Friday 15 November 2013

Apple TV

Thanks to my good friends and colleagues from my former employer I was given a gift card that allowed me to buy an Apple TV.




Why did I go down this path? To have access to stream (through rent or purchase) TV shows and Movies to my TV. Sure the Xbox 360 can stream movies or files I have on my PC but TV show subscription was not really an option (as far as I could tell).

iTunes and Apple have a heap of stuff at a reasonable price that means I can watch what I want without having to either break the law or my budget.

The device is simple to use... as can be demonstrated by the back (where all the important connections are located - the front only have a small white LED to show it is on)

Power, HDMI, USB, Optical and Ethernet (I use WiFi so only have two leads coming out of the device)

The remote is equally simple and built to the high standard you expect from Apple... how the hell they make the remote is beyond me - I cannot see any way to open the damn thing!) - MAGIC!!! DEVILS WORK...


It works great I have been able to stream movies and have subscribed to a couple of TV series...

The thing I got working today was AirPlay... this is brilliant. I watched the new Doctor Who mini episode regarding Paul McGann's Doctor (number 8 for those counting at home) regeneration... Go see it if you have not...  Anyway I obviously wanted to see it on the larger screen after seeing the video initially on my iPhone. Easy with AirPlay - I swiped up, hit AirPlay and bang it started to play on my TV...

Same with videos, images, music and more on my iPhone. Truly this is the feature that makes the Apple TV....

And a good thing it have AirPlay.

While the remote is simple it lacks a hell of a lot. I want to search I need to move a cursor around to type single letters - more often I go to my PC and using iTunes search to buy/rent whatever I want. The device is great to play things through BUT not to find them. The menus also seem to be too deep take too long to get to the part that you need to... Not what I expect from Apple.

Apple TV is great but it is not perfect.

For a comparison maybe I should try Roku 3

3.5/5

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