I hope they never add a web browser to ATV, thats just trying to turn it into a computer – even with the amazing Wii remote its still a pain to type in text on the TV. The last thing I want is a keyboard on the sofa -uuurgh!

Its just needs 1080p playback for iMove exports and DVD playback for iDVD projects.

I think the Apple TV is fantastic – got in last night, nothing much on TV, a few minutes later we rented a great movie (Dan In The Real World)
Right now downstairs there some music playing from the ATV through the Hi-Fi and I just love the fact that it doesn't have a noisy fan in it – genius bit of design – must have been a Hi-Fi fan on the development team, when you play a full fat .AIFF album it sounds beautiful – no background fan noise to spoil the effect – I bet no other “media box” has that touch of class.

It does so much and it does it so well – I love it!

After waiting so long, I was extremely pleased to see this update. That said, as a 20 year Apple enthusiast, this is the worst release of software I have yet seen. Here is why:

MY SET-UP: I have a massive digital media library (all MP4, MP3 and JPEG administered through iTunes and iPhoto). This is all stored on a drive hooked up to my time capsule via ethernet. All Apple products except drive (Drobo). iTunes and iPhoto on a MacBook Pro running Snow Leopard.

1) On previous releases, you would only have to load your media once (you get the pinwheel icon while the it says “loading”). Now, you need to do that separately for Movies, TV and Music. Worse, if you go from Movies to TV, then back to Movies, you need to load AGAIN! This is painfully slow.

2) Album art loads more slowly than ever, if at all.

3) While you have devoted a large amount of screen real estate to the purchase and rental of media via iTunes, you have forgotten something very important… WE DO NOT ALL WANT ITEMS PUSHED TO US TO BUY.

This is especially troublesome if you have young children. Right off the bat, the Movie section you pushed had a horror title with disturbing images (for a pre-schooler) on one of the covers, and the music section had a cover with BITCH in large purple type.

Note that using parental controls to HIDE this content should have turned off these titles from appearing, and it did seem to initially (leaving half the screen now empty and useless), but it came back. I used the Parental controls to restrict everything, and it still showed the content I didn't want.

Even if this is a bug, we should have the option of turning off the iTunes Store push content. We did spend a lot of money for the AppleTV just to stream.

SUMMARY: I am going to go back to the older software. The UI, the problems listed above, and the general handling of this release seriously makes me want to look for another media server option.

I know this is a “hobby” for Apple, but don't release substandard software that appears hacked by second-teir designers and developers. You are better than that, and your loyal users deserve better.

I hope you read this.

But it seems to me that Apple is trying to accomplish two distinct things with 3.0. The first is to make Apple TV work with the iTunes Extras and LP stuff. Dual purposes are at work here. My guess is that Apple (Jobs) is just trying to complete the shoring-up the the long-standing weakness of digital content not providing the venerable album graphics and liner notes, and leveraging the power of the platform… Of course, the content providers just see it as an opportunity to get customers to buy the same thing over and over again – jaded, but true IMO… I mean, why do you think they incessantly re-release optical content, other than to twiddle with the encryption? The second Apple purpose was to make the Apple TV menus more effective with the Remote app on iPhone and iPod touch, which I think they achieved. Apple finally takes advantage of the display being 16×9 (wide) rather than 9×16, thank you very much…

Insofar as the complaints about putting movie covers (et al) on top, that's simply eye candy, and marketing flourish. I have no comment on the parental control aspect, although I would be surprised if Apple displayed anything particularly risqué here. But it seems to me that complaining about Apple shamelessly prostituting the top content on top, rather than hidden? — oh, boo-hoo — gimme a break…

Also the pushing of stuff to buy rent across the screen is really tacky. You need to hack parental controls to get rid of that, if not your 5 year old gets to see horror DVD covers or other inapproprate stuff randomly appear.

Basically a total failure. I'm going back to the lackluster but more reliable older version . Really disappointed! Apple is missing a real opportunity. Very unlike them.

I also like the season pass for the TV shows. I absolutely love watching TV shows in my AppleTV. My wife watches Biggest Loser and not having commercials saves us about 20 – 25 minutes for an hour long show. I also use it for getting HBO TV shows such as #1 Ladies Detective Agency. I could never pay a monthly fee for cable, dish or HBO for that matter, but paying two or three dollars for the shows to me is well worth the expense.

All my movies and music are under “My Music…etc.), and all hers are under “Shared”. Thats also where we can view our entire iPhoto library – streamed.

I like the new opening menu, but wish they could continue it as you drill down deeper somewhat. I'm glad they moved the “My Content” items back to the top of the menu for what its worth.

Internet radio is great, and easier now – so thats a plus.

I don't have any LP or DVD Extras content yet, so I can't comment there. Still waiting for a good choice in HD (with extras) to purchase one…

Besides watching our own ripped DVDs, my main use is watching video podcasts. I like that you can watch them without having to download and save them.

The main AppleTV feature I'm waiting for is TV show season rentals. I don't want to own them, just pay a minimal fee to watch them. Of course, the 24-hour limit has to go already!

EyeTV is just a TV tuner really with great Mac software for turning your mac into a PVR. It'll never happen on ATV though as Apple obviously want you to buy their content not record it for free.

As for 'genuine photo streaming' I meant the ability to stream it from an external hard disk instead of the 'faux' streaming the ATV employs whereby you actually have to sync your photos to it first (unless I have missed something somewhere along the line), kind of defeats the object of streaming.

We got a LD390 Blu-ray player with Netflix and Vudu streaming (1080p on the latter), and it has worked flawlessly. It can also play ripped DVDs as VOBs/Mpeg or MP4s right off a DLNA enabled PC. We paid less for it than the our 160MB ATV…. which has been relegated as primarily a streamer for things in my iTunes library.

Regardless of the user interface, Apple has been out tech'd on this device. They need a technology refresh. Vudu provides a better experience with streaming rather than downloading…. and the HD previews don't buffer half way through the way the ATV does.

Also, it would be sweet if they had an area showing when certain upcoming movies would be available on the apple tv so you could see what was coming.