Why can't you use a non-HDTV? It has component output with RCA jacks; does your TV not have that kind of input? (Mine is a 6-year old 32" widescreen TV, which I'm not replacing, and I see no problems connecting the TV to it...)

I couldn't agree more. I too still don't have an HDTV. The apple tv is basically unusable to me at this time. It can't be that hard to allow us to purchase movies directly from the apple tv and watch them on a tv. The xbox 360 can do it.

According to Apple's Apple TV page you need: "widescreen, enhanced-definition or high-definition TVs capable of 1080i, 720p, 576p, or 480p resolutions." My TV's old enough that it has composite RCA connectors (yellow/red/white), but not component RCA connectors (red/blue/green). From the research I've done, devices which convert component into S-video or composite are pretty much as expensive as the Apple TV itself. But as long as your TV fits the bill that Apple describes, it ought to work. Of course, we won't know for certain what unsupported TVs might work until it's actually released.

Ok, now I'm confused about which TVs it will support. I have a 32" non-widescreen (4:3) Sony WEGA with component inputs-this won't work?

Exactly. All it needs is one more output...the yellow composite video. And not being able to download from iTunes makes it dead in the water for me.

It's a bring your own HDTV for a screen iPod.

And they need movie rentals!

What do you care if it is sync'd or not? I can watch a movie from iTunes as it streams, why wouldn't I be able to stream it to Apple TV?

Besides, this is not impulse rental! This is purchase. You know, you buy the movies as they come out that you want to own. So your S.O. Says, there's nothing on and you show how cool you are by bringing up a selection of Video PodCasts, Or the the movies you already have streamed.

Apple needs to get to a rental system to compete in the market you are talking about, and I don't see that happening for a little while still.

Really the coolest way to use this device is to terminate you cable (or switch to lifeline) and buy season passes of all the TV shows you really like. These shows will download in the middle of the night and sync automatically with the Apple TV and you will just stream from your computer for re-runs.

As for the HD vs SD TV? It is time to upgrade! You can buy a 32" LCD direct view 720p TV for as little as $500, so what are you waiting for. Your S.O. Thinks you are a cheapskate right now.

I do have an HD TV (and more and more people I know are getting them). I ordered an Apple TV as soon as I could. It will be great to show off my photos when company comes over. It will be great to have access to my 60 gig library of songs in iTunes (including the ones purchased from the iTunes store) with album artwork displayed, and played through my stereo system. I will be able to see all of the movies that my kids have done with iMovie, without having to fool with the DVDs. I have ethernet to my stereo, so I will be connected via 100 meg, so streaming should work great. I have yet to buy any movies from Apple, but I have several TV shows, and It will be nice if I forget to TiVo an episode, to be able to get it from Apple and watch it on the big screen. I will also experiment with ripping a few of my DVDs to hard drive and see how that works. It souds like a great thing if you use it correctly and I expect it will get better as time goes on...

me beef with the tv is that it PROBABLY won't play my 100GB of free downloaded video. one reason is that most it is in formats quicktime doesn't understand (i use VLC for video playback), such as DVD quality .vob and .avi... i do not plan on buying movies from the apple store as i prefer to have the actual DVD with me, and the videos i have are of performances done mostly in foreign TVs like, top of the pops from england... so really, i have no use for the tv...

I have a mac mini hooked up to my hdtv. I don't see how the apple tv in it's current form is advantageous. Witht he mini and a miglia HD I have OTA HD that I can record and export to my ipod or anywhere, and I can steam movies I am currently downloading.

Are you sure about not being able to stream directly from the iTunes store? In the keynote address, right around 16:45, Jobs says that iTunes Top Movies are available at the top of the menu and they will start streaming straight from the iTunes Store. He only goes into detail about streaming movie trailers from apple.com, but he implies that you can stream the movies from the iTunes store as well.

And for the rest of the world: tough, you can't even buy one single movie ot TV episode on the iTunes store.

There is absolutely no incentive to buy the Apple TV just to watch photo slideshows, when I can just hook up my PowerBook to the TV and watch all my stored content, regardless of the format.

I am pretty much Apples wet dream. Every computer I own is an Apple (macbook and a pro). I get every new fangled ipod. and I don't even buy cds anymore, I just download them off itunes.

I can't wait for the appleTV.

Last night I subscribed to 24. and I would have loved to have been able to watch it on my tv and not my computer.

You have to think of appleTV and Itunes with movies the same way you think of itunes with music.

Remember the old way of listening to music? You got up, went to your cd chelf, found your cd (they were obviously alphabetized) and you put it in your cd player. Whats that? you changed your mind, well start over.

Now you simple look it up in itunes and listen. Don't have it? go buy it for less than even ameoba records offers it for.

All of my cds are in storage. I never want that mess again.

And right now thats how we work with dvds. We get up, we find the dvd. we play it.

wouldn't it be nice to just scroll through a list of your movies and tv shows and just pick the one you want?

My only complaint with itunes movies is that I can't copy my already owned dvds into itunes and keep them there.

Once that happens, the process will be perfect and i will no longer need to have a dvd shelf.

Couldn't agree with you more. AppleTV is a solution in search of a problem. Everything this $300 thing can do, for me, I can do with a $20 cable and my iPod.

What's the point of this thing?

So if you do stream a video directly to your aTV, will it sync it back to your iTunes library or are you going to have to purchase it again to have a permanent copy?

That 40G drive is going to fill up fast...

I ordered Apple TV the first day. I've got an all Mac house. I've already got a wonderful Oppo upconverting DVD player attched to my Samsung DLP. So I don't care if the apple TV has a DVD slot or not.

But right now everyone has to crowd around a small monitor to view the photos in iPhoto. Or I have to burn every slideshow to DVD. There's plenty of resolution so the 5 megapixel shots will look great on the widescreen.

The same with the many home movies I create in iMovie. Buring one in iDVD is fine to send off to the Grandparents. But for just watching something we created it'll be much easier to view it directly off the Mac to the TV.

And I can view HD trailers or other stuff streamed from the web on a big screen. Much nicer than on my old 17" iMac screen.

And the digital audio out means that all the songs in iTunes (10 GB of my cd's) can be played directly to the stereo speakers. That'll be nice.

Oh sure I'll probably fool around with some download / purchase from the iTunes store of a tv show or movie. But that's not my first thought for this device at all.

February can't come soon enough.

It goes like this for me: no surround sound, no deal.

jayH
Quictime Pro plays .AVI files just fine. If you want to export them to iTune then just re-save the file in Save As and then save as a reference movie. this will be saved right next to your original file in Finder. Drag this new file to iTunes and it will load to the Movies section.

Quit your gripes! If you don't like the damn thing, don't buy one. I have a standard definition TV with component video inputs. Will it work with AppleTV? I'm not sure, but if it doesn't work, no big deal. HD TVs have come down in price drastically over the years, and if you can afford an AppleTV, then a decent sized HDTV is not going to break your budget. Just look toward www.DealMac.com to find a good deal on a TV. But for the love of God, if you think it's unnecessary, or if you enjoy hooking up another computer, laptop or iPod to your TV every time you want to watch something, then do it. Remember, the AppleTV is a luxuary item.

Steve Jobs never said this thing was going to replace NetFlix or your local video store (Although, Apple can choose to add a rental program to their ITS in the future.) He simply stated that it was a way to get the content you have been storing on your computer to your living room. For me, this is a nice way to enjoy some of the stuff I've purchased over the years from the comfort of my couch without having to hook up a whole bunch of crap to my TV every time I want to do so.

The point of the AppleTV is to make this process simple. If that point has escaped you, and you enjoy pulling out a set of cables to string around your entertainment center ... then the solution for you is this - Don't buy one.

If you wanted to have all your CDs and DVDs in one place, you could simply buy a 300 or 400 disc CD/DVD player from Sony or Pioneer (and probably others) for about the same price as the AppleTV. As a bonus, you get better sound and picture quality, extra features and less DRM than iTunes purchases. If you need further storage in the future, you can buy another and slave them together (at least the Pioneer model). Throw in a Tivo and you've got all the media you could want in one convenient place. I have a 300 disc CD player and my process involves burning a copy with CD Text and tossing it into the player.

Rob,

It's like an iPod. You manage your AppleTV like an iPod. Files are COPIED to your AppleTV. Nothing is deleted from your computer. Streaming works the same as if you were streaming music to an Airport Express with Airtunes.

-Nyx

For those of you with TVs lacking component video or other high end inputs - it's time to upgrade. Unless you bought the TV 10 years ago most TVs sold in the last 5 years have had some sort of high quality input like S-video or DVI. My buddy bought his HDTV 2 years ago and he has component and DVI input. HDMI connections are backwards compatible with DVI devices for video.

A good site with lot's of information is here.

All the material on the tv part of Apple's web site indicates that the tv streams media from an iTunes enable computer (Mac or PC) only.

Wanted to reply to Adam. You can import you're dvd's into iTunes. Handbrake is a dvd ripper that is free for MAC users. You can even find instructions that tell you how to rip it into iPod size. Once you do that just import the movies into you iTunes library and you will be watching those movies you purchased a long time ago in iTines and Apple TV.