Please, help me make a decision

[thehumaneclipse]

I'm thinking about getting the Apple TV so that I can watch my favorite podcasts (from Revision3) on my television. Is it worth getting? Thanks for the help in advance.

[computoman]

I just went to the local user group and picked an old free pc then turned it into a mythbox. Seriously, you might want to look at some of the other off the shelf pvr boxes on the market. You may find you get more features, upgrade options, and even better support for the same buck.

[bani-banan]

Yeah. Like ^ said.

However, if you like being locked down to .mp4 and .mov files - go ahead.
(I know there are hacks for the ATV, such as SSHing into it and uploading files to the hard drive, and installing XVID codecs. I'm assuming you don't want to do that).

The Apple TV is a beautiful thing. However, I wouldn't call it the ultimate home theater setup. You're locked down to iTunes. Only a few file formats.

Now, the good things are; hackable. Pretty and... it has wireless capabilities.

For the cash, you could build your own media center extender, or a PC with Media Center, which let's you access files stored on your FileServer / PC-box.

If all you want to do is to watch podcasts and you love iTunes - go ahead. Buy it, if you can afford it.

[thehumaneclipse]

Thanks for all the help everyone. I still haven't made up my mind yet though, not sure when I will, but keep the suggestions coming if you have them.

[crodulfo]

Do you have a laptop? you connect your laptop to your tv, thats how i watch all my video podcast. I have a wireless keyboard and mouse, and it works great.

[thehumaneclipse]

No laptop, IMac.
What I'd like to do is be able to watch my podcasts and surf the web at the same time. It kinda sucks that I have to stop doing what I'm doing to watch the videos.
I know there are a lot of complaints about the Apple TV, but it still seems like the best way to do what I want to do. Is there a better device that I just haven't found yet?
BTW, I really appreciate all the help.

[olyo]

For watching podcasts on your TV, I find the AppleTV is great. It syncs everything over to the AppleTV drive, so no streaming issues even with HD wireless. It also expires shows for you to free up space (on the AppleTV) once you've watched them there or on your iTunes.

It is also decent for renting movies, some in 720p, or the convenience of buying a favorite TV season and having it just magically appear. Basically, podcasts and the iTunes store will both work well with it.

Anything else and you have a lot of fiddling with Handbrake (for DVDs) or VisualHub (to convert to mp4, not even available any more).

I love mine, but the iTunes store is pretty blatant now that I can't buy shows/movies from outside the US, so I use another solution for alot of our TV video now.

[tokenuser]

What about a PS3?

As a bonus you get a Bluray DVD player, and a games console.

[moosewaffles]

I just use tversity on my PC to stream the shows to my PS3, which supports even the HD Quicktime version now. It would also work to copy them with a USB drive or some similar device.

Oh, and I haven't tried Rev3 content yet, but the most recent firmware added Flash 9 support to the PS3 browser, which means I can watch things like Hulu now. It works amazingly well.

However, I don't have an AppleTV, so I can't speak to how awesome it is or isn't.

[silentspyder]

I'm just skimmed through so maybe I missed something but I don't think you can surf the web with an Apple TV.

[ddave_73]

What about a PS3?

As a bonus you get a Bluray DVD player, and a games console.

Since the latest update from sony podcasts via a media server like tversity no longer work.

The 360 on the other hand still handles podcasts via a media server perfectly fine and on top of that you get a far superior games experience (if that`s something you may want) but no bluray.

You can also view podcasts via a truly awesome media hub called Popcorn hour.

They actually list revision3 in there specs.

Specification :

Connectivity

* Bonjour
* UPnP SSDP
* UPnP AV
* Windows Media Connect
* Windows Media Player NSS
* SMB
* NFS
* HTTP servers: myiHome, WizD, SwissCenter, MSP Portal, Llink, GB-PVR
* BitTorrent P2P
* NAS access : SMB, NFS, FTP

Web services

* Video : YouTube, Veoh, Videocast, DLTV, Cranky Geeks, Bliptv, PodfinderUK, Vuze, Break Podcast, Revision 3, CNN The Larry King Podcast, CNN Anderson Cooper 360, The CNN Daily, CNN In Case You Missed It , NBC Meet The Press, NBC Today, CBS Face the Nation, NBC Nightly News, Mevio
* Audio : Live365 Radio, iPodcast, Radiobox, ABC News, BBC Podcast, CNN News , Indiefeed, Jamendo
* Photo : Flickr, Picasaweb
* RSS feed : Bloglines, Yahoo! Weather, Yahoo Traffic Alerts, Traffic Condition, Cinecast, Yahoo! News, MSNBC News
* Peer-to-peer TV : SayaTV
* Internet Radio : Shoutcast

Media files supported

* Video containers:
o MPEG1/2/4 Elementary (M1V, M2V, M4V)
o MPEG1/2 PS (M2P, MPG)
o MPEG2 Transport Stream (TS, TP, TRP, M2T, M2TS, MTS)
o VOB
o AVI, ASF, WMV
o Matroska (MKV)
o MOV (H.264), MP4, RMP4
* Video codecs:
o XVID SD/HD
o MPEG-1
o MPEG-2
+ MP@HL
o MPEG-4.2
+ ASP@L5, 720p, 1-point GMC
o WMV9
+ MP@HL
o H.264
+ BP@L3
+ MP@L4.0
+ HP@L4.0
+ HP@L4.1
o VC-1
+ MP@HL
+ AP@L3
* Audio containers:
o AAC, M4A
o MPEG audio (MP1, MP2, MP3, MPA)
o WAV
o WMA
o FLAC
o OGG
* Audio codecs:
o AC3
o DTS
o WMA, WMA Pro
o AAC
o MP1, MP2, MP3
o LPCM
o FLAC
o Vorbis
* Audio pass through : DTS, AC3, DTS-HD MA, DTS-HD HR, Dolby True HD, Dolby Digital Plus
* Photo formats : JPEG, BMP, PNG, GIF
* Other formats: ISO, IFO
* Subtitle formats : SRT, SMI, SUB, SSA

DRM

* Cardea DRM (WMDRM-ND)

Chipset

* Sigma Designs SMP8635

Memory

* 256MB DDR SDRAM, 32MB Flash

Audio/Video outputs

* HDMI v1.3a (up to 1080p)
* Component Video (up to 1080p)
* S-Video
* Composite Video
* Stereo Analog Audio
* S/PDIF Optical Digital Audio

Interface

* 1x USB 2.0 slave
* 2x USB 2.0 host (placed at front and back panel each)
* SATA
* Hardware Reset Button

Network

* Ethernet 10/100

Power

* 12V DC, 3A

Dimension

* Width 10.5"(270mm) x Depth 5.25" (132mm) x Height 1.25" (32mm)

Weight

* 2.2 lbs (1Kg)

I am yet to find a product like this that supports as many formats and feeds as this.