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[Andronicus]

The headlines state that the Apple TV offers a new way to watch digital media on your TV.  It has a 40(?)GB hard drive, network port, high def output.

Wow, I am not impressed.  I have had much better than this on my old XBOX for years now.  Not to mention that network companies like D-Link have had similar products on the market for over a year.  I hate Apple's aragence.

PS: the I-phone does not realy offer anything new either.  There are a lot of other smart phones that offer video, camera, PDA, MP3 etc.

[unseendemon]

they can be arrogant and a-holes , theyve earned it (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

as for me , i`d stick with xbmc ...for now .... xbmc360 ! i believe.

[CHI3f]

Nobody does it with style like apple.

[Albert Street]

After reading this post, i looked up all the info i could about apple tv... and can safely say that my xbox completely pwns apple tv.


My xbox HDD is over 6 times as large as in apple tv
I can stream media from dozens upon dozens of web sites... not just apple.com
XBMC is completely customizable with multiple skins and themes to choose from


XBMC wins hands down.

[slumberpod77]

iTV is "revolutionary" in the same way that iPhone is. "OMG! Its a cell phone, but it also has a camera and a media player in it! How do they come UP with this stuff? Only $600??? I'm buying several!"

[Andronicus]

QUOTE(slumberpod77 @ Jan 11 2007, 12:01 PM)

iTV is "revolutionary" in the same way that iPhone is. "OMG! Its a cell phone, but it also has a camera and a media player in it! How do they come UP with this stuff? Only $600??? I'm buying several!"

My thoughts exactly!!  As for the iPhone, it seems like a small UI upgrade over current Smart Phones, but a downgrade in acctual hardware.  

Oh but it is going to "Leap Frog" everything else.  Ya right.  What a joke.  It's not even going on sale till summer.  I bet LG, Samsung etc. will have better stuff by then, and the iPhone will basicaly be a good looking old phone.  But the iPod Fanboys will buy them up like candy.  $600...  Give me a break.

[jcaspar1]

I was a bit dissappointed with the iTV too in that it has limited formats to choose from. If we could just get a Mac to emulate the xbox so I could run XBMC with a decent processor... that would be a dream come truefor me! iPhone is really cool. The interface is way beyond any current phone and it runs OS X. I will be getting one of them as soon as they become available. Could care less about the music player in it. I already have 3 iPods...

[ibemonty2000]

I just want a real video ipod, like the fake mockups. Fullface touchscreen with two models: 60GB and 100GB.

Plus an optional cable to export 720x480 video via Firewire/Component/HDMI would be sweet.

At about $349 and $399 it would sell fine to techies/etc. before getting a $50 price drop on each model.

-Monty

[evilkorn]

Apple never invents the wheel.  There were other portable mp3 players before the ipod, apple just made them a wanted item that everyone must have.  Same way that Sony made the Walkman a must have in the 80's, different technology, same spring board effect for an industry.  You could even say the same thing about them bragging about operating system stability with OSX, it's built on Unix so it already had stability, they just slapped a pretty UI over the top and called it revolutionary.

New?-I don't think so.  Something that would make the home entertainment industry rethink current trends and start thinking about streaming and hard drive based pc -> tv outputs, -Yes.

[CHI3f]

You do have to give em credit for inventing the gui.

[S1ack]

QUOTE(CHI3f @ Jan 13 2007, 09:42 AM)

You do have to give em credit for inventing the gui.

Rather 'borrowing' it from Xerox PARC. Although Xerox never would have brought a product to market with it, so Apple fan boys can sleep easy.

AppleTV: While the published spec for the box are a bit disappointing, now. I'm sure firmware will change that. I think it best to think of AppleTV as a proxy for purchasing video from the iTunes store. It's tightly bound to iTunes. Also, what apple brings to this is user friendlyness. Joe Six Pack's grand-ma will be able to just plug it all in and get to the iTunes wallet thinning store. No soft mods, no chips, no ftp downloads for executables, no ftp transfer to the box. No hunting down thumbnails for cover art etc....

At any rate the shackles of DRM are evident - no Divx, no Xvid, no mpg2. Just appley flavored mpeg4 / H.264. Not that that is a bad thing. H.264 is pretty damn good, and helps them get by with 40gigs.

FYI the only HD file res listed in the specs is also @ 24 frames per second, so you don't really get to drive your progressive display with a full 60 frames/sec.

[jcaspar1]

The poll question is weither iTV offers anything that XBMC doesn't. That is an obvious, unqualified yes as it has built in n-wifi, HDMI output and a processor that can play H.264 with ease. That doesn't mean it's better than XBMC. I think if XBMC could be ported to the iTV I would ditch my xbox except for playing games. Till then, I will be sticking with my xbox.

[pike]

QUOTE(jcaspar1 @ Jan 13 2007, 04:55 PM)

and a processor that can play H.264 with ease.

so tell me, what cpu does this device have ?
and did you look which h264 levels it can play ? I'm not overly impressed to be honest (keep in mind xbox is from 2000)

[k@iserex]

It sound like Apple is pushing something we all know as HTPC which is almost a standard in the IT branch for years now. Apple TV is absolutely nothing new but it is a well circle`d product whit strong and aggressive commercial stronghold so to say and it will sell a lot I presume and this is what is all about, right!

As for the XBMC it really can do all the stuff Apple TV(mostly, I think) can but XBox is a age`d product now,nonetheless  my vote goes to: XBMC

[jcaspar1]

QUOTE(pike @ Jan 14 2007, 02:31 PM)

so tell me, what cpu does this device have ?
and did you look which h264 levels it can play ? I'm not overly impressed to be honest (keep in mind xbox is from 2000)

That is the big question! I think any processor Apple currently uses will do this. Again, I think people are not reading the question in the poll but are answering a different question than the poll states.

Does the the iTV offer anything that XBMC doesn't?   Obviously yes

The question people seem to be gravitating to is: Which is best?
So far from what I know, I would vote for XBMC but we don't yet know all the statistics on the iTV and what can be done with running homebrew software on it.