Apple TV – A Better Way to Watch Television

With the costs of television programming rising all the time. Here is something you can do to fight back. Apple makes a handy little device, hardly bigger than a portable hard drive that allows you to download movies and also entire TV series directly from the Apple Store, it will save countless trips to the mail box or local Redbox.

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What separates the Apple TV from it’s main competitor, Netflix streaming content, is many of the movies and TV shows available for download are newer releases and available in HD (720P). In it’s factory default configuration, an AppleTV will only play h264 and mpeg4 video content. In this article I will show you how to do a few simple mods so it will play virtually any content downloaded or otherwise. This will make the AppleTV so much more versatile and fun to use.

The AppleTV connects to your HDTV with a single HDMI cable. along with a pair of RCA audio cables that allows you to download movies from Apple and watch them on your large screen television, rather than on a small computer monitor.

With an AppleTV, an entire iTunes music collection can be stored on it’s internal hard drive and then played through TV speakers or even a home audio system. Stream movies or TV shows from a PC or Mac through iTunes to your AppleTV. Better yet, sync them and store them on the AppleTV’s built in 40 or 160 GB internal hard drive.

An AppleTV let’s you search and play YouTube content right from your TV, with the included simple to use remote. The AppleTV also allows you to download and play free Podcasts through iTunes and will schedule Podcasts and download any new Podcasts automatically as soon as you open iTunes on your PC or Mac.

The absolute best thing about the Apple TV is it’s simple and intuitive interface. It’s menus are very easy to navigate and simple to use by anyone in the family. Their great interface is hands down why the Apple TV is considered best in class and to this day leaves much of it’s competition behind.

Apple TV – Mods and Apps

To get the most from your Apple TV it requires a simple mod called PatchStick. To learn more about this mod watch the video below to see how easy it is to apply. The patch stick opens up your AppleTV so you have the ability to play many more video formats than it will with it’s default factory configuration.

Another great feature of modding your Apple TV, is it gives you the ability to directly communicate from your PC or Mac through SSH and upload files to the internal hard drive through a simple ftp client. You are no longer required to sync your files through iTunes. There are also many great packages you can install such as Boxee, Sapphire and NitoTV. These apps will allow you to watch so much more TV content from the net, that some people are actually canceling their cable TV service.

Presently the Apple TV can’t play full HD .mkv files very well, although there is a hardware mod that uses xbmc along with a crystal HD card you can install, that will allow the AppleTV to play full 1080 HD .mkv videos.

The biggest problem with patching your Apple TV, is every time Apple releases a software update, you will need to reapply your patch. There is a special setting you can check in your modded Apple TV that will disable automatic updates. A modded Apple TV will still work with iTunes and allow all the other features to continue to work. Should you ever want to restore your AppleTV back to factory default, it is very easy to put it back to the way it came out of the box. It will require any Apple software updates to be downloaded and reinstalled.

In the beginning, I used my Apple TV the factory default way but soon got tired of having to convert everything to MPEG-4 so it would sync and play on the Apple TV. Not only was it time consuming, it also placed a considerable load on my computer CPU. After applying the simple patch I have never looked back. It is so much more usable and versatile now.

Even as it comes from the factory, the Apple TV is still a great as it allows you to rent and download movies and entire TV series without ever leaving your couch. You may find yourself watching far less cable television after owning an AppleTV.

Unlike Tivo which charges you .95 a month, there is no additional monthly usage fee other than the content you purchase from the Apple Store. By selecting only what you want to watch along with some of the apps mentioned here, you can finally cut the expensive monthly costs associated with Cable and Satellite TV. So to answer the question, yes it can cut your monthly television programming costs. Many people have cut their service completely or downgraded to the low cost basic programming package. They are perfectly content to stream content from the net using Boxee, Hulu or other online sources.

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Apple TV – Tech Specs

Unlocked Supported Video Formats
H.264 and protected H.264 (from iTunes Store): Up to 5 Mbps, Progressive Main Profile (CAVLC) with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps (maximum resolution: 1280 by 720 pixels at 24 fps, 960 by 540 pixels at 30 fps) in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats
iTunes Store purchased video: 320 by 240 pixels, 640 by 480 pixels, 720 by 480 pixels (anamorphic), or high-definition 720p
MPEG-4: Up to 3 Mbps, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps (maximum resolution: 720 by 432 pixels at 30 fps) in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats

Audio formats supported
AAC (16 to 320 Kbps); protected AAC (from iTunes Store); MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps); MP3 VBR; Apple Lossless; AIFF; WAV; Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound pass-through
Photo formats supported
JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, PNG

System Requirements

Mac or PC
iTunes 8.0.1 or later; iTunes 9.0.2 recommended
Mac: Mac OS X v10.3.9 or v10.4.9 or later
PC: Windows XP Home or Professional (SP2) or Windows Vista
AirPort Extreme, Wi-Fi 802.11b, 802.11g, or 802.11n wireless network (wireless video streaming requires 802.11g or 802.11n) or 10/100BASE-T Ethernet network

The Future of Apple TV

The AppleTV was never the most popular gadget Apple ever designed. Many people found it too restrictive on the formats it could play as released by Apple. While others on the sidelines, have been waiting for Apple to release an updated model with faster and better hardware specs.Unfortunately, the latest version is based on their iPhone G4 software and does not include a hard drive for storage for file storage. This model Apple TV with built in storage makes more sense for storing your files and does not require you to have your computer on to access your media.

Better snap up one of the current models while they are still available.

Patch the Apple TV and add a Broadcom HD card if you need 1080i and you will have a great device for watching almost any video format available online today. The last version of the Apple TV in my opinion is currently unmatched and is a great device the entire family will enjoy.

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