Manage updates with the Download AppApple TV (160GB)
Manufacturer: Apple Part number: MB189ZD/A
- More product information:
- Editors' review
- User reviews
- Specifications
- Product series
- Manufacturer info
- Bottom Line:
- Apple TV provides a slick venue for iTunes-based media in the living room, but the average Blu-ray player now provides a wider array of online media options.
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CNET editors' review
Apple TV (160GB) price range: $343.81
- Reviewed by: John Falcone
- Edited by: David Katzmaier
- Reviewed on: 03/21/2007
- Released on: 02/12/2008
The good: Provides access to iTunes-based movie rentals, TV shows, music, photos, and podcasts, as well as YouTube videos on your living room TV; streams media from networked Mac or Windows PCs; purchases and rentals can be done directly through iTunes Store on your TV; movie rentals from all major studios include some in HD and surround sound; sleek external design and elegant user interface; simple, streamlined setup; includes state-of-the-art 802.11n wireless networking; smooth, hiccup-free streaming.
The bad: No support for Netflix, Pandora, and other major online media services found on most new Blu-ray players; doesn't work with older, non-widescreen TVs; movie rentals must be watched within 24 hour timeframe; no subscription payment options; lackluster file support for non-iTunes video formats; oversimplified remote can't control other devices.
The bottom line: Apple TV provides a slick venue for iTunes-based media in the living room, but the average Blu-ray player now provides a wider array of online media options.
User reviews
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Good Ludite-friendly last-six-feet device
by Scott Gardener on December 27, 2007
Pros: Extremely simple and elegant setup and use, Does what it's supposed to do extremely well
Cons: Lower resolution and lack of surround sound contradict its high-def-only connectivity
Summary: This is definitely a niche product. It's an Apple product, and thus it's got its own cult following. But, unlike the iPod or iPhone, Apple TV has been ...
Summary: This is definitely a niche product. It's an Apple product, and thus it's got its own cult following. But, unlike the iPod or iPhone, Apple TV has been largely panned by the tech critics, some even branding it "one of the worst products of 2007." This is extremely undeserved, because for all its faults, Apple TV does an excellent job at doing what it's supposed to do--which basically is to serve up to your TV anything that iTunes can play on your computer. Most of the complaints are about what it can't do. But, what it does do, it does do well. To that end, its a good device, and it deserves better to be put anywhere near to a Coby mp3 player or Windows Millennium Edition. (I think of how Starship's "We Built This City" has been similarly misclassified as the "worst song ever" by people who have never listened to garage bands, or for that matter obviously haven't been listening to the radio lately. Two words: "Ashlee Simpson.")
It can render putting an iPod on your home theater system obsolete. It's an excellent mp3 music jukebox, and at 160 Gigabites in this model, chances are, you can put your entire music library on it.
I grant that its video playback is a bit limited in quality. I'll be the first to admit that it's particularly odd that its video output is limited to component or HDMI, implying that it's meant to plug into a big screen HDTV; whereas its content from iTunes generally displays at 480p, with compression artifacts at that, in two channel sound. Still, $2 for a TV show episode is not bad, considering that you own it instead of renting. And, Apple TV can import a few select formats of external video. It does show still-frame JPEGs, and for those, having 1080i does make an actual difference. (Note that Apple TV lacks 1080p, but interlacing is not really an issue with still frames.) It also does a pretty decent job of upscaling and cleaning up YouTube downloads. (Though you can only scrub a wet dog so much before realizing the funny smell is not coming out completely, no matter what.)
There are other media servers available. (My Apple TV is sitting directly underneath a Playstation 3. A simple forthcoming hard drive swap should make it an even bigger media server.) But, the elegant point-and-shoot simplicity makes Apple TV a great device to add to a home theater unobtrusively while giving the less technically inclined in your household a way to enjoy the stuff you watch on your computer and a way for both of you together to watch iTunes content on a screen bigger than an iPod.
Also note that the box includes a tiny remote, a power cord, a brief instruction manual, and that's about it. You will have to provide your own component and audio cables, or your own HDMI cable. The remote is a welcome change from yet another fifty buttons or so; it's got six buttons, five of which are arranged around a quasi-iPod menu-driven play/stop/REW/FF. It did take me a little while to figure out how to turn it off without unplugging it. (press and hold the middle "play" button for several seconds)Updated
Though I'm not officially able to change a rating, if the update goes without a hitch, I could find myself recommending this product much more heavily, as the forthcoming software upgrade is likely to make this a considerably more useful device. Of course, I'll have to reserve judgement until the update actually comes out. But, Apple's track record for stability and reliability has been above average, so I'm pretty excited. I'll post additional comments once I actually have the update.Updated
The firmware upgrade is a huge improvement in functionality, as now, in case you haven't already heard, Apple TV can be used to rent movies online, in high def no less. Suddenly, the HDMI connector actually makes sense. This also implies that one might soon be able to buy HD movies for keepers as well, providing the first real-world substance to the often-speculated premise that "Blu-Ray is already obsolete, as movies are about to attain enlightenment and transcend need for a physical medium, being instead purchased and downloaded as pure energy." Since HD rentals are already real, Apple TV already beats the local video store in terms of convenience, and it knocks the socks off my local cable company--which isn't really saying much, since they, lacking any on-demand offerings what-so-ever, suck.
Without repeating what you've already read elsewhere, I'll discuss some findings of my own.
The update itself took about ten minutes and involved two reboots. Afterwards, the menu system is slightly different, but it's still intuitive and Apple-easy. The gripes I've read elsewhere about actions once being one click now requiring two are from my end pretty trivial, as the new menu system keeps things pretty straight-forward and easy even with the added new functionality. I was also pleased to see support for 1080p resolution added, which I promptly took.
To try it out I rented a movie I had been wanting to see, "Alien Vs. Predator." I didn't watch it right away, instead putting it on the drive to be seen later, so I didn't have a chance to test the reported "start watching within so many minutes." Playback was smooth, and the sound was good, though I was limited by my own home theater system to the TV speakers, so a true test of audio channels is unavailable to me. In terms of picture quality, it was noticably better than DVDs upscaled through my PS3 console on the same TV, and it blew out of the water standard-def TV shows I had downloaded and watched on Apple TV prior to the update. (Standard definition picture quality remains the same after the update, by the way, with negligible improvement with the switch from 1080i to 1080p.) It was still less than watching uncompressed Blu-Ray content from my PS3. Compression artifacts were visible in a few places--usually nearly solid-colored areas such as large expanses of snow (the movie is set in Antarctica), where color gradient lines are visible. It was generally not distracting, though, and the sharp detail compared to DVD more than made up for this effect.
All in all, it's a great device, and the 40 Gig model is a worthwhile consideration to someone who wants to rent movies and doesn't need a media server. It was a nice niche product before the update, but afterwards, it's a serious contender for the living room, especially if your cable or satellite's on demand service is lacking or absent altogether, or if you for one reason or another have no TV service but somehow none-the-less have broadband Internet.6 out of 6 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Great things come in small, sleek packages
by g8rdmd on June 23, 2007
Pros: Easy setup, wide variety of uses, quick and easy to use
Cons: Video looks less-than-sharp, MUST use iTunes
Summary: I don't think Apple is the best computer company in the world, nor do I think Microsoft is. I think each does it's own things well. Just like ...
Summary: I don't think Apple is the best computer company in the world, nor do I think Microsoft is. I think each does it's own things well. Just like I enjoy the PS3, XBox 360 and Wii...I don't like to just jump on one bandwagon and ride along--I think each company's technology is great for certain things. (So please, Apple bashers keep your opinions to yourselves. And likewise to the Apple-is-superior camp...)
That being said, Apple hit one out of the park with the Apple TV. I have the 160GB version, but from what I understand, the 40GB is different only in capacity. Of course, being from Apple, the box, packaging and the device itself are very minimalist, sleek and modern. Set-up was a snap--connect the power cable, connect the HDMI cable and then give it the password to your wireless router. That's it. Seriously. Once it's online, launch iTunes and the Apple TV will give you a code to input into your computer to sync. It begins working without you even asking it to. I synced my entire library (>30GB) which took quite some time (bonus is that the Apple TV supports 802.11 N, which made the transfer quicker).
Once everything is synced to the internal hard drive, you don't have to have your computer running to play your library. Or, you can stream from your computer.
It will play anything from music to movies to TV shows or music videos. The video quality leaves some to be desired, hence the one point deduction in my score--but really, I didn't buy it to be a dedicated movie server.
The only other downside (debateable)is that it runs exclusively off iTunes. I already had an iPod and all of my media was in iTunes, so it wasn't a big deal. I think iTunes is a good media library program with a slick interface, especially if you have all your album artwork in place.
It is extremely fast and reliable thus far. I had been using a Roku Soundbridge before this and the Apple TV could run circles around it's accessing speed. Also, the Roku would routinely lose the connection with my computer--the Apple TV hasn't lost the connection yet.
And finally, as an added bonus, I performed a firmware update and can now access YouTube directly from the Apple TV menu. Not that I'm a huge YouTube user, but it's pretty cool having access to all that content on my home theater.
Sorry for the long-winded review, there's just a lot to say. I'm sure I've forgotten some things anyway. Feel free to add or to disagree. But please, don't drive down the ratings by bashing it simply becuase you hate Apple.6 out of 6 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Better than described
by paulcgraves on May 8, 2008
Pros: excellent video and audio quality, streaming video, mulitple itunes libraries
Cons: remote is small with few buttons, does not accept all video files
Summary: I have quite a few DVDs (about 800 at last count) and I've been looking for an easier way to manage them. I purchased a large HD and I ...
Summary: I have quite a few DVDs (about 800 at last count) and I've been looking for an easier way to manage them. I purchased a large HD and I ripped the DVD using handbrake (free). Half of them were ripped using H.264 and the rest were regular .MP4 files. The apple TV prefers the H.264, but it played the MP4s just fine. I was able to load all of the movies on the HD and reference them in itunes (by unchecking the copy to itunes box in preferences) so that they loaded onto the box (or at least 150 of them). The remainder will stream on demand. The Apple TV upconverts the video files to 1080i and they look great on my 60 inch TV. I love having all of my music as well, and if I want I can stream music or radio as well. It is a very simple, impressive audio and video solution.
5 out of 6 users found this user opinion helpful.
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tried 2 different machines... no go
by justbane on July 29, 2007
Pros: I could not find any
Cons: The thing just wouldn't work. And I tried 2 of them.
Summary: Get this right. I love apple. I own all apple products (ipods and multiple machines) I keep my software up to date. I keep my hardware up to date (as ...
Summary: Get this right. I love apple. I own all apple products (ipods and multiple machines) I keep my software up to date. I keep my hardware up to date (as money allows) I purchased the first of 2 AppleTV and upon connecting to the tv all seems ok.
But when I tried to connect to my Computer my iTunes (fully up to date 7.3.1) would not see the device... so I figure its the wireless, I set it up hardline through the router... still nothing. I try all manner of troubleshooting from the apple help to the apple site, reinstalling applications, I even get online and browse the net for possible fixes... none worked.
So I returned the first and exchanged it for a new one... same story.
Bottom line for me... keep looking. cause AppleTV is not the answer.
I am very disappointed in both the product and the available support.6 out of 9 users found this user opinion helpful.
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If you use ITunes regularly this is great
by cmon11ey11 on February 24, 2008
Pros: Rental Movies, TV Shows, Pictures, Syncing with ITunes
Cons: Waiting for a bigger catalog
Summary: I love the new Apple TV. My main concerns before buying were a these. Would the old standard def. shows I had purchased over the years look good. My only ...
Summary: I love the new Apple TV. My main concerns before buying were a these. Would the old standard def. shows I had purchased over the years look good. My only experience with Apple TV 1.0 was at the Apple store. The TV shows looked horrible. Now they look great at least as good as standard def cable if not better. Could my basic Time Warner Cable high speed connection download high def. movies. The answer is yes I usually give it about 5 minutes to download before watching. Apple TV says I can watch after about 90 seconds but we caught up to the download at the end of Pirates. Granted that movie is almost 3 hours long. I am using an 802.11B router so nothing special here. The standard def. stuff is fine, it is available for watching in about 30 secs. and I never catch up to the download when watching. Next I love having all my pictures 1500 of them on the box to watch on the TV with my playlist going in the back ground. The pictures look incredible on the big screen. Syncing with the ITunes on the computer is great also. The only thing I would want is more content available on Itunes but I know that will come. Oh the High def. quality is not blue ray quality but pretty much as good as high def. cable. I am not a videophile but the quality is great for me, and the 5.1 surround sound is great coming out of my Onkyo receiver. All in all I would highly recomend this product to anyone who uses Itunes on a regular basis. Also I will never buy a blue ray player, or another DVD.
2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Quick, Convenient, Great Quality. Highly Recommended.
by azzuro2006 on May 17, 2009
Pros: Speed of downloads (I have 10Mbit/sec), great user interface, works well with iphone remote application.
Cons: Don't like Apple remote (keeps interfeering with my laptop in the room), Content availability & pricing could be better, Cannot attach additional storage to device's USB port. Media format support could be improved.
Summary: After I bought this product, I was truly SHOCKED at the speed of downloads using my 10Mbit/sec internet connection. Last night I rented "The day the earth stood still" ...
Summary: After I bought this product, I was truly SHOCKED at the speed of downloads using my 10Mbit/sec internet connection. Last night I rented "The day the earth stood still" in HD, and I could start watching it in less than 1 minute after I pushed the rent button - and the movie never skipped. I was blown away. The quality is very good - better than an upscaled DVD but not as good as Blu Ray (which is what I expected).
I will NOT BUY another DVD again. I don't see the point. It cost me $5 to rent the movie in HD, it would cost me more than $15 to buy the DVD and more than $25 to buy it on blu ray - for movies I watch mostly once or at best twice. I only use this device to rent movies and pay for TV shows. In that respect it works really well.
My biggest gripe is content pricing and availability which is more of a Holywood beef. If you buy the whole season of 24 for example, it works out to be the same as if you bought each episode seperately - so no real discount - and you can watch it for free on Hulu or Fox website with commercials. Also, new release movies are available for rent but movies that are around 1 year old, are only available for sale. So basically only new releases and very old movies are available for rent - that is a movie studio issue because of their exclusive deals with cable networks on movies. Hopefully, this will improve over time - but all in all, I was still pleasantly surprised with the amount of content that is available.
I hate the apple remote. Not only because of the remote's overly simplistic layout, but because it keeps navigating my macbook pro's front row application - so i need t o hide my laptop when i use it.
I also don't like the fact that it has a USB port, but will not recognize a mass storage device unless I hack the machine (I don't like hacking stuff). I have close to 1Tb of lossless music i would like to plug into the device and play through my system using apple remote on my iphone. But it will not allow me to do this.
All in all, its a fantastic device once you understand its limitations. It is the easiest way to get on-demand content over the internet - legally or illegally. Even if I was a pirate, I wouldn't like waiting all night to download a HD movie over file sharing servers where I run the risk of catching a virus, I don't really know what I am getting, and I have to hope that there are enough users uploading the media to share. This is by far the best gadget I have bought this year. Well done apple. I just hope that they can continue to work on the movie studios to improve the content available for rent and hopefully work on getting the prices for purchasing content down.1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Audiophile's Dream
by mikeinhouston on October 15, 2008
Pros: Ease of use, excellent sound quality, flexibility,
Cons: USB connection not enabled
Summary: I am an audio enthusiast with a very large investment in audio equipment and related software. I bought this to manage my iTunes and casually listen to music through the ...
Summary: I am an audio enthusiast with a very large investment in audio equipment and related software. I bought this to manage my iTunes and casually listen to music through the Home Theater system and rent movies. After getting this and setting it up, I instead sold my reference disk player ($2500 back to me thank you very much), and routed the AppleTV output to a high-end DAC (digital analog converter) then to the front end Tube preamp of my 2 Channel system. The excellent sound quality results form this have been nothing short of short of extraordinary. In fact, I seldom use my vinyl set up now. Check out some of the audio websites such as Audiogon or AVSforums and you will be amazed at the response from the audio community. This device, and it's miniscule price, have made much more expensive music server devices obsolete.
A great great product, with unlimited potential. I hope Apple realizes it's upside and does not abandon it.1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Simple to use and set up
by stricklandpb on February 16, 2008
Pros: Small unit
Cons: No option to buy after you rent
Summary: I had the apple tv before the 2.0 firmware upgrade. I really like the new improvements. It was easy to set up. I hope Apple reads this because it ...
Summary: I had the apple tv before the 2.0 firmware upgrade. I really like the new improvements. It was easy to set up. I hope Apple reads this because it would be great to be able to buy the movie after you rent it, like complete my album option in music. Come on complete my movie collection.....Be forward thinking and stop saving it for another press release.
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Very good...with some room to improve
by robrod2k on February 13, 2008
Pros: HD rentals from your couch..no PC required
Cons: Needs a bigger HD library, HD quality has room for improvement
Summary: Works very well...room for improvement in terms of a bigger HD library and the video quality of HD movies. HD movie quality is very good..close competitor to Blu-ray ...
Summary: Works very well...room for improvement in terms of a bigger HD library and the video quality of HD movies. HD movie quality is very good..close competitor to Blu-ray but Blu-ray is still better. Very easy to rent recent DVD releases
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Ran TOO HOT,and didn't last one YEAR.I bought new day 1
by OttoZro on March 23, 2011
Pros: I was able to transfer all my movies to the unit. Was apple Compatible and had a larger hard drive
Cons: The wireless sucked, RAN TOO DAM HOT.. I was scared this would fry the house. Often wouldn't respond to remote, and wouldn't always synch correctly. Worst of all Messed up on me in less then a year, took to apple Store for tech help,they didn't help
Summary: Don't buy this... Lame apple product.
Summary: Don't buy this... Lame apple product.
Specifications
- Manufacturer: Apple
- Part number: MB189ZD/A
- Description: Your computer is the center of your digital life. Your TV is the center of your entertainment life. But what if you want to watch movies, TV shows, movie trailers, podcasts, and photos from your computer on your TV? Apple TV brings iTunes to the big screen. Say you've just downloaded Cars from iTunes. Instead of huddling around your computer to watch, you pop some popcorn while your computer wirelessly syncs your new flick to Apple TV. Then you pull up a seat, put up your feet, and pick up the included Apple Remote to play your movie on TV. Give yourself a hand: you've just changed the way you watch digital media. Apple TV connects to your TV via an HDMI port or component video and audio ports. Its built-in, superfast 802.11 wireless capability syncs your iTunes library to any Mac or PC in the house. Best of all, what's on Apple TV stays in sync: anytime you change your library in iTunes, it changes on Apple TV - wirelessly, automatically. Apple TV puts your iTunes library - movies, TV shows, music, and podcasts - plus movie trailers from Apple.com on your TV. And your digital photos from iPhoto on a Mac or Adobe Photoshop Elements or Adobe Album on a Windows PC appear in high definition, so you can put on a stunning big-screen slideshow.
General
- Type of product Digital multimedia receiver
- Dimensions (WxDxH) 7.8 in x 7.8 in x 1.1 in
- Weight 2.4 lbs
Network & Internet
- Functionality Digital video playback,
Digital audio playback,
Digital photo playback TV Tuner
- TV tuner type None
Component features
- Supported Audio Standards Protected AAC,
AIFF,
WAV,
AAC,
MP3,
Apple Lossless - Supported Pictures Standard PNG,
JPG,
BMP,
GIF,
TIFF - Supported Video Standards Protected H.264,
MPEG-4,
H.264 Connectors
- Optical Digital Output Yes
Digital Player (Recorder)
- Device Type None
- Digital Storage Media Hard disk drive - 160 GB
Recording Features
- Max Recording Capacity 200 hour(s)
Connections
- Connector Type 1 x Component video output ( RCA phono x 3 ) - Rear,
1 x HDMI - Rear,
1 x Audio line-out ( RCA phono x 2 ) - Rear,
1 x ( RJ-45 ) - Rear,
1 x SPDIF output - Rear,
1 x - Rear Remote Control
- Type Remote control
- Technology Infrared
Power
- Type Internal
- Power Consumption Operational 48 Watt
Product series
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Manufacturer: Apple
Specs: Digital multimedia receiver,
Digital audio playback,
Digital photo playback,
Digital video playback,
IEEE 802.11a,
IEEE 802.11g,
IEEE 802.11b (Wi-Fi),
IEEE 802.3 (Ethernet),
IEEE 802.3u (Fast Ethernet),
Remote control -
Manufacturer: Apple
Specs: Digital multimedia receiver,
Digital video playback,
Digital audio playback,
Digital photo playback,
Remote control
Manufacturer info
- Manufacturer profile
- Browse Apple products on Shopper.com
-
- Manufacturer:Apple
- Address:
One Infinite Loop, Cupertino, CA 95014 - Phone: 1-408-996-1010
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