RSSApple Beefs Up Apple TV Offering
By Ed Oswald | Published May 31, 2007, 11:17 AM
In an attempt to make the product more attractive to potential buyers, Apple has begun selling a version of Apple TV with a 160GB hard drive as well as announcing plans to allow access to YouTube from the device.
"These were the two pieces missing from Apple TV when it was announced," Forrester analyst Josh Bernoff said, speaking of more hard drive capacity and streaming content. "Apple TV is officially no longer lame."
Users of the device will be able to download the YouTube functionality as an update beginning in mid-June. While initially only several thousand videos will be offered, the entire catalog will be available by the fall.
Videos will be converted to the H.264 standard for playback on the device, rather than use the Flash video technology YouTube employs for its video streaming. The companies said that is the reason why the full catalog wouldn't be initially available.
It is not exactly clear why Apple did not just add Flash functionality into the device, although it is typical for the Cupertino company to rely on its own proprietary methods when adding new features to its products.
Along with the announcement of the YouTube offering, which many analysts suspected would eventually happen, Apple will also offer a 160GB version of the device for $399. The standard version, which includes a 40GB drive, retails for $299.
Too bad, I'm more of a chicken guy, than a beef guy.
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|"Is there really a market for whatever this thing is?"
Yes, of course there is! You could polish up a turd and slap an Apple logo on it, and then market it as iGravity the anti-gravity device. People would be lining up around the block to buy it.
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|Is there really a market for whatever this thing is?
At least they admit it was a lame idea from the start, but "officially no longer lame?" I guess the point is that anything can be made to walk simply by adding a 160GB HD and YouTube. (Not!!!)
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|My custom built Windows Media Center is better with 1TB hard drive mostly for my dual HD tuner. I can browse the internet with my wireless mouse and keyboard, so I'm not just limited to Youtube.com. I used this case.
Since it's Windows Media Center I can do anything regular Windows XP can do too, like PC games on my 50" HDTV.
It kind of sounds like they did it to try and compete with Xbox with the new 120gb HD that just came out, since you can download tv shows and movies on Xbox Live. Though Xbox Live has HD moves and shows, which I don't think iTunes does, it's all formated for your iPod at a crappy 320x240 res. For that price the Xbox sounds better since you can also play games on it too.
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|Honestly it's worthless for two reasons. The qaulity of the video on itunes. And the inability to play divx and other files. They want you to buy this thing but they really want you to buy the content. They may never learn, and that's sad for everyone.
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|Still not enough to get me to buy it, but it is nice to see this happen.
Wonder how crappy YouTube videos will look upscaled?
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|How is AppleTV different than my Windows Media Center and extender? This is the program that made me actually like Windows again. I can stream content of any kind to any TV in the house. Plus, it has a built in DVR with no monthly fees.
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|Screw this idea. They should open up the usb port in the back so people can expand the hard drive capacity, be able to update the codecs on appleTV using Flip4Mac and be able to stream files from a folder of users choice. I'd rather get a macmini for a hundred dollars more and be able to rip my DVDs right there.
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|Forget AppleTV! If you have a little bit of tech knowhow what you really want is the Netgear EVA8000. This thing does it all and they have an open beta program for firmware which is updated very frequently adding countless features from the requests of the user community.
I paid $349 on amazon two months ago and was on a 3 week waiting list to get the box (High demand) it won a bunch of awards at CES right before i ordered (hence the out of stock situation everywhere). Best money i have spent on a piece of gear in a long time...
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|The Netgear device only works with Windows! AppleTV works with Windows and Mac.
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|I don't give a damn about YouTube on my TV. What I WANT is to be able to access my library of DVDs without having to spend a ton of time converting them from VOB format first.
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|Vob is just the file extension. DVDs are encoded in MPEG2. In the long run h.264 the way everything is going. Poor decision in the short run but in the long run their support of h.264 will be a good thing.
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|Yes, I know that - but my point was that they can't be played directly - they have to be converted into h264 first. I don't want to have to do that!
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|SWEET!
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