HD – Why I Love (And Hate) My Apple TV

Here’s a rundown of my love/hate relationship with Apple TV from a totally subjective point of view:

Love:

1. I can edit my HD home movies and watch them in full HD on my tv.
2. It talks nicely with my Mac or PC.
3. I can watch YouTube on TV.
4. Renting high definition videos on demand
5. The content is shared with my iPhone and iPod.
6. Watching slideshows of my photos synced to my music automatically
7. Pumping music via appleTV to my stereo right into my backyard
8. The coolest screensaver ever

1. I haven’t found any other convenient option to watch my high definition home movies on my TV. Sure I can plug the camcorder directly into the TV using the HDMI cable. I can also sleep through all the accidental footage of the floor and lens cap. This way I can edit the 1 hour movie down to 10 or 15 minutes, add graphics, music, whatever I want and still view it in full HD (as opposed to compressing it onto a DVD).

2. Unlike most equipment, this one plays nicely with either my Mac or my PC.

3. My kids can watch the complete collection of SchoolHouse Rock from the ’70s on YouTube, right on the TV for free.

4. Don’t have to leave the couch for HD movie rental. Yes, I know this is available elsewhere, but it’s still one of the things I love about the Apple TV.

5. Movies I’ve purchased for my iPhone can be viewed on my TV and vice versa.

6. I can download photos to my computer, stream or sync them to the AppleTV and have it automatically create a beautiful slideshow complete with transitions and my selected music.

7. With my stereo hooked up to both Apple TV and outdoor speakers, our barbeque’s can have endless hours of Depeche Mode mixed with Ella Fitzgerald and Raffi.

8. Have you seen the awesome screen saver it leaves on your tv? Our guests enjoy watching the screensaver. It floats and spins your whole photo library for hours. We have it set to scroll through hundreds of photos from 10 to 30 years ago.

Hate:

1. Syncing
2. Streaming doesn’t always work
3. Trying to rent a movie on a Saturday night
4. Un-Apple like service and documentation
5. The everlingering worry that they will discontinue the technology.

1. Sync does not mean you can effectively use your Apple TV as a backup device for your home movies and photos. The media must also be on the computer you sync with, or you will lose everything! Sync actually means that everything on the Apple TV gets overwritten by everything on the sync computer.

2. Streaming is not always simple and doesn’t always work. Sometimes it won’t see the computer’s media and sometimes you get the endless spinning thing telling you that it’s thinking about possibly streaming your media sometime in the future.

3. If you rent a movie at 3pm on Saturday it will be ready for viewing in about 5 minutes or less (with broadband connection). Try that at 6pm on Saturday, it might take 3 hours or more!

4. The documentation is meager at best, useless at worst. There is no good explanation of the differences between syncing and streaming or the proper way to back up your media.

5. The ads for it seemed to have disappeared. Is this the Newton of this decade?

All that being said, I still love it and hope they continue to expand its services.