I'd been planning to do the whole HTPC thing with a Mac Mini in January '08. The Apple TV seemed attractive, but it won't work for me based on the given video specs:

* 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)
* iTunes Store purchased video: 320 by 240 pixels or 640 by 480 pixels
* 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)

Without MPEG-2, you can't play ripped DVD images or recorded OTA HDTV signals. Also, the 40GB hard drive seems uselessly small, although I suppose you can just use it in streaming mode.

Amusing question: will FrontRow, on a regular Mac, be upgraded to have all the UI features present in the Apple TV?

I'm still very happy with my mac mini as my HTPC. Wireless keyboard and mouse make it pretty good for the task, plus you can get remotes for it, and cool software like the one Bruno makes.

And I can run Mplayer on the Mac Mini, and throw nearly anything at it.

It's better to think of the Apple TV as a media extender then an HTPC, since that is really all it is. Under the hood is closed off, so expanding the formats is not possible.

I would like to see the new interface with Front Row, this might be a perk reserved for Leopard that hasn't been announced.

As far as the Mini acting as an HTPC, mine has done the job very well, excluding the issues with EyeTV and trying to record HDTV with a software based USB tuner. With Perian, Flip4Mac and the MPEG2 codecs, it has been able to play all the files I want via the Front Row interface. For having network shares, you can simply create a link in the local Movies folder to them, and they appear in the interface with no noticeable difference.

Wow, it's funny that I'm the one who's a big fan of the idea behind this Apple product.

I'll let you know how it works after I've set up my parents' unit. It should be getting in tomorrow (would have gotten in today if FedEx would just leave packages).

Oh, and I don't know of any media extenders that play MPEG2. Actually, I don't know of any media extenders that actually function as advertised, or at least function well. I've tried four of them, and they're all terrible at their primary job: playing media over a network. From everything I've heard, the Apple TV works perfectly at what it's designed to do. I can't wait to see it.

I think we're all behind the idea, it's the execution that's giving us pause. At least me.

The Apple TV *is* a Mac. It's somewhat stripped and somewhat augmented in other areas. It's likely running OS X in some locked-down fashion, but I don't think it will stay that way forever. It's ripe for hacking and I would have a hard time believing Apple spent too much time preventing that from being possible.

Its specs indicate that you can only access movies that have been synced and this is limited to 50 hours worth due to the size of the included HD. So it doesn't make a good front end to an large server or file store of ripped DVDs. I'm fairly confident it doesn't play video TS folders so you'd likely have to transcode anyway.

Without support for DivX and Xvid a lot of content, both ill-gotten and legitimate is also cut out. I think it will eventually provide a nice vehicle for Apple to sell video content, but unlike iTunes, it doesn't seem like it will suppoort user-supplied video as well. It may simply require a third-party program to properly format all the meta-data for iTunes and a transcoding run, I don't know yet.

Most PVR software has some type of media streaming or serving capacity, whether it be MythTV, SageTV or BeyondTV. Hmm, I'm noticing a pattern in these product names. The sad part is most of their UIs suck. I'm not that pleased with AppleTV's interface either though. It's not a slick as what I had mocked up for a project that unfortunately didn't take off. Hopefully they'll enhance it with updates as time goes on.

I'm also a bit surprised they didn't include support for 480i. Though they may have gone with a cut-down part lacking a TV encoder. It would have been nice to see 1080p (and i) out of that little box, even if they weren't going to sell video at that resolution yet. Probably missing due to slower than wanted decode rates of H.264.

It's going to completely doninate all other streaming/TV products without question. I expect it will take only a few weeks for it to completely eclipse all other devices' all-time sales (stuff like Netgear, Dlink, etc..)

Heeee.

How long before we start seeing people hacking the AppleTV software to run on a Mac mini? Yes, the mini is more expensive... The other obvious hack is to run a full install of Mac OS on the AppleTV which would make it the lowest priced Mac around.

Wow... watching this thread evolve is pretty awesome! Real time hack TV.

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2391956&perpage=40&pagenumber=5

1GHz, 256MB RAM, GeForce Go 7300

They figured out how to kill off the UI and got VLC and iTunes running on it. Wish I had one to hack on!

Well, the folks are now set up with their Apple TV. IMO, it's a fantastic device. It just works perfectly. It's also incredibly easy to set up and work with. I wouldn't change anything about it, because any more "features" would start making my parents uneasy. For them, this device is simply perfect.

Actually, if I got one I would be happy with it the way it is, and I don't even like iTunes. I just think the device works so well that there's no reason to mess with a good thing.

*edit*
(unless you really want to, and/or or you like to hack stuff)

Sorry to bring back a recently forgotten thread, but I just made my first blog post in a long time and decided to dedicate it to the AppleTV and its lack of HD Hollywood content.

http://twistedmelon.com/blog/apr2007.html#04160701

I know enough about the issue to fill a few blog posts, but I hope the point comes through with that rather simple entry.

No HDCP = No Hollywood HD content.

What I didn't mention in the post was that the HDCP topic dates back to 2005. And I obviously don't mention any details of the current goings-on to get that ball rolling like a steam-roller. Needless to say it's one of those cases of "ah, that can wait" and now one of those "WTF! We need this yesterday!"