Apple TV UK Review Transcript
Apple's second-generation TV box is out, and we got hands-on with this new streaming media device. Here's a transcript of our UK Apple TV review.
Listen to FrequencyCast's Apple TV Review here: |
Hands on with Apple TV:
Transcript of our Apple TV Review from Show 57
Carl:
Focus fully loaded and ready to roll. What are we doing?
Pete:
Well, if there's one product whose products always cause controversy when we review them - who would that be?
Carl:
Ah - Apple?
Pete:
Mmm, correct. Apple's just released this brand new product, and it's already sold a quarter of a million.
Carl:
A quarter of a million? - is this iPhones?
Pete:
No. First off, let me show you this, because it's a replacement of this.
The original Apple TV box
Carl:
Oh, I remember these.
Pete:
Streaming video, built in hard disc - it's called Apple TV.
Carl:
Of course.
Pete:
Right, now this is what we do with that. (clunk)
Carl:
What's that? - ooh, that's slick - what is that?
Pete:
That is the replacement - the second generation Apple TV.
Carl:
That's tiny! It's about sat nav size, but square. It's quite weighty, and on the back it's got an HDMI socket, a digital audio is that? - mains socket, USB and phone line socket.
Pete:
Oh, that's not actually a phone line socket, that's an Ethernet internet socket.
Carl:
Of course.
Pete:
And it's worth mentioning that the micro USB socket doesn't actually do anything. It's just purely there for diagnostic purposes only.
Carl:
Go on then - I can't contain myself any more. Tell me more about it.
Pete:
So what it does, three things: one, get movies on your telly; two, let you watch things like YouTube, get Flickr photos and internet radio on your telly ...
Carl:
Very handy.
Pete:
... and three, if you've got an Apple iTunes device somewhere in the house, you can stream your photos, movies, TV shows and your music collection from iTunes onto your telly.
Carl:
That's actually quite convenient, especially if you've got your friends and you want to show them all your stuff.
Pete:
These gadgets have been around for a little while, but this one is Wi-Fi as well as Ethernet. We don't actually have a TV in the studio with us, so as they say in all the best kids' TV programmes, here's one we prepared earlier.
Here I am with the Apple TV plugged into my Sony Bravia, and ready to go. The first thing I notice on the screen is there are four options: I have Movies, Internet, Computers and Settings. Let's just have a look in Movies. Under that heading, I have Top Movies, Genres, Search and In Theatres. If I look at In Theatres, I get a loading message, and now I have a screen full of film clips, and this will show me trailers. The first one I have is for something called Adjustment Bureau, and I click on that, and there is a two minute HD trailer, should I want to watch it. I'll back out of that, back to the main menu.
Top Movies - if I look in Top Movies now, I can see New Releases, Top Films, Documentaries and Comedies. Let's look at the top here - the top film is currently Brooklyn's Finest. We also have things like The Back-up Plan and Robin Hood. We'll just look at Robin Hood, the 2010 version of Robin Hood, £4.49 to rent, that would cost me. If I scroll down, the films get slightly older. I'm now looking at £3.49 for a comedy. What I'm actually looking at is a screen with seven items across the top, and three down, so 21 a page. So a very nice interface, very smooth.
Get back to the main menu here. As well as Movies, we have Internet, which has YouTube, Podcasts, MobileMe, Flickr and Radio. If I go to the right, I have Computers, where it says Pete's Laptop. Just select that - what I now have is Music, Movies, TV Shows, Podcasts, iTunes U and Photos. Now this is actually taking my iTunes collection direct from my laptop, and I can see things like Search, Genius, Artists, Albums and so on, and I get a lovely smooth view of all the various album cover art moving forward, which does look very Apple indeed.
So I'm scrolling back out again. Under Settings, I have General, Screensaver, Audio & Video, Airplay, Computers and Sleep Now. So there you go, that's our quick look at the interface for the new second generation Apple TV.
Carl:
Well, that was impressive.
Pete:
There you go - so that's a screenshot, what do you think of that? I'll put this up on the website as well, but have a look at that. There's some movies on there.
Carl:
Actually, that's very handy, because it's the DVD covers you're looking at, so it'll be very easy to identify something you wanted to see.
Pete:
Yeah, I think we're talking over a thousand movies at the moment, which is pretty good. They're not overly competitively priced. I was looking at some of the prices compared with Sky and their Box Office service, but certainly there's a wider choice, which does make it quite handy. The way to think of it is Blockbuster, but without having to go down to the video shop, and also you don't have to sign up to a subscription like you do with something like BT Vision or Virgin.
Carl:
Don't you think this is all taking the romance about going to choose a video? I mean, I remember the days of going to Blockbusters. You'd say, "Let's go down and get a video", and you'd spend most of the night choosing one.
Pete:
And of course, you don't get Häagen-Dazs with these boxes.
Carl:
No, that's a bit off, isn't it?
Pete:
A few more screen shots for you - so that's the music playlist. Now, this is exactly what you get on iTunes, so if you've got your iTunes Music, you've got your Categories and your Genres and your Genius and everything else. Photos - you can do your photos on here, and all you do is point to a folder on your computer, and say, show me those photos. You can do these glorious transitions that really work well on radio shows.
Carl:
Glorious, eh?
Pete:
Podcast as well, of course. Now there are two ways of doing this: you can either stream your own iTunes podcasts, or just go straight on to the Apple store and get podcasts. Of course we're there - here's a picture of us.
Carl:
I was just about to ask - how did you know?
Pete:
And that's a screenshot of the podcast being played, so it's a list of all our back catalogue of shows, and look at that - a five star review, thank you very much.
Carl:
And a picture of your thumb, holding a microphone.
Pete:
Right, I want to show you a remote control now. This is the remote that comes with it.
Carl:
Wow! - oh, I like that. It's just a menu button - well, it's just like the iPod Nano, isn't it? It's nice though, it's got a good weight to it and it's got a metal feeling as well - is that metal?
Pete:
It's aluminium, but it's just tiny, isn't it? I mean, look - it's "waafer thin".
Carl:
Yeah, you don't want to get that near your After Eights - you might eat it by accident, mightn't you?
Pete:
Ah, this is such a simple control though, isn't it? - just a five way navvy, menu button and a play button.
Carl:
Fantastic!
Pete:
One clever bit though is you don't actually need to use this remote control. If you've got an iPhone or an iPod Touch ...
Carl:
No no no, let me guess: there's an application for it?
Pete:
Again, can't do it in the studio - here's a screenshot. So there's me, typing on my iPhone keyboard, and it appearing magically on the telly. So if you want to do a search, you can do it from your iPhone, and use full control touch navigation, all sorts of things, to control it.
Carl:
I didn't know you had an iPhone - is that new?
Pete:
Yeah, I've never mentioned it, have I?
Carl:
You're the rare one, aren't you? - because most other people get a Nokia.
Pete:
So this is supplied with a mains lead, remote control and manual. You don't get a HDMI lead free, which is a bit of a shame.
Carl:
Oh, that's a bit cheap, isn't it?
Pete:
But, considering the old one was about 200, how much is this one?
Carl:
150?
Pete:
£100.
The Apple TV 2nd Gen is available in the UK from the following online retailers for around £99: |
Carl:
Good grief! You can afford to buy your own leads, can't you?
Pete:
There you go, and no subscription. So it's available now; at the time of recording, it's a little difficult to get hold of. They're out there, but they're in fairly short supply, and actually a very nice little bit of kit. Now, before we went into the studio to record tonight, I threw up a tweet.
Carl:
I bet you did!
Pete:
And said, "Anybody got any questions for our Apple TV feature?", and we got three. Michael Johnson, he says:
Carl:
"Will we be able to get Netflix on it, like they have in the USA?"
Pete:
Sadly not. Netflix is a movie rental service that's only available in the US. The next question, Matt Watson says:
Carl:
"To use Apple TV, I presume you have to have your main computer with your iTunes and your photo library on it to find your music. Or can it take songs, films and pictures from a networked hard drive?"
Pete:
The answer to his question is, you can't use a networked hard drive. The system uses iTunes Home Sharing for local media, so you can't just pull stuff from any old hard disc. It has to be something running iTunes with Home Sharing enabled. However, you can use Flickr, YouTube and movie rentals and podcasts and all that kind of stuff without a connection to your computer.
Carl:
And Stephen Masters is thinking of getting one, and he says: "I understand they have a new processor in."
Pete:
Indeed they do, yes. It uses the Apple A4 processor.
Carl:
"I'm sad that the new boxes no longer include component sockets."
Pete:
Stephen says it uses to be really handy to use component to plug straight into his TV and monitor. Are there any alternatives, or does he have to get a HDMI splitter?
Carl:
Now you've asked the question for yourself - are there?
Pete:
Sadly not, it's only got an HDMI socket. They've actually removed the component, as indeed Sky has with their HD boxes, and there's a suspicion that the reason components are being removed is to stop people doing dodgy high quality copies. Also, considering this box is so small, I don't actually think there's any room physically on this little tiny box here, to have any component sockets.
Carl:
Yeah, but they left enough room for the Apple logo, didn't they?
Pete:
Ah, well they have to, don't they? We'll add some pics and some screenshots to the transcript for you to have a look at, and if you've got any questions, just get in touch.
Carl:
Yep, that's right - get those carrier pigeons ready. Next ...
Next: Our TomTom Go 1000 Live Review
Listen to FrequencyCast's Apple TV Review here: |
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