Apple TV user Reports/Info/Tips/Mods: (most recent first)
If you own an Apple TV, let me know what you think of it or if you've found fixes, tips/upgrades or workarounds for any issues reported. Thanks.

Apple adds 160GB Apple TV Model, YouTube support (mid-June) (from 5/30/2007 news page) From Apple's YouTube Coming to Apple TV:

"YouTube, the Internet's most popular source for originally created content, becomes available on Apple TV next month, Apple announced today. Beginning in mid-June, Apple TV customers will be able to wirelessly stream videos directly from YouTube to their widescreen TVs.... "users can easily browse, find and watch YouTube videos right from their living room couch, and it's really, really fun," said Steve Jobs..."

BTW - I've heard that what's going to happen is that YouTube videos will use h.264.
Farther down the page they also mention a 160GB Apple TV option to be added tomorrow:

" Apple today also announced that it is offering a new Apple TV build-to-order option with a 160GB hard drive... Apple TV with a 160GB hard drive will be available tomorrow for a suggested retail price of $399 (US). (The original 40GB model price drops to $299.) The YouTube feature for Apple TV will be available as a free software update in mid-June. "

Some Apple TV owners had already done their own hard drive upgrades and several companies had previously offered hard drive upgrade services for AppleTV (previous info/links below.)

AppleTV Game Console Emulation (4/12/2007) Eddie sent a note that awkwardtv has updated their Emulation page that lists status as working on Nestopia 1.3.6, (NES), Generator 0.4.2 (Sega Genesis), BSNES 0.17 (Super NES), and Sixtyforce 0.9.0 (Nintendo64). On a related note, a few days ago a reader (Rusty M.) sent a link to his YouTube video of AppleTV running Super Mario Bros (NES) with USB joystick.

(Note: Apple in late May announced a 160GB Apple TV option for $399.)
TechRestore Offers Pre-Upgraded (Hard Drive) Apple TVs (4/5/2007 - from their email PR)

"TechRestore, Inc. announced today that they have begun offering pre-upgraded Apple TV systems for sale. (Note: site requires cookies enabled in browser) These systems have been pre-configured with storage upgrades up to 160 Gigabyte. The 160 Gigabyte units allow for up to 200 hours of video storage, 36,000 songs, 100,000 photos. Prices start at $399 for an Apple TV with double the factory storage space. TechRestore includes a 1-year warranty on upgraded Apple TV systems.

Complete pricing is as follows:
Apple TV 80GB: $399
Apple TV 100GB: $419
Apple TV 120GB: $439
Apple TV 160GB: $499
The systems are shipping today."

Techrestore was one of the three vendors that previously announced drive upgrade services for existing Apple TV owners that didn't want to do it themselves.

Apple TV Standby Power Usage:

(4/3/2007)
"Maybe it is interesting to note, that according to these (german) sites http://www.macnews.de/news/98775 and http://www.golem.de/0704/51495.html, Apples TV-box uses around 25 to 28 Watts in standbymode (!!), which is - in the light of wasting energy and the fact that Mr. Al Gore is in apple's supervisory board - unacceptable regarding todays standards.
Regards, Nico O. "

Since they started shipping, it's been noted that even in standby the Apple TV stays warm and can still sync. (The noise heard in standby is the fan, not the hard drive per this Apple doc on standby mode.) This is why I use a switched outlet strip to turn off the Apple TV when not used. (For my earlier feeble attempt at humor on this, see my Top 10 Reasons Apple TV has no Off Switch.)

AppleTV Running (modified) OS X 10.4.8 Jim sent a link to a Google video of AppleTV Running OS X 10.4.8 using a modified kernel. (He said he still prefers a Mac running MediaCentral)

Top 10 Reasons Apple TV has no OFF Switch (with apologies to Letterman...)

10) An on/off switch is so 20th-century
9) Marketing said nobody would ever want to turn it off
8) It's not an omission, it's a feature (if you live in colder climates)
7) So you can make Jiffy Pop any time you want, right on the Apple TV
6) Even when off it makes a great warmer of the upcoming iMug
5) It would have been a feature we couldn't completely control
4) The MPAA/RIAA wanted to be able to check for 'illegal' content 24/7
3) Blame it on Al Gore for not attending the Board Meetings
2) Left out as another 'feature' we can promote on the rev B model this summer
1) The cost savings helped pay for the huge 40GB hard drive

I had mentioned a few (out of hundreds) of my photos were not oriented the same on the Apple TV as they were in iPhoto. It turns out they were all 480x640 (portrait mode) res (lower res photos from emails) and I fixed the problem by cropping the height a bit so that they were not exactly 640 pixels high.

(4/3/2007)
"I have read much feedback regarding apple tv. I had mine sitting in their boxes for 10 days before getting around to hooking one of them up. The other still sits boxed, because I will have to hook it up via component inputs to tv. Hooked up unit #1 via HDMI and ethernet cable connected to new airport "n" router. Plugged the power cord on, it immediately connected to my network, and I started to sync videos using the hard drive capacity, but this really takes too long, so I reconfigured via streaming and it works flawlessly, so far. (Wireless Streaming works with 802.11g or n networks, although photos can't be streamed in the 1.0 release. But If your wireless router is close enough to the Apple TV, using Ethernet instead of Wireless is the way to go. Typically faster/more consistent performance, although if the source computer is networked via wireless, that of course also can affect performance.-Mike)

Streaming is better for me because I have about 50 movies in iTunes. Now what I have done is to "back up" my DVD movies with MTR which everyone knows gives a Video_TS folder/files. Using Popcorn 2.0 (Toast 7 or 8 cannot to this ), I use Video i-pod (high setting) which will automatically export all movies into i-tunes to be viewed with Apple TV. At this setting, each backed-up movie at this setting takes about 3+ hours to be exported. Yes it is somewhat time consuming, but I have found this to be a quick down and dirty way to get nice quality movies to Mpeg4 Apple TV standards. One can even custom set Popcorn to give an even higher quality but I don't see much difference with my widescreen DLP TV.

Apple TV settings at 1080i for TV Streaming. No problems...Just my thoughts.
-Scott S."

I don't have a large iTunes lib but I synced my content (photos, movies, podcasts, etc.) although it did take a few hours to complete (802.11g network). I wanted as much content as possible on the Apple TV as I frequently want to use Apple TV without having another computer on. (But again my content currently easily fits on the 32.84GB of internal storage... at least for now...) Everything worked as expected (after enabling iTunes sharing in the PB's Firewall, entering the Apple TV MAC address in the base (I use filtering) setup went smoothly, although syncing took awhile of course.) The ordering issue with shows/episodes doesn't affect me and other than a one-time Cursor bug (see below) it's worked as I expected. I still need to figure out why some photos (a few out of hundreds) are rotated to landscape on the Apple TV vs portrait mode in iPhoto. (I found the cause/fix -see later post above.) Connected via HDMI to a (720P) 37in Vizio LCD TV bought at a bargain price. (At 720P for best picture, although there is support for lower res modes like 1080i)

(4/2/2007)
"Been using my Apple TV quite a bit for the last week, here is some more feedback, including my experience encoding video for playback (with outstanding success):

Changing the metadata on a file causes it to be re-synced in it's entirety - a real pain if you are encoding your own movies and then using iTunes to set the metadata, since these large files get synced twice.

Placing a unit in standby only seems to turn off the video output. (mentioned previously - even syncs can happen in standby and some said they heard the HD still spinning, but this Apple doc on standby mode says the HD spins down in standby, although the fan still runs.-Mike) Coverflow/screensavers still appear to be running once you return the unit from standby (that or it just starts up really really fast).
(never saw the screensaver running when mine comes out of standby, - I see the main menus, but I typically turn mine off via a switched outlet strip when not in use.-Mike)

I have had the unit lock up twice now after overnight idle periods:
once while in standby and once I just left the unit idle - the Apple logo locked static in the center of the screen (however, using the remote, you can hear the menu items "clicking"). The first time, I pulled the power cord to reboot after about a minute. The second time when locked, I tried placing the unit into standby, and about 30 seconds later a screen appeared telling me my Apple TV had recovered from a problem, and had the choices to run Diagnostics, Ignore, or do a Full System Reset. Diagnostics told me that no problems were found. I've not seen any problems at all while using the unit. The Apple TV is in an area where it can get plenty of air flow, and doesn't feel overly hot to the touch (nothing abormal anyway considering everyone else's reports of "warm").

Syncing will return an error message for interactive booklets that come with some iTunes album downloads (.mov files). Each and every time Apple TV syncs it will reprompt with this error if you have anything set to autosync that contains these (in my case "Sync all Albums"). I could remove them from my library, but I had to get rid of content I paid for. I could see alerting me the first time it tried to sync and couldn't, but after that first time, I don't think I need to be continually reminded.

I've tried ripping some of my personal DVDs and re-encoding them for Apple TV. I used Handbrake 0.7.1 to re-encode, and it was as easy selecting "MP4" File Format and "h.264 Video / AAC Audio" Codec, and hitting start (there are many many other options, I didn't play with any of them yet). Handbrake encoded in native DVD resolution and the output file is iTunes and Apple TV compatible (just drag the file on iTunes and it will automatically import and then sync to Apple TV - depending on your sync options). They play full screen on my widescreen (which the DVD's did not always, some of which had black bars despite the DVD player set to 16:9 mode - Handbrake automatically trims these from the source if present), and the quality is nearly indistinguishable from the DVD source on my 32" LCD using 720P. There are some mpeg artifacts during very fast moving scenes, but since the files are resized to optimum size for the screen and using a true HD resolution on the TV, in the end it's a wash - a 720x400 file looks very good on Apple TV, which is what most of my DVDs are coming out as native. Handbrake will scale the output in any dimension you want (AppleTV states it has a max of 1280x720@24fps or 960x540@30fps - in h.264 format), but you don't gain anything except a bigger file if you scale it bigger than the native resolution of the source.

Of course, this only works with non-encrypted DVDs, or DVD files you have ripped onto your hard drive. De-encrypting commercial DVD's onto your hard drive is a sticky matter, Handbrake will not do that - if you should want to do that, you'll need a second utility.

Handbrake has since been replaced by MediaFork, however the interface for both is nearly identical (and the name change also looks to be temporary according to their website) - I haven't exerimented with MediaFork as I just recently downloaded it. http://handbrake.m0k.org/

iSquint (and it's bigger brother VisualHub) support more re-encoding video other than from DVD format (AVIs, MPGs, etc) - these are essentially graphical front-ends for mencoder (a command line utility, which can be daunting getting the options all configured correctly). I haven't had a chance to play with these utilities (or mencoder) much in transcoding other formats for AppleTV use.
-Brian "

Odd Cursor Bug (fixed by power cycling)
I'm not sure anyone else will ever see this but posting it as a FYI. After the 2nd day of use (a couple hours a day, after initial setup and sync), I saw a problem with the root-level menu cursor (menu item highlight) shown in the picture below. I had just ran some photo slide shows and going back to the root (top level) menu showed a white rectangle on the left side of the cursor/menu item selector. The 'white box' follows the selection up or down the items list but did not appear in sub-menus (Movies, Music, etc.). Standby/resume did not fix it, but cycling power did. (I've included info in the pix as a friend wanted to send it to someone in apple support)

In case you ever see anything like this, after making sure no disk writes/syncing is happening (syncs can happen even in standby/LED off), power the Apple TV off for a few seconds and restart.

More on Sort Order and Useful Utilities:

(added 3/28/2007)
" Mike, I have actually organized some converted home movies as TV shows. I have not found a way to adjust the sort order so that the Apple TV will display the shows in order from first season/episode to last if you use the Season and Episode metadata tags. The Apple TV always wants to put the most recent episodes first in the list. (Earlier comments on this here mentioned that was probably done so that new content was at the top of lists (less scrolling to select new content), although that wrecks havoc on episode ordering that appears correctly in iTunes-Mike) iTunes, however, always lists the shows in order from first to last if the season and episode data is entered.

That said, if you leave the Season and Episode metadata blank and number the filenames with 001, 002, etc. they will appear on the Apple TV in order by name from first to last. This kind of defeats the purpose of metadata, of course, but is the only way I have found to control TV Show sort order. Personally, I'll be tagging files with the metadata and wait until Apple provides more preferences/options for sort order on the Apple TV.

I have found a couple of useful utilities that help with converting and batch changing (and adding) metadata for mp4 files. Neither of the metadata editors work on the m4v files that are created via export through QuickTime's Apple TV export option. Even if you change the file extensions to mp4.

First, there is VisualHub from Techspansion: http://www.techspansion.com/
I have exported clips with the Apple TV option under the iTunes tab and compared them to clips exported via QuickTime using Apple TV. (QT Pro can do higher res exports than the default "Apple TV" option) The VisualHub exports are faster, result in smaller file sizes and create actual mp4 files that can be tagged with metadata using utilities outside of iTunes. I have done side by side comparisons and noted some very small differences in color saturation (or perhaps brightness) between the two but both produce excellent results. The minor color shift is not visible (at least to me) when playing on the Apple TV even though a side-by-side comparison on my Mac Pro in QuickTime shows the difference. This product is well worth the $23.32 IMHO.

Second, there are two utilities available, both freeware or donationware, that assist in adding metadata to the mp4 files output by VisualHub (or mp4s created with other software):

"Parsley is Atomically Delicious" is located at: http://them.ws/pad/
(ref: Atomic Parsley)
This utility allows you to batch process files and will even parse filenames to extract the season and episode numbers. You can also add a description and edit other metadata that is not editable in iTunes. It has various options for TV Shows vs. Movies, etc. This is a big timesaver.

Lostify is another metadata editor located at: http://lowellstewart.com/lostify/about/
This utility is also useful, but it does not support extraction of the season and episode numbers for the filename. It's batch functions are limited... you have to edit and process each file individually. It also does not remove the extension from the filename for use in the "Name" metadata field, requiring you to remove it manually each time. Although it requires more work to use, it does support more metadata fields than Parsley is Atomically Delicious such as MPAA rating and such, if you're interested in those fields.

Both of these utilities must output a complete copy of the file to add the metadata. This results in long pauses for larger files as the entire file is copied with the added metadata. iTunes also does this for mp3 or any other files - that's what it's doing during those long pauses after editing metadata on any larger file. I'm using a Mac Pro with RAID - must be very long pauses on slower machines.

There are also a couple of other glitchy things I have noticed:

1. The poster frames that are displayed do not appear to be selected in any order that I can figure out. For example, in iTunes cover flow for TV Shows you will see one poster frame for the show. This will not necessarily match the poster frame that is shown on the Apple TV. Also, changing the poster frame in iTunes does not consistently change the poster frame on the Apple TV... it may still show the old poster frame after disconnecting and reconnecting.

2. Adding files to a streaming library that is already being accessed by the Apple TV produces inconsistent results... some files appear quickly on the Apple TV's list while others do not appear unless you disconnect/reconnect to the library.

Hope this is helpful, Andy"

(added 3/28/2007)
" (Matt had asked about a apple forum thread on sort order workarounds)
Both iTunes and AppleTV group TV shows by the SORT SHOW field, much like they group songs by the ALBUM field. Thus, if you change the SHOW name from 'The Office' to 'The Office Season 2', the SORT SHOW field should automatically change from 'Office' to 'Office Season 2', and both iTunes and AppleTV will then group the episodes accordingly.
As you notice, it appears that iTunes cuts out words from the SHOW field (such as 'The' 'And' and maybe others) as it populates the SORT SHOW field, and a few times messed up and never added 'Season 2', causing an error in grouping. Confused yet? Pain in my butt trying to get it to work properly. But in the end, it's just a workaround, as I can't figure out how to get it to nest the seasons within the overall show.
Hopefully a fix will take care of that in the near future.
-Chris"

Notes on Standby Mode

(added 3/28/2007)
" Notes on Apple TV Standby (sleep?) mode. Holding the remote's play button down for several seconds puts the Apple TV in standby mode (LED off). My Apple TV even after many hours in "standby" stays quite warm (primarily at the rear area). Some think the hard drive never spins down even in standby but apple says it does (the fan still runs however). Apple TV will sync even when in "standby" mode (LED off). I'm considering using an outlet strip with switch to turn off the power when I'm not going to be using it for awhile (typically 90% of the day), as I already have too many devices drawing power all the time, although they don't stay warm (not using as much power) as the Apple TV does in standby.

Setup and Syncing (G network only here, no N) worked as expected, although several of my Portrait oriented photos in iPhoto were rotated to landscape mode on Apple TV (not all were, but several were).
(I've seen this also with just a few photos here - turns out they were all 480x640 (portrait mode) res (from emails) - I fixed the problem by cropping the height a bit so that they were not exactly 640 pixels high.-Mike)

Many of you may already know this but you can get higher res exports out of Quicktime by not using the Export to Apple TV option. (Which creates 640x480 IIRC). I have a 720P TV and wanted to create higher res movies than the standard iTunes media.
I wish Apple would let those of us that bought 320x240 res TV shows, etc. originally re-download the 640x480 versions. (I bought several TV show episodes and SNL skits when they first appeared, before the higher res iPod video (5.5gen) came out and content was upgraded, although the early versions look better than I thought on the TV, at least when viewed from 8ft or so away. Up close you can clearly see it's very low-res.)
-Eddie "

Booting Apple TV from USB Drive (3/27) About 1/2 dozen readers sent links to a YouTube video on using a USB Boot Drive for Apple TV despite Apple saying the USB port was for service/diagnostics use only. (Eddie also sent a link to page with more Apple TV USB notes.)

3 Vendors offer Apple TV Hard Drive Upgrade Service (or do it yourself)
For those that don't want to do it themselves, several vendors are now offering Apple TV hard drive upgrade services.
TechRestore (requires cookies enabled in browser) sent these options

• 60GB Storage Upgrade: $99.99
• 80GB Storage Upgrade: $149.99
• 100GB Storage Upgrade: $169.99
• 120GB Storage Upgrade: $179.99
• 160GB Storage Upgrade: $219.99
  Shipping Costs (USA I assume)
• Self-ship with return overnight shipping - $19
• Door-to-door with overnight pickup/return - $49

They have this note on warranty:

" The drive used in upgrading your Apple TV includes a 3-5 year manufacturer warranty. Your Apple TV warranty will be voided by installing any upgrades or modifications."

iResq lists these options/prices (includes shipping):

• 160GB - $299
• 120GB - $259
• 80GB - $209

Those prices include Overnight Pickup and Delivery. They also list a 90 day warranty and 30 day return for refund period. I suspected this would void the Apple warranty but iResQ has this note:

"AppleCare Warranty Note: If you have iResQ perform an upgrade or repair on your Apple TV, your factory Apple Warranty will remain in tact as you purchased it from Apple. However, any new parts installed by iResQ will not be covered under your Apple Warranty, they will be covered by iResQ."

On March 30th, MacService sent a note they're also now offering an Apple TV hard drive upgrade service - here's the current pricing/options from their page as of this Mar. 30th, 2007:

• 60GB Hitachi 5400rpm - $195
• 80GB Hitachi 5400rpm - $215
• 100GB Hitachi 5400rpm - $225
• 120GB Seagate 5400rpm - $235
• 160GB Hitachi 5400rpm -$295
  "$79 next day shipping available"

Some users on the web were concerned about increased heat with a larger/faster RPM hard drive installed. The stock 40GB drive (33GB available for storage) is a 4200 rpm model (Fujitsu in the examples I've seen) that may have been selected for its low power usage. (The Apple TV reportedly gets very hot as-is.) The specs of a 120GB Seagate (PATA/IDE) Momentus 5400rpm drive I had on hand showed a bit more power use I think (just under 1/2W higher R/W, about 10% higher Max I think) with a 55°C Max operating temperature per seagate specs, but I don't know the max temperature spec on the stock drive. (Apple's Apple TV specs page lists environmental temperature, not internal temperature range.) I doubt there would be any problems with a drive swap like that, but of course it's too early to tell about longevity even with the stock drive.

(added 3/26/2007)
"Got my AppleTV on Friday and had an issue getting the video to my old standard TV which has only an S-video and composite video interface. I moved my small LCD TV that I won in a raffle months ago to the AppleTV and was able to get things going, rather easily. However, my issue remains and that is how to interface the AppleTV to one of the old standard TVs with S-video and composite video interfaces. Does anyone have a solution, which does not require a $300-400 converter box ? IMHO, it seems like Apple is missing a huge market potential as I gotta believe most of the population has TVs with the old interfaces.
-Mike"

I really don't know of any cheap/easy way to do that unless you already had another device that would take the Apple TV's output as an input and had a compatible (with your TV) output. The Apple TV was designed for use with TVs that have HDMI, component (or DVI, using HDMI/DVI cable) interfaces.

(added 3/26/2007)
"Hi Mike, Thanks (as always) for the best Mac coverage on the web! Day two of Apple TV.
Many of my movie files had to be recoded as MP4 video but some with the file extension of .mov did not. I haven't figured it out yet but some of the .mov files that made it were three and four years old so they couldn't have been mp4 format, I've got to work on this. I will check those movie files codecs tonight (I travel with a portable drive with them on it).

I built an all N wireless network using two Airport Extreme base stations and using my Airport Express WDS network in bridge mode to support all older stuff.

The N network is a little kltichy, several occurrences of reset or reboot required to get back on line.

I think it's related to the way the new extreme base stations cooperate in an extended network. I have the DSL several rooms over in a spare bedroom and have out five computers all on a gigabit backbone connected wirelessly to the base station, previously running G to the base on the previously mentioned G network but just converted this weekend to a N with another extreme N base station (let's call this office). The "office" base station drops the connection to the main base station with a error message that the main base station must "be set to allow this network to be extended".

Of course, the main base station is already set up this way or there wouldn't have been a network to drop but I have to restart/reboot the main base station and then it cures itself. After two such experiences, I just let it be for a few minutes and it reset by itself.

All three times, Apple TV was updating large movie files and I don't know if it's related.

Okay, back to Apple TV. Very good experience with some weirdness as spice.

Could not get HDMI to output through my Yamaha head or couldn't get my Yamaha to down-convert to component video to my TV or HDMI is output from my Yamaha at a resolution by six year old HD TV can't handle (I knew that 1080p was not supported by my TV but I was surprised that 720p wasn't as well). Anyone know what is the default output resolution of the HDMI off of the Apple TV?
(I read in an apple doc that Apple TV was supposed to do some sort of check on the TV's supported res via HDMI and offer you some choices in the initial setup, but what is your TV model/max supported res./mode? What interface(s) on it?-Mike)
Regarding HDMI, my TV does not have HDMI input but it does have component inputs.
I was running Apple TV HDMI through my Yamaha receiver which is supposed to output to the component video and up convert / down convert, if required.

Hmmmm, the initial setup thing sounds very plausible because the resolutions options in setup are limited (1080i and 720p, 480i&p and 50hz stuff, no 720i). I couldn't wait to check out the ATV when I first got it and I work in Cleveland whereas I live in Chicago. So I went over to a friend's house and hooked it to his TV. I wonder if I have to do a hard reset to get this work.

When you start changing resolutions with three different devices involved, be prepared for a some worrisome events (like gray or black screen that just won't go away without some seemingly random button pushing for an extended period of time!).

All in all, I am completely satisfied with the Apple TV. I have canceled my cable from Comcast, subscribed to the TV i really want to watch from iTunes and feel like I am part of the 21st century.

I was blown away by the breath of content available on iTunes, by the way. Some was overpriced but I also subscribed to a ton of video podcasts which play quite well on Apple TV and as I've never really seen the point of portable video, I was really happy to see lot of really good content out there.

That's it for now, if more surfaces I will update you.
(he later wrote)
By the way, in regards to the wireless glitches I mentioned in my last email, I am thinking that it could be an iTunes software-induced thing because of specific and strange sequence of events that I have observed during this whole thing. If a iTunes patch is the next thing I see, I would not be surprised.
-Jim "

(added 3/26/2007)
"One thing I noticed was that on my video iPod my photos (about 4500 pics) takes up only 3GB of space but the same photos sync'd with AppleTV takes over 10GB. As the iPod syncs it will say "optimizing photos" for iPod presumably making the files smaller since the ipod screen doesn't have a large resolution

But why did they not implement this for the Apple TV, even a 1080p screen is smaller than the resolution of most high megapixel cameras, and it would save a considerable amount of space given the smallish HD in the AppleTV. Hopefully this will come in future updates

Not everyone has this TV but it is a popular model of samsung DLP, I found a very nice spot for my i tv right on the shelf of the TV's bezel
-Michael M.
"

Thanks, I hear the Apple TV gets very hot at times (especially when syncing) - any concern over that considering where you have it? (Note: Apple has now posted a doc titled Apple TV may feel warm to touch that says it's designed to be used even in media cabinets.)

Andy replied to the reader tip on Sync below (rebuttal to his earlier comment on all-or-nothing limitations)

(added 3/26/2007)
"Yes, I see that now! Thanks for the rebuttal Phil! I was actually using the Apple TV item to play the content and must have ignored the sync source item directly below it. This saves a bit of hassle. Thanks for pointing it out.

I still think that it is strange that when you are viewing the synced content from your main, synced iTunes library on the Apple TV, you don't see the content that is not synced. You have to switch to the "streaming library" source on the same iTunes on the same computer.

Additionally, when you switch to the streaming version of the library, the Apple TV is not smart enough to play items that are stored locally - synced from the same iTunes library in the same user account on the same computer - directly from the built-in hard drive. Instead, it will stream the movie that has already been copied over to the Apple TV.

Also, when you connect to the library as a streaming source you do not have a "Photos" menu item because they cannot be streamed. However, since the photos are actually synced onto the local hard drive, you may use them in the screen saver. The album covers also appear in the screen saver rather than a blank screen. Photos can be used for the screen saver too if they're synced, despite the absence of the Photos menu item.

Overall, I'd say that this particular aspect seems a bit glitchy to me at this point. In my thinking, if I have a single iTunes library and I have synced it with an Apple TV, I should be able to see all of the content available in that library without having to switch to another source regardless of whether it needs to be played from the local drive or streamed. I can understand the non-AppleTV-local streamed content not being visible when the computer is off or iTunes not running. I think that otherwise it should all appear as available if it is all in the same library.

Really, there's not too much functional difference at the end of the day between this vs. using multiple iTunes libraries. You still need to switch to a different source to see all the content and the local content is available in a limited manner when using the streaming library source.

But these are really picky points that will only be important to people with large iTunes libraries. After using it last night, I'm even more happy with the Apple TV. The album cover screen saver is like modern art that will be unique to each person's taste in music. Everything plays well! I'm looking forward to seeing this product evolve.
Thanks, Andy "

Sync and Stream Notes/Tips:

(3/24/2007)
"Response to Andy's post (earlier) about Sync vs. Stream:

"Major issue to me: iTunes allows you to either Sync the contents of your library OR stream the contents. If you set up your iTunes to Sync the contents, only the content that is actually synced over is available for playback on the Apple TV. This is really quite limiting and is not all that clear in the Apple KB article or Apple TV marketing materials: Import, Sync, or Stream Your Content to Apple TV
I had thought that iTunes would sync whatever it could fit (or you set it to sync) and then allow you to stream the other content."

This is incorrect. Actually the computer you sync with is simultaneously available for streaming as Andy wants. If you go to "Sources" your synced content is under "TV" and your streamed content is under the "Name of Computer You Synced" with the chain icon next to it. The logic of this is the source of your synced content is actually on your TV already. Perhaps Andy didn't notice that you can click on the TV choice in the menu and thought it was just a title.

"Sync priority is given to video at all times which of course takes up the most space and may remove all those music and photos that took so long to sync over and which cannot be viewed unless synced. (That is correct, see apple notes in Import, Sync, or Stream Your Content to Apple TV) iTunes should allow you to set it to sync, for example, music, podcasts and photos and stream video. But there is no way to do this at the moment, syncing is an all or nothing kind of thing."

This is also incorrect. (the last sentence) To keep the space on my TV organized, I keep all my Movies, Music, Music Videos, Podcasts, and Photos Synced, but leave all TV shows and Anime collection (the bulk of my iTunes library) on my primary synced Mac Pro. That way I have room to grow on my TV and can still access my TV and Anime collection through streaming as I mentioned above. No need to double up on connections to the same Mac with different accounts as Andy mentioned.
Just like on an iPod, you can select exactly the type of content you want to Sync through the tabs and dropdown choices. You can even select individual Movies and TV series to sync... as well as disable Photos if you want. This is also totally different than what Andy describes in his comments. I think much of Andy's "rough edges" aren't so rough afterall.
-Phil "

See Andy's later reply (thanks) to Phil's tip above. It is true that photos (which can't be streamed currently) are given the lowest 'priority' as far as preserved content on the Apple TV (i.e. if running out of drive space and you sync more video for instance, Photos are the first to get removed from Apple TV). Hopefully there will be an update to allow streaming Photos (or an option to preserve them from being removed) for those that find the 40GB (33GB usable) isn't enough. (See above for drive upgrade service and do-it-yourself guide.)

Pairing Apple Remotes:

(3/23/2007)
"I just got my Apple TV today, and it works great. A couple of small annoyances - the remote included with the Apple TV was identical to the one with my Intel iMac - so when browsing the menus on the Apple TV, it would also fire up Front Row on the iMac at the same time - the single remote would be controlling both devices at the same time.

The trick was to Pair the remotes to the individual devices:

For the iMac:
1. Hold the remote close to the computer (3 to 4 inches away) and point the remote at the front of the computer.
2. Press and hold both the Menu and Next buttons on the remote until the paired-remote graphic appears on your screen (about 5 seconds).
(the Next button is Fast Forward)

For the Apple TV:
1. Choose Settings from the Apple TV main menu.
2. Choose Pair Remote Control.
You can also press and hold the Menu and Next/Fast-forward buttons for 6 seconds to pair Apple TV and the remote.

Just make sure your Pairing the correct remote to the appropriate machine. Pairing can be undone later on, if you get a new remote.

You could also disable the Infrared port on the iMac if you don't use Front Row (or the remote on your computer) - the option is found in the Security Preferences
-Brian "

The long list of Apple TV support/tips docs below also includes one on Pairing and Unpairing the Apple Remote with Apple TV (there's also one on Paired remote stops working.)

More on Apple TV item listings out of order (vs iTunes):
I don't have an Apple TV to test this but for owners with TV episodes (for example) that are out of order on the Apple TV (but ok in iTunes), can you create a playlist of the episodes in the correct order and then use that as a workaround? If you try that, let me know if it works. Thanks.
Update - within seconds literally a reader replied it doesn't work:

" I created a playlist consisting of the 6 episodes from season 1 and 1 episode from season 2 of the Office, but couldn't get the playlist to sync. Not sure if it only works with music playlists.

I think that the AppleTV is listing the episodes in reverse chronological order. The season 2 episode is at the top of the list, followed by the season 1 episodes in reverse order. My guess is that the system defaults so that the newest movies/episodes/etc. all show at the top and are easy to get to, rather than having to dig down a huge list each time you add a new episode or podcast of your favorite show and want to watch it.
~Chris "

Another comment on the subject (not just movies)

" As far as Playlists for TV shows:
I can't find under TV shows where it will let you use Playlists - Playlists that are made up from TV Shows do appear in the Music menu (but will not play - Apple TV says "There are no songs in this Playlist"), but there's nothing under the TV Show menu - I have no idea how to get the correct order for TV show episodes, or anything else for that matter - it is a bit annoying.
It does the same thing for music albums - they are sorted oddly, and not by album order or alphabet. Even music playlists are reordered.
-Brian"

Notes on QT Pro Exporting 5.1 Audio Movies (updated - see below for notes that Apple TV is still not outputting multichannel audio.)

(added 3/23/2007)
"Just thought I would let others know how to get 5.1 surround sound into movies for the AppleTV.
I received my AppleTV yesterday afternoon and spent most of the evening transcoding single chapters of movies (to save time) at different parameters to see what would play. Comments below, but figured I would let you know my setup first. For the AppleTV, I have it connected to a 1280x720 HDTV via HDMI. I also have a Toslink cable running out of the AppleTV to a Sony 5.1 receiver. Connectivity to my computer is via an Apple Extreme Base Station (draft 802.11n version), which is configured for 802.11n-only, at 5GHz. My computer is a Rev B black MacBook with 1GB of RAM (2x512MB). The applications I used for the transcoding are MPEG Streamclip 1.8 and a that-which-will-not-be-named application for getting decrypted VOBs off DVDs (used purely for backup). I have purchased the Pro license for QuickTime. I have also installed the A52Codec plug-in for QuickTime to handle AC3 transcoding and playing.

I obtained a short 49 second clip of Spiderman2. I opened the resultant VOB in MPEG Streamclip and exported it as a demuxed pair of M2V and AC3 files (basically, pass-through). I then opened both files simultaneously in QuickTime. With the AC3 file, I selected the entire clip, copied it, and then clicked on the M2V file. I then selected "Add to Movie" edit to paste the audio into the video. I clicked (Command-J) to bring up the Video properties to verify the files. Both the sound and video files were exactly the same length, down to the hundredth of a second. I also verified the audio properties (in the same window, selecting the audio track, different tab) as still being 6 discrete channels of L, R, C, Ls, Rs, LFE. I played the clip and got great sound (or as good as it gets from the MacBook).

I closed the Video Properties window and then clicked Export. Under the options in the dialog box, I chose "Export to QuickTime Movie". Notice that I did not use "Export to Apple TV". Under video settings, I chose H.264, and set the frame rate to 24fps. I also set the bit-rate to "Automatic", chose "High" quality setting, and "multi-pass" encoding. Under the video size, I chose current (automatically set itself to 720x404) and selected "Deinterlace video". Under the sound settings, I chose AAC, 48KHz sample rate, and then chose "5.1" for my channels. Under the advanced audio settings, I chose constant bit-rate, and selected "160kbps". That"s it. The resultant exported/transcoded .mov file had 5.1 channels of AAC at 48Khz (verified in the info window {Command-I}).

I crossed my fingers and did the "Add to Library" in iTunes. Played fine there. Sync"d it to AppleTV. Worked great. Great picture. Sound from the TV was great. Turned on the receiver, and got 5.1 sound from it. Though the AppleTV requires some work on the user's end to get 5.1 surround sound in a transcoded movie, it works. The only application that cost money was the Pro license for QuickTime.
(he later wrote)
Yes, the source does have to be 5.1 audio. QT cannot create surround sound from stereo sources. I have encoded all 6 episodes of the Office, Season 1 DVD. The source in that case is AC3, but only 2.0, so QT only gives me the options for Stereo and Mono. The other options, all multi-channel, are greyed out as you describe. Usually, you have to get a movie VOB for 5.1 AC3. I use MTR for that.
~Chris"

Update - A reader replied his receiver status still doesn't show the Apple TV as outputting multichannel audio:

(added 3/23/2007)
"I was able to follow the method described (above) with a 5.1 source and indeed it creates a file that QuickTime shows has 6 AAC channels.
Unfortunately, I cannot confirm that the Apple TV is actually sending out a multi-channel digital signal via the optical output.

My Sony 7.1 A/V receiver has a blue light that turns on whenever actual mult-channel sound is being received and decoded. This light is not coming on when I play the movie, leading me to believe that the Apple TV is actually just sending out a regular stereo signal that is being decoded in regular Pro Logic mode, not 5.1. In addition, there is an indicator that lights up if there is a Low Frequency Effect (LFE) channel being decoded. This light is not showing that LFE channel is being output by the Apple TV.

Perhaps I'm missing something here? You may want to ask Chris if his A/V receiver has an indicator to show that actual multi-channel surround is being decoded to confirm that the Apple TV is not just sending out a 4.0 pro logic signal. (See Chris's reply below.-Mike)
I have attached a screenshot showing the end result file's audio properties.

Have a great weekend!
-Andy"

Maybe this is why there's no mention that I could find anywhere on the Apple TV pages about surround sound or 5.1 audio. Chris' reply:

" Unfortunately, the "receiver" I have in the apartment is my fiance's all-in-one. It has no lights to indicate much at all. I will do some work on a scene from LOTR:Fellowship. I can't remember which track/chapter number it is (maybe 27), but I am going to do the scene where they are still in Elrond, and the dwarf tries to smash the ring. Sauron's voice travels ominously around the scene, discretely through every channel/speaker. Very cool. It's the only way I can confirm that the AppleTV is indeed passing a discreet signal. Should have an answer in an hour or 2...
(he later wrote)
I was able to push off leaving the house for this quick test. The other reader is correct. Though the AppleTV was able to play the 5.1 file, it only output 2 channels to my receiver. Arrghh.
Didn't realize last night that the receiver was set to one of those soundfields that creates surround sound. Changed it to Auto Format Decode, and only got L & R. Oh well. Here's to being an early adopter/pioneer. My apologies. Back to the drawing board...
~Chris "

Another reader commented on (discrete 5.1) audio not being possible considering the format:

" I've been reading loads of comments about multi-channel support on the Aapple TV. The 5.1 audio file format supported by QT will not play back in multi-channel mode through a receiver via the optical out on the Apple TV (or any Mac system with an optical port). Essentially the 6 digital audio streams represent too much data to be output through a single SPDIF optical output. The SPDIF standard is designed for two channel uncompressed audio or encoded multi-channel audio (DTS/AC3), which as we all know are compressed formats. The Apple TV might playback encoded 5.1 streams if they are included as part of a MOV, unless of course the Apple TV system requires QT decoding before the output stage and doesn't pass the audio stream directly to the optical out. This may be the case, sadly, as QT will not pass AC3 audio streams directly to the optical out if one is part of MOV file. DTS WAV files will play fine as QT sees the DTS WAV files as plain old WAV data while the receiver will understand what to do with it. So maybe encoding multichannel audio to DTS WAV and using it as the audio stream for a MOV could work. I do simialr things for 5.1 surround MOV's and audio for use with my Mac Mini and iTunes.
Cheers. popol. "

(added 3/23/2007)
"So far, I'm happy with Apple TV. I think part of my satisfaction is knowing beforehand what it would and wouldn't do. I have had no problems getting it to work. Granted, I am a little more advanced than the average Apple user (engineer by day), but it seemed fairly intuitive to me.
There are some obvious things that I think could be improved, such as larger internal HDD (which I may mod myself), making the USB port an external HDD interface, ability to sync & stream from the same iTunes account (still looking into this, though), more control over music playlist for the photo slideshow , and probably a host of other things that I will think of as I use it more.
However, since i bought it mainly to play iTunes on my stereo, separate from my computer (no more need to have iTunes open and streaming) with a good interface, and to watch transcoded movies (a la Video On Demand) so that I don't need to sort through the pile of DVDs for something to watch, I am happy enough to keep it.
~Chris "

EyeTV User

(added 3/23/2007)
"Received my Apple Tv yesterday and have to say i love it... It has totally changed the way i watch tv. Setup up was a breeze and i even have it hooked up to my Sony wega 32in CRT using the 480i option, looks great for me. I spent the last month encoding my dvd collection to h264 and now have my movies at my finger tips. My EyeTV recordings look great too,.

The only issue i have is that the album art screensaver must be used with your music on the HD of the apple tv, but hope they fix that with a software update.

All in all i am very happy with apple tv. I don't know what people expect but it works as advertised, a simple way to get your media from you mac to your tv.
Good job Apple
-Rich T. "

BTW - ElGato has a page titled EyeTV and Apple TV - a perfect match which has a comment "We are working to integrate Apple TV and EyeTV even further. We invite you to join our mailing list to be notified of future enhancements."

Apple TV vs MediaCentral I've posted links to updates to MediaCentral many times but had forgotten about it lately until this mail today.

" AppleTV vs. MediaCentral...
I notice the AppleTV interface looks a lot like that of the program MediaCentral. Too much so. I wonder if there will be a lawsuit, and who holds the intellectual property...

I have MediaCentral on my macs, and it works well. It also plays your iTunes library (even protected music, but not videos). But it also does so much more, like playing movies and music you store elsewhere, including DVDs in the drive or VideoTS folders you put anywhere. As long as you alias it to the MediaCentral folder, it'll play it, and you can organize it how you want. It also integrates Skype, IPTV, internet Radio, and things like that, though in my experience, it's not 100% there yet.

It's what AppleTV should be. On a mini, it costs 2x as much, but you do get a real computer out of the deal... ;)
MediaCentral home page.
-Mike "

(follow-up from an Apple TV owner that had previously sent comments yesterday)

(added 3/23/2007)
" Mike, After using the Apple TV last night for a while, I have found a couple of rough edges as well.

I can confirm that there is no Dolby Digital 5.1 output through the optical port. However, there is the older Dolby Pro Logic - which apparently dates back to 1976! - available which is encoded within the stereo signal. Dolby Pro Logic is equivalent to 4.0 channels. This is a well known limitation at this point and is perplexing as others have noted, especially considering the market that is most likely to initially be interested in the Apple TV. This does not bother me as much as other issues I have found. I do, after all, have an upsampling DVD player that I use to play Netflixed DVDs in their full glory with 5.1.

Major issue to me: iTunes allows you to either Sync the contents of your library OR stream the contents. (Note: See Rebuttal above, which Andy later said worked) If you set up your iTunes to Sync the contents, only the content that is actually synced over is available for playback on the Apple TV. This is really quite limiting and is not all that clear in the Apple KB article or Apple TV marketing materials: Import, Sync, or Stream Your Content to Apple TV

I had thought that iTunes would sync whatever it could fit (or you set it to sync) and then allow you to stream the other content. From the KB:

"If your movies and TV shows fill Apple TV, for example, your music, podcasts, or photos are not added. Content is removed from Apple TV in reverse order, as needed. Syncing a new movie might result in photos and podcasts being removed from Apple TV."

Sync priority is given to video at all times which of course takes up the most space and may remove all those music and photos that took so long to sync over and which cannot be viewed unless synced. iTunes should allow you to set it to sync, for example, music, podcasts and photos and stream video. But there is no way to do this at the moment, syncing is an all or nothing kind of thing. (Again, see notes/tips above on this, which Andy later said worked.)

Also, be aware that if you set your iTunes to sync your library and then turn syncing off, all of the content that was synced will be erased from the Apple TV, very quickly. I found this out the hard way when I tried right-clicking on the Movies item under the Apple TV section in the right-hand bar of iTunes. The contextual menu had an option "Turn off syncing" that made me go "Aha!" thinking I could set it just to disable syncing the movies, but instead it completely turned off syncing.

On the plus side, I have yet to see any video streaming problems over my "g" wireless network. There is only the short delay when the video is re-buffered if you fast forward.

There is an inconvenient workaround to this sync or stream issue: You essentially have to set up two separate computers or user accounts, one containing the stuff you'd prefer to stream and the other for content to be synced. I will probably temporarily do this but this is - to me at least - an astoundingly bad limitation and design decision on Apple's part. Also, the library you have for streaming has to be accessed via a separate "Source" menu which is similar to sharing music via iTunes. So if you go into the Movies when Apple TV is set as the source, you will not see any movies available. You need to go to the "Sources" and dig into the other library.

This sync vs. stream issue is a real bummer that impacts the Apple TV experience in numerous ways. For example, when music is synced and the Apple TV screen saver is set to show "Album Covers" there is an animated display on the TV screen that is very pleasant. When streaming music, the screen saver only shows a black screen! So it does not cache or otherwise access all of those nice album cover arts that you spent so much time adding to your tracks in iTunes. The experience is only a small step up from listening to music over AirTunes in that you can use a remote control to select music to play.

The same goes for the photos from iPhoto, of course. In the case of the photos, I believe that someone at Apple said that photo streaming was being worked on so perhaps these rough edges will be smoothed out in updated iTunes and Apple TV software. (Apple's forum on Apple TV had some notes about no Photo streaming also, as well as some saying their multi-season TV series episodes were not in correct order (as they were in iTunes). See Below.-Mike) They really need to add many more preferences to allow the user better control over when is synced vs. streamed.

I would also like to note that the Apple TV gets very, very hot during use. (There's some threads on this in the Apple TV forums also like this one. This may be normal and within design limits (as notebooks also can get very hot).) Not sure what the life expectancy will be given how hot to the touch it gets. There is also no "sleep" option, so if you are playing music and simply turn off your TV and stereo the Apple TV will continue to play. You have to hit the pause button and then after a certain amount of time it appears to go into some kind of sleep mode.

I expected to have to deal with issues given that I am an early adopter and will be keeping my Apple TV. Why? Because even with the limitations it is still better than the other options I have available for playing back non-DVD content, music and photos. The interface is beautiful and a breeze to use. Playback of video files results in the most pleasant experience I have seen, especially older MPEGs or other lower resolution internet content. I converted a really old, pixelated MPEG clip and I could not believe how well it was displayed on my TV.
-Andy "

Here's another user's list of issues from an AppleTV forum thread that echos some previous complaints but also notes some others:

(added 3/23/2007)
" My Biggest Issues So Far:

1. Music Videos do not shuffle or play in order. Even if you have them in a playlist. Apple TV stops after each one. No continuous playing of Music Videos. Period.

2. Sorting Movies/TV Shows: all you get is a big list. They don't sort by Genre or Season. Just a massive list. When you select a TV Show, you get a big long list of episodes. (Some others mentioned this also - anyone *not* have this problem? Another user mentioned trying to rename episodes to correct that but hopefully an update will fix it without all that hassle.)

3. Screensaver: what good is an Album Art screensaver if you can't fit your music on the device and the screensaver doesn't work with streaming libraries? The album art screensaver only works with music you sync. If you fill the Apple TV with movies/tv shows and decide to stream your music, you can't use the album art screensaver. in fact, if you don't leave enough room for your pictures, you can't use them as a screensaver either, since you can't stream pictures at all, period.

4. You can't stream pictures. The Apple TV boots pictures first automatically if it runs out of space (and by boots i mean removes). So you have to have all your pictures on the machine you decide to use for syncing, and you can't show pictures from any other machine. Lame.

5. Chokes on older encodes. I've crashed the thing with movies ripped for the 5.5G iPod. They're pushing the 1500kbps bitrate limit, and they crash the device. Some of these stutter on the Mac, but at least QuickTime or VLC doesn't just quit. I have a lot of content that now needs to be re-encoded.
-mrfett "

Another quote from a user on the episode ordering issue:

" I have the exact same issue. All my Seinfeld episodes are there but when I click on Seinfeld from the TV Shows menu I get a list of titles in alpha order, not ordered by season or episode number or anything.

Only thing I can think of would be to rename the titles to include the season and episode so they're ordered correctly.
Something like:
Season 1 Episode 1 - The Chinese Restaurant
that way they'd all be ordered by season and episode.
Kind of a pain but doable, I guess. I still would rather have a drill down menu so I could pick Show, then Season and get the episodes in order. "

BTW - I don't have an Apple TV but can you create a playlist of those episodes in the correct order as a workaround? (Didn't sync per the first reply to that question above.)

Hard Drive Upgrade/Swap?

(3/23/2007)
" I read about a guy putting a 120G HD in but only sees about 107GB.
(I asked for more info on the drive upgrade - cloned original drive? or did system/factory restore?)
Apple TV 120GB HD upgrade
No details yet. I'll keep checking. Sounds like just took out drive and either mirrored it or like I would, DiskJockey one to larger then repartition (Volumeworks).
-Ed "

(3/22/2007)
"Hey Mike, Well I got my AppleTV today and played with it all day, used every feature. Everybody's excited but me, I was expecting more from an Apple product, several features I would love that it does not have:

1. Does not play Dolby Digital 5.1 sound only AAC3 stereo
(The Apple TV Specs page Audio section doesn't mention surround sound or 5.1 and I didn't see any mention of it on any Apple TV page. Bottom line, if you don't see it mentioned anywhere in a product's info (I suspect they wouldn't be quiet on a feature like that) - assume it's not supported or at least contact them to ask before buying. Apple had a note about iTunes store movies that "Movies include audio which is encoded using Dolby Surround which delivers multichannel audio when played using Dolby Pro Logic systems." On the older page w/comments on iTunes movies here, one reader thought you needed to use optical audio out for surround sound, as someone else had said the audio appeared to be only stereo otherwise. I don't know of anyone that said they had "surround" sound with iTunes content to date in any setup but I could have missed it. Ken sent a reminder this is not true/discrete 5.1, it's basically 'matrix audio'/pseudo-multi-channel if you have a compatible receiver.
Update See later report above for a reader's notes on creating movies w/"5.1" audio-Mike)

2. Will not play a streaming radio station from iTunes even if its in your play list

3. I purchased a lot of music video's, will only play 1 at a time, cannot shuffle music videos as is from the menu.

4. Will not play movies from your movie folder they must be imported into iTunes.
(I hadn't thought about that, although the Apple TV front page says "Apple TV puts your iTunes library - movies, TV shows, music, and podcasts - plus movie trailers from Apple.com on your TV." So that means even the apple "movie trailers" have to be in your iTunes Library?)

These are just a few flaws that I found with Apple TV. Every review, every article, nothing but praise. (Some of the articles I've seen do mention some cons/limitations (even before it was released there were common complaints on limitations/restrictions, missing features, etc.) but most reviews so far were very positive in general, focusing on the highs rather than the lows. But then the 'reality distortion field' is always in effect on new apple products. But after all the comments from day 1 on Apple TV limitations (see Jan 9th posts here w/notes on other options), I assumed anyone buying one knew its primary purpose was to play iTunes content on (compatible) TV. But you mentioned some missing features (like net radio playback) that I hadn't thought about. And check out Apple's forum on Apple TV, there's some other complaints about things that were expected to be a given - like TV show series/episodes not shown in correct order on Apple TV for instance.-Mike)

I have purchased every Mac product since 1984, this by far was the least exciting. I am the type of purchaser who stares out the window waiting for FedEx to pull up so I can play with my new toy.

This is basically an iPod for your TV. Not trying to be negative, just thought I would shed some light for those who think they are going to get something only to be disappointed.
It makes no sense to put your movies on Apple TV. Video looks great, awesome on my 65 inch TV, however, the sound is lacking.

To summarize, if you are going to view photos, listen to music in the background through your stereo, this is a great product. If you want to purchase TV shows and movies, buy the DVD for the Dolby Digital sound.
I would give this 3 out of 5 stars.
-Steven "

Some people still feel that the (more expensive) Mini (or a HTPC homebrew) is a better choice (more flexible content wise) than Apple TV, especially if a lot of your content needs re-encoding and/or you're not a big user of iTunes content. A friend said the NY Times had a comparison of Apple TV vs Xbox 360 vs the Netgear Entertainer HD (mentioned before here) that convinced him to not buy an Apple TV in its current form.

(FYI - see his later report above also, where he noted some issues and concerns)

(3/22/2007)
"Mike, Received my Apple TV today. Setup was very easy and I am very impressed with the quality of this product so far. I had converted some movies using the new Apple TV export option in QuickTime and they look better than when played on my Divx player.
I've got an HD cable box and everything is routed through my A/V receiver which has HDMI and component switching.
I have put some photos up showing the out-of-box experience, Apple TV setup screens and some clips playing here for anyone that may be interested:
http://www.vitalnet.net/apple_tv/Site/Photos.html
Thanks, Andy "

I tempted to get one of these this weekend (although I honestly can't see paying $15-$10 for iTunes store full length movies when I can get a DVD for less). I was trying to hold off for a later model in hopes that it would have more codec support, larger drive, maybe a port for connecting an external drive, etc. but it would be nice to have one to play around with.

Apple TV Internal Photos (3/22/2007) Techrestore sent an email with a link to their page on Apple TV Dissection (w/2 photos as I'm typing this) and a link to a photobucket page with more AppleTV internal photos. From the photos you can see the hard drive is a 2.5in standard IDE (PATA, not SATA) and the wireless card is the Broadcom chip based 2 antenna model like the Mac Pro card.

AppleTV Specs page revised (codecs)

(3/21/2007)
"They've updated the Apple TV tech specs page, specifically the supported codec section to include some more details:

1) H.264 and protected H.264 (from iTunes Store): Up to 5 Mbps, Progressive Main Profile (CAVLC) with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps (maximum resolution: 1280 by 720 pixels at 24 fps, 960 by 540 pixels at 30 fps)

2) iTunes Store purchased video: 320 by 240 pixels or 640 by 480 pixels

3) MPEG-4: Up to 3 Mbps, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps (maximum resolution: 720 by 432 pixels at 30 fps)

So it looks like they're more tolerant with video resolutions than their previous page indicated. Now they'll take anything up to 720p but they aren't as good at handling MPEG-4. Still no support for DIVX / WMV, but at least quicktime pro will handle the conversions, along with a slew of other free conversion programs (vlc and mencoder come to mind).
-Eric "

The Jan. 9th news page here had a quote from the original specs page in a Reader's comments on AppleTV limited Video Format support, alternatives/workarounds that mentioned it would support up to 720P H.264 content. (I thought it was 720P (max) output from day one.)

Apple TV Reviews/Articles/Mods/Hacks

• Although there's lots of apple tv mods/hacks sites popping up, IMHO the best/most complete is wiki.awkwardtv.org
• Apple TV Heat Test
• USB Boot Drive for Apple TV
• Apple TV Review (digital trends)
• Apple TV Hard Drive Upgrade Guide
• "Review: Apple TV Just Plain Works" (PC World)
• Apple TV: First impressions (cnet/crave)
• Review of Apple TV (WSJ)
• AppleTV internal photos (techrestore)
• Apple TV photo gallery, setup screens, comments (reader page)
• Xvid working on the Apple TV

Apple Support Docs on Apple TV (later added items first)

• Apple TV: Why is there an alert icon next to Apple TV in the iTunes device list? (Apple)
• Apple TV: Update to access YouTube features (Apple)
• Apple TV: Troubleshooting wireless connections
• Apple TV: About standby mode
• Apple TV may feel warm to touch
• Personal videos labeled TV Shows in iTunes may not appear on Apple TV
• Apple TV may not play content purchased from the iTunes Store
• Apple TV: Not showing in the iTunes device list when connected on Ethernet
• Apple TV: Data does not sync or stream after entering passcode
• Apple TV Fast Start: The New User's Guide to Apple TV (*Read First*)
• Apple TV: What You Need
• Apple TV: Connecting the Cables
• Apple TV: How to run diagnostics
• Apple TV: Tips and Basic Troubleshooting
• Apple TV Tip: Initial content sync over an 802.11b or an 802.11g network
• Apple TV: Sync or stream differences and set up
• Apple TV: Syncing time and streaming performance dependent on the speed of wireless network
• Apple TV: Where to find the Ethernet and wireless ID
• Where do I set my computer's name for Apple TV?
• Troubleshooting Apple TV not recognized in iTunes
• Apple TV cannot join networks that use high ASCII or double-byte characters in their name or password
• Apple TV: Switching between wired and wireless networks
• Apple TV: Connections through proxy servers are not supported
• Apple TV: HDMI takes precedence over component video connections if both connected
• Apple TV: HDMI video is too dark or too light
• Apple TV: WPA-Enterprise encryption does not ask for a user name
• Pairing and Unpairing the Apple Remote with Apple TV
• Apple TV: Initial Configuration
• Import, Sync, or Stream Your Content to Apple TV
• Apple TV: What kinds of music and movies can I play on Apple TV?
• Apple TV: Syncing Photos via iTunes
• Apple TV: HDMI audio no longer working
• Apple TV: Guide to ports and connectors
• Apple TV: Adding Podcasts via iTunes
• Apple TV: No picture using component video
• Apple TV: Internet connection required to playback purchased iTunes Store content
• Export your iMovie projects to use on Apple TV
• How to perform a Factory Restore on your Apple TV
• Apple TV: Change from Vivid or Dynamic picture setting for best color display
• TCP and UDP ports and protocols used by Apple TV
• Apple TV: About the Status Light
• Apple TV starts up to a flashing question mark
• Apple TV: Paired remote stops working
• What does the USB port do on the Apple TV?
• Apple TV: Wireless networking list does not display my wireless access point's name
• Apple TV: Some languages may not display correctly
• Sync is temporarily paused when Apple TV is playing video content
• iTunes Mac 7.1 Help. Playing home movies on your TV using an Apple TV
• iTunes Mac 7.1 Help: Playing your iTunes library on your TV over a network
• Plus and minus on Apple Remote do not control Apple TV volume
• Some photos may not be rotated correctly when viewed on Apple TV
• Apple TV does not play purchased content after "deauthorize all"

There's also a doc with Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for Movies.