The Apple Monopoly

I was curious to know what the hell this thing was all about, because it's huge tech geek news, but to the average tech geek like me (coupled with the fact that sales probably won't hit Canada for a while) I know relatively little about this thing. So I looked it up. Turns out, this thing is a set top box that you park in your entertainment system. You then download digital content that you have on your computer (no streaming viewing). The only place you can legally purchase content is through the Itunes store.

So here is where the monopoly aspect comes into my mind. If you buy one of these boxes, not only are you restricted to the limited lineup of TV and movies on Itunes, but you can ONLY play TV and moves from Itunes. From Gizmodo...

Having played with Apple TV, it's easy enough to agree with what Mossy and Pogue have already told you: This device works very well if you don't mind that your entire digital media experience has to remain inside Apple's walled garden.

To discourage from being able to play content from the rest of your digital movie library, they have made it difficult to watch other video that doesn't come directly from Itunes, because you need to convert to the .m4v format first. Nothing like transcoding a movie before watching.

I've also heard that the loading times are painfully slow when it boots up. You can only connect to a widescreen TV. Itunes needs to be running on your computer. You can't purchase titles from Apple TV, you have to do it from your computer. There are no cables included. You can't choose which files to add and delete on the Apple TV, you would need to make changes in Itunes on your computer and the transfer EVERYTHING back over to the Apple TV ("synching").

And what if you have an Xbox 360 or PS3? Well these already have the same kind of functionality as the Apple TV, plus extras like being able to play youtube and google video.

I'll stick to my Buffalo LinkTheater, thank you very much, because despite this inaccurate statement below, it seems to stream video across my network just fine. From BusinessWeek:

Earlier efforts to bring online video to television sets have failed because streaming live video over a network doesn't work very well; even the fastest networks suffer glitches that spoil viewing. Apple solves the problem by storing content on the Apple TV box. And while that box syncs with only one iTunes computer, Apple permits you to stream content stored on other computers in your home—with the quality lapses that entails.

My LinkTheateralso displays pictures and plays audio. Most of these types of boxes can stream wirelessly as well, though I'm not sure how well it works. I have a suspended ceiling, so it's no big deal for me to run wires and I feel more comfortable that way.

Most importantly, I don't have to wait to transfer files from my PC to the LinkTheater, I can play them on the fly. And it supports a wide range of video file types and formats. And it has a DVD player.