Apple TV

Looking at alternatives to Lovefilm

Any one have Apple TV? Are the movies released as quickly as on DVD? What about quality - I do love my BluRay.

Any alternatives?

Thanks Techies

[Pete]

Got an AppleTV and love it for TV shows and movies - although to get the best out of it, I recommend using a US iTunes Gift Card to open a US iTunes account, as you get stuff earlier.

Most things are available in HD as well as SD, and playback of purchased / rented content is almost instant, as it allows you to play before it's finished downloading.

[mitchja]

Isn't it powered by iTunes, therefore, any film available on there is available on an Apple TV box.

Although, I've seen extra software which allows downloadable films from other sources too.

Worth pointing out that Sky are about to launch a new AVOD service shortly via their existing HD boxes by means of hooking your HD box up to the internet via the ethernet socket on it.

Thanks.
Like the idea of the US Itunes account -- but are you able to switch between US and UK accounts or does the box have to be one or the other. Would that affect my present Itunes purchases and Iphone settings on my Mac?

Worth pointing out that Sky are about to launch a new AVOD service shortly via their existing HD boxes by means of hooking your HD box up to the internet via the ethernet socket on it.

Hmmm interesting. Do you know if you could hook the HD box up to the net wirelessly or will it have to be via the ethernet socket?

[mitchja]

No idea but I suspect it will only by using the wired ethernet socket.

[Pete]

Thanks.
Like the idea of the US Itunes account -- but are you able to switch between US and UK accounts or does the box have to be one or the other. Would that affect my present Itunes purchases and Iphone settings on my Mac?

You can change it on the AppleTV, but as it's all sync'd to your main computer's iTunes account, you don't really need to. All purchased iTunes music, movies, etc, can be automatically sync'd to your AppleTV regardless of which account you used to download them. I leave the AppleTV in US mode, but flip my Mac between accounts and the content automatically goes to AppleTV. Equally, anything I download on my iPhone also gets sync'd to the AppleTV. It's all pretty seamless.

I've got an Apple TV and love it, tho I don't download many movies from iTunes.
I've "hacked" it and run Boxee (www.boxee.tv) on there, which lets me view lots of other content on there, both from my home network, as well as from the interwebs. You can also run XBMC - another media centre application. It's quite easy to hack although getting your head around the process can be tricky sometimes. For more info, see http://wiki.awkwardtv.org
And as for linking your Sky box to your home router... as far as I know, it doesn't have wifi built in, but I use a Homeplug thingy, which transmits ethernet across the mains cabling. You plug one unit in near your router, and the other in near your Sky box. Each of the units has an ethernet port on it, and they bridge automatically. Works very well!

Thanks guys -
There will be a visit to the Apple Store in Manhattan for me in May