Apple TV

Though I have had my Apple TV a few weeks now, however I have not really used it, nor have I streamed any rented films either.

Now this is not because of any problem with the Apple TV. It’s partly that I haven’t watched that much television over the last few weeks and haven’t had the time to sit down and watch a film either. When I have wanted to watch something I have relied on on my EyeTV or the Mac mini that is currently under my TV. The Mac mini won’t be here forever and when it goes I am sure that the Apple TV will be used more.

Unpacking the Apple TV

You have to just love the way that Apple package their “toys”. Unpacking the Apple TV was a really wonderful experience… can’t believe I just said that.

Slide the box open, tip out the Apple TV. Remove the clear plastic and then a strip of black plastic film that protects it and the ports. Underneath was the remote, in at an angle so the box can be smaller and under that tightly tied was the power cord.

I connected the Apple TV to my TV and then using the remote connected it to the wireless network. After turning on Home Sharing it found my iMac on the network and I could easily play content from it. Now with my faster broadband I will have no worries about renting movies on the Apple TV, though not sure how often I will do that at £4.49 a pop… Disappointed that we in the UK don’t have TV episodes, hopefully at a later time. No BBC iPlayer either!

Apple TV

Yes, I have gone out and bought one…

Took me a while to find in the Apple Store as the box is tiny compared to the previous model… very minimalist packaging!

Still in the box at the moment….

Apple TV Soon…

According to the original announcement from Apple we should see the Apple TV before the end of September. The last time I went to my local Apple store they still had the old model and no news on the new one (nothing new there then).

Originally I was quite excited about it and nearly pre-ordered….

However since then I have become slightly less keen.

Will still probably buy one.

£99 Apple TV

Yes!

Well nearly yes!

Apple today announced their new Apple TV. A quarter of the size of the original Apple TV, no hard drive and a much lower price.

£99 is a much nicer price than the £200+ of the older version.

The main downside is a lack of storage, however streaming is possible from both Macs and iOS devices so not too much of an issue. My experiences of 802.11n streaming is that it does work fine and is much better than 802.11g wifi. I am thinking though that the iPad and the iPhone use the slower 2.4GHz 802.11n and my 802.11n network runs at 5GHz I may need to add a third wireless network at home if I want to stream from my iPad.

New Apple TV

Well Apple are holding an event on the 1st September for the press.

Generally at this time of year we see Apple announce their new iPod line up for the festive season.

With sales of traditional iPods falling I suspect (as others do) that there may be a limited refresh of the traditional iPod line, but the real focus of this event will be a new iPod touch and a new iOS4 based Apple TV (or iTV as Apple want to call it). There are also rumours of an iPad refresh, not sure how reliable that is, but we will be getting iOS 4 for the iPad about now and I do wonder if the delay was down to a refreshed iPad with Facetime camera? There are also other rumours of a 7″ iPad.

What really interests me is the new Apple TV. I have been considering buying one for some time now and keep putting it off. Using a Mac mini has solved many of my issues with pushing video and music from my computer to the front room, however this is only a temporary solution. In the long term I need to choose between getting another Mac mini or getting an Apple TV. The new rumoured $99 Apple TV actually might be a real solution and in many ways could work alongside a Mac mini!

Will be interesting to see what is in fact announced on the 1st September.

New Apple TV ?

According to various rumours Apple may be releasing a new Apple TV but in a different format compared to the current model. If the rumours are to be believed then the new Apple TV will be a screen-less iPod. It will only have 16GB of on board storage. It will in the main be streaming content from a Mac or the cloud.

I already use my iPhone to do this, however this new Apple TV has the advantage that it will she able to play 1080p HD content.

The price?

$99

Probably will get one.

Going HD

Though I do like HD pictures it has taken me some time to go HD.

In the early days there was the “battle” between HD-DVD and Blu Ray and though in the early days it looked like HD-DVD would win, my preference was for Blu Ray, so I decided to wait and as well all know now, Blu Ray won. Though with the availability of HD content via services such as iTunes, maybe physical media won’t be here much longer… well it might be in my house as my broadband connection is not the fastest in the world!

So without any kind of HD player, why should I bother buying an HD TV so I didn’t…

Then along came Sky HD… this meant that I could watch HD TV if I wanted to… however I didn’t fancy paying large amounts of money every month to Sky for the odd HD programme.

Freesat promised HD without the monthly contract, but I would still need a dish on the side of the house and to be honest they are very ugly  and I didn’t see much on Freesat that I couldn’t see on Freeview that I would want to watch. Too much work really to go HD via Freesat.

This week sees me getting a Sony Bravia HD 1080p TV.

So why have I gone HD?

Well Freeview HD has been switched on in my area. Yes it is only three HD channels, but they should be picked up by my aerial, so no dish.

Combine that with the Blu Ray player I got for Christmas to replace my aging DVD player, I am almost ready to watch HD.

I will probably (finally) get an Apple TV too, so that I can watch content from my iTunes collection on the new TV.

All I need now is for Elgato to releaves a Freeview HD adapter.

Apple rumored to be readying Mac mini with HDMI

Engadget reports that Apple may be ready to launch a new Mac mini with HDMI.

A Mac mini with HDMI. Makes sense, right? Well, it hasn’t to Apple so far, but it looks like it just might be ready to change its tune. That’s according to AppleInsider, at least, which has it from “two people familiar with the matter” that prototypes of a Mac mini with an HDMI port have been seen making the rounds in the usual inner circles.

Back in March 2008 (two years ago) there were rumours that Apple were going to kill the Mac mini. Back then I said:

I do like the Mac mini, it works well as a little Mac for testing and trying things out as well as introducing people to the Mac. I also have used it in the past as a server for various web services and for limited use it works really well – probably would not be too happy if it was a production server.

I did try it as a TV computer, in other words connected to my TV, but I never really used it, in the main as it was an old G4 PPC model and was rather slow for recording and capturing video from an EyeTV USB device. The newer Intel models have the advantage of remote control and faster processors and graphics better suited to video.

I am looking to get a new TV when the Freeview HD models become more widely available. At the time I did consider getting an Apple TV over putting a Mac mini under the TV; as the Apple TV did have HDMI and as well as buying HD TV shows from the UK iTunes Store, you could rent HD movies for use ONLY on the Apple TV. If there is a new Mac mini with HDMI and you can rent HD movies on the new Mac mini then I may get one over an Apple TV.

Downloading movies

iTunes Movies in the UK - hmmmm

Back in June 2008 when Apple put movies into the UK iTunes Store I had a go and didn’t have a huge success.

So my first proper attempt to get films off the iTunes Store was not a great success, ah well maybe next time.

So now over a year later, what’s the situation?

Well I am downloading a fair few movies from the iTunes Store now, buying and renting.

I do like how quick and easy it is, and sometimes how much cheaper it is too (and annoyed by how expensive it can be too).

I usually watch the movies via an iPod through the TV, as I still haven’t got round to buying an Apple TV, but then I still don’t have that HD TV to watch them on (and I am pretty sure I can’t easily connect an Apple TV to my current TV).

I will probably get an Apple TV if I get an HD TV as I would prefer to watch HD movies on an HD screen.

I was impressed with HD on the TV Shows and downloaded Lost in HD and the newest Doctor Who special in HD too.

So is everything working?

Well not really.

My ADSL is still way too slow, which means it takes hours to download a movie. Also I have a monthly bandwidth limit which means I usually plan my iTunes downloads overnight as Plusnet my ISP gives me a “free” download time between midnight and eight in the morning.

Also now and again iTunes fails to download the movie “properly”, so it downloads it again! As a result I have two versions in my iTunes library.

However despite a few minor issues I am pleased with movies and TV on the iTunes store and use it on a regular basis.