smorgasbork

When I first heard about the AppleTV, I was underwhelmed.  It seemed like a sort of gateway into the iTunes Store, with a focus on video purchase and rental, something I wasn't particularly interested in at the time.  It also was only 720p-capable, when I was lusting after 1080p components.  I also thought that you had to use it in conjunction with an always-on iTunes running on another computer.

In early 2008, I was searching for a system that would let me file away my CDs and use a digital media center to access all my music.  I was leaning strongly toward a Mac Mini for the task, having been impressed by the Front Row interface.  But the deeper I looked, the more problems I saw:

• the Mac Mini has DVI out, which you can convert to HDMI, but without HDCP support, some devices (like my Sony receiver) won't play nice with it
• I read reports of users having trouble setting the resolution to nicely fill a 1080p monitor
• it's expensive and underspec-ed.  The storage on the system is pitifully low, and if you bought the right storage, you'd need to spend around $800-900, plus the elegance factor is diminished with a USB drive and power supply sitting next to it

I read more about the AppleTV, and it looked right for the job:

• you can fully sync an iTunes collection onto the AppleTV's hard drive, and play back your music without an external computer
• HDMI output
• 100% 10-foot interface
• inexpensive

So I bought a refurb 160GB model and brought it home.  It was trivially easy to set up networking and sync it to iTunes.  I used a wired Ethernet connection to sync my music collection over.  That dramatically cut the sync time.  I was impressed at how easy it was to switch from WiFi (which I originally configured) to wired networking.  Plug it in, and the system detects the connection and automatically switches to the wired connection, and back to WiFi when you disconnect.  Very nice.

So I've been very happy with its capabilities for bringing our music collection into the digital age.  Having nightly access to the iTunes library on a 46" display has also prompted me to spend more time cleaning up typos in the iTunes library and downloading album art.

Since we bought it, we've found tons of other things we enjoy doing with it:

• its photo slideshows are mesmerizing; we have an LCD frame in the house, but it's nothing like seeing 10-12 photos floating in 3-space on a big screen
• I've enjoyed watching a number of video podcasts (MobLogic.tv, Play Value, and Happy Tree Friends are fun -- wish there were more episodes)
• with version 2.1 of the software, internet radio is great on the AppleTV -- one more nail in the coffin of my satellite TV provider
• we've actualy rented some movies, and I have to say I was too quick to dismiss 720p; it looks really good, especially since I don't yet have a Blu-Ray player;  I'd say that the 720 rivals the highly-compressed 1080i that we get from Dish, and it blows away our standard def DVDs
• having access to movie trailers before renting is really nice
• YouTube is sometimes fun to browse through

I've got some issues with it, but I'll save those for another post...