Apple TV is a small device that uses a cable to connect to your television. It uses wifi to connect to your home network and the internet. Its purpose is to stream media--photos, movies and music--from your computers, the iTunes store, or from other partners like Netflix and Pandora, to enjoy on your television and home theater audio.
The early Apple TV models had a hard drive that would sync with your computers' iTunes libraries. You could also buy movies from the iTunes store and save them to the Apple TV's hard drive. However, the second generation Apple TV does not have a hard drive so it can only stream media.
The Apple TV can only stream music or movies stored in a computer's iTunes library. It does not see videos or other music stored in folders on your computers. This is both good news and bad news. The good news is that Apple TV works seamlessly with Mac computers and PCs running iTunes. The bad news is that you cannot access movies saved outside an iTunes library. If you are an iTunes or iPhone user, Apple TV might be right for you. If you have a number of computers in your home network, or a network attached storage (NAS) device, you may want to choose another type of network media player.
Apple TV allows consumers to use an HDTV set to view photos, play music and watch video originating from limited Internet services or a local network. The first generation (white) had iTunes, Flickr, Mobileme/.Mac and YouTube. The second generation added Netflix. Both models supported downloading/streaming podcasts.
Supported Internet media services include:
- Users can access the iTunes Store directly through Apple TV to rent movies and TV shows and stream audio and video podcasts. While the first generation of the Apple TV could download content, the second generation lacks a hard drive, and thus cannot store purchased content. Users who wish to purchase content on the Apple TV may do so, but cannot download directly to the Apple TV. Content must be streamed live or downloaded via iTunes onto a device with storage capability (personal computer, iPhone, iPad, etc.). Since 2008, podcasts have been served on the Apple TV as other kinds of video, as opposed to in RSS and similar feeds. Until mid-March 2009, the Apple TV was the only way to purchase HD iTunes content.
- Apple TV can display photos from Flickr and iCloud in a slide show, with automatic cross-dissolve transitions, and optionally with the Ken Burns effect.
- Netflix streaming integration was added in the September 2010 revision.
- Hulu Plus integration was added on August 2012.
- YouTube and Vimeo videos can be viewed on the Apple TV via included apps. A YouTube account is not required, but allows a user to set personalized options, such as favorites.[20]
- Rotten Tomatoes review syndication and ratings offered per title available for rent. Rotten Tomatoes account holders cannot login, so is not needed nor required, as no personalised options are available.
- NBA TV and MLB.tv allow access to league scores, statistics, and their accompanying subscription services.
Parental controls allow consumers to limit access to Internet media service content. Internet media is split into four categories: "Internet Photos", "YouTube", "Podcasts", and "Purchase and Rental". Each of the categories is configured by a parental control of "Show", "Hide" or "Ask" to prompt for a 4-digit preset code. In addition, movies, TV shows, music and podcasts can be restricted by rating.
Although Apple TV has a "Closed Captioning" setting, subtitles are not available for most iTunes content
The Apple Tv line product includes:- Apple TV 1st generation
- Apple TV 2nd generation
- Apple TV 3rd generation
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