Apple - Support - Downloads - iTunes 7.3.1 for Mac - among other things, can stream photos from any Mac (yay!) - so maybe I DON'T need to upgrade the onboard 40GB drive....
BUT....I just ran software update on my MacBook and HORRIBLE THINGS happened, I'll blog on it on hdforindies.com shortly, so maybe DON'T do these yet!
YouTube goes live on AppleTV - How To
YouTube is now live and rolling on AppleTV, here's how to get it.
-Fire up your AppleTV. It is on a network that is internet connected, right?
-go to Settings
-go to Update Software
-it'll check for update, and if you're successfully connecting to the internet, it will say:
"Apple TV Update
An update is available for your Apple TV. Do you want to download it now?
A message will appear when the update is ready for installation."
There are then choices for Download Now or Udpate Later.
Select Download Now, it takes you back to the Settings screen and where it said "Update Software" before it now says "Downloading update..." with a little twirly thing to let you know it is working on it.
The download took about 4 minutes for me at 3PM CST, probably servers are busy today.
You CAN navigate away and do other things while it is downloading.
Once it is done downloading, it takes you back to a screen that says:
"Apple TV Update
The Apple TV update has finished downloading. Do you want to install it now?
Your Apple TV will restart and begin installing the update. Do not unplug your Apple TV while it is updating.
Clicked Update Now at 3:06:00, it took 3 1/2 minutes to be back up and running normally.
The Apple logo appeared and dissapeared 4 times, the fifth time the logo had a progress bar underneath.
Progress bar goes away, logo again, black screen, logo again, blink, logo again, blink, logo again, logo fades out, logo back, black screen, then the intro animation. So up and rolling at 3:09:30 roughly.
Then there's a new item after Movies and TV Shows - YouTube.
Select that, and you get Featured, Most Viewed, Most Recent, Top Rated, History, Search, Log In.
Selecting Featured, you can then see a scrolling list on the right with sample frame and descriptions on the left.
Videos start playing after a few seconds.
16:9 videos do play full screen appropriately, but of course the compression artifacts are pretty atrocious.
Even videos that are several minutes long start playing within seconds.
Search is there, but you have to navigate the alphabet with the 4 direction remote - a pain.
OK, gotsta get back to work, more some other time.
But as expected - it is YouTube quality - heavily compressed, and only as good as the source material, which is often OF questionable quality.
I also noted huge variances in audio levels, but again that is a source content issue, not an Apple or YouTube issue.
-mike
MacNN | Apple TV selling for razor-thin margins?
"The Apple TV may be selling near break even or potentially at a loss, according to a new study by iSuppli. A breakdown of the stanard 40GB media hub's component costs suggests that a finished device costs $237 to produce; this leaves just $62, or less than 21 percent, of the selling price to be recouped by Apple. However, the figure is said to omit the necessary marketing costs for the device, suggesting that the actual revenue per device is either slim or may actually incur a slight loss."
I don't know that I buy iSuppli's #s, do they appropriately factor in Apple's bulk discounts? But Steve Jobs said at the D Conference that AppleTV is a hobby, whereas computers, iPods, and soon phones are businesses. Is that a tacit admission that it isn't working out as well as they wanted it to? Or merely that they recognize the market isn't ready to go big with this kind of tech and approach?
Macworld: News: BigBanana.TV offers movies for Apple TV:
BigBanana.TV is a new online service focused on bringing movies and film to users of the Apple TV. The service has launched with 25 classic movie titles that will appeal to cult movie fans, especially.
They are the equivalent of open source movies - they are in the public domain for the most part.
Why Apple TV is a dud - June 11, 2007
He's got some good points:
-while requiring (not quite, but pretty much) an HDTV, you can't get HD content
-the only HD content most of us have is pictures, and those can only come from one machine
-no volume control
-screensaver is "coolest feature"
-can't order movie/TV show/song directly from the device, gotta do that through another computer
-no DVD drive
He wonders if iPhone may similarly be not as cool as we'd hoped - fair point.
-mike
UPDATE: very interesting that Steve Jobs recently said that Apple currently has two core businesses (iPods & Macs), is about to add a third (phones), and then they have a hobby (AppleTV) - I read that as a statement that AppleTV isn't working out as well as they'd hoped, and they are distancing themselves a bit from it in case it continues to not work out. Drat.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs | D5 | AllThingsD: "Apple will be offering a free software upgrade come June that will allow Apple TV users to view YouTube videos on their televisions."
Headline says it all. From the D5 conference.
More details:
Macworld: News: Steve Jobs at D: All Things Digital, Live Coverage: "%u201CWe%u2019re not selling HD yet, because of the tradeoffs between download time and quality. But that might change in the future,%u201D said Jobs.
Jobs acknowledged the popularity of the Google-owned Internet video site, YouTube. %u201CWouldn%u2019t it be great if you could see YouTube in your living room? So we%u2019ve had a great opportunity to work with the YouTube folks, and we%u2019re putting YouTube in the main menu,%u201D he said."
I cracked this out of another article because I thought it should be highlighted:
The AppleTV is basically a nice interface for iTunes content - I bought one, I like it, I even have another blog all about it - AppleTVhacker.com. But it isn't truly a replacement for a DVD player at any resolution. I see the ability to play downloaded TV shows as a bonus feature, the downloaded movies don't look as good as DVDs (but WILL play back on iPods & computers, so that is bonus), and the ability to see my pictures in high def on the screen is also a bonus. But in the end, I see it as a supplement to, not a replacement for, a high def DVD player (or even a regular DVD player). If version 2 had an optical media slot and played 1080i footage at full res, we'd be talkin'.
I think Apple has lost a significant market advantage, however, in that they STILL don't have downloadable high def movies - check out this article on the 10 minute 720p Ratatoille - download and watch it, and imagine that quality on your HDTV. That plays, right now, on my AppleTV. But I can't buy movies that resolution and quality. Get with it Apple! At $300 to play downloadable 720p movies, that'd be a viable contender against $500+ HD DVD & Blu-ray players.
But now that there are options that look better and cost LESS than AppleTV (under $300 for Toshiba HD-A2), with a MUCH wider range of movies...AppleTV's window narrows quickly unless they can get LOTS more content available for sale, and also at higher resolution to make a compelling case. I've bought 3 or 4 movies online, mostly to doodle with or so my neice/nephew can watch, but that's about it - I don't plan on buying any more. I DO buy TV shows (season pass to Lost, episodes I missed of Battlestar Galactica). YES, I could download high def freebies via BitTorrent, but that's more time and hassle than I want to deal with - and then they wouldn't play back on my HDTV via AppleTV anyway, which was the point. Feh.
IF Apple were to be able to:
-get MANY more studios and movies available to download
-AND get them available as 720p as an option
THEN AppleTV could have some more relevance. Of course, that isn't entirely up to Apple, the studios have to release the content in those formats.
But in terms of competing in terms of image quality, we'll have to wait for some future version - according to Apple, this unit can't do 720p at any better than 25fps - so that rules out "true" HD res for broadcast TV shot at other than 24p.
AppleTV 2.0 - 1080p/i capable, 120 & 250 GB drives, can purchase straight from the TV with an iTunes account (that last could be done today with software updates).
I just wrote a long piece over on my HD for Indies blog on AppleTV vs uprezzing DVD players vs HD DVD vs Blu-ray, with an aside on What's Wrong with AppleTV.
Apple - Trailers - Ratatouille
Nine minute preview, and YES it is 720p and plays back on AppleTV, and YES it looks great, and YES I'm REALLY looking forward to this more than I was to Cars (for some reason, my brain can handle talking toys, bugs, fish and rats better than anthropomorphized cars).
I think it no accident this copies right over to AppleTV and plays just fine.
I hope Apple (and others!) continue to post AppleTV playable content more and more going forward.
Of course, what I REALLY want is to be able to buy a copy of a Pixar movie at 720p to download!
Let's get with it, Steve...
-mike
DIY: Apple TV Hard Drive Upgraded to 120GB - Gizmodo
Hooray! It's doable. I may have to run out to Fry's to get a 200GB IDE drive today, then document the whole process.
I've already got a pretty good guess on how to do it in broad strokes:
1.) disassemble AppleTV and remove the hard drive (zero to warranty voided in how many seconds?)
2.) use SuperDuper to clone the original hard drive, using my little USB 2.0 to anything cable I have (and if mine is wrong size, that's second thing I'm picking up at Fry's) - or use my old FireWire enclosure for laptop drives. And SAVE THAT DISC IMAGE! If you screw up, you need to be able to put it back Like It Was.
3.) get a bigger hard drive of correct interface & physical size and bigger capacity
4.) use SuperDuper to put that disc image back onto the bigger disc
EDIT - 4.5) As long as you have the patient open on the table, why not install some extra codecs?
5.) reassemble and boot up AppleTV
Seriously - with over 100GB of music already, plus 3-4 Apple bought movies, plus 15 or 20 TV shows already, plus 20+GB of pictures, a 200 is entirely feasible - I might already be filling up a 160 GB drive after formatting capacity losses, OS & sample videos are accounted for.
-mike
Apple TV Fast Start: The New User's Guide to Apple TV START HERE!
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 wirelesss 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"
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for Movies
I'd already written these over at my usual blog, HD for Indies:
AppleTV may transform video industry....or not - link & some quotes from an article, my own rebuttal
AppleTV starts shipping, Mike's on the way - my AppleTV has shipped, but isn't here yet
Drat, I'm not first - Setting Up Apple TV video - first round of setting up videos going online, and some commentary as usual
....and to think, even though I ordered Day Zero, AND paid for expedited shipping, and I still don't have mine. Grr, grr, GRRR!
So instead, here's a ton of info that isn't first hand from me. Sigh.
-Accelerate Your Macintosh!'s links to over 40 Knowledge Base Docs on AppleTV - 3/22/07. I'm not ABOUT to go make links to them all.
-better organized listing of new KBase docs
-Apple TV: First impressions | Crave : The gadget blog - with c|net video. complete with anal retentive chef, I mean unpacker. It is packed up like an iPod. No power brick, just a power cord (more like consumer A/V gear). NO CABLES other than power cable included - LAAAAAAME. Truly, the Anal Rententive Reviewer. Nice concise quote:
The Apple TV is a bigger, stationery-networked iPod that you hook up to your TV, and its degree of desirability is directly proportional to how much iTunes is the center of your digital media universe
-MacNN | Best Buy to offer Apple TV on Tuesday: " will be available in all 822 of its U.S. stores starting on Tuesday " - average of about 5 per store. Get there early if you want one from there. Bring your elbow pads.
-Top Ten Reasons You Don%u2019t Need Apple TV (Yet) | iLounge - I take issue with them right off the bat- # 10 talks about using a 5th gen iPod - it isn't HD, the UI is worse, etc. - not the same kind of thing. But other than that, there are a lot of rational points. Like if you don't have an HDTV, or have lots of non-AppleTV media, it doesn't DVR, it doesn't do ANY shiny disc media, etc.
-Five Little Things We Don't Like About Apple TV - Gizmodo - to cheat and summarize - initial boot time is long, wireless syncing slow, can't manually resync, trailers have to fully buffered (or downloaded?) before playing.
-AppleTV upskirt shots - but wait there's LOTS more!
------
-Will Apple TV be bigger than iPhone?Loooong article of analysis:
"Not surprisingly, then, some industry experts say Apple TV, due to be released this month, will be a huge iPod-like success, doing for digital video what the iPod did for audio. Some even think Apple TV could be bigger than Apple Inc.'s much-ballyhooed iPhone, which will be released in June.
'Long term, strategically, Apple TV as a revenue-generating platform is much bigger than iPhone,' said Jeff Heynen, directing analyst for broadband and IPTV for Infonetics Research. 'It's a $300 device that multimillions of people will put in their homes vs. a $500 device [an iPhone] in a market that's saturated with BlackBerries and similar things."
I dunno about that - my thoughts - as for similar to iPod's efffect on audio, yes and no.
Yes - an easy to use gadget that lets you access digital media more easily than before.
No - well, audio is a portable thing, and iPod roxored because it let you take all your music with you everywhere and enjoy it anywhere - on the bus, on the jogging trail, at work, in the car, during minor surgery, etc. But the same can't be said of AppleTV - it bridges the gap from computer in den to TV. Which is darn nice, but not revelatory. I stil think iPhone will be a bigger deal long term.
My other gripe - while it is technically HD video, just BARELY. LITERALLY - it is the lowest resolution that can clearly and arguably be said to be "real" HD, as well as the DEAD MINIMUM frame rate that any content an be said to be full speed. While 960x540 at 30fps is higher resolution than NTSC or PAL, it ain't real HD, no matter how you want to argue it. 960x540: higher than SD? Yes? As high as HD? No. No, no, and for you in the back - oh yeah, NO.
I don't even have mine yet, and already I'm realizing the hard drive is waaaaaaay too small for my own power user needs. I'm already seriously considering putting a 200 GB hard drive in there to handle all my CURRENT pictures (only last 3 years, forget all the burned CDs of Laptops Of Yore), audio (MP3s and AACs), and iTunes video (I've been a Good Boy and haven't Rip, Rent, & Returned from my Netflix service in bulk...yet...).
-40GB is pitifully small - they'll fix this.
-960x540 @ 30fps is too low and too slow. 1280x720 is too low, and 24 fps is too slow to be a real HD device. Mark My Words - Next MWSF, 2.0. Airport Express with audio streaming was the first step, this is the second with onscreen UI, full SD and toe into HD. HD downloadable movies are next @ 720p at 5mbit (that's the spec, checkit), and next year we'll get more.
-----
-other notes from around the web:
-does not do Dolby Digital 5.1 audio. Boooo!
-no streaming Internet radio playback
-can't shuffle music videos
-all movies gotta be in iTunes library, NOT in Movies folder
-streaming is its saving grace - you don't HAVE to shove a bigger hard drive in there for audio and video, but pictures MUST be local - can't stream'em.
-drive capacity is even less than expected - start with 40GB, but then formatted capacity is 37GB, then the OS and the sample videos are another 4GB, so you only have 33GB to work with for your own media.
From MacinTouch:
Apple TV
The 40GB hard drive out of the box can store only 32.84GB (formatting, OS and virtual RAM takes the rest?). This is a major limitation for me as my digital media assets far outstrip this capacity. Yes, I know I can stream, but would like more HDD storage for flexibility and limit the need to switch between ATV and iMac for streamed content (see next comment).
The ATV can't auto-switch between sources (ATV or computer) or does not let one set preferences for the 'source' by media type. One must choose the source in the settings menu. For example, if one wants to view photos, which can only be synched/copied to the ATV, then you must choose the ATV as the source. Separately, if you want to stream music (as I want to since my music library is 50 GB) one must switch the source to a computer. This is easy, but takes a couple minutes to go through the interface and for the ATV to 'connect' to the computer/iTunes.
An issue with this, besides the time is takes, is that if I want to watch a slideshow of images (they have to be synched/copied to the ATV), I can't play any background music as my music has to be streamed, which is a different 'source'. So the ATV can only read from one source at any time and can't auto-switch based on preferences."
Bummer - but this sounds like a surmountable software issue - why NOT be able to pull from hard drive and network at same time? AppleTV is, after all, a stripped down computer, so this is a fixable thing. I'd imagine we'll see a series of firmware and software updates over time, that will likely show up in iTunes first and then be downloadable to the AppleTV, henceforth to be called ATV (great, now I'll get AdSense ads for All Terrain Vehicles...) In time, I'm sure they'll figure out how to download directly to ATV. At present, you can surf movie previews on ATV, but not download movies or work with the iTunes Store directly....if Apple wants this to take off, somebody is working on this right now, I hope. Somebody somewhere suggested they'll drag their feet to sell more Macs - I doubt it - you can use any ancient PC (or Mac) that runs the minimum OS to be the iTunes host, and it does NOT need to be fast at all - all it is doing is pushing tiny amounts of network traffic, no processing going on of any meaningful sort.
Apple TV - Review by PC Magazine
PROS: Basically a TV-sized iPod. Can stream iTunes content from five computers. Shared iTunes library function makes filling up the 40 GB hard drive easy. Stream content when you want to watch it. Could replace an entire stereo/DVD component system for non-stereophiles.
CONS: Not all video content that plays in iTunes plays on Apple TV%u2014some QuickTime surgery is required. Same cheap HiFi remote. Video resolution will irk some discerning eyes. Only works with widescreen TVs.
Rogue Amoeba - Under The Microscope - has a pic of AppleTV working with a plain jane 480i STANDARD def TV set - the specs claimed 480p was required, but there's a 480i preset, and he's even got a pic to prove it. But you do have to connect with component cables, so maybe that is why Apple is stating 480p minimum, just to avoid the cabling confusion. Also, I'd guess that the aspect ratio is "squarshed" to fit the 4:3 image when AppleTV is expecting a 16:9 aspect ratio physical device.
He goes on to state another issue, this one a serious problem for me:
With an iPod you have the choice between syncing everything or manually managing. The AppleTV does not allow for manual management. This means it's not possible to drag and drop select songs to the AppleTV. I'd love to use syncing, but my music library alone is over 40 gigs, so that won't work.
Uh oh. Read on for how he deals with it.
-mike
Hey all -
this is Mike Curtis, of HD for Indies (hdforindies.com).
I've been writing 99% of hdforindies.com for a few years, and now along comes the AppleTV, and I'm Into It.
So I decided to start another blog, specific to AppleTV, because I'm crazy that way and apparently have way too much free time.
HD for Indies is a lot of fun, but is my work - this is really more for fun.
This blog is going to be about using and messing around with the AppleTV. It is NOT going to be about doing illegal things like getting illicit content. It'll be about doing clever things, and at some point will probably involve voiding the warranty, since I'm already scheming about how to get a bigger hard drive in there, and will it be recognized, can a USB drive be attached and somehow recognized, can a USB DVD drive be attached and recognized and used, etc. etc. etc.
I'll flesh it out as I go along. Witness the majesty of how I've already screwed up the basic template. I keep hearing the Ren & Stimpy "It's Log!" song transmogrified in my head:
It's blo-og!
It's blo-og!
It's black!
It's ugly!
It's cheap!
It's blo-og!
It's blo-og!
It's barely begun
it's a heap!
...or something like that.
So...it begins...
