In the last 5 years, more than 50 companies have introduced home-network-ready receivers that connect your computer with your TV and audio system so you can stream music, TV shows, movies, and photos from the home office to your home theater. As place-shifting devices go, Apple TV — the slickest media receiver yet — is decidedly late to the game. Still, Apple hasn't missed much, since media receivers have been a tough sell. They've been difficult to set up, slow to keep up with evolving or competitive file formats, and largely incompatible with copy-protected content. Indeed, Apple itself has used its own digital rights management (DRM) scheme, called Fair Play, to prevent songs and videos purchased through its iTunes Music Store from playing on competitors' media receivers (among them, the Windows Media Center Extender built into the Xbox 360). So, right from the start, Apple TV should appeal to anyone with an iTunes-bought library who wants to play content not just on his computer or iPod, but also on his big TV and speakers. I was ready.
SETUP As with much of Apple TV, the computer comes first. This is where you buy music, movies, and TV shows as well as gather podcasts, import tracks ripped from CDs, and manage all your content before you can sync or stream it to your TV via an Ethernet or Wi-Fi connection. After I did the requisite upgrade of my Windows XP version of iTunes to version 7.1.1, I was ready to unbox Apple TV. Only a mini remote and a power cord come with the diminutive component. Cables are extra, but Apple's HDMI and component-video cables are attractively priced accessories at $19.95 each. Apple TV needs to be placed atop other components, since it's no larger than a tray of brownies.
You must have a TV with a component-video, HDMI, or DVI input. That leaves old analog sets out in the cold, but Apple TV is meant to be viewed on a widescreen display and, ideally, in high-definition. I used my own HDMI and Ethernet cables to connect it to a 50-inch plasma HDTV and to a router in the living room. From the setup menu, I selected 720p to match the TV resolution. Apple TV displayed a five-digit code and prompted me to enter it on any computer on my network from which I wanted to stream or sync content. (Content you buy from iTunes can be played on as many as five devices at a time, which can be a mix of computers and iPods, but, Apple says, an Apple TV doesn't take a bite out of the five.)
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The Short Form
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| Price: $299 / apple.com / 800-692-7753 |
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Snapshot
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| The slickest way yet for shifting media from a computer in one room to a TV in another, though you'd better be an iTunes lover. |
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Plus
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•Easy installation •Jaw-dropping menus and screensavers •Syncs (copies) media from a notebook PC to internal hard drive for playback even when the PC is uncoupled from network •Compatible with protected content from iTunes Music Store |
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Minus
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•Incompatible with protected content from other music and movie services, including those that use rental and subscription models •Photo viewing possible only after images are copied to Apple TV hard drive •No Internet radio or YouTube access |
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Key Features
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•Streams music, movies, and TV shows from your iTunes library on a Mac or Windows computer •Synch content (including photos) •Once loaded with content, Apple TV can be plugged into a TV in a different place where there's no computer, network, or Internet access •40-GB hard drive •3.25-in IR remote •Inputs: Ethernet, 802.11n wireless networking, USB (unimplemented) •Outputs HDMI, component-video, optical digital audio, stereo analog audio •7.7 x 7.7 x 1.1 in; 2.4 lbs |
After seeing that my iTunes library was now accessible from the TV via the direct Ethernet connection, I decided to check out the Apple TV's wireless capabilities. I just unplugged its Ethernet cable and re-ran the setup for wireless mode — and Apple TV, using its embedded antenna, quickly found my Netgear G-type Wi-Fi network and my computer. (Apple says that Apple TV takes advantage of the greater speeds offered by the 802.11n draft spec used in some new wireless routers, including its latest AirPort Extreme.) As before, the iTunes library on my computer was now fully accessible from the TV. At this point, I still hadn't any need to refer to the user manual. Easy!
MUSIC PERFORMANCE My first fun task was to sample 50 CDs that I had recently had a service rip to unprotected MP3s at 192 kilobits per second (kbps), all on one DVD, which I'd imported into iTunes. On the Apple TV's widescreen graphic interface, the CD covers appeared to come at me as if on a carousel and loom six times their actual size — take that, vinyl cover art! Navigation was a breeze using the elegantly designed menus and the white, six-button remote control. Even though there's no scroll wheel on this dog-biscuit-size remote, when I switched from albums to songs, the longer I scrolled down, the faster the list moved. And it came to a quick stop when I let go of the button, putting me in alphabetical proximity of where I wanted to be. Combined with hundreds of previously ripped or downloaded songs on my computer, my more than 1,000-tune library was extremely easy to command and enjoy from the living room. Sound quality was excellent through the stereo speakers in my TV, but the Apple TV's lack of a coaxial digital audio output (it has optical-out only) prevented me from funneling the sound through my home theater receiver.
Back at the computer and going to iTunes, I spent $3.99 on the Kelly Sweet EP, whose five songs include "Raincoat" and "Dream On." They downloaded in the iTunes-dictated format of FairPlay-protected AAC files at 128 kbps. Kelly looked and sounded even sweeter from the sofa than she did from the desktop.
VIDEO PERFORMANCE For testing video playback, I already had a clip of the hip-hop parody video Lazy Sunday (made by Andy Samberg and Chris Parnell for Saturday Night Live) as well as Conviction, the pilot for a failed NBC series that featured actresses (portraying lawyers) who would soon be recast as the newest detectives on Law & Order and Criminal Intent. As for something new, I had missed the debut episode on NBC of Andy Barker, P.I., so I downloaded it from iTunes for $1.99.
Lazy Sunday, which was shot with a mini-DV camcorder, didn't have much video quality to speak of, but it was even more entertaining when viewed back on a TV screen, where it originated, than on my small computer monitor. Video quality on Conviction and Andy Barker, which were originally broadcast in high-def, had the look of analog broadcast TV, albeit in widescreen. The resolution was soft, somewhat short of DVD quality. On the other hand, some free high-def podcasts of documentary shorts I downloaded via iTunes from washingtonpost.com were sharper than any video currently sold by iTunes and a good taste of the higher video quality that Apple TV is capable of delivering.
The less than stellar quality of iTunes videos you buy and view on an HDTV via Apple TV is also in harsh contrast to the high-def menus and screensavers that Apple TV displays. For example, Apple chews up about 8 GB of the Apple TV's 40-GB drive loading it with, among other things, high-def photos of flowers that ascend the screen in various-size rectangles in a sort of reverse Tetris screensaver. The columns of images spin around 180° and continue to climb. An album of your own photographs can be substituted for the flowers, and even my trip-to-the-zoo photos taken with a 2-megapixel camera looked great. I only wished that the iTunes videos looked as good.
Of course, the issue of soft image quality would be remedied if iTunes offered high-def versions of its movie and TV-show downloads — but for now, it doesn't. Most iTunes users don't care because they're viewing content on iPods or relatively small computer screens. But perhaps Apple should take a tip from the Starz Vongo movie-rental and subscription service, which prompts you to choose between downloading a movie for viewing on a PC or on a portable player and then sends you the appropriate number of bits. One size does not fit all in a world of hugely divergent displays.
It's also worth noting that the iTunes Music Store lets you download music and video only for purchase — not on an all-you-can-see-or-hear monthly-subscription basis or in a 24-hour viewing window, as its competitors offer along with the purchase option. Since those other services mainly use Microsoft's DRM, Apple TV owners are pretty much left out and locked into the iTunes download-to-buy model. That's a serious restriction compared with Windows-based media receivers, such as the NetGear HD-EVA8000.
On another note, at one point I had set up a second computer running iTunes to automatically download several weekly podcasts, including the 40-minute commercial-free CBS Radio News Weekend Roundup. When I started listening on the computer and then stopped midway to switch to my TV, Apple TV recognized where I had paused the program on the PC and gave me the option of playing it from that point on — very convenient!
PHOTO PERFORMANCE Apple TV is the first media receiver I've encountered in which you can't stream photos from the computer. As mentioned, you have to sync them first, which I found inconvenient and yet another reason to spend more time at the PC instead of in front of the TV. Also, the photos disappear if you then decide to sync Apple TV to a different computer. But once images were copied over, they were easy to access — and the Ken Burns-type effects (slow pans and close-ups of still images) plus the choice of dazzling transitions made the slideshows really fun to watch. You can listen to music during the show, but there's no way to zoom into a portion of the picture.
BOTTOM LINE Compared with a number of other media receivers you can buy today that let you stream a wide variety of video formats from your computer — as well as access the Internet for listening to thousands of Internet radio stations (and maybe even watching YouTube videos, too) — Apple TV is a walled garden. If you can live within the Apple iTunes ecosystem — and many people do — there is great simplicity and elegance to using Apple TV. Who am I to argue? It's this very philosophy that has made Apple so successful with the iPod, despite numerous competitors who came before and after. And if you're willing to convert unprotected videos from non-iTunes sources using another program before importing them into iTunes, or use iMovie to bring in footage from your standard- or high-def camcorder, you can always do the advance work on the computer.
But in a world defined by an ever-expanding selection of Internet-based content, Apple TV is really Apple's rather narrow solution for iTunes customers encumbered by a purchased library of Apple's DRM-handcuffed songs, movies, and TV shows — content that won't run on most other media receivers. These users may not mind that Apple TV isn't able to stream or sync content wrapped by either of Microsoft's two DRM schemes, or even play unprotected WMA or WMV files. Still, there's no denying the millions of songs and hundreds of TV shows and movies at the iTunes Music Store, or the Apple TV's engaging, well-designed interface. I suppose there's something reassuring about staying put in a manicured garden, as long as you're happy ignoring the much larger world of media swirling around just outside.
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