Apple TV software update: First impressions
Just point and click to rent an HD movie--no computer needed.
(Credit: CNET)It's a couple of weeks late, but the Apple TV software update is now available to the public. The free download updates the Apple TV with a variety of new functionality presented at last month's Macworld show, including HD movie rentals and PC-free access to the iTunes Store.
We're downloading it now, and will be reporting back soon with some hands-on impressions. In the meantime, check out Steve Jobs' preview of the new features.
UPDATE 2: Full hands-on review and video available here.
UPDATE: My initial impressions are pretty positive. As far as the new features are concerned:
Onscreen iTunes Store access: The new main menu uses a split-screen navigation--primary selections on left, submenus on the right. Access to iTunes Store content (movies, TV shows, music, podcasts) is not unlike the iTunes desktop software, with featured and most popular items called out with box shots (see above), and the ability to drill down farther using alphabetical search via an onscreen keyboard.
Movie rentals: There's a limited selection so far, but the process works pretty seamlessly. Click on the movie of your choice, get an onscreen summary (with an available video preview), and just click to rent. HD videos were available for viewing within 45 seconds of ordering--though it's worth noting that we're on a corporate T1 broadband connection.
Video quality: Scenes from Ratatouille and Transformers demonstrated that the HD video quality is far superior to the previous low-res offerings on iTunes (which were optimized for the small screens of the iPod/iPhone portables). Foreground detail on both films was generally impressive, with (for instance) the fur of the rats in the Pixar film clearly apparent. But the compression needed to get the films into streamably small file sizes is evident: Backgrounds still exhibit MPEG artifacts, and fading into and out of black show noticeable solarization. In other words: It has the same strengths and weaknesses that we've seen on downloadable videos on Vudu and Xbox 360 Marketplace. Most viewers will be suitably impressed, but videophiles will be able to see bandwidth constraints that fall short of the best Blu-ray movies.
Flickr and .Mac access: Access to these online photo galleries worked perfectly. Public galleries are accessible just by typing in the account name--including slide shows with the Ken Burns Effect and background music (the playlist of your choice).
So far, so good. I'll be updating the full review soon. In the meantime, if you've got a specific question about the new Apple TV, ask it below, and I'll do my best to track down an answer.
John P. Falcone covers home theater and network entertainment products. He's been writing for CNET since 2002. 
screen as a screensaver. After you sync your photos to the appleTV then those
built-in pictures are replaced with a random display of YOUR pictures as the
screensaver. It is actually very cool.... try it.... and enjoy!
TV. For example, my main use of the Apple TV is podcasts and video
podcasts. I go to podcasts, and it shows me all the unplayed podcasts, and
it's easy to pick one. Now, it's showing everything from my computer, so all
the podcasts that have nothing new are in the lists. (Yes, there's a dot on
podcasts with unplayed podcasts, but I have to scroll through a fairly long list
to get to the one I want).
TV shows are even more messed up. It's showing all the episodes on my
computer, and it's not even "pick the show, then pick the episode".
It also shows all movies from my computer, and that's not so bad...though
the question of why copy any to the Apple TV is unclear.
The new functionality is nice. But I want an Apple TV Take 2.1
- How viable would it be to replace a cable HD service w/ Apple TV if you're largely interested in movies? I'd augment it with an HDTV antenna. For someone who watches 10 hours/week of TV, mostly movies, I was thinking about putting in an Apple TV and ditching my $75/month cable bill.
If you want to check individual titles, just boot up iTunes and go to the iTunes Store--all of the same movies are listed, and the HD ones will say "This movie is available in HD on Apple TV" where applicable.
In the configuration in iTunes, there's an option "show only the synced items
on my Apple TV". Check it, and it only shows items on the Apple TV.
It should be an on-Apple TV option (so if I'm in the bedroom, want to watch
a movie only on the computer, I don't have to go to the office and uncheck
the option) but at least it's there. I will still say they have messed up TV show
display, however.
Apple still has not made it easy to browse folders of photos. That is bad. The killer app for the Apple TV is not video rental or music playback, it is displaying digital photographs on biggest and highest resolution screen in the house! This is the application I get the most questions about when people see my AppleTV. Period.
EVERYONE has digital cameras and not everyone is comfortable with using Flickr or .mac to host their photos. Many of us simply have a folder for each year and sub-folders for each month etc. We should be able to use AppleTV to get to a specific folder and and browse thumbnails to display a specific photo just like on our computers. Waiting for a shot to come around in an automated slide show does not cut it!
Photographs are intensely personal and there are those of us who will NEVER put them on hardware we don't own. I understand that having partners like flickr and supporting .mac are important, but not being able to efficiently navigate our own home photo albums is totally missing the boat.
GET IT RIGHT NEXT TIME APPLE! stop trying to make the ATV a way to extract more money from me through video rentals or .mac subscriptions. I'll part with some of my money for those once I can do what everyone expects to do with their digital photo collection.
Until this is fixed, I cannot recommend AppleTV to my friends and family. As it stands, the product continues to be a horrible tease!
GRRR!!!!
- song lyrics
- by hfa13 February 18, 2008 6:45 PM PST
- Can you now access lyrics that have been manually added to a song?s file on iTunes?
- Like this Reply to this comment
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