I got my hands on the Apple TV as my unit arrived on March 22. Unpacking and hook up in our family room was simple and easy. The Apple TV has component video, HDMI, RCA audio, and digital audio outputs only. So your TV needs to have the correct inputs to work with the Apple TV. Most newer TVs will have these inputs. Apple recommends a 16:9 HDTV as the Apple TV can display in 720P and 1080i. You can use a square 4:3 TV if it has at least component video inputs, but I doubt this would be optimal.

You must have iTunes 7.1 running on at least one computer in the house (Windows XP or Mac 10.3.9 or higher). Apple TV does little without iTunes. I would call the Apple TV, “an iPod for your TV.” Apple TV allows you to enjoy music, music videos, movies, TV shows, audiobooks, podcasts, and pictures from your iPhoto library (Mac with iPhoto 4.03 or higher) or Adobe Photoshop Album or Elements (Windows).

The Apple TV can be set to sync with ONE computer on your home network and “stream” content for up to 5 others. Apple TV also provides movie trailers and the Top 10 previews from iTunes Store directly from Apple over the Internet. All the purchasing and managing of content is done on your computer and not the Apple TV. Just like with the iPod.

I connected the Apple TV with an HDMI cable to our Sony KDS-50A2000 Grand WEGA 50 inch SXRD HDTV 1080P rear projection TV and with a digital audio cable to our Sony STR-DG1000 7.1-Channel Home Theater surround sound receiver. You should note that the Apple TV does not come with any hook-up cables. You can buy these from many sources including Apple.

For connection to my home network, I used a wired connection directly to my D-Link router (installed as part of FiOS). The Apple TV has built-in wireless and can easily detect and connect to your home network via this method.

Setting-up Apple TV
Setting-up an Apple TV and getting it to function is pretty easy. Here are the quick steps I took.

1. After unwrapping the Apple TV from its slick packaging, attach the media cables. I used an HDMI cable to my TV and a separate digital audio cable connected to my AV receiver.

2. Attach the included power cord to Apple TV unit and plug it in. The Power cord has a nice snug fit. The LED on your Apple TV will flash amber for a few moments and then change to a solid white light. Place the Apple TV in a well vented location as the unit does get a bit toasty.
3. Selected the the Apple TV video source on my TV and audio source on my receiver.
4. Apple TV prompts you to select from its lists of supported languages. Selected English.
5. Apple TV will prompt you to select video resolutions that match your TV. I selected 1080i.

6. Choose from a list of the detected wireless and wired networks. Selected the wired connection as I had Ethernet in our Family Room.
7. Apple TV will then display a 5 digit PIN code that you need to use in iTunes running on your computer. Make a note of the PIN code so you can and set your computer as your “main host” for the Apple TV.

8. Go to iTunes (7.1) on your computer (Windows or Mac) and select the Apple TV from the source list in the left column. iTunes then prompts you to enter the 5 digit PIN. iTunes now allows you to rename your Apple TV and will automatically start to sync your media to the Apple TV. Syncing can take some time depending on how much content you have and how fast your home network is. You may begin to use Apple TV as soon as any content arrives. You do not have to wait for the sync to finish. You could also “stream” content from this computer or another one without syncing.
9. Controlling your Apple TV is with the included Apple Remote and is a lot like using Front Row on a Mac.

The Apple TV has no “off” switch. It basically stays on waiting for “syncing” and to play your media. Apple includes a few choices of screensavers and even allows you to disable the screensaver during music playback so you can view all the album art instead. The Apple TV will switch and move to avoid “burn-in” in any TV prone to this from static images (some plasma screens can burn). If you hold down the play/pause mode on the Apple Remote, the Apple TV will go to sleep mode. This is like when uing Front Row on a Mac.

Information on Syncing
The Apple TV has a built-in 40GB hard drive that allows you to store media from your main host computer. This is a lot like syncing your iPod with iTunes. You can choose to sync what you want in the Apple TV settings area in iTunes. The advantage in syncing content to the Apple TV is that you can then play content on your Apple TV even if your computer is off and is not sharing iTunes. Also the stored content is played directly off the Apple TV and is not “streamed.”

If you have a large iTunes library, like I do with some 25,000 songs and music videos, audiobooks, 300 + movies, and lots of TV shows and podcasts you probably can not fit this on the 40GB Apple TV hard drive. This is no problem as iTunes easily allows you to decide what content, if any, you want to “sync” to the Apple TV box. The syncing, like when your iPod is connected to your computer, is dynamic and automatic. I selected to sync only the last five added, unwatched movies, a few unwatched TV shows, a few video podcasts, and some albums from my iPhoto library.

Watching and Listening from Other Computers
The Apple TV allows you to “stream” content from up to five more computers (Windows or Macs) in addition to the main host computer, by just adding them to the Apple TV source list. This is very easy, you simply go to the Source List -> Add another iTunes Library and Apple TV will give you another PIN code to add to that computers iTunes. Once added to the Apple TV the content is available anytime the computer is on and sharing iTunes.

I connected my PowerBook via my home wireless network in seconds to the Apple TV and was playing music and videos from it with any problem. I also connected an older PowerMac G4 450 DP and played content from that without any problems. Streaming content from my main host Mac which is a iMac G5 was flawless. I played all sorts of content from this computer’s huge iTunes library without an hesitation, skipping, or problems. I watched a two hour movie “streamed” that I purchased from the iTunes Store. The playback was great and looked pretty good even on my 50 inch rear projection TV.

Picture and Sound Quality
The picture and sound quality from through Apple TV is as good as the media itself. The Apple TV can output up to 720P. The Apple Store only offers content in a bit less than DVD quality with only two channel audio. I hope that Apple ups this to close to HDTV with 5.1, at least for the movies they sell. Even at the lower quality they are selling now, the display on my 50 inch rear projector is still enjoyable.

Apple TV can only access content in your iTunes library. So if you want to play any music or video using Apple TV you first need to add the content to iTunes in a QuickTime friendly format. This can be done quite a few ways. You can use iLife applications, QuickTime Pro, there are lots of third party applications for this, and even iTunes can convert some content.

What is missing? Limitations?
Apple TV is tied directly to iTunes and the formats that iTunes users, so any other audio or video format must be converted and added to iTunes. This may be considered a limitation to some users that have not adopted iTunes as their main application for media. There are several other solutions for getting your media on your TV, but Apple TV is really the only solution for “paid” content from iTunes Store.

The Apple TV gets limited content directly from the Internet. It is limited to movie trailers and previews from the iTunes Store. I would have liked to see other available content like Internet radio or other streaming video. Unfortunately, I could not get Internet radio on Apple TV even if I followed my quick tip for Front Row, iTunes Tip #45: Add Internet Radio to Front Row. I tried this with no success and on the Apple TV.

I am a bit surprised that Apple did not add an easy way to order content from the iTunes Store with the Apple TV. Purchasing and managing content is still done strictly on your computer using iTunes.

There of course is not DVR functions as this is NOT a TiVo-like device. You can not record anything or connect your iPod directly to an Apple TV. Hey, Apple how about rentals of movies and TV shows now?

There seems to be no easy way to increase the storage on the Apple TV from the 40GB internal hard drive it comes with. The Apple TV does have one USB port that Apple claims is for servicing and testing only. I can see myself “hacking” the Apple TV box to add a bigger hard drive down the road, if no external solution arrives. (see TechRestore for the Apple TV “take-a-part”) See here for the Apple TV tech specs.

The one complaint I do have is that Apple TV can not at this time “stream” photos from your computers. You can only view slideshows from photos you have “synced” from your main host computer. I used to have Elgato EyeHome boxes on my TVs that “streamed” pictures from any Mac on my network running the free EyeHome software. I did read that Apple may add this feature later on. Leopard maybe? Being able to share your digital photos on a big TV from any computer on your home network would be a very useful feature for many users. I was a bit surprised this was missing even in the first release.

Should You Buy an Apple TV
The Apple TV seems to be primarily targeting the iTunes/iPod using community (that is quite huge). If you use iTunes a lot, the Apple TV may be a “must have” as it was for me. At $299, the Apple TV is about the price of an iPod. Bringing iTunes into your living room may be priceless. The Apple TV is an elegant and simple solution for doing this.

The functions seem to be quite flawless. The UI (user interface) is beautiful and easy to navigate, as you might expect from Apple. If even half of the iPod owners buy one of these Apple will have another big hit and move them into millions of living rooms. In our case we could not be happier with the Apple TV.

Take the tour of the Apple TV for yourself. See the Apple TV in QuickTime VR.

    | Tags: Apple TV, itunes.ipod