How does the Apple TV work?

Question

How does the Apple TV work?

Answer 1

Apple TV isn't a TV, it's a box that connects to your TV and makes it easy to play various content from your computer or from the Internet. Once you purchase it, that's it. You can play things purchased from iTunes, connect to Netflix, or from a number of other sources.



Apple being expensive is really more myth than fact. Similarly equipped products from other companies are about the same price or even more expensive. What's different is that Apple doesn't have any cheap junk products so the starting price is more than the starting price of other companies.

Answer 2

I own both the new Apple TV (1080P/2012) model and the Roku2 XS. I found myself doing a side by side comparison of the two products and here are my findings.



AppleTV

Pros: Works out of the box, minimum effort to setup, really easy to use interface + wifi. Can Restream old purchased episodes. Netflix App much cleaner and more superb. Streaming and buffering causes no delays or degradation of picture. AirPlay makes up for a lot of the limited channels (with Mountain Lion the functionality goes up even more). iPad Remote easy to use

Cons: Limited Channels...needs an open API like Roku to build more channels



Roku2 XS

Pros: Many Channels available, Cheaper ($10), Free Movie Channels like Crackle, AmazonPrime availability, Vendor neutral. iPad Remote easy to use

Cons: Missing iTunes integration, Poor quality and buffering (constant downgrading the image quality on NBA League Pass and Netflix). User UI is just bland and could be cleaner. Bugs and issues. Most channels you have to pay extra for. Roku disconnects from my wifi network randomly whereas the AppleTV never does during side by side streaming. Setup takes longer and more tweaking needed by the user.



Summary:

While the Roku offers you many more channels the end user experience on the AppleTV makes it much more simple to utilize. If you have some form of Apple Eco System then the AppleTV is for you. If you hate Apple then the Roku is for you. Each product has their own advantages and disadvantages. For me in the end it was about the user experience and ease of using the player and the AppleTV edged out. It's not to say I won't be using my Roku but until there are some updates to fix some of the buffers and issues the AppleTV is by far the better product.



UPDATE: Completely Dropped my Roku in favor of Apple TV now. For some of the comments below I have a 30 Mbps down, 10 Mbps Up and being a network engineer and having quite an impressive armada of enterprise switches in the house I know it's not the network but the Roku. It's either the memory or the application code that keeps causing issues itself. Also for those that claim they cannot view movies due to apple protections...download airparrot and VLC. It works perfectly



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Answer 3

Well sir, you need to answer question with swag. First of all it's not a T.V, it is an apple that you place ontop of the T.V there is your answer. To turn on the T.V you must throw the apple out the window.

Answer 4

Television is merely educational if you are viewing a documentary or something similar

Answer 5

How Does Apple Tv Work

Answer 6

I like to know myself

Answer 7

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I prefer android products so I would say Google TV would suit me better. Plus they are better integrated with apps such as youtube, one that I use the most. I have a LG smart TV, however I do not have the LG Google TV. The google tv has a much more user-friendly interface and the youtube app is buffed up. Oh yea Sony has the google TV too.

Answer 8

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RE:

How does the Apple TV work?

I just want to know what it comes with and how it works because its onl $100 and i thought it being Apple and all, a tv would be A LOT more expensive. Also, do you need to pay monthly or do they charge you for watching shows or something??

Answer 9

You pay $100 bucks (a little more for HD) and that's it.



All it does is go on the internet and run what are essentially apps (like what you run on your phone) but through your TV screen. It's not really as powerful as a computer, or even a phone. That's why they can't get away with charging as much for it (since all it does is play streaming video in a really simple way for integrating with a plasma screen).



Basically you use it to watch shows through streaming video apps. Some apps are free, some apps cost a subscription or require that you have a subscription with whatever company made the app. Netflix for example has an Apple TV app, and if you have a Netflix account, it'll ask you to log in to access movies and shows through it. Hulu has a similar thing for current TV shows. Also, ESPN has an Apple TV app, where if you have log in information with a cable TV account that carried ESPN, you can enter it in and watch ESPN & non-televised ESPN games through the app. HBO has a similar App to ESPN's.



You can do something similar with a PS3 or Xbox, but if you don't want a game console and you think different Apps are a better alternative to cable TV, it's a good product. If you have a bunch of other apple products at home (macbooks, iphones, ipads) it's really easy to sync them with your apple TV, if you want to stream stuff from your gadgets onto your TV.



They don't cost that much to make, and I think apple wanted a lot of people using it at some point, so they price it at something semi-reasonable (hoping maybe they'd go out and get iphones and ipads to go with it, a "loss-leader" kind of thing.)

Roku, which is a competitor of Apple TV, is about 30 bucks cheaper for both regular and HD models though.