Apple TV - Part 2: Apple Enters the Digital Home
by Anand Lal Shimpi on March 26, 2007 1:22 AM EST- Posted in
- Mac
Photos
Photo support is, once again, straightforward with Apple TV.
Click on photos and then you can immediately click on slideshow to go through every picture in your album, of course played to music synced to your Apple TV. Unlike all other content, photos cannot be streamed to Apple TV. Mac users can sync their iPhoto albums to Apple TV, while PC users have the option of using Adobe Photoshop Album 2.0 or Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0, or later.
The slide show mode is easily configured: you can adjust options like time between transitions, the type of transitions, what music to play while the slideshow is going on, etc. Also note that the photos you sync to Apple TV will be displayed as a screen saver should you stop interacting with the device.
There is no easy way to browse all of your photos unfortunately; it looks like things were meant for you to set up your slideshows and photo albums beforehand on your Mac/PC and simply stream the mostly prepared setup to your Apple TV, further cementing its role as a very passive device in the digital home.
Final Words
As expected, Apple TV is absolutely brilliant if all of your content (music, movies, TV shows) is purchased from the iTunes Store. Apple TV is the perfect extension of iTunes to your television set, and as the most popular online digital music store it's not far fetched to assume that there is a market for such a device. While the iPod expanded Apple's customer base, the Apple TV seems to be a device that Apple built for its current users - and some of its most dedicated ones at that.
For those of us who aren't heavily invested in the iTunes Store, Apple TV still has quite a bit of merit. The interface is very fast, clean, and to the point. The device itself is small, quiet, and setup couldn't be easier. From a usage standpoint, it does serve as a good way of getting MP3s to your TV, albeit an expensive one at that. Our real concerns come into play once we start dealing with other, non-iTunes content.
Although Apple's first goal with Apple TV appears to be simplicity, we would've liked more from the device. We mentioned integration with online movie listings and ratings when it comes to accessing movie trailers; it's a simple addition that would significantly increase the usefulness of the box. Building a good passive media extender was fine a few years ago, but now our demands for information are much greater than before.
Then there's the obvious issue of not being able to play video content encoded in formats other than Apple TV-friendly H.264. While transcoding is always an option, it takes a great deal of time, thus hampering the instant gratification we often seek when trying to watch anything on a TV. So while it's possible to get just about all of your video content onto Apple TV, it's not easy to do and for $299 we want something that is.
Not all content can be synced either; what we want isn't just a media extender that will play DivX/Xvid content, but what about videos from YouTube? Showing a bunch of people over at your home a hilarious clip on YouTube is the perfect example of what a device like Apple TV should be able to do. To be able to stream all of this content from your computer to your TV, only to have to get up and head back to the computer the moment you want to watch something on YouTube just doesn't seem the way things should work.
These aren't simple requests, we understand, but they are necessary, in our opinion, to build the perfect media extender. Apple TV was a good attempt, but in its current form it doesn't have the broad appeal that other Apple products have been able to attain. Apple TV does a great job of serving its niche: the loyal iTunes Store customer. Above and beyond that, however, it loses its value.
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ninjit - Monday, March 26, 2007 - link
I'm a little surprised at your comment about the apple remote and the Macbook pro - it doesn't sound like you've used them together much.There's an option under the Security section of System preferences, that lets you select whether to disable the remote access or not.
The other (and much more reasonable) option, is to pair the remote that came with your Macbook to the computer - this is really what everyone should do.
Once paired, only that remote will work with your macbook, and you won't run into the issue you are having with the Apple TV
tuteja1986 - Monday, March 26, 2007 - link
This device is good if you buy alot of itune stuff. It lacks in feature from being a true Home MCE box. Dual TV tunner , Xvid , DVIX , Ogg , MKV and other stuff that can have in a MCE box.Awax - Monday, March 26, 2007 - link
How much is a MCE ?A MacMini can also play all this.
I think you missed the point : this is basically a iPod with no screen, no battery, HD ouput and Wifi+Ethernet.
feraltoad - Monday, March 26, 2007 - link
I might have two video files on my PC I could extend with this. How can this be considered anything but crippled in regards to video? I think extenders would catch on but for the fact that all of them don't "Just Work" with your "digital home". Maybe Apple sees a "digital niche" for iTunes junkies? I certainly don't think they should use the word "TV" in it. TV=Mindless/EasyThis looks like a trial run to me. Apple must be throwing this out there to get some ideas for their AppleTV 2 that will have decent file support and support HD.
I don't think it could be put better than another poster in the AppleTV preview "Wow, Apple created a 2 yr old ultra mobile laptop."
shady28 - Tuesday, May 29, 2007 - link
I have both an XBox 360 and the iTV, and I'm a heavy iTunes user. The reality here is that the XBox 360 is nowhere near the ease of use and handiness of the iTV.In fact, I've put most of my DVD collection into iTunes at this point. Lots of programs are out there that can do this - I use Jodix Free Ipod video converter among others.
This makes the iTV able to select any movie or show from my collection and play it in my living room. That's an incredibly convenient feature. Other 'generic' DVR type devices are limited by their drive capacities, whereas my collection can grow on my PC with no effect on my iTV.
I'm not talking about pirated content here - I know a lot of people with large DVD collections that are messy and hard to manage. This makes it all a snap for the videos, plus I can listen to my iTunes music without having to hook up my ipod to my stereo - yes not a major problem, but one less thing to clutter up the living room.
For me at least, this was one of my better purchases as far as home entertainment goes.
yyrkoon - Monday, March 26, 2007 - link
How about: 'Yay, Apple created another heaping pile, of overpriced s**t' ? If it wasnt the same person, then it was another poster who also said something along the lines of: 'This is nothing you could not do for yourself using MiniITX hardware', etc. With which I whole -heartedly agree.
Now that, that has been said, wake me when something truely innovative comes along ;)
rjmasotta - Saturday, August 11, 2012 - link
Question. I am looking to buy the Apple TV G3. I'm trying to solve an issue. I have a 1080p CEILING mounted projector (providing video only, no audio) which is currently wired with component video cables coming from a high-end receiver. The sound is produced from optical out of the reeiver to speakers. Current video inputs are from cable box and DVD. I have an iPad 2 and want to stream video from it( Hulu, Crackel, HBO) to the projector. I don't want to remove the 35' of component cables and replace with HDMI) What I'm thinking is to use the HDMI output from the Apple TV into a HDMI to Component converter device, then take the component output produced and push it through the component video cables which run up, into, and over the ceiling to the projector. I would also use the optical output from the Apple TV to the second optical port on the receiver for sound.Does this sound like it will work?
elestein - Saturday, March 23, 2019 - link
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