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Apple TV with 160GB Hard Drive - MB189LL/A | 
 enlarge | Brand: Apple
Category: CE
List Price: $329.00
Buy Used: $290.00
You Save: $39.00 (12%)
New (9) Used (6) Refurbished (1) from $290.00
Rating:  54 reviews
Sales Rank: 377
Media: Electronics
Batteries Included: No
Shipping Weight (lbs): 4
Dimensions (in): 0.1 x 0.1 x 0
MPN: MB189LL/A
Model: MB189LL/A
UPC: 885909179404
EAN: 0885909179404
ASIN: B000RQHAUA
Release Date: January 15, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| | Mac + PC | | | 802.11n Wi-Fi wireless | | | 160GB hard drive for up to 200 hours of video | | | Apple Remote |
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Product Description
Your computer is the center of your digital life. Your TV is the center of your entertainment life. But what if you want to watch movies, TV shows, movie trailers, podcasts, and photos from your computer on your TV? Apple TV brings iTunes to the big screen.Say you've just downloaded Cars from iTunes. Instead of huddling around your computer to watch, you pop some popcorn while your computer wirelessly syncs your new flick to Apple TV. Then you pull up a seat, put up your feet, and pick up the included Apple Remote to play your movie on TV. Give yourself a hand: you've just changed the way you watch digital media.Apple TV connects to your TV via an HDMI port or component video and audio ports. Its built-in, superfast 802.11 wireless capability syncs your iTunes library to any Mac or PC in the house. Best of all, what's on Apple TV stays in sync: anytime you change your library in iTunes, it changes on Apple TV - wirelessly, automatically.Apple TV puts your iTunes library - movies, TV shows, music, and podcasts - plus movie trailers from Apple.com on your TV. And your digital photos from iPhoto on a Mac or Adobe Photoshop Elements or Adobe Album on a Windows PC appear in high definition, so you can put on a stunning big-screen slideshow.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 49 more reviews...
 A great box for your old home-made movies. November 3, 2007
Sahra Badou (Tokyo, Japan)
65 out of 76 found this review helpful
What a joy it is to have all my home made movies, originally shot in Super 8 (remember that format?), on my Apple TV.
I had tons of old Super 8 movies, some of them filmed by my dad some 60 years ago. Watching them now required setting up the old family projector, and pulling up the portable white screen. Some movies became dry, and tore in the projector, so watching one of the old movies became a process of stop, remove film, glue it back together, and continue watching.
My brother eventually gave all the movies to a specialized company that converted them all into mpeg format. Once in mpeg, they were transferred to iTunes, and then to the Apple TV via the home network.
What a pleasure it is now to watch my family's old home made movies on my TV screen. It is now a snap to switch between my movies, and by being so accessible, I can now show them to other family members and friends.
The Apple TV is really like an iPod. It is controlled by a very simple remote control with one menu button, a play/pause button, surrounded in a circle by the forward and rewind buttons, and the volume control (`+ and -` buttons also used for navigation). You are going to wish all remote controls were that simple.
Navigating the Apple TV is like navigating an iPod. You can store video, music, and photos. There is a slideshow feature for your pictures that will display your pictures on your TV with background music of your choice. The background music can be chosen at random from your music library.
Though as simple as an iPod to operate, the Apple TV is itself a stripped-down Mac mini, running a version of Mac OS X. When you plug in the Apple TV to your TV, you will not need to do any configuration. It's basically plug-and-play. Audio and video cables (not included) connect it to your TV. There is an HDMI output.
The Apple TV comes with a wireless feature allowing you to wirelessly connect to your home network. However, in order to sync your Apple TV with your iTunes, I would recommend you use an Ethernet cable to connect to your home network. The video, music, and photo transfer will be faster through an Ethernet cable. Once you sync your Apple TV for the first time, you may then disconnect the network cable and use the wireless feature in the Apple TV to update its content.
I also recommend you first start syncing at night. In this way, the syncing process will go on while you are sleeping. My Apple TV is 160 Gigabyte strong, and to put that much information on it might take the better part of a day! In most cases, depending on your hardware, connecting through the network Ethernet cable will make the transfer much faster than connecting wirelessly, particularly over 802.ub, 802.ug, and 802.un networks.
You can sync content from only one computer at a time, and you can't add content manually--for example, by dragging it from iTunes library to the Apple TV icon on iTunes' Source list, as you might do with an iPod. If you choose to sync with a different computer, all the data on the Apple TV will be replaced.
Another nice feature of the Apple TV is its ability to connect to the iTunes store, through your computer (either a Mac or PC), where you can download music and videos. Like the iPod, the Apple TV will neatly categorize your media for you, and automatically download the covers of the music albums and films.
One negative comment I have about the Apple TV is that you cannot transfer the media files on your Apple TV to your computer. It is only a one way process, with files moving from your iTunes to your Apple TV, and not vice versa. So if you want to send an Apple TV to a friend, loaded with your music and video library, your friend cannot connect it to his computer. If he does so, all the media on the Apple TV will be erased when it tries to sync with your friend's iTunes, replacing it with the media files on your friend's computer. This also applies to the iPod. There are software on the internet that claim to address this problem, but I have not tried any of them.
Be careful about earlier versions of Apple TV. Earlier versions don't support streaming videos. Newer versions shipped give you the option of navigating YouTube, and streaming their videos. I think that older versions can be updated to support streaming videos.
Apple TV also has limited support for video formats. This means that you will have to rely on tools like Techspanion's Visual-Hub to convert videos to Apple TV-ready formats. You can also use Apple QuickTime. You cannot directly burn a DVD into iTunes. DVDs also need to be converted in order to have them transferred to your Apple TV.
You can stream movies, however, you can't stream photos. Instead, on the computer synced with the Apple TV, iTunes formats the pictures you select and copies them to the Apple TV's hard drive. Once they're on the Apple TV, you can view a selected album or your entire photo library as a slide show. You can choose from a variety of transitions, as well as determine the display time for each picture.
Apple has chosen to say that generally, 5.1 audio is not supported.
The Apple TV does not offer true HD quality.
Apple Computer Inc. has changed its name to Apple Inc. With the name change, Apple is now promising us gadgetry other than computers. The iPhone is one example. There's more to come.
It's Two Devices In One March 8, 2008
Mike from Michigan
14 out of 14 found this review helpful
Apple really needs to advertise and explain this thing better. It's an awesome device that does many things, but it's easier to understand it if you think of it really having only two distinct functions:
1) It's for renting HD movies. Give that new HD TV something to make it shine. Sure Blu-ray has won the format war, but what format war is next? Skip the wars and just stream the video. No clutter of DVDs and players to buy. Yes the selection is small now (it just started a month ago) but it will soon build up to include newer movies as they are released. Beware of old movies being released as HD. Renting "Blazing Saddles" in HD is not going to impress you. So, the only REAL new HD movies are the ones in theaters now and will soon be released for rental. We actually kept our Netflix account for renting the bulk of the older movies and TV shows we still like. Renting an HD movie for $5 is a cheap night of entertainment. I have a 6.0 Mbps internet connection and the HD movies are ready to play in about 1-2 minutes. You watch the movie as the rest of it downloads. I never had it stutter during playback.
2) It's an iPod for your TV. If you use iTunes and have photos, music, and home movies, this makes it easy to view them on your TV. I made my last vacation video in HD by using Final Cut Express and exporting it in the Apple TV format. Just drop that movie into iTunes and it will sync with the Apple TV. Viewing the still shots in HD is really amazing. Being like an iPod, Apple TV only shows content that you already have in iTunes. Don't think of it as some kind of backup drive for your music or movies.
Sure it does some other stuff like watching You Tube, but if the top two features are what you need, then this is for you. The simple "spouse friendly" remote is great too. My wife can now easily play our music collection without my computer being on.
ps: I bought the "take one" version of Apple TV. All I had to do was run the firmware updater and mine is now the same as the Take Two version (5.1 sound and all). The old and new Apple TV's have the same hardware.
One last thing - rentals are paid through the iTunes store so you can use iTunes gift cards to pay for movies!
Enjoy!
PS - one more reason - the $0.99 movie of the week. Apple has started offering a $0.99 movie rental each week. We've had Escape from Alcatraz, The ghost and the darkness, The Dead Zone and others. Not blockbusters, but certainly worth $0.99 and gets you used to the renting experience in an easy way.
Wow, this is awesome February 13, 2008
M. Kreg (USA)
18 out of 22 found this review helpful
They're calling it Apple TV Take 2. In other words, any review before February 12, 2008 is a review of the old model. A huge update--a complete revamp of the system was released as a free upgrade by Apple to make the Apple TV and entirely new device.
You watch the TV shows you want, the movies you want, when you want. We had Tivo and loved it, but Tivo can only record what the networks feed you. With Apple TV, if you want to sit down and watch one of those first episodes from Season 1 of MythBusters, you can search or simply navigate to The Discovery Channel, select MythBusters, Season 1, pick your episode, and begin watching it within a minute or so. All on your big flat-screen TV from the comfort of your couch, using your Apple remote. No computer needs to be turned on. You just need wireless Internet access. You can buy television episodes, movies, or now you can rent movies for about $3.
We cancelled our DirecTV when we bought the original Apple TV last year, but this new update makes live television obsolete. Add to that the ease of an Apple interface, and it's like having an iPod Touch for your TV. We're very, very impressed.
Apple iPod touch 16 GB without Software Updates
Simple, Reliable, Beautifully Designed. February 22, 2008
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
We purchased our Apple TV last year when they first hit the market and have always found it to be a great way to share photos, audio and videos between our computers and our home theater room. After the announcement at MacWorld I've been anxiously awaiting the "Take 2" software update and in typical Apple fashion I was not disappointed. The update took about 3 minutes to download and install, since doing so we've watched the 1st season of Dexter (nearly the greatest writing in television history), Michael Clayton, Mr. Brooks, Breakfast at Tiffany's and watching The Assassination of Jesse James tonight.
The only downside I see to this product is that it's almost too easy to order movies, including Dexter we've spent almost $50 in less than two weeks, granted we no longer need our DirecTV at this point (mental note cancel dish service after writing this review and buy more Apple stock).
The interface is a classic application of usability excellence, the fact that Apple can provide such a vast amount of features and functions with a 6 button remote is brilliant. Makes me wonder why all other manufacturers feel the need to produce remotes that require an advanced degree from Yale to operate.
My feeling is that entertainment delivery has forever changed with the advent of Apple TV Take 2.
Surprise -- Best new gadget of the year March 8, 2008
Terry L. Barnes
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
I only subscribe to regular cable (not hi def), but now that I have Apple TV, I don't need it. I can download hi-def movies from iTunes and see them in full hi def on my hi-def TV, thanks to this new Apple TV gadget. Downloading TV shows is cool because for $1.99 you get zero commercials -- really nice when you're watching great stuff like The Universe, History channel specials. All the itunes shows and music on my two computers feed into AppleTV, which brings its own hi-speed network to my hi-def TV. In fact, I got a second Hi-def TV so I can watch in the living room and bedroom. I didn't know what to expect with Apple TV, but it's much better than I imagined. You do need an ethernet or wireless computer network and a hi-def tv to use it. Hooks up in two steps, less than 10 minutes if you buy an HDMI cable and forget all those RCA-type wires. HDMI combines audio and video signal in the same wire. The only other thing to plug in is the power. You can also play all your itunes music on all your networked computers on Apple TV through your home theater system. Go try it out. The Interface is fantastic. PS - The automatic hookup to YouTUbe is really convenient -- if you don't have programming to watch, you can search YouTUbe directly on Apple TV.
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| | Subcategories | Video Capture & Editing Devices |
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