arstechnica.com — Ars Technica asks and answers the following AppleTV questions: Is the USB 2.0 for external storage? Is this HDTV only? Does it just scale down if hooked up to a regular TV? Can I buy directly from iTunes from the AppleTV? Can this stream DivX or Xvid, or WMV?
Jan 9, 2007 View in Crawl 4
dickybrownJan 10, 2007
Yes, it's got HDMI (well, almost - it has DVI video output and digital audio out) DVI to HDMI cables are available all over.HDMI doesn't really offer anything special - it's a little smaller, but it's not as secure (no screw pins to keep it connected)
theflushJan 10, 2007
I was very excited about this product, but since it doesn't support video formats like xvid and divx....I simply don't want it.When are manufacturers going to learn that we want a hi-def wireless device, that can handle all file formats and can handle external harddisks.I guess it's just to damn difficult because there are no such devices on the market. I have had a Kiss player, that (in theory) could do all of the above....I have never seen/experienced such a worthless piece of malfunctioning, crashing pile of garbage hardware like that in my entire life.....
rodzirraJan 10, 2007
Looks like iSquint is going to be working overtime on my MacBook, re-encoding everything for iTunes.
zipzotJan 11, 2007
I have been using a Mini on my home threatre setup since it was first released. I am using the DVI out direct to my TV and a Monster cable to take the Audio out to my Receiver. I am no audiophile....but everything looks and sounds great to me.
orbitalpunkJan 11, 2007
and i just realized something else. DVD's are 24fps. so even if we downsampled our DVD to 640x480, the fps wont match there 30fps spec. please tell me this aint so.
s17031979Jan 11, 2007
the apple tv is something for people who buy videos on the itms and want to watch them on their tv's. for everyone else there's just no point in buying it. if you rip dvd's or bittorrent it's probably never gonna work for you without the hassle of some coversion process.i wouldn't hold your breath for some kind of revision or firmware update for xvid, wmv codecs etc because apple wants you to spend your cash on their media not bittorent, dvdrips or recording off a tv tuner. that's their business model, and apple will never make it easy for you to use your "unpaid for" content on their ipods, itunes and appletv.
drawkusJan 11, 2007
Exactly! Thank you for actually seeing it the way Apple envisioned it.
daltonhamiltonApr 4, 2007
I bought an AppleTV and I watch movies non iTunes music on it. If you buy or rent a move and rip it using MacTheRipper and then use HandBrake to turn it into an MPEG4 -- works great. You can drag the .mp4 into iTunes and it syncs to the AppleTV and looks wonderful. LaterDalton