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Entered CNET Catalog: 09/13/2006
SKU: CNETAppleiTV
Manufacturer: Apple Inc.
User opinions
Select a User Opinion to view: 1 2 3 4
User Rating: 
7/10
Potential is there
Pros: Access to all of your media...
Cons: Only good if it is for ALL of your media.
First, I assume it will work with both PCs and MACs. If Apple has hopefully learned something, it is that availability to both equals higher marketshare.
Second, you have to make it easy for consumers to put all of their content on their hard drives. That means a DVD ripper just like a CD ripper contained within iTunes. This fills the gap for the content you do not get and if it is legal for CDs, why wouldn't it be for video?
Third, HD quality video is crucial. I will pay more for it, but make it available immediately upon launch and expand your collection. A big reason I am not buying any videos yet is I do not want to upgrade for HD later.
The problem now is I have iTunes Store purchased music mixed in with ripped MP3s and no way, other than an optical cable straight to my receiver, to play them throughout the house -- and that only sends music. Or I can get a media extender that only extends some of my content. I am ready to leave a PC on all the time serving as a media server (in fact, I basically do sans video). I am ready to get a huge hard drive to put everything I own (pictures, music and movies) on it. Just give me a workable solution that lets me own my media content, move it (between multiple computers and eventually my car), share it with a limited number of friends and access it all easily from my home theater. You provide that and I (along with I suspect many others) will buy it.
User Rating: 
3/10
What about Mac Mini + Front Row?
Pros: ----------
Cons: No digital tv, no storage, requires PC to be running, No DVD support, you just keep paying paying paying
If you've seen this package with the eyeTV tuner (not be confused with iTV), you know what I am talking about. Mac Mini + Front Row + EyeTV = perfection! This packahe is all you need to watch DVD, watch podcasts, view photos, play music.
In fact, anyone who's seen the iTV demo and the Mac Mini with Front Row will have already been struck by a major case of deja vue.
Does this mean that iTV will displace Apple's committment to Front Row? I hope not.
By the way, I am not an Mac evangilist. Until a recent iPod purchase, I was trying in vein to justify one of those mammoth Windows Media PCs (but they've totally missed the mark).
User Rating: 7/10
Good idea, but...
Pros: Conceptually easy
Cons: Copy protection and storage will be real problems.
The problem is that what people will want to save and run from that server will be things like videotapes stored to disk (is there an easy way yet to digitize a videotape?), their DVDs stored on disk (copy protection gets in the way, bigtime) and family videos (no protection, but there's still a matter of how to get them on the disk).
Finally, there will be a desire to take a football game or other show already stored on TiVo or something similar and save it permanently on the media server for later play (copyright infringement or fair use?).
Some people will want the videos that iTunes is selling now, but for a large TV. That means a much higher resolution video will be needed than is required for a video iPod.
All of this requires very large hard disk(s) on the local media server, and a lot of bandwidth on one's Internet connection.
User Rating: 
6/10
Now Apple has a media extender
Pros: small, sleek
Cons: Cannon burn a DVD of movies bought, bogus.
