AppleTV in the UK - What's good, what's missing?

[meerkat]

Hi,

I'm about to buy an AppleTV for myself and family and was thinking of buying another one to give to my Mum and Dad for Christmas. We all live in the UK (Scotland to be precise) and I am aware there are some limitations at the moment with things like Netflix etc.

Can anyone sum up the pros and cons of the AppleTV for a UK consumer, ideally based on personal experience, but also including opinions in general.

I am an experienced Mac user with iMac, iPad, iPhone 4, Time Capsule, Powerbook and we have another iPhone and iPod Touch in the household. I have also ripped and handbrake'd my entire DVD collection (around 150 movies) so I'm pretty confident that the AppleTV will be of value to me.

However, I'm less certain about my folks. My Dad is historically a PC user but switched to a Mac Mini about a year ago. He doesn't have any other Apple equipment but he does have an HD TV and is fairly tech savvy as he used to be a television engineer before he retired. My Mum doesn't care much for computers but can operate the Sky TV system no problem. Obviously I can make use of the AppleTV when I go to visit using AirPlay to display photo's etc.

So, are my folks ready for AppleTV yet or should I wait until it matures a bit?

Thanks for your time,
Craig.

 

[Rene Ritchie]

Apple only does iTunes TV rentals in the US, and Netflix hasn't hit the UK yet, so you'll be limited to streaming from your iTunes library and AirPlay.

It's still in it's early days.

 

[meerkat]

Hey Rene,

Wow, my first TiPb post and I got a response from TiPb Actual himself - awesome!

I didn't realise that TV rentals weren't available in the UK so thanks for pointing that out. Probably not a show-stopper as long as I can rent movies which I think I can. I can also buy movies via my iMac and stream along with my own movies.

You know I think I'm going to go ahead and just buy one for my Dad because I think it will be useful for streaming straight away and I am hopeful that Apple will develop the AppleTV further in the next year or two, even in the UK.

Thanks,
Craig.

ps. Big fan of the podcast and TiPb TV - keep up the good work!

 

[andrewp23]

at the moment i think that the apple tv is not at its best state but hopefully there should be some updates to it im definately going to wait for apple to polish it up a bit but definately like the idea.

 

[fantasyfreaksports]

Netflix is missing

 

[simonjhardy]

Rene,
When you say Apple only does rentals in the US, how do you mean??

I can happily rent a movie on iTunes over here in the UK with my UK account?

 

[meerkat]

@Skyman84, I think Rene was referring to TV rentals, not Movie rentals. Certainly, I agree that it is possible to rent Movies but I've not seen any TV series' available for rental.

On a positive note though, my Apple TV and my Dad's Apple TV are both up and running with no issues at all to date. Still early days but it does everything I expected it to with no fuss. Very easy to use too.

It would be nice to be able to link it up with more than one iTunes account via Home Sharing as I am not the only itunes account holder in the house. It would also be good to have some sort of search facility for searching through music and movies which I own. Searching by Genre or Unwatched (for Movies) isn't really enough and it takes too long to scroll to the movie I want to watch. I know I can use my iPhone/iPad remote app to help here.

iTunes HD movie quality is outstanding! I think Apple 720p is better than the 1080i I get from my Sky HD box. Certainly the movie trailers are excellent but I've not actually rented or bought a movie yet. Hoping to rent Inception tomorrow.

Airplay works fine too although I've not used it extensively yet.

So, a good start - roll on the release of Apple TV apps and other enhancements. This really has the makings of something disruptive I think.

Regards and season's greetings,
Craig.

 

[danwalk201]

I got Apple TV for xmas this year and love it! apart from the extremly long streaming times we are having at the minute, once that is sorted i can see this will be very popular! i must of spent about an hour watching trailers for upcoming films!

also the airplay from my Ipod Touch works great! nice and easy and instant.

Thanks

Dan

 

[salman85211]

I found many interesting stuffs


dunya tv

 

[Snowleopards]

Hi nice to hear it. But you think to buy Apple TV 2G. I have AppleTV 1G, and I use it as iTV box. What I mean?iTV - Internet TV. Yes I watching UK channels live (tvcatchup.com), NHL, and some US channels and etc.
Do you know you cant upload all movies to AppleTV. You can stream only with iTunes. Not other apps. If you want use it as media box, try aTV Flash.
You can forget about Netflix its works only in USA.

 

[fweddo]

What is TV Flash?

 

[Fausty82]

What is TV Flash?

It's aTV Flash (as in Apple TV)...

aTV Flash | Fire Core

 

[meeki]

HDMI is merely another way of plugging devices in, for example I have my X box hooked up via HDMI.
Other devices that may work are computers, DVD players, blu-ray players, etc. Of course not every model of these devices will support HDMI.

To play music of the USB
1) Plug it in
2) Hit the HOME button remote
3) Scroll to Music
4) Select USB
5) Choose a song


Chaudhry Aitazaz Ahsan