the-ish.com/blogAppleTV Complaints
I’ve had my AppleTV for a number of month now and the thing is really great. No more having to hook up the laptop to the TV, no more bringing in the iPod to listen to music in the living room… It’s a simple solution that takes care of a few simple problems.
That being said, there are still a few problems, many of which could be solved with a software update.
Music Video Continuous Play / Shuffle
Music Videos are treated like movies and TV shows, in that they play and then spit the viewer back to the menu. This is NOT how iTunes acts, and not particularly useful for when i just want my library of music videos to continuously play. There isn’t even an option to do this, and so the only way to get through a playlist of videos is to manually select and play each one.
This, of course, also means no shuffling through videos. It may sound minor, but with several dozen music videos, this is one of the basic functions that i assumed the AppleTV would handle, and one of the reasons i bought it in the first place.
The same could be said about playing episodic content one after another without the need for human intervention – which currently cannot be done.
Album Art Screen Saver limitation
The only album art shown in the screen saver is album art for the music you have stored on the AppleTV’s hard drive, regardless of if you are connected to an iTunes library streaming content. It should be trivial to grab the album art from the host iTunes library and display it on the TV.
Sound Check
It doesn’t seem like the Sound Check iTunes does to normalize volumes has any effect on the AppleTV, and so some of my songs or shows play at a much higher volume than others. iTunes has been normalizing volume levels for a long time now – but it seems to have no effect on the AppleTV.
Other problems
There are also a few other complaints that are related, but not necessarily the same ballgame.
- Low availability of HD (or at least high res) content. – Without resorting to bit torrent, there is so little high res content available it is laughable. This could be fixed primarily by the content owners offering hi res through the iTunes store, or even make a TV show available as a high res video podcast. Even subsidized with commercials might be an option if the download is free.
- Low availability of SD content – there are still many TV shows that are not available for use with the Apple TV, HD or not.
- Old TV shows still carry a premium cost. – I understand keeping prices predictable etc. – but why does Night Rider, a TV series from 1982, still cost $36 for a single 22 episode season while the current season of the hit show The Office costs actually a dollar less for an episode more? You can get Night RIder season 1 on DVD, brand new for $21, or even used for $11. Personally, i would buy up a TON of old shows if they were priced like old shows. Give me a season of a 20 year old show for 10 buck, and i’ll buy a bunch. Ask me to spend a 40% premium over the cost of the DVD set? forget it. (Again, this is probably a content-owner thing, but could easily be Apple’s problems as well.)
All in all, I’m happy with my AppleTV. I only hope that at least a few of these little issues are addressed in the future.
I just got my Apple TV and was I disappointed! Everything looks
great, but getting it to appear in devices for iTunes, was a real
hassle. You can’t buy and download movies directly to ATV; no,
you have to download the movie to iTunes, then sync with ATV.
So, in effect, you have to wait TWICE, once for the download and once to transfer it over to your ATV. What bs. This means you have
to wait twice as long and download it twice, before you can even watch it. Plus Apple charges you 10% for restocking and you pay
postage back, plus you have to have it back with a specific time period and no parcel post! Now, if you are an average Joe Blow idiot and want the hassle of ATV love affair with iTunes, while you
wait and wait and wait for something to happen, then go for it.
But, I’m not the village idiot, so I’m sending it back to AppleHell,
where it came from and screw Jobs!
burke - February 8th, 2008 at 11:50 pm
Burke, it’s too bad you already sent back your AppleTV, because it seems like your complaints are either already addressable, or literally days away from being addressed.
Regarding having to wait for a movie to download and then sync with your AppleTV, i simply have mine set to “Stream” instead of “Sync” …so everything is streamed from my computer, which means there is about a 2 second delay before i can start watching it, instead of a delay of however long the Sync would take. (This also means my little 40GB drive isn’t a limit; i’m only limited by the drive in / connected to my computer.)
As far as having to first use iTunes to get it on your computer, and then watch it on your TV, Apple is releasing an update in the next few days that will finally let you buy / rent movies and shop the iTunes Store straight from the AppleTV. …So while your complaint is a legitimate one, your timing is rather bad. If you would have waited a week or two before sending the AppleTV back, you might have had exactly what you were looking for.
If it’s not too late, wait just another week before returning it! (then again, if it doesn’t make you happy, then get your money back. no shame in that.)
jeff - February 9th, 2008 at 12:08 am
Thanks. I’m old and cranky. I expect everything to work my way, out of the box or back it goes. But, ATV caught my fancy. I saw potential and you just added to my appetite.
I’m keeping my ATV. At first I though what a screw up, then I realized It has potential.
I want to be able to use my ATV totally independent of any Mac. I want iTunes built into the ATV, not as an adjunct to it. I want to watch previews of movies to buy or rent and do that after watching it, to buy or rent. I want the movies downloaded directly to my ATV iTunes.
At the present you can do neither. You can’t watch rented movies on my ATV and even after you download movies, to have to store them on two disc. One you download onto your computer and the one sync to your ATV. A terrible waste of space.
I want a plug and play ATV; where I hook up the ATV to my television and Wifi network, connect to iTunes store and buy or rent movies to watch, is surround sound and hi definition. Is this asking to much??? You did a good engineering job, but the software needs work.
dr burke
roaeja2@mac.com
burke - February 9th, 2008 at 7:04 am
Stream??? How and where?
burke - February 9th, 2008 at 7:06 am
Syncing versus Streaming (or doing both): http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305270
the “Plug and Play” AppleTV is supposedly what Apple finally realized people wanted, and is what they’re promising in their “AppleTV Take 2” free software update due this week. (you’re right, it should have been like this out of the box, but a free update is the next best thing.) http://theappleblog.com/2008/01/15/appletv-take-2/
(I don’t see a nice new-feature-bullet-list on Apple’s site, but theAppleblog does a nice summary, and all the info is verifiable at Apple’s site. – we’re not ttalking about ‘rumors’ or anything.)
jeff - February 9th, 2008 at 9:33 am
I’m going to send mine back and get a refund, minus $50 for restocking and mail.
Then wait for Apple to reduce price, upgrade to 2.0 and come out with a multitouch remote with widgets. I think I’ll come out ahead and have the latest ATV.
burke - February 9th, 2008 at 8:38 pm
Not to mention OS 10.5
burke - February 9th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
For my other two cents; I think Apple should offer Tivo, Vudu and other VDR
manufactures; an offer to place iTunes on their devices, to help broaden Apple iTunes user base and get more movie downloads. Isn’t that what it is all about?
burke - February 9th, 2008 at 9:46 pm