Now shipping.<br><br><br><br>

<font size="7">OMG?</font><br><br><br><br>Has anyone here, at mac fanboy minute, even ordered one? I'm not even sure why I would want one.<br><br>

I would get one if -<br><br>It had DVR capabilities like Tivo<br>I could send any video file (not just iTunes stuff) to it<br><br>Otherwise I wouldn't bother getting one.<br><br>

yeah... I just don't get it.<br><br>If they made a Tivo-like device I'd probably be all over it. <br><br>

Plus you need a newer tv<br><br>The possibilities are pretty big for this but will they go the DVR route?

Excerpt from Alan Graham's ZDNet article<br><br>Let's break down why Apple likely made the right hardware choices when building the Apple TV…and shed some light ...<br><br>Adding a tuner would likely increase the price of the device. Apple needs a sweet spot to get these units in the living room. Adding DVR would also compete with the iTunes store. That would be a big no no.<br><br>It was smart to leave out the DVD player. Most people already have a DVD player, so adding one might not make it a compelling feature, while also adding to the cost and reducing the margin.<br><br>The point of this device is to replace live television, not enhance it. Just like a DVR, the Apple TV time-shifts content, at least 24 hours from the moment it was originally broadcast. Same function, different approach. I think we'll likely see the gap in this delay getting shorter and shorter. Because of Apple's relationship to Disney, we might begin seeing ABC shows that are available almost immediately.<br><br>This device could likely stream "live" content from the internet in the near future. I could see getting my news this way, with only a slight buffer, similar to a DVR. This gives me pause and rewind functionality. Sports lovers will for sure want this feature. I can imagine buying a "live" football game with an RSS ticker of other game scores appearing at the bottom of the screen.<br><br>On average, Americans are watching 4.5 hours of TV a day. Much of that is junk we don't want to watch, including about 18 minutes of advertising per hour of television. That's over an hour per day/night of ads, just to view our favorite shows. And even using Tivo to skip over ads doesn't work entirely, since they are always looking for new ways to force us to view them. With iTunes, I have no ads to worry about and many premium cable shows run the full 30-60 minute time slot. We may also see advertisers provide some shows for free just to get a small 30 second ad in the content. Allowing is to pick which one we prefer to watch.<br><br>Cable TV combined with Tivo is cost prohibitive in comparison. We pay it because we've been trained to pay it, but that doesn't make it a better value. Let's break it down over two years based on my favorite shows:<br><br>First, iTunes/Apple TV<br><br><br>Next, Cable TV/Tivo <br><br><br>The difference? <br><br><br><br>M i c h a e l (OFI)

Just the idea of attaching one more item to the this gargantuan nest of cables that hangs out behind my TV gives me the willies. We don't even watch TV and I am thinking of getting this. Can it make the Red Sox score more runs? I have composite jumping off the HDTV to the digital cable box and to the progressive scan DVD. So does this thing need a composite connection or can I patch it in with RCA or some of these other weird connectors? I got optic, S, E, X, and a few others I don't want to even think about.<br><br>Never mind. Wake me up when every component is wireless and it comes in a grocery sack "paper or plastic?"<br><br>I was picking up some halogen headlamps at the Car Store. The guy told me I needed bulb lubricant. I said, "no, my turn signals are flashing at the correct speed." <br><br>Blank stare. I bought some bulb lubricant. I looked both ways for the four horsemen as I left the parking lot.<br><br><br><br><br><br><br>

screw all that, I want to know if I can stream my shows that I get via Bittorrent to AppleTV. <br><br>

It might require a little work but iSquint allows me to convert all the video I scrounge off the net using a process that is compatible with iTunes.<br><br>Video that won't play otherwise on the television, can be processed by iSquint using the H.264 codec.<br><br>iSquint is free, but they also make a pro-level product for $ 23.32 USD.<br><br><br><br><br>M i c h a e l (OFI)

iSquint is what I use to convert YouTube video into QT files. Works very well.<br><br>