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Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 10:14 am Post subject: Day 2 of owning an Apple Tv

Ok, I decided to try it. Here is what I found:

Setup no brainer.....unless you have a more than straight forward media connections and your tv can handle it

My tv doesnt have the new connectors so had to use the HD connectors

Setup is easy to follow, hate that point click thing to put in network security

it saw my PB and PB after authorizing connection synched media. At the same time it started to pull media from the web movie and tv trailers.

Video quality don't think its true HD, close but not there yet. (maybe connectors)

Sound quality TERRIBLE fm sound quality not even close to cd / dvd. I have going through my home theater and the compression is just not even close. I'll try other media but I dont think that it will matter.

And yes I know I posted about it before, but since its so hackable I thought hey give it try. Next stage will be to hack it and see where I can go.

I'd say pass on it till v2 or 4.

Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2007 3:35 am Post subject:

Quote:
it saw my PB and PB after authorizing connection synched media. At the same time it started to pull media from the web movie and tv trailers.

The AppleTV is not actually downloading movie/tv trailers it simply fetches the titles and if you should choose to watch one it streams it over the net.

Quote:
Video quality don't think its true HD, close but not there yet. (maybe connectors)

Video quality will go up to 720p in true HD. (I've only used HDMI) so i don't know about the other video type. it has support for 1080i TV's but it wont play 1080i encoded content.

Quote:
Sound quality TERRIBLE fm sound quality not even close to cd / dvd. I have going through my home theater and the compression is just not even close. I'll try other media but I don't think that it will matter.

The sound quality is not that bad, i was actually impressed with it.. (using the digital output) It sorta supports Dolby Digital 5.1, and supports Pro Logic II. see http://www.thismuchiknow.co.uk/?p=34 for more info on sound encoding.

Keep in mind what you watch on your AppleTV is only as good as the encoding job that was done. If your watching things purchased from the iTMS store that would be where you are noticing the loss in quality. (they do a poor job on their store encoding, mostly to save filesize).

I would also recommend when you rip your movies you use anamorphic encoding. and the quicktime H264 codecs. some of the movies I've 'backed up' I'm just amazed when i watch them.

to make it short.. the AppleTV quality is only as good as the movies you give it.

Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2007 4:58 am Post subject:

Also I'm seeing that it looses connectivity between it and the PB even though the two are right by each other. and Im on an N-network.

I think the 2nd version will be better, now to start hacking it.