Review: Apple TV

Back in 2000, I purchased a Replay TV 3000 series DVR. This digitally recorded television shows based on the actual show schedule, not any particular time of day. In many ways, it was like a Tivo but after looking at both of them, I determined it was better than the Tivo at the time. A couple years later, I upgraded to a 4500 series Replay. This box now had a broadband Internet connection and, out of the box, could share shows with other Replay devices in the house as well as with approved "friends" online. Remember, this was 4-5 years ago, several years before Tivo allowed network access (without hacking the box, that is).

Unfortunately, through several acquisitions and poor company direction, Replay is just a memory now. Unlike the Tivo, it only had a single tuner and it also required a semi-complicated setup in order to control the cable or satellite boxes. There's also no high-definition version available. So, when I upgraded my satellite to high-definition and it included a dual-tuner, HD digital recorder and a comparable program guide to that of my old Replay, the Replay units got boxed up and put into the closet.

There's just one problem. Replay online community was fantastic for sharing missed shows. If you missed last night's "Survivor Finale," for example, you could post to one of several community discussion boards and the next morning, you'd find a request on the Replay stating that one or more people were offering you a copy of that show. It might take 24 hours or more to receive a show, mind you (since most broadband services upload at 10% of the speed you get for downloading, the person sending you the show had to "trickle" it upstream for quite some time). Usually within a day or two, though, you'd have the missing show and life could go on. The boxes supplied by the cable and satellite companies don't have anything like this (for obvious reasons).

Enter the Apple TV. When this was announced back in January, I thought, "that's nice, but not for me." My rational was that I don't purchase TV shows for $1.99 (most of the popular TV shows can be downloaded via iTunes the morning after it first airs) and I don't buy or rent a lot of movies. I figured that the Apple TV would be more for people who have been downloading shows, movies, and music videos. These had been available since the iPod started supporting video and I imagined that the people who already owned these would easily be in the market to watch them on something other than a 3 inch iPod screen or from a computer.

However, as the actual release of the Apple TV got closer, I rethought my strategy. If I did miss an episode of 24, I could download it and watch it, much like I did with the Replay. The online photo album is also something that the Replay had which Apple TV is once again offering me. I can also take my own purchased movies and easily load them onto the Apple TV for on-demand. I had decided that the Apple TV would actually be welcome in my home. And, like most things Apple, I expected it to be easy to use and have na intuitive interface.

Apple TV was everything I had hoped it would be with very few exceptions. The installation was easy and getting it to connect to the primary computer was simple, Since I have more than 40 GB of music and videos on my computer, I had to choose what would actually get loaded. iTunes allows you to select play lists to sync as well as some interesting options for the videos. For example, you can tell it to sync unwatched episodes of all shows or just specific ones. Thus, after viewing the show on the TV, it will be removed from the Apple TV in order to free up space. I made three playlists on my computer: Apple TV Music, Apple TV Movies, and Apple TV (for TV shows) and then told iTunes to sync just those three playlists with the Apple TV. This way, I could have a subset of my shows, movies, and music loaded and easily managed from the computer.

The Apple TV does not need to store everything that it has access to. If the primary computer is on and iTunes is running, Apple TV can browse everything within iTunes. Thus, the 40 GB hard drive is really only necessary for storing photos as well as anything that you want to be available without having to stream from the computer. If you have a fast enough wireless or just about any wired network, this should be sufficient to give you almost unlimited capacity.

If you do fill up the hard drive, Apple TV starts sacrificing files to make room during a sync. For example, first your photos will fall off. Then the music. Then videos. There doesn't seem to be any place to control how it determines what stays and what goes but I must admit, I didn't try very hard because I agreed with its logic (that is, the photos and music were nice-to-have items but, let's face it, I really want my Apple TV to show videos). It's not an all-or-none, situation, either. It will only remove enough of the lower-priority items like photos to make enough room for what you are trying to upload. Apple also now sells a 160 GB version of the Apple TV which should alleviate this problem for most people.

As good as it is, it isn't perfect. Syncing 40 GB wirelessly, even on a next-generation "N" network, is going to take all night. Set aside a weekend if you are doing 160 GB. Note that I tested this with a non-Apple brand Wireless-N router so it is possible that the network speed would be improved with Apple-only equipment. If its possible to hook a network cable up to the Apple TV in order for it to sync over a wired network, even if only for the initial sync, I'd strongly recommend it. I ran a 50-foot Ethernet cable down the hall and the thing went from 0 to 40 GB in minutes.

Another problem seems to be with streaming from multiple computers. My primary computer (a Mac in this case) is wired to the router and the Apple TV connects to the same router wirelessly. The type sync and stream perfectly. Any other computer (Mac or PC) that is wireless on the same network cannot seem to stream to the Apple TV. If I take that same computer and plug it into the same router with a cable, the two can see each other and we can stream. It's the weirdest thing and I don't see other people complaining about it but this has been the case for me through multiple reboots, reinstalls, and restoring the Apple TV to factory settings and starting over. Some have suggested that if I were using Apple routers, I wouldn't have this issue which is possible but nothing I've tested yet.

Finally, there is the remote. It's small and simple and works quite well. My only complaint here is that sometimes you want to go back or forward 5-10 seconds (such as when the phone rings, you hit pause, and when you come back, you want to back up to hear what you missed while the phone was ringing). On most DVRs, there's a replay or back button. On the Apple TV, you hit pause and then back. If you just hit back, you go to the beginning of the section, which may be several minutes back. Some of this is just habit; if you paused when you answered the phone, you just have to hit "back" then "play" to get those results. Sometimes, though, you just ask "what did he just say" and pressing "pause" then "back" then "play" to replay the last 10 seconds seems like an extra few steps. Like I said, my complaints are minor!

Perhaps you have your own movies or TV shows that were obtained outside of iTunes. You'll probably need to convert them for playback on the Apple TV. iTunes can do this for you but there are also other 3rd party applications that can turn your DVD collection, DiVX movies, or AVI/MPG files to Apple TV format. Then, its just a matter of importing them into iTunes and treating them like any other file you want synced with your Apple TV.

So, after a few months, I have to say that I'm happy with my decision to reconsider the Apple TV and trust that the few bugs I've experienced will be fixed in future software releases. I still use my satellite DVR to record current shows and watch them a few days or weeks later. But, I also like having the ability to download a missed show and watch it on an actual television instead of a computer screen or being forced to burn it onto a DVD. Apple's TV is nothing new. There have been digital playback devices available for a while. There have been "multimedia PCs" that can play to a TV. Apple, however, simplified this so that the casual consumer can purchase the device and be up and running soon after they get it home. Hackers can build their own device that isn't tied to iTunes or a 160 GB maximum sized hard drive. However, for $299, this is a great product that you may not only want to consider for yourself but also as a gift to parents or friends who might enjoy flexible TV viewing.