Why buy Apple TV? I don't get it

Well, I think you've answered your own question - sounds like you don't have a use for one, so don't buy one.

The MacMini covers most bases (and others) in your setup, I'd stick with that if I were you.

I can't rent movies as I'm outside US, but never bought it for that - I use it as a small form factor elegant device to relay my personal media content to my TVs. It's simple to use and gives good results. It's not for everyone though.

AC

Dude, the apple tv wasn't meant for YOU then. No one said it was a device that everyone should own. As with all other high tech electronic devices, not every one needs one. But for the person who doesn't have a blu-ray player, mac-mini, or cable/satellite tv, this is a great -and relatively cheap- item. I'm sure if I had all that cool stuff, and the money to support that cool stuff, I wouldn't really want an apple tv either. I use mine to coordinate my movie, dvd, and tv show collections, as well as my pictures. I also surf the net from it too! Like I said, it's not for everybody. So before you come into this forum and start a rant about why someone would buy an atv, think for a second about other people and their needs instead of yours.

By the way:
NO, not every one has cable or satellite tv
NO, not every one has movies on demand
NO, not every one has Pay Per View
NO, not every one has a blockbuster, hollywood video, etc.. account.
NO, not every one has DVR
NO, not every one has a mac-mini for their television
NO, not every one has a blu-ray disk player

I think the response it is much easier.
It is a TOY( a quite expensive one).
Who doesn't like toys. I love my toys and one of these is my TV( and I have satellite, TV on-demand, HD Tv, etc.)

Joseph Kriz wrote:

I didn't know you could surf the net with Apple TV.

You can't without modding it as far as I'm aware (and that is beyond most users skills).

AppleTV certainly does more than letting you rent movies from Apple.

I think the marketing has perhaps been it's worst enemy.

It was initially launched as a media extender - an iPod for your TV if you like with component/HDMI out and the ability to mirror content in your itunes library either by 'syncing' selected material with selections from iTunes from time to time, or by streaming material in real time across your network from your itunes library.

The 1.0 software had a very simple elegant interface (similar to front Row 2.0 I gather but I'm still running Tiger most of the time). There was originally no promise of movie rentals or direct purchasing of TV Shows/movies/music via AppleTV though many felt it was perhaps a logical extension of functionality.

With the Take 2.0 software Apple really shifted the goalposts I believe and it was promoted more as a conduit to iTunes rentals/purchases than a media extender which many of us had originally purchased.

Outside the US you can't rent movies, and I personally feel the new interface is quite intrusive as it is so iTunes Store centric relegating 'My Content' to the bottom of each section which was never originally the case. I have no issues with purchasing or renting via AppleTV I just wish it had it's own Store menu and wasn't so in your face.

I found AppleTv to be worth the price simply to playback (via optical) all my digitised CDs via the hi-fi, using a simple clear interface (admittedly no search so you may have to scroll a bit with a huge library).

I then started digitising and recording recorded movies/TV shows into an AppleTV compatible format to vie via appleTv instead of shifting through dozens of discs - a huge boon for kids shows. Planning to do the same with home movies and more of my photos.

Youtube access is a bit of a gimmick but more fun than i gave it credit for. .Mac gallery and flickr access are new and are useful if you use those services.

The simplicity really is the key as my partner, parents, mother-in-law can all use AppleTV with minimal coaching, but they'd never be able to fathom a MacMini as they don't really have much patience with computers (I may be wrong but as you never see a desktop it doesn't seme like a computer to them though it is a flavour of Mac OS running at heart).

I'm not sure what the future holds for AppleTV - it's gonna be a dog eat dog business model for online rentals and the movie studios wield the control and power over content availability hence the lack of rentals outside US which does Apple no favours.

For those who want an iPod for TV more than a rental machine, more codec support (which you have with a MacMini particularly if you add Perian/VLC etc) would be really desirable as the most offputting thing is laboriously converting content for AppleTV which has stringent and fairly limited video codec support (MP4/h264 essentially).

AC

Joseph Kriz wrote:
Thanks AC.

You can't rent movies from anywhere?
No local stores etc... ?
All I know about is the U.S....

That's natural.

We have high street DVD/BluRay rentals and online 'mailed to you' rental type services, but as far as on demnad internet rentals are concerned Apple have not thrashed out the contracts with the stuidos etc as yet, hopefully we'll get it before long.

I can't remember the name of all the US online rental services people talk about but we have little of that nature yet in the UK, though some companies are starting to offer movies on demand over the internet (but they tend to be tied to contarcts) or via cable/satellite.

We can't even buy MP3s from Amazon yet!

Usually when we can we're also charge double what you guys are in the States too! We call it 'rip off Britain' 😉

If I wanted to rent a movie on my Mac Mini from the Apple Store, it is not possible that I know of.

My understanding is that you can rent movies via iTunes but only AppleTv lets you rent HD movies. You can move the SD iTunes rentals around say to AppleTv or your iPod to finsih watching on a trip, but the viewing timescale is very tight - comparisons were made with similar US services a few months back and they were similar in terms of tiem, but things may have changed.

This seems odd.
I would think that Apple would want to rent movies to anyone. That's they business they are in.. Correct?

Movie studios are in control here not Apple.

Maybe they are working on a new release of iTunes or Front Row that can be used on all the Apple computers. This way anyone with a computer could rent a movie if they desired.
Seems logical to me if I was in that business.

Thanks again.

Entirely logical, but Apple only have a small say in the proceedings it seems.

AC

Hmm... that post was quite harsh. Sorry about that.

I bought my Apple TV because I wanted to be able to play my iTunes media on my new Sony 46W3000 and my McIntosh MHT100 receiver! I have pretty much all my CDs imported into iTunes initially in WAV and now AIF. This gives me the ability to play any of my music without having to insert CDs. I also have a lot of music clips and music videos in iTunes that I wanted to watch on my TV.

That was before Take 2.
I have rented a few movies, I don't do it often, but occasionally it's fun.

I don't have cable TV.
I don't have over-the-air TV.
I don't have satellite.
I have the Oppo DV-983H for DVDs, SACD, and DVD-Audio
I have the Sony BDP-S300 for Blu-ray.
I have the Pioneer DVL-91 for LaserDiscs (I haven't watch them in years!)

For my application I "mostly" love my 160 GB Apple TV. What would make it even better for me is:

The ability to play multiple videos
The ability to add an external hard drive (All my music in WAV & AIF takes up a lot of room)

I keep wishing!

Joseph Kriz wrote:
If I wanted to rent a movie on my Mac Mini from the Apple Store, it is not possible that I know of.
This seems odd.

It is possible to rent from the Apple iTunes Store from computers, not just the AppleTV. You cannot, however, rent high definition movies except through AppleTV as far as I know.

Message was edited by: Meme Infected

An interesting question.

I don't cable or satellite tv
I don't have movies on demand
I don't have Pay Per View
I don't have a DVR

I do have a DVD player and a NetFlix account.

I like the ability to get movies and, more importantly, television shows on demand I do not want to pay $70 a month for cable. I also use my Apple TV for listening to music through my home theatre system. Another thing I discovered that I love my Apple TV for which I wasn't expecting is the ability to watch video podcasts on my television as opposed to my computer. There's an enormous amount of free content that I find interesting. All in all, it has been a very cost effective purchase for me. It also forces me to be far more selective about what I watch than I would be if I had cable, which I consider good.

That all being said, it still might not make sense to you. Sort of like I find the notion of owning a car appalling and ridiculous. And I don't even live in NYC. 😉

i realize this subject has been pretty well hashed out, but this was my situation...

the apartment complex that i live in has a 10 year contract with direct TV, meaning, if you want cable you must use this particular provider. For the price of about $175 dollars a month you get basic cable with a hand full of HD channels. After paying these price gaugers this absorbent amount, i cancelled my service. i don't own a car, and the closest rental place is about 15 miles away. i have a 720-1080 upscale DVD, but variety is the spice of life, so i figured, hey, i'll buy apple TV. I get my news and other pertinent info via the net, so this device will be a great way for me to break up the monotony of my own DVD collection and also begin a High Definition movie collection. Well, it helped with the former, not so much with the latter, which brings me to the follow up...why can't I buy High Definition movies from apple? According to THREE sales associates at my nearest retail location and TWO apple TV support associates "absolutely, you can purchase (to own, or as close to owning as apple will let you) High Definition movies." Guess what? You can't purchase High Definition movies.

so, that's why i wanted to own it.