Apple TV (launched September 2010)

I read the reviews and online discussions before springing for the Apple TV. Most of them are from December or earlier. Without disputing the experiences of earlier reviewers, it's clear now that many of the glitches have been ironed out, and the Apple TV which I'm now watching works well, and intuitively. That said, Apple TV is not a magic trick and will perform no better than your internet connection will allow.

What it's like when it's working right
When it's operating as intended, Apple TV allows you to rent and watch HD TV for (typically) £4.99 for 48 hours access. The picture is pristine, and, once loaded, plays without any of the glitches or artefacts you get with BBC iPlayer or 4OD. You can also watch YouTube videos, and listen to radio. For some reason, you can further watch American baseball, if this appeals. As well as downloading directly from the internet, you can stream from an iPhone, iPad, or computer with iTunes installed and WiFi.

Connections
There is just one HDMI output, and no HDMI input. This means that you have to have a free HDMI port on your TV, or swap plugs, or use an HDMI splitter. Some splitters will work, others won't. Generally speaking, splitters that are actually physical switches should work, whereas splitters that look for an active signal may be more problematic. There's also an optical out, but no analogue out. You can either get this from your TV, or some other device that accepts optical audio. Getting the signal in is by ethernet or wifi. Doing it by wifi is asking for trouble, because it will slow the whole connection down, especially if there's a of competing wifi in your area.

Limitations
The Apple TV can't download video faster than your network connection allows. We're on a supposedly 8 MB connection which in reality delivers 6 MB consistently. This is more or less the minimum specification -- though, since we're on ADSL at the edge of rural Warwickshire, a lot of users will get better performance. To watch a 90 minute film, we need to start downloading about 45 minutes before, if it's late at night and we're not surfing the net for anything else. Any other internet activity will increase the download time. A faster connection will download more quickly and let you start watching sooner, as it doesn't need to download everything before it starts playing.

Why it's good
Compared to the Humax Foxsat HDR 500GB Freesat HD Satellite Receiver and Digital TV Recorder we have, and the Virgin box we had when we lived in a Cable area, the look, feel and control responsiveness of Apple TV are years ahead. You can preview films you might want to watch, quickly scan through hundreds of covers to pick something (it used to take me 30 minutes working through the text-only Virgin film-on-demand menus just checking the titles), and even watch previews of films now in the cinema. The choice of films is a _lot_ better than Virgin's ever was. The streaming from iTunes, iPhones and iPads is flawless, and the whole thing is just a much better quality device than anything I've ever previously plugged into the TV set.
It's the viewing quality which really impresses, though. On our 720p TV, the HD quality is as good as BBC HD, and approaches the quality of Blu-Ray, without the slow unresponsiveness of many Blu-Ray players. Crucially, it is streets ahead of iPlayer, 4OD and Demand5 in the smoothness of its playing. There are not glitches, sudden stops, degraded pictures of the kind that we get on other services (using the same internet connection). This is by design, and is the reason why you have to wait a long time for the film to be ready: once the viewing experience starts it's perfect.
Something else which is nice about this is that it doesn't impose itself on your other web activities. While waiting for a film to download, I watched an episode of How I Met Your Mother on 4OD. The predicted download time for Apple TV went up dramatically, but it allowed me to watch 4OD without any more than the usual connection problems. Likewise (also for a hike in predicted download time) I was able to surf the web, pick up my email. and generally not be bothered. This is important if you intend to watch a film in the mid-evening, but want to carry on surfing beforehand.

Verdict
I was quite nervous of buying this because of all the negative reviews, and especially because our broadband is quite slow. In the event, the pre-download time is somewhat annoying -- I would prefer not to have to decide 45 minutes in advance what I'm going to watch. On the other hand, it's a lot quicker than nipping down the shops for a DVD, and not really less time consuming than the endless trawl through Virgin's list of available films. Available content is very strong, though by no means universal, even as regards 'classics', and you can get French, German, Italian and other world cinema.

I doubt we would have bought this if we were still on Virgin Cable -- the quality and reliability is better, but the download time is slower, and Virgin FilmFlex came with our package. For our situation -- provided that you don't expect performance that your internet connection can't deliver -- this is really very good.

This is a gorgeous looking device, absolutely tiny, and a joy to set up (plug in, connect to the TV, enter your network details & you are ready to go). But for a UK user for now, it is the content that is severely lacking, and since it is a device that lives or dies by what it can deliver, that is quite a problem.

The film download service seems reasonably priced, but compared to my Virgin Media VOD, it's a slow process. Browsing YouTube & Flickr are initially both fun, but neither has a great deal of long-term appeal to me.

The worst part is that if you have spent some time collecting all of your various iTunes libraries onto a single, central NAS that can then be shared by all of the Apple devices in our house (several laptops, a desktop & an iMac) using the iTunes sharing function on the LaCie NAS, this is simply not compatible with the Apple TV, that needs to connect to a computer running iTunes to share the media. It's a counter-intuitive step, really, requiring you to have an iTunes computer *and* the Apple TV to be running at the same time to stream - how is that good for economical power use?

To sum up, the pros are that it's tiny, looks lovely and produces good quality images and sound. However, for me the cons are pretty serious: no access to UK-based streaming media (iPlayer, 4OD etc.), no UK-equivalent to NetFlix, no NAS sharing of media, whether video, music or images. I have seen criticism that it's HD-output is only 720p, but on my television, it still looks very good, so that is not really a con for me

I said before: 'All of this, I am sure, could be, and may well be, fixed in a software update in the future. But for now, for a UK user, the Apple TV is a nice toy, but not really a useful media device'. UPDATE: I have downloaded the new OS (4.2 2060). It does nothing for UK content at all, and adds a new menu item - Major league baseball highlights! Still no UK film rentals, no BBC radio, nor any iPlayer, 4OD or similar content support. My comments still stand that this device could be more useful to UK audiences, but Apple seem unwilling to do anything about this, or acknowledge a non-US market.

UPDATE (2) - To be fair to Apple, I have now discovered BBC radio streams available - Radio 1 is under 'Top 40/Pop', Radio 2 under 'Adult Contemporary', Radio 3 under 'Classical' & Radios 4 & 5Live under 'News/Talk'. I discovered these by accident - no news (I could find) from Apple to announce this. Still no search function on the radio to look for other BBC channels...

UPDATE (3) - I have now found a 'favourites' function - hold down select on the chosen radio station, and it is added to a 'favourites' list at the top of the radio station genre list. I discovered this by accident.

UPDATE (4) - BBC content unavailable again. It seems the BBC don't like Apple, or vice-versa. All of the BBC channels available in the last update have now been removed in OS update 4.2.2. Any attempt to connect to a BBC channels results in an error, either 'An error occurred loading this content' or 'Cannot connect to Internet Radio Stations'. The commercial, US-bases stations seem unaffected. It would be nice if I can find a list anywhere to explain what content we can get, and why the BBC is unavailable again.

UPDATE (5) - Radio feeds are broken again. I managed to add the BBC channels after the last update, but tuning back into radio 4 again today, I was told 'channel unavailable'. I deleted the favourite, and tried to re-add it, only to find my 'Talk radio' channel page was completely blank - no radio stations appear at all, and there is no function (still) to search for a known radio station. Netflix has appeared in the list of menu items, but again the 'service is unavailable' - presumably there is no UK agreement yet. Why Apple sells this product in the UK is a mystery, as they don't appear to want to support it outside the US market. Still a device without a single compelling reason to purchase it.

Yes, Apple TV looks cooler than an ice cube and does do a lot of things very well, BUT let us remind ourselves what the sales blurb actually says it is supposed to do:
"HD Films. Instant film rentals--It puts the cinema in home cinema... No more waiting for DVDs or watching stale blockbusters on cable. With Apple TV, you get instant access to the hottest Hollywood titles and new releases.... That's perfect for those spontaneous film nights (or afternoons or mornings)... Once you find what you're looking for, simply press Play, and in seconds, you're watching the opening credits".
Ok, so not much room for debate regarding what a purchaser should expect. Does it deliver on this key feature? In my case, absolutely not.
Having easily found the great new film I want to rent, and easily paid for it, I then want to easily watch it. I select play and ... and ... if I am lucky, I am told the movie will be ready to view in 3 to 4 hours. Hmm, ok, so maybe "spontaneous film nights" means different things to different people. When, eventually, it "loads", I have to watch it immediately and must not even think about pausing the film or I am visited by my new friend, the "An error occurred loading this content. Try again later" message. This message means that my "spontaneous film night" has come to a disappointing end, because it doesn't matter how many times I do try that night, I have to try again another day.
Solution? Manage your expectations. Rent or buy the movies on your computer via iTunes and then stream them to your TV using this lovely little black box.
As someone who loves his iPad, I can't tell you how much it pains me to write this review, but before you part with your hard earned cash, check out the Apple blog sites for this new Apple TV and look at the pages and pages of comments that mirror mine. At the end of the day, it is up to you to decide what you are buying this product for.