The Apple TV is a good “media extender,” especially for iTunes users. It’s quick and easy to set up and fully ready for high definition … as soon as the content comes along. In the mean time, it’s a wonderful way to get your iTunes library of music, movies and TV shows into your living room with very little hassle.
Connecting the Apple TV couldn’t be easier: You just connect power, A/V and ethernet (wired or wireless). Well, I guess it could be a little easier … the only cord included is the power cord. You’re on your own for the A/V cable(s) and ethernet cable (if not going with wireless).
Connecting to iTunes is quite simple. The Apple TV provides you with a five-digit code that you enter in iTunes. You’re connected just like that. You can switch libraries at any time as well, although you will need to wait for iTunes to resync all content from that library. From within iTunes, you can control which music, movies, TV shows, photos and playlists to sync with your Apple TV.
The remote is very iPod-like in its simplicity. There is a circle of buttons with standard playback controls and a Menu button. I didn’t play around with it very much as I immediately wanted to get it tied-in with my Logitech universal remote. For those of you with this same remote, set up the Apple TV as a “Media Center.” It’s fairly straight-forward from there. Rename your actions and devices, and you’re off and running after about 5 minutes or so.
As you might expect, the Apple TV works quite well with iTunes, syncing playlists and selected content just like it was another iPod. Music sounds excellent, and pictures look amazing on a high definition set. Video content and quality left a bit to be desired. First of all, you won’t find any movies or TV shows available on iTunes in high definition. So even though the Apple TV is capable of 720p playback, the only way you’ll see it is with content from podcasts or stuff you’ve encoded yourself … both of which look outstanding. The movie material they do have on iTunes is supposedly 480p, although it didn’t look as good as the same content from a DVD.
With a suggested price of $299, I recommend this to anyone with a large amount of time and/or money invested in iTunes. The high definition content might not be there, but Apple has thought ahead on this one and the Apple TV is completely ready to meet those demands when the content arrives. If you are not an iTunes user, perhaps the Xbox 360 is a better way to get your media to your living room.
