USA Today
AppleTV is elegant and doesn’t take up much room.
Apple TV hits stores this week. The elegantly simple device wirelessly connects music and video from your computer’s iTunes library to the big-screen TV in your den.
Leave it to Apple CEO Steve Jobs to get the job done (mostly) right. The highly anticipated device is a breeze to set up, though it takes awhile the first time you sync movies and other content off iTunes, and its storage capacity could be more generous.
Still, Apple TV looks even better when compared with efforts by other companies to lift digital content off the computer and onto the TV. Rival products tend to be complicated, cumbersome and costly.
At the core of Apple TV is the iTunes software so familiar to iPod users. Better yet, the sleek device lets you stream music and shows to your TV wirelessly over your home network.
From your TV, you can take in movies, TV shows, podcasts and music stored in iTunes on a PC or Mac. You can also display photos stored on your computer, including slide shows backed by a soundtrack.
Apple TV has a 40-gigabyte hard drive. Apple says that’s enough to store 50 hours of video, 9,000 songs, 25,000 photos or some combination. But I wish the capacity were even larger.
If 40 GB is too cramped for your own iTunes library, you can also stream video and audio (though not photos), from up to five additional computers on your network. You might think the USB port on the back of Apple TV would let you connect an external hard drive. It does not.
The content stored on the device is synchronized with iTunes. If you add newly downloaded movies or songs in iTunes on the computer, they automatically show up on Apple TV, wirelessly.
I watched A Bug’s Life, The Little Mermaid and episodes of The Office, among other fare. All looked nearly as good as they do on DVD, whether I was watching something stored on Apple TV or just streamed from iTunes. None of it was in high definition, though you can watch high-definition video via the device. Apple TV is capable of reaching the high-definition techie standard of 1080i, but not the even higher standard 1080p. Only tech enthusiasts will care. (Geeks also take note: Apple TV supports the H.264 and MPEG-4 video standards.)
Streamed stuff typically takes longer to start playing on your television compared with content stored on Apple TV. I encountered buffering delays watching some streamed content. Much depends on the reliability of your Wi-Fi.
I tested Apple TV with a new wireless AirPort Extreme Base Station from Apple (meeting state-of-the-art Wi-Fi standards). Apple said I might experience glitches with my older Linksys router.
Here’s a closer look at Apple TV:
The hardware: Apple TV does not resemble the electronics gear that currently lives next to your TV. That’s a good thing. The stylish gray 1.1-inch tall square box weighs just 2.4 pounds and is not much bigger than a paperback.
There’s no on-off button. Ports and connectors are on the back, including one for the HDMI (high-definition multimedia interface) cable I used, another for component video. Your TV must have one or the other. You can connect Apple TV directly to a TV or home theater receiver. Apple requires a modern widescreen TV set; video would look rotten on an older TV. High definition, of course, looks best.
Alas, it does not come with any of the cables that you need to set it up, which makes the $299 price less attractive than it appears. Apple sells HDMI cables for $20.
Controlling the action: A simple Apple remote is supplied. It’s the same remote control included with newer Macintosh computers. You use it to navigate Apple TV menus on the screen. After years of being conditioned around much larger (and complicated) TV remote controls, it was easy to misplace the diminutive Apple version.
The on-screen Apple TV interface has a familiar iPod feel. The main menu is segregated into movies, TV shows, music, podcasts, photos, settings and sources. Menus are decorated with movie posters, album covers and your own pictures. You can dig deeper into menu choices by clicking with the remote control. Once, though, I pressed the remote and nothing happened — Apple TV momentarily froze.
Managing content: The first time you sync iTunes to Apple TV can take an awful long time. You may want to do the heavy lifting overnight. You can sync wirelessly over your home Wi-Fi. But Apple TV also includes an ethernet port, still your fastest bet if such a network cable is handy.
I managed iTunes from the Mac in my basement office; Apple TV was connected to a Sony TV a floor above. You can sync all movies and TV shows, or choose a set number of recently unwatched films. You can also sync selected music playlists and photo albums.
Good as Apple TV is, I doubt folks will trade in DVD players anytime soon — iTunes films are purchased, after all, not rented. Apple TV can’t record like a TiVo. The iTunes movie roster is relatively thin. Except for movie trailers, Apple TV doesn’t do a lot of streaming (or let you download) directly from the Internet — for now, at least.
All that said, more people are downloading digital entertainment onto computers. Apple TV presents a dandy way to enjoy it from the couch rather than desk chair.