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Rating:

It requires only 3 connections. Power and HDMI cable. Optical cable is optional if you are fine with your TV’s speakers. Since Video connection is HDMI, video quality is superb. I really like the clean and well refined UI screen. It’s not fixed screen. It changes depending on your contents. Whenever I browse through menu, upper section of screen shows snapshot of what I can choose and it updates very quickly when you add new contents.

It has built in wireless LAN so, you don’t need internet cable though it has port if you want. The wireless seems better than mobile device since it could play Youtube pretty smoothly where iPad couldn’t play very well. It detects available AP automatically and detects what type of security is used. Just type in password then you are good to go.

This device comes with following features.

1. Playing Movie and TV shows you can purchase or rent from iTune store

2. Playing Netflix, Youtube and Flicker

3. Playing your own contents

4. Playing internet radio

5. Playing photo slide shows

#1 is very easy if your wallet is ready. Just click and browse movies then click to play.

#2 is also very easy if you have netflix account. Just type ID and password then you have full access.

#3 is super easy if you are familiar with iTune on desktop. Apple doesn’t find all movies automatically. It doesn’t make UI super complicated to support everything. Apple TV uses Home Sharing feature and grab whatever you have in your iTune library. So the only supported video format is Mpeg4/h.264. If you have videos purchased from iTune store, those are already mp4. so you don’t need to do anything. If you have lots of videos in other format, you will need to convert the format. There are some tools available on the market so it won’t be very difficult. Once you add your contents, it appears on apple TV instantly. Though all movies are seen on same screen in iTune SW, it’s possible to define category. Then Apple TV shows category such as Comedy, Drama and so on. When you scroll through categories, left screen shows snapshot of movies you have.

#4 it plays audio pretty well as well though there’s one annoying bug. If you have songs and didn’t mark in iTune, you can’t play using Apple TV. You need to mark songs to play. I hope this is fixed in software update soon.

#5 I like photo slide show very much. You can define the style of slide shows and you can decide if you want to add background music or not. If you have your friends or relatives coming, this feature is very nice to share your great moments.

What I like about this device is typical Apple’s intuitive UI. It’s super easy to use. No complicated long list of hierarchy. I haven’t read manual at all. And also, it supports most of the video contents you will need such as netflix and youtube. I use AT&T Uverse so I know how IPTV works but Apple TV works much better. In the first day of use, I changed my plan from U200 to U-family to save some bucks and pay for Netflix.

Video quality is also very nice. I have lots of low quality video with lots of artifact. Those are still visible but post processing smoothes out those. For high quality video, screen is super crisp and bright.

Also box is so small that it’s hardly seen. I put close to my Harman Kardon receiver and apple TV fits very well. And it’s also very easy to move around the rooms. I bought several HDMI cables so that I can move between living room, master bed rooms and others. Power consumption is so little that you don’t need to bother to turn off all the time. It actually doesn’t have power button.

There’s some possibility of upgrade. This device has built in strong processor, A4 to handle video decoding. Everything is implemented using software meaning, it can be easily expanded. I am not sure what’s Apple’s strategy but this device might have great potential. This device is too strong for the media player.

The catch of all above feature is very good internet connection and faster desktop. If you have good internet connections, you won’t notice much lags. When you play movies that are stored in your desktop, the lag depends on how fast your PC is. So, Apple TV is not standalone device. It smartly uses infra structure that are common in many of household these days. In my case, I upgraded internet speed since Netflix uses about 1.5Mbps.

Though what Apple TV provides is nothing new and all can be done by PC or similar boxes, it just makes perfect with $99. I think it’s great addition to your media system.

Rating:

CONS

*Lots of “Loading…” screens

*No Local Storage! (must stream over Internet or via iTunes on PC/Mac using Home Sharing. I know you were trying to cut costs Apple, but why not at least allow local USB storage? I know, I know: DRM.)

*IR Sensor inferior to previous generation AppleTV (requires more direct line of sight)

*Lag before videos and podcasts start playing (even when located on a local computer)

*Netflix controls are not as good as Roku. Infrequent keyframes makes it hard to rewind to an exact spot. Roku does much better (and even PS3 Netflix controls are better).

*Podcast controls sometimes get confused (screen indicates reversing at maximum speed, but video is actually reversing at 1x)

*Doesn’t precache artwork icons (Scrolling down through a list of podcasts or Netflix movies, it loads the screen with empty icons then slowly downloads them. This happens no matter how long you wait before scrolling down. Sometimes, it never gets around to downloading certain icons. Hey Apple, how about displaying the name of the movie while you are retrieving the artwork so we can start using the interface even if all of the artwork isn’t there?) [Update: there may be some precaching going on, but just not in a very intelligent manner. I have about 170 movies in my Netflix instant queue and a 1.5 Mbps DSL connection so that may contribute to the slowness displaying artwork. If you have a very fast internet connection, you will probably have minimal delay.]

*No Pandora

*No App support (Yet? Come on Apple, enable App support. It won’t take long before we have lots of useful 3rd party apps. I’m sure Pandora would be one of the first and then NPR and local weather forecast.)

*No 1080p – 720P only (Yes, most people don’t have the bandwidth to support 1080p streaming over the internet, but someday we will. Also, it would be nice to be able to show your 1080p video you shot with your new camcorder or high-end DSLR.)

*Rotten Tomatoes movie reviews are not available for Netflix movies.

*Remote app could display the actual menus for faster selections.

*Home Sharing must be activated for a specific single account. (Result: If both you and your spouse have an iTunes account you will have to choose one or the other and will only have access to media in that person’s iTunes account.)

UPDATE:

Removed from Cons:

“*Can’t add internet radio stations to a favorites list (and there are hundreds if not thousands to scroll through).” Someone commented that you can add a radio station to your favorites by holding the center button down. I tried this and it works. Not sure how you’re supposed to know this as it’s not mentioned in the brief instruction book.

Rating:

The UI is slick, the setup was somewhat easy (but would have been easier with keyboard support) and the ability to control music from my laptop and desktop is fantastic (through iTunes via the currently limited “airplay” functionality).

I’m really happy with the YouTube, Flickr and Netflix support. They are by far the best I’ve seen from a media center, but I can see certain aspects being a pain if you use the included remote (there is no keyboard to speak of, and scrolling through letter to spell things out is a hassle). The remote app on iOS devices more than makes up for the lack of a keyboard since it provides added functionality (such as alpha numeric input, quick seeking and library browsing). I look forward to video support with airplay and will update this review once I get to play with that (in November?).

One last thing – it’s quiet. The thing barely makes a peep.