Apple TV
Saturday, October 25, 2008
I have been considering the Apple TV for about a year now and we finally decided to get one last nite. If you are not familiar with the product, it allows you buy content from the iTunes music store via your TV. With the Apple TV, you can browse movies, watch trailers and rent ones either in standard def or high def. You have 30 days to watch the movie, once you start you have 24 hours before it disappears. The cost is $3.99 for standard and $4.99 for high def. Older movies are $2.99 and $3.99. You can also purchase movies and tv shows. You can search for movies by title or actor and add movies to your wish list to view or purchase at a later date. You can also browse the vast collection of podcasts both video and audio as well as YouTube. You can use your Apple TV to stream music, photos and videos from other computers running iTunes.
Setup is easy, you just plug in an HDMI cable, sound if needed (going to a home theatre) and you're done. If you have a wireless network, type in your SSID and password. This took a few extra minutes since I had to change my current wireless router from WPA TKIP to WEP encryption (Come on Apple support WPA!!!!). Once that was done I was connected and browsing the iTunes store.
Overall I am happy with the product, I like the idea of renting on demand and browsing the whole store. One of the things that drove me nuts with the cable OnDemand was the lack of selection. You were held hostage to what they wanted to provide and it was never really good. Now we have the ability to rent any movie (as long as the store has it) in just a few clicks of the remote. If we missed a tv show and feel the need to really watch it we can always buy the episode. The Apple TV comes in two sizes 40 gig and 160. We went with the 160 gig since downloading high def content will no doubt fill up quickly.
http://www.apple.com/appletv/
Posted by mardenhill 10/25/2008 10:22:00 AM
Labels: Technology
