The new Apple TV rental model isn't really price-competitive - Hulu's free for current-run TV, and Netflix is cheaper for older (not current season) TV or for movies. At least the old model let you keep the file to re-watch.
Hulu+ provides the full library for a lot of (primarily NBC right now) shows as well. For $10/month and a small media PC (Acer Revo R1600 in my case) my wife and I are able to watch more TV than we can reasonably handle. I love the service.
We've dropped our cable. We use a combination of streaming Netflix, Hulu, and Redbox for all of our entertainment needs. I just don't see where Apple TV provides any real advantage. Especially with XBox promising Hulu support early next year.
I've got basically the same setup. If AppleTV has got an advantage, it's in packing all these things into a neat, tiny package with a clean and simple UI. Standard procedure for Apple really, and it has worked for them in the past.
To me the question is whether they've let all these competing services catch on too much before throwing their hat back in. Virtually everyone who knows what AppleTV is/was is already aware of Hulu and Netflix. So they've got to do a really good job of improving the experience with these channels, or alternately target less tech-savvy people who aren't aware of these alternatives.
In my experience, anyone who wasn't raised with game consoles does not want to deal with them when trying to watch movies. My father would sooner drop a couple hundred bucks on a redundant DVD player than have to learn what "sign in to xbox live" means, or remember that the green button means go and the red one means go back.
I'm not sure how price competitive it really needs to be. A HTPC is a non-starter for most people. The other limited function boxes out there not well known to most people. Gaming consoles are considerably more expensive. It seems like a good price point at $99 especially with the AirPlay stuff tying into iOS devices.
Unfortunately Apple's new TV rental service doesn't seem to extend to the UK. It's a shame, as at £99 I was very happy to buy one until I realised how much less content we're getting compared to the US.
Disagree. The time and frustration of watching ads is worth more than 99 cents to me. Plus, Apple's selection is much better than Hulu's or Netflix's, and their resolution is 720p compared to the lower 480p quality on the other services. (Netflix in particular heavily compresses their video stream to the extent that it detracts from my experience sometimes.)
Netflix streams some content in 720p, and most compression issues are related to bandwidth and the preference for continuity of play rather than quality of play. If I'm rate-limiting anything I download, though, I don't have problems even with HD.
The average household watches 8 hours per day (http://is.gd/ePUvJ). Assuming 50% of that time is spent on 30 minute shows, that's 12 shows, or $12/day in AppleTV rentals... $360/month for ad-free viewing. Current Cable TV folks with a DVR are paying $100/month or so $3.30 per day... So this is a 300%+ premium for the joy of not having to skip commercials with a DVR and program the shows you want to record, plus the snazzy interface. That's a shitty deal for America.
However, it might be a GREAT deal for people who don't watch a lot of TV.
Steve Jobs may have a public stance of hating porn on his devices, but the Apple TV sure is perfect for it. It's connected to your home theater, can stream files from your computer, and is internet connected. What more could someone watching porn want?
I already have 3 Roku players. The Apple TV doesn't offer me anything I don't already have. Less actually, Roku also has Amazon VOD, various custom channels, streaming of local video and a budding app ecosystem. I've recently switched from using iTunes to Amazon for buying TV shows because their player is Flash based and works great on my Linux systems.
If you aren't an iTunes user, then it certainly won't offer you much--I'd be surprised it it would work at all without an iTunes account activation.
Roku is interesting, but their stream from iTunes option is not great:
"MP3tunes on Roku is the newest, most affordable way to listen to your iTunes library all around the house, as well as on mobile devices and in the car. No longer are you tied to your computer or an iPod–instead, MP3tunes syncs your library (10GB FREE for Roku customers) to ‘the cloud’, and from there, you can stream to any Roku."
Using the iPad as a remote control for the Apple TV is pretty sweet.
I'll predict the next step is to use Apple TV to display games that you're playing on the iPod Touch or iPhone, i.e. your Apple handheld devices become video game controllers.
I'm looking forward to the rest of the story coming out. The demo of playing a movie on the iPad and then moving it over to the TV: will this come to the iPhone and iPod Touch with iOS4.2? Will it work with music? Will Apple's AirTunes devices get AirPlay and receive similar functionality?
So, Jobs announced that iTunes 10 was available today, and they are advertising it on the front page, but when you try to download it, you now get an "available soon" note for 10, and a download link for 9.2.1. I wonder if they ran into some snags...
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[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 60.9 ms ] threadWe've dropped our cable. We use a combination of streaming Netflix, Hulu, and Redbox for all of our entertainment needs. I just don't see where Apple TV provides any real advantage. Especially with XBox promising Hulu support early next year.
To me the question is whether they've let all these competing services catch on too much before throwing their hat back in. Virtually everyone who knows what AppleTV is/was is already aware of Hulu and Netflix. So they've got to do a really good job of improving the experience with these channels, or alternately target less tech-savvy people who aren't aware of these alternatives.
In my experience, anyone who wasn't raised with game consoles does not want to deal with them when trying to watch movies. My father would sooner drop a couple hundred bucks on a redundant DVD player than have to learn what "sign in to xbox live" means, or remember that the green button means go and the red one means go back.
Apple has global reach and will be getting in early in a lot of countries.
http://blog.netflix.com/2010/05/now-streaming-in-hd-on-pc-an...
However, it might be a GREAT deal for people who don't watch a lot of TV.
Real sex with a real person?
Roku is interesting, but their stream from iTunes option is not great:
"MP3tunes on Roku is the newest, most affordable way to listen to your iTunes library all around the house, as well as on mobile devices and in the car. No longer are you tied to your computer or an iPod–instead, MP3tunes syncs your library (10GB FREE for Roku customers) to ‘the cloud’, and from there, you can stream to any Roku."
I'll predict the next step is to use Apple TV to display games that you're playing on the iPod Touch or iPhone, i.e. your Apple handheld devices become video game controllers.
I suppose the games that use a virtual d-pad style control system might work, but that hardly seems to be enough of a reason to do it.
EDIT: Seems like other iDevices get AirPlay with iOS4.2: http://www.apple.com/appletv/#remote
Also, AppleTV still has USB: http://www.apple.com/appletv/specs.html