I’ve spent a lot of time between yesterday and today going through the AppleTV specs, watching videos of the AppleTV and so forth. Here’s a basic functionality wrap-up. Feel free to let me know what I’ve messed up on. Follow the jump for the details. Updated Thursday with more details.
AppleTV is a media hub that sits in your living room. Your computer lives in your office. AppleTV lives in your den. Connect it to power. Connect it to TV. Let the wireless do the rest.
AppleTV syncs. Shipped with a 40GB hard drive, you can sync your AppleTV to iTunes, the same way you would sync an iPod. Except you do it wirelessly. You can pick one computer to auto sync to and up to 5 computers to stream from. You set up your AppleTV just like you would an iPod, including the standard sync options like ’sync most recent 10 unwatched movies’, etc.
AppleTV is small With its small form factor (2.4 pounds, 7.7 inches square, 1.1 inches high), you could possibly take it with you on the road for better video presentations than dealing with the iPod. There will be probably be a bricklike power supply to go along with it a la the mini though. This is still unconfirmed. Several people have now contacted me and said there will be no brick.
AppleTV streams. AppleTV supports 802.11 a/b/g/n. You can bring your MacBook into the living room and stream stuff off from iTunes through your AppleTV to your TV set. You are allowed to stream from 5 different authorized computers. I assume after 5 computers, you’ll have to play the deauthorize/authorize game. With streaming, you can watch the video but you can’t store it on the AppleTV.
AppleTV does HDMI and Component video. If you’ve got an old TV that still runs with composite connections, you need to think about upgrading to a newer system.
AppleTV has a USB2 and an Ethernet port I’m not sure if you can just connect up an external disk to expand upon the 40 GB internal disk or not, but I’d love to find out. Right now the Apple docs say that the USB port is meant for diagnostics and service. (An Ars Technica post reinforces this.) But we geeks don’t take those kind of footnotes for an answer. What I’d really love is if you could hook up an eyeTV (or similar) and record directly to the AppleTV box. If you’re looking for speed or don’t have wireless, Apple says you can use the Ethernet jack to connect directly to your computer. This is great news for my semi-ancient Compaq laptop. (It’s a hand-me-down. And no, I do not own an Apple laptop. Yet.)
AppleTV outputs a variety of resolutions. Apple says they’ll support 1080i, 720p, 576p and 480p. No 1080p, which was pretty much expected.
Cables are sold separately. You’ll have to buy your own HDMI or component video cables and any other cables needed for hooking up your Apple TV to a TV or computer or USB device.
You should be able to play your homebrew videos so long as they play on the iPod. The specs say you’ll be able to play “H.264 and protected H.264 (from iTunes Store): 640 by 480, 30 fps, LC version of Baseline Profile; 320 by 240, 30 fps, Baseline profile up to Level 1.3; 1280 by 720, 24 fps, Progressive Main Profile. MPEG-4: 640 by 480, 30 fps, Simple Profile”. Of course, we all want to be able to play any video that plays in QuickTime (including DivX, etc), but the word is right now that AppleTV will not (out of the box) play any video that is not playable on the iPod. No DivX, VIDEO_TS, etc.
You should be able to play 4:3 video. AppleTV specifically supports 640×480 video and should play it back correctly on widescreen TVs with pillarboxing.
iTunes 7.1 should support video streaming. The AppleTV webpage states that the unit requires iTunes 7.1 or later. Also QuickTime 7.1.5 or later.
You can listen to audio and see pictures on your TV. You don’t need external speakers for the audio.
It will work in Europe. Apple is very PAL friendly. AppleTV does 576p 50Hz PAL.
You don’t have to buy Apple Extreme. Even though the system requirements list Apple Extreme, Apple’s docs make it clear that you don’t need it. (The system requirements say: “AirPort Extreme, Wi-Fi 802.11b, 802.11g, or 802.11n wireless network6 (wireless video streaming requires 802.11g or 802.11n), or 10/100BASE-T Ethernet network”)
AppleTV works with a standard Apple Remote. One is included in the box.
You can’t play iPod games on it. At least not yet. A legion of geeks wait at the read to wii-ify this baby.
The Settings don’t tell us much. AppleTV settings include About, TV Resolution (at MWSF only 720p was supported), Network (you see the Network name, IP Address, Wireless ID and Signal Strength), Repeat Music (on or off), Screen Saver (on, off, selecting the saver), Sound Check (on or off), Sound Effects (on or off), Pair/Unpair Remote, Update Software, Language (again, only English available at MWSF), Legal, and Reset Settings.
The default screen saver uses your photos. It creates a falling waterfall effect of your pictures.
Use Network Settings to configure Wireless. The Network settings allow you to configure your wireless connection or, if you want to switch to Ethernet, prompt you to connect an Ethernet cable to the Apple TV port.
Connect to streaming via the Sources menu. You select “Connect to iTunes”, enter a PIN number (which is provided to you on the AppleTV side, and entered on the iTunes server), they authenticate and you can connect on the AppleTV side to the iTunes library.
You cannot shop at iTunes on AppleTV. Buy the stuff on your computer and then sync to your AppleTV. In the Keynote, Jobs says you could stream down iTunes movies to your AppleTV but this is unconfirmed. He says your AppleTV can also stream trailers for the most popular iTunes movies. Again unconfirmed. Given the bandwidth requirements, your unit may need to pre-download and cache trailers and I doubt you’d be able to smoothly watch live movies without better servers on the iTunes side and a really good Internet pipeline and wireless network in your home.
The screen updates during music playback. You won’t “burn a hole in your plasma TV”. There’s some nice motion graphics during music playback. You can also view slideshows during music playback as you would with an iPod.
Additional Specs: (via Apple Insider)
- CPU: 1.0GHz Pentium M-based chip (”Crofton”) underclocked to run on a 350MHz bus. “The chip is based on Intel’s pre-Core Duo “Dothan” core and includes 2MB of L2 cache.”
- Video: nVidia G72M with 64MB DDR2 video memory (a la GeForce Go 7400).
- System Memory: 256MB of 400MHz DDR2 system memory, “which is reportedly soldered to the logic board”.
> "There will be probably be a bricklike power supply to go along with it a la the mini though. This is still unconfirmed."
Er... apple.com/appletv/specs.html
"In the box
* Apple TV
* Apple Remote
* Power cord
* Quick Start guide
Power
* Built-in 48-watt universal power supply"
Doesn't that mean no brick?
The power supply is built in to the unit. Steve highlighted this at the preview in 2006 and again yesterday. You can also see the power supply and power cord references here:
http://www.apple.com/appletv/specs.html
Yeah, I saw that but I couldn't tell if that meant built into the power cord or built into the unit. Maybe I'm just being dense?
I'd like to know Apple's approach to the "multiple HDMI" problem. The Apple TV will likely be sold to those who already have an HD ready Flat Screen Plasma or LCD with one or two HDMI sockets. SKY HD satellite (in the UK) will take up one socket, a DVD the other.....
Apple says to use the components if your HMDI is already in use. I think they're already getting feedback on this one.
Do we know which hard drive it uses? One assumes that the first mods will swapping out 40gb for 80, 100, or more ...
Google for "HDMI switcher box" and you'll find a fair number of solutions.
Daniel, we wont' know until one of the Geek Army gets its hands on it and opens it up. I'm pretty sure our pals over the Make blog will be among the first!
How will EyeTV integration work?
Forcing customers to have to buy an HDMI splitter box is really messy though isn't it? I'm surprised they haven't included such capability within the Apple TV. Why go to the length of ensuring there is no "power brick" if many potential customers will need something equally unattractive to combine 3 or more HDMI sources.... Strangely Un-Jobsian.....
Hamish: At this time there is no eyeTV/AppleTV integration. I was on the phone with Miglia this AM and found out they have no immediate integration announcements. One would assume that the AppleTV will work somewhat like the iPod and that you *can* get video directly onto the thing but it took forever for companies like iLuv to figure out how to do that with the iPod and its wacky directory system.
How about getting HD content to view using the Apple TV? Is iTunes going to start offering HD content sometime soon? Once I know there is a way of obtaining HD content I will order an Apple TV.
I totally thought that iTunes was going to start offering HD content yesterday at a slight premium over standard content. I was wrong.
I was hoping for HD content in iTunes yesterday as well. Hopefully they will announce something soon. Perhaps around the ship date of the Apple TV?
Doing the math, you'd expect 720p to be about 3x larger than 640x480, right? So that would be about 3 GB for a 2 hour movie, and maybe 1-2 GB for a 1 hour TV show. (I'm guessing for the TV shows, they'd compress a bit more and make more tradeoffs.) Those are pretty big downloads.
Isn't it time to add more disk space to my future ZFS pool? :)
As the the multiple HDMI connections...
Typically your home theater reciever should take care of handling the multiple HDMI connections. DVD, Cable Box, AppleTV, etc would all get plugged into it and then let the reciever do the switching. If you don't have a reciever with HDMI or multiple HDMI ports then you will need a HDMI switcher as noted in other posts. It really isn't Apple's responsibility to provide the extra HDMI ports, the AppleTV is essentially a playback device just like your DVD player.
Pretty cool box for a first rev... Will be exciting to see what they have in-store for us long term.
Christian: No need to worry about having an HDMI splitter ugly-ing up your setup, courtesy of Xtrememac: http://www.xtrememac.com/audio/cables/hdmi_switcher.php. I saw their prototype when I was on the show floor yesterday.
athleticsfan - thank you - a much more elegant solution.
I get the digital hub idea, but I don't really get this product until features or potentials are unlocked. I don't buy DVD's and only rent once in awhile. If you have digital cable, most providers offer pay-per view films in the $6-$8 range. The iTunes movies are ~$14. I think if it was more TiVO-esque I would buy it because I am a huge Apple fan. Why would I want one of these? What am I missing?
So is the Apple TV a Mac in a small box, or an iPod in a large box?
I think this picture from the Apple store tells the whole story. On the iPod and AppleTV, you run Apple's software and Apple's UI, with closed development. On the Mac, you run your own software, with open development. On the iPod and AppleTV, you sync to your iTunes library. On the Mac, you build, maintain, and edit your iTunes library and can access the iTunes store. Of course, nothing is stopping you from putting a Mini next to your TV and running VLC but AppleTV streamlines the process and acts more like the cross between an Airport station and an iPod than a Mini.
is Apple TV narrowly focused on video only? what about HiFi Audio support? iTunes streaming is supported but how? only to an HDTV? seems short-sighted. How route to a better quality hi-fi audio system? or can we perhaps route the Apple TV HDMI cable to an HDMI-equipped AVR (audio/video receiver) and then route HDMI between AVR and HDTV?
"...what about HiFi Audio support? iTunes streaming is supported but how? only to an HDTV? seems short-sighted. How route to a better quality hi-fi audio system?..."
There are 2 audio ports on the AppleTV, an RCA stereo port, and an optical TOSlink port. So Dolby 5.1 is supported.
Has no one noticed a huge potential problem for Airtunes users who want to upgrade? Many people have their cable modem near their stereo and TV, so the most likely airport basestation they have is the airtunes, so that they can use the audio wireless streaming. But nowhere on Apple's site does it say that the AppleTV box is also a basestation like the airtunes was. So that means we have to buy 2 boxes for our stereo cabinet- the new airport Extreme (if we want full 802.11n speeds) and the AppleTV, and put them side by side! THis is ridiculous. How could Apple remove such an important feature? My $150 airtunes is more useful than this new device.
What I most want to know about the Apple TV today is "Can I use it with a non-HD TV?" I have a 2-year-old Sharp conventional picture tube set with component video input. It's not "widescreen" or HD -- just standard resolution. My iPod video plays on it just fine. I can't see any reason Apple would not want to support this, but the Apple TV site sure makes it seem like you can't play if you don't want to play in HD. I will make that move eventually, but I want my Apple TV now! Anyone know for certain? If I can use it, I'll order one tonight. Anything to wash the taste of the Linksys Media Center Extender out of my mouth. (Hey, any of those Apple TV naysayers who tout the Media Center Extenders as being "just like it" wanna buy mine? Hardly used -- largely because I can't make the bloody thing work reilably, even over a Cat 6 wired Ethernet connection.)
f i'm not mistaken, it should be possible to use this hama device to hook up the apple tv to old tv sets. it adds to the costs but it's cheaper than buying a new flat screen tv... ;-)