Refurb Apple TV @ AppleStore: $85 +Free Shipping

[silvarios]

rjmacs wrote: Nope. There is no jailbreak yet for A5 devices.

Thanks for the info. I suppose I should sell my Apple TV 2 while the stove is hot.

[sekker]

silvarios wrote:
[quote=rjmacs]Nope. There is no jailbreak yet for A5 devices.

Thanks for the info. I suppose I should sell my Apple TV 2 while the stove is hot.
Me, too!

[guitarist]

Having jailbroken one of my Apple TVs, and used it as a platform to experiment and explore all those options, I can report, I was underwhelmed. Most of what I tried (XBMC for example) are about 85% duplications of what the box natively does, only with more bells & whistles, a less stable interface, more crashes, and a lot of half-baked, incomplete-feeling features and offerings. Just being able to play different file formats, like XViD, and so forth, is not compelling enough to make it a dramatically improved experience. And Boxee--dont' get me started. It's just a convoluted pipeline to 'the web'. And web content is easy enough to simply view on a computer, without the packaging and menus and so forth. I've downloaded and installed, and tried just about every app that's available for a jailbroken TV, and found that "unlocked', an Apple TV not notably more useful or entertaining than it is in its native state. In fact, the occasional crashes and freezes and buggy behaviors tend to neutralize any perceived benefits.

And this isn't to bash the lameness of this stuff (though it is less exciting than advertised, jailboken, or native)) mainly, it reveals how underdeveloped this medium is in general, as an alternative, for those who are looking to cut off cable TV. It's promising, it's got some novel ways to display entertainment content, but the medium yet to break out of the 'hobby' category, into a robust and threatening category in its own right. For all these players and devices. It's all still evolving, and is mostly an amusement for those of us who are computer-centric. It's appeal to mainstream entertainment consumers remains limited.

In the meantime, I'm among those that find Apple TV useful enough to really enjoy having it. Mainly because once you can access a large movie library you've made yourself, sticking in DVDs, one at a time, into a DVD playing appliance, seems primitive. And a few of the other features are nice to have, too. I rarely use my DVD or Blu Ray player anymore. I realize I'm a minority, encoding my own movie vault, as an avid enthusiast and collector. For some of us, using one of these connected boxes (Apple TV, and others) can be rewarding, while we wait for the medium to grow up, expand, and further erode Cable's dominance.

[sekker]

silvarios wrote:
[quote=guitarist]
Hulu sucks, Amazon is said to be decent. None of them touch Netflix, iTunes, and Apple's inherent iOS benefits, at that price.

For big screen viewing, a $50 Roku is a rather nice approximation of the Apple TV experience (excepting AirPlay of course). Amazon rentals and purchasing for TV/movies roughly equivalent to iTunes, Netflix, plus all the other private/public channels.
The iTunes integration is also nice with the ATV for viewing home movie libraries that the roku box does not offer.

When I get an ATV3, I won't hesitate to get a refurb.

[silvarios]

sekker wrote: The iTunes integration is also nice with the ATV for viewing home movie libraries that the roku box does not offer.

I do the same now with my Roku boxes. I use Plex, but there are other options. I actually prefer Plex even for the Apple TV (iOS to Apple TV via AirPlay), Mac, and Android devices. Cross platform support is always a plus for me.

[guitarist]

silvarios--you have an Android device? That might help explain the appeal of the off-off-off-brand Plex choice, in an already-minimal saturation (for media serving appliances) market.

[silvarios]

guitarist wrote:
silvarios--you have an Android device? That might help explain the appeal of the off-off-off-brand Plex choice, in an already-minimal saturation (for media serving appliances) market.

I'm not following. Plex is a fork of XBMC, the latter predates the Apple TV and most other media boxes.

Various devices that have interfaced with my Plex Media Server: 2nd gen Apple TV (via AirPlay), 2nd gen iPod touch, Nook Color, Nook Tablet, Sony HDTV (via the recently implemented DLNA feature), Nokia e72 (DLNA as well, although it mostly works as a controller, not media viewer), and four different Roku boxes.

Interesting tidbit, without Plex or another similar solution, my iPod touch would be much less useful for accessing my home media collection. I'm stuck on iOS 4.2.1, which means no Home Sharing from iTunes to my iPod touch.

[silvarios]

Edit: Ack! Accidental post. I'll use this place to post a link to the official Plex on Roku announcement.

[silvarios]

I should add, I wasn't making the argument that Plex is more popular than iTunes or even that it is a better solution than iTunes. Although, for my needs the latter is certainly true, but Plex is not the best solution for every application.

No, my point was even simpler. The days of the Roku not being able to support local media over the network are long over (and don't forget the local media support via microSD on some models, or USB on the top end model). You don't even need to use private channels anymore. At the very least, Plex is available straight from the Roku store.

[guitarist]

I wasn't sure if "Plex" was shorthand for a hardware device. An earlier post made it appear you had an Android phone, and liked that Plex was compatible with it.

And not to dis these media server things. Apple TV included (and all the others mentioned here) we could take all the owners of these things, and fit them into one Football Stadium.

That's overstated, of course. I'm sure it's several million. But isn't But an observation that by 1012--well into the post-Network TV, HDTV era-- I thought the market saturation of these devices would be bigger.