New purchase titles Journey To The Center of the Earth and Kit Kittredge: An American Girl are now available for purchase and rental in HD on the Apple TV.

It’s nice to see two new release titles being released same day DVD as HD rentals. Maybe the studios are listening…Hmmmm.

Is it me or did Apple sneak this new “All HD” menu option under the TV Show menu. Selecting this menu option takes you to a screen not unlike the All HD movies page with a single row of New on iTunes HD TV Shows and underneath that All HD TV Shows listed. If this is something which came with the 2.2 update I apologize, and I’m sure I will hear of it if it did.

I’m writing this in response to a recent article at ExtremeTech. The article gives 5 reasons why the Apple TV sucks and I thought I’d respond in kind to each point. Now it’s hard not to sound like an Apple fanboy responding to this but I think many of us are fans of the product and think it’s getting ignored (by the market in general and by Apple).

1. No Optical Drive – Since the hardware is there now, this is a little hard to address in the current Apple TV model. The Apple TV was really meant to be a way to play content from iTunes and presumably content from your PC or Mac that you have in iTunes. I really didn’t expect the Apple TV to completely replace my DVD player. I will likely be late to adopt Blu Ray, if at all, so I’m unlikely to be pushing for Blu Ray in an Apple TV. Additional hardware will push the Apple TV well beyond it’s current price point.
2. Storage Issues – In the article this is really three issues – lack of storage, lack of expansion and Apple forcing customers to store their bought content locally. I don’t think lack of storage is a problem since the addition of streaming to the Apple TV. In fact, I really don’t need the 160 GB model I bought, I would have been happy with 40 GB. I think if you are looking to store your content on the Apple TV you might be open to hacking it and using external USB storage and additional software. Apple could easily enable USB storage but I’m not sure you really need it – given the way it’s “meant to be used”. As for Apple forcing customers to store content locally, I do agree with the point made here. Apple should let customers re-download content if they needed to and it’s not something they support. Other download services keep track of what you own and let you re-download content (e.g. Xbox Marketplace and Valve’s Steam).
3. Limited Codecs – This point I do agree with and was initially my hesitation to buy the Apple TV. In the end, however, I didn’t mind using Visual Hub and MetaX to organize my non-iTunes content. Until Boxee came along, I actually preferred putting all the content in iTunes so it was conveniently available on the Apple TV and presented as well as “store-bought”. It has to be said that all of Apple’s product suffer from this and it goes with the territory. iPods and Macs have limited codecs. Modifying your Apple TV to support new codecs and players such as Boxee is so easy now, I think it’s a viable excuse for some of the limitations.
4. No Web Browser – This is really a don’t care for me. I’ve installed the Couch Surfer browser and it works fine but I just don’t need it or use it. Maybe I’m in the minority but I’m not surfing on my TV very often. Using a 6 button remote to navigate the Internet is painful, period. Again, feel free to hack your Apple TV and use a mouse and keyboard – I challenge other set top boxes to provide a meaningful browsing experience.
5. No DVR – This is by design, of course, since you are supposed to get all of your TV from iTunes. In some ways you can’t fault Apple for this decision, the Apple TV was meant to be a living room version of the iPod. I have a Elgato EyeTV hybrid for my Mac and it records TV and exports it to iTunes automatically. It works like a charm and is not an expensive option. I would like to see a hack to get this running directly on the Apple TV but I don’t expect Apple to pursue this option. TV = iTunes as far as Apple is concerned.

In summary, I don’t think the crticisms are severe enough to really say the Apple TV sucks. As an extension to iTunes and a PC or Mac where your content lives (like an iPod) it fits the bill. What you really have in that box is a mini Mac mini and I don’t mind relying on third parties like Boxee to provide more functionality.

Below is the list of new HD Rentals that have been added to Apple TV.

Well, things have officially slowed to a crawl in HD rental land, with only one new title today and it isn’t exactly a classic.

See No Evil

Head on over to the HD Rentals page to see this weeks entire list of new titles.

Below is a list of confirmed rental and purchase titles, along with possible rental and/or purchase titles, to look for coming to the Apple TV this week.

We have a true rarity this week. We have two new purchase titles released on the 28th along with also being released as rental titles on the same day. I hope this is a trend which keeps going.

Confirmed Purchase Titles For This Week
Journey to the Center of the Earth (2D) (Purchase Release Date 10-28-08)
Kit Kittredge: An American Girl (Rental Release Date 10-28-08)

Confirmed Rental Titles For This Week
Journey to the Center of the Earth (2D) (Purchase Release Date 10-28-08)
Kit Kittredge: An American Girl (Rental Release Date 10-28-08)
88 Minutes (Purchase Release Date 10-31-08)
Maid of Honor (Purchase Release Date 10-31-08)

iTunes SD Rentals New Releases for 10-24-08.

14 New SD Releases were added today. They’re mostly documentaries and short film with a few comedies thrown in. After viewing the trailers to some of these movies, The Button looks pretty interesting. The plot summary on iTunes says it’s, “Reminiscent to the ultimate horror, The Shining.” And who doesn’t like to see people go crazy?

SD Rentals New Releases

A Neutral Corner
Chiyo
Cocaine Cowboys
Cocaine Cowboys 2: Hustlin’ with the Godmother
John & Yoko’s Year of Peace
Minding Rocco
Motel
Ramones: Raw
Sarah Landon and the Paranormal Hour
Taking 5
Tell-Tale
The Button
The Neighbor
With Honors

If you’re curious about any of the New Releases, click on the movie title to view the trailer. Enjoy!

Important Note: To view the latest New Release for the week, please visit the SD Rentals page.