Apple introduces Apple TV

Apple products and Mac operating systems. Including discussions on Virtual PC for Mac, Parallels Desktop for Mac, all Apple hardware and everything relating to Mac!
(MacCentre701)

Moderator: Mandrake

Postby Antony » Tue 20 Mar, 2007 8:53 am

According to The iPod Observer, Apple is shipping Apple TV to customers.

Apple TV is priced at US$299, users can order Apple TV through our link and support SillyDog701.
UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X; en-US; rv:1.8.1.2) Gecko/20070219 Firefox/2.0.0.2
User avatar
Antony
diamond member
diamond member
 
Posts: 14343
Joined: Tue 18 Jun, 2002 11:36 pm
Location: Sydney, Australia

Postby Antony » Thu 22 Mar, 2007 8:20 am

According to iTWire, Apple TV will be on sale next week in Ausralia from Apple Store (online) and authorised resellers.
UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X; en-US; rv:1.8.1.2) Gecko/20070219 Firefox/2.0.0.2
User avatar
Antony
diamond member
diamond member
 
Posts: 14343
Joined: Tue 18 Jun, 2002 11:36 pm
Location: Sydney, Australia

Postby Antony » Fri 23 Mar, 2007 2:46 pm

Apple TV doesn't require a High Definition TV, according to Rogue Amoeba.

The author cited Apple's specifications, "Apple TV works with widescreen, enhanced-definition or high-definition TVs capable of 1080i, 720p, 576p, or 480p resolutions, including popular models from these manufacturers," and then proceeded to hook the Apple TV up to his Magnavox TV that has 480i component video in. And it worked.

Apple TV works with component input (not composite), and does not need a widescreen TV.
UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X; en-US; rv:1.8.1.2) Gecko/20070219 Firefox/2.0.0.2
User avatar
Antony
diamond member
diamond member
 
Posts: 14343
Joined: Tue 18 Jun, 2002 11:36 pm
Location: Sydney, Australia

Postby Don_HH2K » Fri 23 Mar, 2007 2:52 pm

How many 480i TVs actually have component inputs? Sure, you can shove 480i down a component line, but more often than not it's used for either HD or ED signals.

The only problem with hooking up a device like the Apple TV to a 480i is the readability of what's on the screen. Unless the device uses rather large text, it's going to noticeably flicker. Fine for video with subtitles, not fine for a computer.
UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.2; en-US; rv:1.8.1.3) Gecko/20070318 BonEcho/2.0.0.3 (ayakawa SSE2-PGU)
Laptop: HP Compaq nx6325 - Turion 64 X2 @ 2GHz, 2GB DDR2, 100GB HD, ATI Radeon X300, 15" LCD, Seven Pro
Handheld: Palm Treo 650 - Intel PXA270 @ 312MHz, 10MB RAM, 32MB flash, 2.7" LCD, Palm OS 5.4
User avatar
Don_HH2K
Moderator
Moderator
 
Posts: 5112
Joined: Sun 09 May, 2004 3:59 pm

Postby Antony » Fri 23 Mar, 2007 3:46 pm

I guess you haven't used Front Row, and don't know the Large Text and simple interface they used, and you automatically assumes the text is tiny.
UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X; en-US; rv:1.8.1.2) Gecko/20070219 Firefox/2.0.0.2
User avatar
Antony
diamond member
diamond member
 
Posts: 14343
Joined: Tue 18 Jun, 2002 11:36 pm
Location: Sydney, Australia

Postby Don_HH2K » Fri 23 Mar, 2007 3:54 pm

Antony wrote:I guess you haven't used Front Row, and don't know the Large Text and simple interface they used, and you automatically assumes the text is tiny.


Have you ever tried to read text at 576i? It's possible, but it flickers. As you might have been able to gather from his photo, the scanlines are quite visible on the text. And that's at 480i; it'd be worse on 576i, given the lower scanrate.
UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.2; en-US; rv:1.8.1.3) Gecko/20070318 BonEcho/2.0.0.3 (ayakawa SSE2-PGU)
Laptop: HP Compaq nx6325 - Turion 64 X2 @ 2GHz, 2GB DDR2, 100GB HD, ATI Radeon X300, 15" LCD, Seven Pro
Handheld: Palm Treo 650 - Intel PXA270 @ 312MHz, 10MB RAM, 32MB flash, 2.7" LCD, Palm OS 5.4
User avatar
Don_HH2K
Moderator
Moderator
 
Posts: 5112
Joined: Sun 09 May, 2004 3:59 pm

Postby Antony » Fri 23 Mar, 2007 4:09 pm

Don_HH2K wrote:
Antony wrote:I guess you haven't used Front Row, and don't know the Large Text and simple interface they used, and you automatically assumes the text is tiny.


Have you ever tried to read text at 576i? It's possible, but it flickers. As you might have been able to gather from his photo, the scanlines are quite visible on the text. And that's at 480i; it'd be worse on 576i, given the lower scanrate.
most CRT TV sets show scan lines, just not so noticeable when watching from a distance.
UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X; en-US; rv:1.8.1.2) Gecko/20070219 Firefox/2.0.0.2
User avatar
Antony
diamond member
diamond member
 
Posts: 14343
Joined: Tue 18 Jun, 2002 11:36 pm
Location: Sydney, Australia

Postby Don_HH2K » Fri 23 Mar, 2007 4:58 pm

Antony wrote:most CRT TV sets show scan lines, just not so noticeable when watching from a distance.


But would you be watching it from a distance?

My TV's on my desk, right next to my laptop. That's about half a meter away from where my eyes are. On top of that my TV apparently has a grounding problem, since I get lots of picture noise (in addition to the noise I get with bad reception) when there's any Ethernet traffic on the hub next to it.

Not to mention that my TV doesn't do component video. Everything coming in from devices like the VCR or PS2 need to be converted to RF and then broadcast on Channel 3. And that would result in a considerable drop in picture quality.
UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.2; en-US; rv:1.8.1.3) Gecko/20070318 BonEcho/2.0.0.3 (ayakawa SSE2-PGU)
Laptop: HP Compaq nx6325 - Turion 64 X2 @ 2GHz, 2GB DDR2, 100GB HD, ATI Radeon X300, 15" LCD, Seven Pro
Handheld: Palm Treo 650 - Intel PXA270 @ 312MHz, 10MB RAM, 32MB flash, 2.7" LCD, Palm OS 5.4
User avatar
Don_HH2K
Moderator
Moderator
 
Posts: 5112
Joined: Sun 09 May, 2004 3:59 pm

Postby Antony » Fri 23 Mar, 2007 5:15 pm

Don_HH2K wrote:
Antony wrote:most CRT TV sets show scan lines, just not so noticeable when watching from a distance.


But would you be watching it from a distance?
I don't set within 50 cm when I watch TV shows/movies.

And the easy to use Apple Remote allows me to change change the shows I want to watch.
UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X; en-US; rv:1.8.1.2) Gecko/20070219 Firefox/2.0.0.2
User avatar
Antony
diamond member
diamond member
 
Posts: 14343
Joined: Tue 18 Jun, 2002 11:36 pm
Location: Sydney, Australia

Postby Don_HH2K » Sat 24 Mar, 2007 7:52 pm

I read on Slashdot just now that people are already hacking around with the Apple TV. Some guys installed Xvid, Videolan, SSH, and Perian on the thing. There's also AppleTVHacks.net, which among other things has a tutorial on how to replace the hard drive.

I remember back when the first Xbox came out and people tried to upgrade the hard drive. Microsoft had taken precautions against tampering with it, but people found ways around that. Then the second Xbox (the 360) shipped with a removable, upgradable hard drive, since so many people were doing it to begin with. Perhaps Apple might do the same with the second-gen Apple TV, since it looks like plenty of people are now going to be able to open it up and replace it anyway.

Or they may go ahead and add even more protection. Who knows.
UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.2 x64; en-US; rv:1.8.1.3) Gecko/20070323 BonEcho/2.0.0.3 (mmoy CE K8N-X02)
Laptop: HP Compaq nx6325 - Turion 64 X2 @ 2GHz, 2GB DDR2, 100GB HD, ATI Radeon X300, 15" LCD, Seven Pro
Handheld: Palm Treo 650 - Intel PXA270 @ 312MHz, 10MB RAM, 32MB flash, 2.7" LCD, Palm OS 5.4
User avatar
Don_HH2K
Moderator
Moderator
 
Posts: 5112
Joined: Sun 09 May, 2004 3:59 pm

Postby Mandrake » Sat 24 Mar, 2007 10:58 pm

Can you add more storage to AppleTV via the USB port?
UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.3) Gecko/20070309 Firefox/2.0.0.3
Core i7 920 | ASUS P6T Deluxe v2 | 3TB+ HDD | 12GB Corsair DDR3 | Radeon 4890 Xfire | X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty | Logitech Z-5500 Speakers | Dell 3008WFP | Seven RC1
User avatar
Mandrake
Moderator
Moderator
 
Posts: 4160
Joined: Fri 13 Sep, 2002 6:35 am

Postby Antony » Sun 25 Mar, 2007 12:50 am

Mandrake wrote:Can you add more storage to AppleTV via the USB port?
Once the hard disk in Apple TV is full, the content will be streamed for viewing.
UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X; en-US; rv:1.8.1.2) Gecko/20070219 Firefox/2.0.0.2
User avatar
Antony
diamond member
diamond member
 
Posts: 14343
Joined: Tue 18 Jun, 2002 11:36 pm
Location: Sydney, Australia

Postby Mandrake » Sun 25 Mar, 2007 1:07 am

Oh, cool. So if you had lots of video content it could just be sitting on your PC or Mac. :)
UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.3) Gecko/20070309 Firefox/2.0.0.3
Core i7 920 | ASUS P6T Deluxe v2 | 3TB+ HDD | 12GB Corsair DDR3 | Radeon 4890 Xfire | X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty | Logitech Z-5500 Speakers | Dell 3008WFP | Seven RC1
User avatar
Mandrake
Moderator
Moderator
 
Posts: 4160
Joined: Fri 13 Sep, 2002 6:35 am

Postby Antony » Sun 25 Mar, 2007 1:12 am

Mandrake wrote:Oh, cool. So if you had lots of video content it could just be sitting on your PC or Mac. :)


According to this Apple TV page,
Apple wrote:If you want to watch video from another computer, you can stream it live to your TV via Apple TV. Streamed media travels over your network to your TV — without taking up space on Apple TV’s hard drive. That’s perfect for multicomputer households or when the computer you sync with has more in its iTunes library than will fit on Apple TV. Just choose up to five additional computers from the Sources menu. As long as a computer’s on your network, it can stream to your TV.
UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X; en-US; rv:1.8.1.2) Gecko/20070219 Firefox/2.0.0.2
User avatar
Antony
diamond member
diamond member
 
Posts: 14343
Joined: Tue 18 Jun, 2002 11:36 pm
Location: Sydney, Australia

Postby Don_HH2K » Mon 02 Apr, 2007 3:12 pm

I read on Slashdot that the aforementioned AppleTVHacks.net have managed to convert the Apple TV into a full-blown OS X workstation. Their site seems to be suffering from a reinstall at the moment, since an Apache test page is up.
UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Konqueror/3.2; Linux) (KHTML, like Gecko)
Laptop: HP Compaq nx6325 - Turion 64 X2 @ 2GHz, 2GB DDR2, 100GB HD, ATI Radeon X300, 15" LCD, Seven Pro
Handheld: Palm Treo 650 - Intel PXA270 @ 312MHz, 10MB RAM, 32MB flash, 2.7" LCD, Palm OS 5.4
User avatar
Don_HH2K
Moderator
Moderator
 
Posts: 5112
Joined: Sun 09 May, 2004 3:59 pm

PreviousNext

Return to Mac OS and Apple

Who is online

Registered users: Google [Bot]