connect Apple TV to your TV and open iTunes on your computer. iTunes wirelessly detects Apple TV and walks you through a simple setup.

Relax and unwire. If you don’t have a wireless network, you can set one up easily with a wireless access point like the superfast 802.11 AirPort Extreme Base Station. Newer AirPort Extreme-enabled Macs let you create a wireless network using only your computer. And if you have a Mac or PC without wireless capability, you can connect Apple TV to your network using an Ethernet cable (sold separately).

What you need

• Widescreen TV
• Mac or PC
• iTunes 7.1
• Wired or wireless network
• HDMI cable or
• Component video cables and analog audio cables or optical audio cable

Apple TV connects to your widescreen TV via an HDMI cable (sold separately). This simple connection delivers both audio and video to your TV — no need for multiple cables.

If your TV’s HDMI port is occupied by another device, or if your TV doesn’t have an HDMI port, you can connect to Apple TV via component video and audio. So no matter what your entertainment system looks like, Apple TV connects easily. And since Apple TV has a built-in power supply, there's no unwieldy power brick to hide.

Help when you need it.
From connecting your existing A/V receiver to selecting the right video mode, if you run into problems while setting up your Apple TV, help is just a click away. Get quick and simple setup and connection solutions from the Apple TV: Tips and Basic Troubleshooting guide.

Apple TV works with widescreen, enhanced-definition or high-definition TVs capable of 1080i, 720p, 576p, or 480p resolutions.

Customer Reviews

What it's designed to do, it does extremely well.
I was a little hesitant about the AppleTV when it was first announced, with the unofficial named of iTV, back in August of 2006. However, once I got one, and have had it for about a week now, I have become convinced. It does exactly what it was was designed to do, does it extremely well, and is utterly hassle free. If only everything were this simple!

Now, I have a huge DVD collection counting well into the hundreds, and I would rather own the movies I like on disc than download them. Then again, working in the Animation and Visual Effects industry, I tend to be very interested in watching all the DVD extras which are not available on the iTunes store. I don't care about watching my photo albums on my living room TV either, but what I DO enjoy immensely is being able to watch the numerous video Podcasts I already subscribe too... In fact, it is so much more enjoyable to watch them this way, I have subscribed to numerous more.

Again, working in the industry, the incredible ease with which one can subscribe to video Podcasts and get them on the AppleTV really struck me. With increased resolution, and better production values, this is the future of TV! Pick your shows, paid, free or ad supported, via iTunes and watch them in your living room.

Anyhow, all that aside... Here are some things to know about the AppleTV.

- The Apple TV is utterly silent.

- It is NOT a game console. If you want to play games, buy a Wii, PS3 or Xbox360.

- It is not a DVD/BlueRay/HD-DVD player. If you want to play DVDs, but a $50 progressive scan DVD player. If you also want to watch BluRay discs and HD-DVD discs, get the LG BH100. it's the ONLY player available that plays all three formats!

- It is not a DVR. If you want to record live TV and watch it later, get a TiVo (don't waste your time with those crap cable and satellite DVRs though - pure garbage)

- You need to buy the cables to connect it. The best connection, because it is digital all the way, HDMI is the best option - If your set has that connector, then get an HDMI-HDMI cable. If your set only has DVI, then get an HDMI-DVI cable. If your set only has component video, get an RCA component (aka RGB) video cable. For the audio, the best connection is the optical digital interface, which is usually not present on TVs, but is fairly common on better receivers. Otherwise, just use a a standard left/right DCA audio cable.

- Contrary to even Apple's own information, you do NOT need to have a wide-screen display to use the Apple TV. It WILL work with 4:3 televisions, though you MUST have component (i.e. RGB) video connections on your TV or A/V receiver (if used). However, it will not function in full-screen mode. It uses a letterboxed presentation style.

- It can support any audio format that the source recording happens to have. The iTunes store programs are all encoded with Dolby Pro Logic II surround sound, which is 100% backwards compatible with two-channel stereo (such as built-in TV speakers). However, if you connect up the optical digital audio connector to a DTS/Dolby Digital receiver, AND the program has DTS or Dolby Digital 5.1 (or higher) surround sound encoding, the AppleTV will pass this through to the receiver to be output properly. Just note that it is EXTREMELY unlikely that programming with digital audio encoding will be available to download from pretty much ANY source in the near future due to it's incompatibility with analogue 2 channel stereo.

- One last thing. If you are a user of a Mac that features Front Row and they are in the same room as the AppleTV, then remember to pair the remote for the AppleTV and Mac independently, so they will not interfere with one another.

Anyhow, all told, I think the AppleTV is really great, and will likely help to change the face of television as we know it.

Imperfect but extremely useful.
I picked one up the first week they were available but haven't really used it until the past few weeks. I'm sync-ing (inappropriate use of the word for reasons I'll explain soon) with my family room iMac on a 802.11g network.

There are 2 ways to add content sync or stream. Sync will load content to the Apple TV and stream allows you to store content on the computer and access "as needed". I choose to stream (photos will only sync, but once loaded they'll stay on the Apple TV).

I added a 500GB external drive to the iMac solely for media content. I've also started converting my DVDs to a compatible format (takes a while, so I start one before I go to sleep and it's ready when I wake -- not really that dramatic, process takes just over an hour).

My wife loves it because she can play her music through our sound system (if that's all you want to do, the Airport Express will do it with digital output for $99).

Over the weekend we watched a couple of movies on it, with 5.1 sound (you must encode it that way) and it couldn't have been easier. The streaming is seamless, initially it takes about 20-30 seconds to load the buffer and thereafter plays without a hiccup. Is it as crisp as a good DVD, not exactly, but unless you're watching side-by-side it's a very good image on HD.

ONE LAST THING: HDMI cables are available for under $10 online, as are component cables and optical audio. So Apple doesn't include them, big deal. If they threw a 6-footer in there someone would complain that it's not long enough -- or too long. It's a minor added expense that's not worth complaining about.

OKAY, ONE LAST, LAST THING: I have the 40GB model and as I said above I chose not to sync my content, meaning it's all stored on a 500GB drive attached to an iMac. The Apple TV only stores about 5GB of photos right now. I suspect at some point they may add functions that require more storage but for now the hard drive is unimportant and the movies stream so rapidly that I don't even notice that they're not stored locally on the Apple TV.

Good, innovative product, but know what you want first
I purchased the Apple TV, and for the most part it has lived up to my expectations. It was very easy to set up, the interface is very simple and user friendly, and I have had no problems with use on my Wireless N network. That being said, I have two complaints. The first is when viewing photos you cannot sort through thumbnail pictures. So if in a folder you have 100 photots and want to see photo 98, you need to scan through the first 97 to get to. My second complaint, which is my major complaint and the reason why I am giving the Apple TV only 2 stars, is the movie function. Apple decided that it would support only two movie formats, MP4 and H264 (although the IPod has its own music format, it did support MP3's, imagine if the IPod only supported this format and not MP3's...). Most videos that I have are AVI, Divx, MPEG, etc... so I was forced to convert over to Apples format. This is not as simple as it sounds. Apple added in the functionality to convert via Itunes. However this process is extremely slow and only recognizes certain video formats in the first place. I purchased external software to help converting video files (ImToo). Also, Videora has free software to download which I recommend. To convert a high quality Divx movie (approx 700mb) to the highest quality Apple TV format, depending on your computer this is going to take anywhere from 2-6 hours. Also, the Apple format video file will be double, if not more, the size of the original file, eating up precious space on your hard drive. And did I mention, it turns out that Apple TV does not support files greater than a certain size (I think 2GB) so if you want to convert a movie to the highest quality, this will easily be over 2GB and you will essentially have to create 2-3 individual files for 1 movie. I just bought a Sony harddrive camcorder, thinking I could easily download the videos to my computer and watch them on Apple TV. Now I am forced to spend hours converting the videos before I can even watch them. I have not actually purchased any movies yet from Itunes, as the selection is horrible. If you are looking for a system that is easy to use and set up, and provides basic functionality for music and videos, the Apple TV is a solid product (although I wonder, do you just buy an IPod and simply hook up to your TV?). If you are looking for something more, especially in the video front this is not the machine for you. Given how innovative Apple has been over the past years, this product is a dissapointment