Comments on: Why isn’t AppleTV an actual TV?

By: Working Backwards Reveals Apple’s Macworld Plans - Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 01:22:49 +0000

[...] way, that’s the show. But wait, there’s one more wild imagining in my head… As Jeremy Toeman pointed out, an enhanced Cinema Display could make a darn fine TV. So let’s walk down this path a [...]

By: manpan

manpan — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 03:50:43 +0000

The only reason I have not yet bought Apple TV is because I do not yet have a High Definition Television in my home and my existing TV is incompatible with Apple TV as it uses VGA input/output etc (the red, white, and yellow input sockets) is neither composite, component, nor HDMI.

I do plan to get one as soon as I have an HDTV. In the meantime I’ll just use my Mac Mini running OS X Tiger with Front Row and play my Nintendo Wii.

By: Dave Zatz

Dave Zatz — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 19:29:39 +0000

There’s more money to be made selling items separately. I expect Apple to enhance iTV functionality going forward, and I expect Apple to start selling flat panel TVs. Macworld should have some interesting announcements. What I see as the main flaw of Apple TV is that iTunes only allows movie *purchases* – I think they’d move more units if they offered movie rentals. And let people order from Appel TV itself.

By: Patrick Sansoucy

Patrick Sansoucy — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 18:10:19 +0000

I’ve been a media streamer early adopter (does the Roku Photobridge ring a bell) and I don’t think making it part of a TV will help. Like someone said here, it’s already out there and not having a lot of success. It’s basically a Ipod video for your TV, and everyone knows that the Ipod video wasn’t a consumer favorite.

I would buy one if it had:
More codec supports (I don’t pirate, but my home movies are AVI’s and MPEG. I have ripped some of my DVD’s to XVID/DIVX. )
Remove the iTunes only tie, I want to stream off a NAS
More than 720p or 1080i support please, people are getting huge 1080p TV’s today
DVR would be quite nice
A real API for plugins

I know some of this can be achieved via hacks, but still, it should support this out of the box.

By: Benjamin Higginbotham

Benjamin Higginbotham — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 17:14:47 +0000

I don’t think an all in one converged device will work. Come on, you must see the irony of slamming a convergence product and the promoting converging the TV with the AppleTV. It’s like double convergence, so maybe that’s like a double negative?

I think the biggest failure of the AppleTV has been and continues to be content. This device is hooked directly to the television which probably has cable or satellite hooked in as well for many households. What content does the AppleTV supply that is more compelling than what I have on my HD cable/satellite or by playing an HD-DVD (or BluRay, or whatever). The AppleTV doesn’t have a huge discount on price over traditional DVDs and can’t be compared to HD-DVD even though it pretty much only works on HD sets (it sorta works in the SD realm, but barely). The HD Podcast content market is very, very small right now and most of it is crap (to be blunt). So I’m probably not going to buy a movie for my AppleTV, my TV episodes are probably recorded in HD for free on my DVR and the Podcast/Videocast content is weak at best.

The technology is in place, the content isn’t. Plugging an AppleTV directly into a monitor would be cool, but wouldn’t solve the underlying problem. It would just be convergence squared.

By: Luck Kanthatham

Luck Kanthatham — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 15:53:46 +0000

I think you have a point. However, I don’t think I would spend that much money just to get that kind of functionality. HP does have a line of LCD TV’s that can do what you described. Personally, I don’t think I want to be tied to a TV for a set of functionality that can be transferred to another TV.

By the way, I run a site called http://appletvsource.com. Given your interesting take on the Apple TV, you are welcome to guess write on my site anytime.

By: Tedious

Tedious — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 16:38:13 +0000

Personally, I think AppleTV is perfect and only ahead of it’s time. Like the iPod, it can get a bump every year and stay perfect. It’s designed with a post-broadcast lifestyle in mind, when most people only watch pre-recorded material most of the time.

It’s a “TV Killer” in much the way the iPod was a “Radio Killer”. The lack of a tuner wasn’t an oversight in either case.

It’s supposed to change the way you get and consume content. Or rather, it gives you a legal way to get content and a way to consume it (and all your torrented stuff) on your big screen. The iPod put all the legally ripped and illegally Napstered music off your computer and put in in your pocket. (That the iTunes Store is profitable is beside the fact that it’s sole purpose is to justify the existence of a piece of hardware that can play illegally traded files.)

If you think that no one is trading AppleTV compatible files, just search for x.264 (the free version of h.264) on your favorite tracker. For everything else, there’s iSquint.

Software Piracy sells hardware. I think 2009 will be earliest that people will discover AppleTV. Until then, it’s a pirate’s paradise just like the early days of the iPod, and a nice trickle of cash for Apple.

By: Louis Gray

Louis Gray — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 02:51:48 +0000

You’re right. Of course you’re right. Apple is missing the boat with Apple TV, and getting nowhere. Should would be nice if they’d recognize it and make some effort.

My comments in parallel with yours:

Eight Reasons the Apple TV is Failing, and How It Can be Saved
http://www.louisgray.com/live/2007/10/eight-reasons-appletv-is-failing-and.html