In Brief

We were prepared to be disappointed in our Apple TV, knowing that the iTunes store only sells standard definition videos, and that it has only 40GB of storage -- our iPod has twice that. Paradoxically, we came away impressed. It's a keeper as it is, and many of our criticisms are likely to be addressed through software upgrades. It may be frustrating to wait, but in the meantime we can start converting all our old home videos to H.264, and thinking about what movies we want to rent first when the iTunes store starts doing so (rentals are rumored for later this year).

What Apple TV doesn't do is record and store video like a TiVo, a common misconception. What Apple TV does do play movies, TV shows, music, and podcasts from your iTunes library on either Mac or PC, plus photos from iPhoto on the Mac or Adobe Photoshop Elements or Album on a PC. One computer on your network is "synced" to the Apple TV, with content copied to the Apple TV hard drive. Up to five other computers' iTunes libraries can be accessed from your TV screen for live streaming. And it does this with all the ease and elegance that Apple is known for. There are plenty of other media streamers from networking companies like Buffalo, D-Link and Netgear with the ability to play more formats from more sources, but none can hold a candle to Apple TV interface-wise. Apple has only to upgrade a few things well within its grasp, and it will be a clear champion.

In Depth

Setting up the Apple TV is a dream, providing you remember to pick up the right AV cable along with the box itself -- no cables are included. Apple TV only works with enhanced- or high-definition widescreen TVs capable of 1080i, 720p, or 480p input (although we simply used our 4:3 HDTV in its letterbox mode). To enforce the enhanced-definition requirement, Apple provides only two video ports on the box: component and HDMI, plus analog and optical audio jacks. We used an HDMI-DVI converter cable (which Apple sells for $20) to connect the box to our TV, plugged in the power cord and were good to go. The main problem was having to unplug our HD DVR from the lone DVI port on our TV. We swapped it to a free set of component inputs, but in the long term, we'll need a switcher box or new TV set to keep all our HD inputs connected at maximum resolution. The box itself is small, less than 8 inches square, and easy to fit into your home theater setup. Apple does warn you not to place anything on top of it however, since that may obstruct the Wi-Fi antennae.

Next comes setup, which is done right on your TV screen in a few minutes, using the included remote (the same tiny five-way navigator remote that comes with new Macs). You click through a few simple screens that ask you to choose your TV format (1080i HD, 720p HD, 480p etc.), choose a wireless base station from a list (and enter any needed password), then connect with a networked Mac for syncing with iTunes. That's basically it. Draft-802.11n Wi-Fi and WEP/WPA/WPA2 encryption are supported, and you can also use wired ethernet instead of wireless. The box will provide you with a code number to enter into iTunes to start the syncing process, but the box is usable for streaming right away, before anything is downloaded to the Apple TV hard disk.

Live streaming doesn't work for photos, though, at least for now (photos can be very large, and real-time conversion would likely be necessary before streaming). The lack of photo streaming is an issue because you can only download photos from the single synced Mac or PC. Photos on any other computer on your network can only be viewed if they are first transferred to the synced machine, then downloaded to Apple TV, an annoying and unfriendly process. But this is something Apple can surely solve with a software update -- the Apple TV box basically runs a pared-down version of Mac OS X.

A bigger problem is the size of the hard disk. There's now an option for a 160GB for $100 more, but we'd rather simply make use of that USB 2.0 port in the back to add our own drive. We'd bet (but can't be sure), that expansion capability will come in the future. Until then, hardware hackers will likely crack the box and upgrade the internal drives, as many do with their TiVos. To compensate for the small storage space, Apple has developed an elaborate syncing scheme. By default it copies the five most recent movies, all unwatched TV shows, all iTunes music, all unplayed podcasts, and no photos. This was a problem for us right off the bat since we have 500GB of music in Apple Lossless format on a networked drive. So we turned off music syncing, and added several photo albums. We also changed settings for movie and TV syncing -- everything is customizable. There's a big slider at the bottom of the window showing how much space is filled, so you can easily optimize what you've downloaded.

One thing you can't change is the order of priority of synced elements. Photos are at the bottom, and since they can't be streamed, we'd actually rather they be at the top. We don't want a new movie to cause photos to be deleted. Another downside is that our decision to only stream music means our synced Mac must be turned on with iTunes open at all times, otherwise the music will not be available. Syncing is dynamic -- as you watch shows, they will be deleted from the Apple TV, and new ones downloaded, according to the preferences you've set. This may all sound rather involved at first -- and indeed managing sync settings is the most complex thing about the Apple TV -- but once you've set your priorities, they are unlikely to change much. When and if Apple allows storage expansion, the problems will also be moot.

More of an issue, at least for now, is iTunes video quality. All iTunes movies and TV shows are currently only standard definition, and while they are colorful and smooth, they are noticeably less than DVD quality, and pale in comparison to the great HDTV we get from our high-def satellite DVR. But that's not too much of a problem for us, since we don't plan to buy TV shows or movies from iTunes anyway. We use the DVR for recording and playing TV, and currently rent movies from Netflix. When iTunes ups video quality to HD and starts a movie rental service, as predicted for later this year, then we would likely rent movies there instead of waiting for Netflix.

Instead, what we found Apple TV to be perfect for is creating a family jukebox of home videos and photos -- including photo slideshows. All those videos and photos were floating around on various CDs, DVDs, tapes and hard disks -- we simply don't have room to keep them all on our desktop hard drive. Now we can convert them to H.264 at up to 5Mbps and 1280-by-720 resolution, for amazing quality viewing. All you need to convert almost any source video is QuickTime Pro ($29). You simply open the file in question and export to Apple TV format. Conversion can be slow and processor intensive, however, so we recommend using a third-party program like Roxio Crunch ($39) to batch convert folderfuls of videos overnight.

Streaming content from additional computers on a network is a simple matter of choosing one in the Apple TV menu, then inputting the code provided into iTunes on that computer. You only have to enter the code once, and you can decommission computers once you reach the maximum total of six. The main difference between streaming video and playing it back from the hard disk is that rewinding and fast-forwarding aren't as smooth. Standard-definition video streamed perfectly even our 802.11g network, although we'll likely switch to 802.11n for high-def video when it appears.

We've mentioned a number of places where we expect current Apple TV limitations to be addressed in sofware upgrades. One huge limitation is the inability to purchase and download content directly from the iTunes store, without going through your computer first. That's another thing we expect to to change. Apple has already announced a software update that will allow direct streaming of YouTube video to the Apple TV, a very cool feature. Direct iTunes store downloads are not a hardware limitation, purely a software one.

On the other hand, two limitations unlikely to be addressed any time soon, if ever, are that you can't play back Windows DRM content like that downloaded from almost every music/video store besides iTunes, and that closed captions are not supported. While we use closed captioning regularly, their omission wasn't much of a handicap since we don't download TV shows from the iTunes store anyway. Home videos aren't captioned in any case.

For iTunes store addicts, and those with significant home video and photo libraries they'd like to view on the big screen, Apple TV is a sleek and elegant streaming solution that fits right into your home theater.