Unlike some journalists, I didn’t get an Apple TV review unit to write about before its official release date…
I had to wait for my order to arrive this morning before I could put this quick overview together - so this isn’t so much a review as it is a quick first impression.
The unit was securely shipped, and comes in standard Apple style packaging - minimalist in an elegant sort of way.
The package includes the Apple TV unit itself, along with a power cord, the tiny apple remote, a brief user’s guide, and the usual assortment of throw away paper documents. However, Apple was TOO MINIMALIST when it came to AV cables.
They didn’t include any…
At $300.00, I would have expected this to be installable out of the box, without any additional purchases required.
Once I pulled the correct cables out of my ‘reserve cable stash’, installation was quite easy. For this install, I used a standard component cable for video and a TOS Link optical cable for the audio, and connected it to my main media system (a rear projected Sanyo PLV-70 onto a 92″ Stewart Acrylic Screen).
The connections were all well labled and the hookup went without a hitch.
Physically, the unit is about half the height of a Mac Mini, and is about an inch wider and deeper as well. There is no external ‘power brick’ - the power cord connects right to the back of the unit. It also has no power switch, and simply turns on when plugged in.
It boots up in a way very similar to a Mac. (I would guess it is most likely based on OS X). The Apple logo sat on the screen as the OS Loaded, and I was prompted for just two pieces of information - my language preference and my display resolution. (I am using a hardwired network connection, but would also have been asked to provide my wireless gateway details if I hadn’t been.) It then switched to the resolution I selected and asked me to verify that it actually worked - if I didn’t respond it would switch back to its basic setting. This is a nice touch, and should let you experiment to find the optimal resolution for your setup without fear of locking up or scrambling the display.
After a few more seconds, It launched its startup video, and finished off by giving me the key I needed to config an iTunes installation to work with it. I have included a short video of this startup sequence here:
I played back a variety of movies and TV shows, both purchased from iTunes and ripped from DVD’s. While all of the videos clearly had some quality limitations, they did look good - even on a large TV set. I also viewed several video podcasts I had downloaded into iTunes, and was equally impressed with how they scaled up on the display.
The music front was also solid. All my playlists were available, and both purchased and ripped content worked without a problem - even imported MP3’s. The AppleTV seems to have identical capabilities as music playback on an iPod. Sound quality here was also excellent.
I didn’t get a chance to try out photos on the AppleTV.
Unlike the media interface used by Apple’s Front Row application, the AppleTV interface has a little more depth to it, and should easily accomodate updates and extensions to the initial AppleTV functionality set. Hopefully, this will include some TIVO like functionality at some point, but time will tell.
My first impressions of AppleTV, both in ease of setup and overall display quality, are very positive.
If I have the time, I will follow this up with a “Getting Started” video that goes into a bit more detail.
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