Apple TV Take 2 is now here

**Captain Code** · #1 February 12th, 2008, 01:38 PM

Update your Apple TVs, the new software is available!

Satcomer · #2 February 12th, 2008, 03:27 PM

Let me known how it works. I'm sitting on the fence about getting an AppleTV.

Thank The Cheese · #3 February 13th, 2008, 08:07 PM

Updated last night, and the bags under my eyes can attest to the awesomeness of the update!

Being in australia, I wasn't able to rent anything, but I was able to subscribe and download several podcasts. It is just brilliant -- very well thought out. You can browse podcasts by provider (ie. CNet, Revision3, BBC, etc), genre or featured, or you can search for a specific podcast using the search tool. If you're into podcasting, I think it is definately worth the money.

If you're not podcast mad like me though, the rest of the device suffers similar issues as it always has. Namely, it is fussy about the formats, so if you have a collection of XviD, AVI or formats other than MP4 or H.264 you need to convert, and of course no TV tuner or DVD player. I still think APpleTV is a little ahead of its time -- the market just isn't large enough.

SOme nice extra surprises though, like 1080p playback (if it could do 1080p, why in the world wasn't it there to begin with??) and remote speaker support. This means you can use the AppleTV as a kind of airport express.

**Captain Code** · #4 February 13th, 2008, 08:10 PM

How did you subscribe to the podcasts? I can't figure out how to do that and get it to download them automatically. I really like the podcast interface because it makes finding them really easy and I've found stuff I've never seen before.

It can't decode 1080p content, only up to 720p. The picture will just be scaled to 1080p.

I think it's cool you can now get true 5.1 surround out of it without too much hassle. Just have to wait for updated Handbrake or some other program to make it easy to encode.

Thank The Cheese · #5 February 13th, 2008, 11:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain Code

How did you subscribe to the podcasts? I can't figure out how to do that and get it to download them automatically. I really like the podcast interface because it makes finding them really easy and I've found stuff I've never seen before..

hmm, that's interesting. I just downloaded them and they appeared in the My POdcasts section, so I assumed they would be sent back to my iMac at the next sync, pre-subscribed and ready to go. I just checked and they are not.

It looks like whatever you download on the AppleTV is ONLY on the AppleTV, which to be frank is ridiculous and significantly reduces the usefulness of downloading through ATV. ALso, they may want to change the name of the "Sync" button, because that's not actually syncing :P

can someone confirm this in case it's just a setting I've missed?