160GB Apple TV for $150

ivansfo

I just noticed Apple has lowered the price of its 160GB Apple TV to just $150! I remember them selling for $329. Any cheaper, I'd consider getting another as a backup.

For those of you looking for low cost music server, this is an excellent choice. I've had mine for just over a year now and love it.

I just hope Apple isn't phasing out Apple TVs with built in storage.

toucanet

ivansfo,

From a layman's view, how does this work?

I've been looking at getting it, however, I can only stomach a certain amount of the sales people at the Apple store near me.

EDUBAG

could you point me in the right direction to get one? i cannot find them at this price

thanks,

ed

Sherardp

I bought one while I was back stateside and it is awesome. It works perfectly, no lag in video streams and has Airplay. Highly recommended.

I bought the 2nd gen btw.

mdaudioguy

Lasareath wrote: »

I'd buy the new one. it's only $99

But has no internal hdd

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_ipod/family/apple_tv?mco=MTM3NTM1Nzk

One other difference is that the older model has analog stereo outputs, while the new model only has optical and HDMI.

The online apple store shows out of stock for the old ones, though.

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB189LL/A?mco=MTY3ODQ5OTY

ivansfo

EDUBAG wrote: »

could you point me in the right direction to get one? i cannot find them at this price

thanks,

ed

I was looking at Amazon.com. In stock right now. Free shipping and no tax where I live.

ivansfo

toucanet wrote: »

ivansfo,

From a layman's view, how does this work?

Let me try.

I wanted a device where I can store ALL my CDs so I don't have to dig through my CD collection any more. And I wanted to do this without having a computer running all the time. Some people like to stream video and music but I like to keep things simple. My computer is only on when I want to do work.

If you are familar with how an iPOD works, then you can simply think of the AppleTV (HDD version) as a stationary iPOD but with VIDEO outputs and a DIGITAL AUDIO output.

The VIDEO output connects to your TV which then becomes the interface you use to control song selection, playlist, etc. The DIGITAL AUDIO output connects to your audio system which typically means an AVR or DACs. You can think of the AppleTV device as a replacement for your CD player.

So when you want to listen to a song in your music collection, you simply need to turn on your AppleTV and audio system. No computer needed. You'll need to initially turn on your TV too so you can choose which song to play. Or you can put the AppleTV on shuffle play and then turn OFF your TV afterwards. I leave my TV on because I like to see the name of the song along with the album art.

To get your CDs into the AppleTV, you first must have a computer running iTunes so you can import all your CDs. If you care about audio quality, you should import all your CDs in a lossless format such as WAV or Apple Lossless. Once you have all your songs in iTunes, your entire music collection that is stored in iTunes gets copied into the hard disk inside the AppleTV whenever you do a "SYNC". Once the AppleTV is synchronized with the iTunes database, your computer no longer needs to be left on.

Another slick feature of AppleTV is that you can not even bother connecting it to a TV at all. iPhones and iPod Touch can be used as remotes to control the AppleTV. I believe the AppleTV interface gets displayed directly on the iPhone GUI. I don't have this ability.

I think that pretty much sums it up for using an AppleTV as a music server. As far as sound quality between the AppleTV and a basic CD player, I can't tell the difference.

toucanet

ivansfo wrote: »

Let me try.

I wanted a device where I can store ALL my CDs so I don't have to dig through my CD collection any more. And I wanted to do this without having a computer running all the time. Some people like to stream video and music but I like to keep things simple. My computer is only on when I want to do work.

If you are familar with how an iPOD works, then you can simply think of the AppleTV (HDD version) as a stationary iPOD but with VIDEO outputs and a DIGITAL AUDIO output.

The VIDEO output connects to your TV which then becomes the interface you use to control song selection, playlist, etc. The DIGITAL AUDIO output connects to your audio system which typically means an AVR or DACs. You can think of the AppleTV device as a replacement for your CD player.

So when you want to listen to a song in your music collection, you simply need to turn on your AppleTV and audio system. No computer needed. You'll need to initially turn on your TV too so you can choose which song to play. Or you can put the AppleTV on shuffle play and then turn OFF your TV afterwards. I leave my TV on because I like to see the name of the song along with the album art.

To get your CDs into the AppleTV, you first must have a computer running iTunes so you can import all your CDs. If you care about audio quality, you should import all your CDs in a lossless format such as WAV or Apple Lossless. Once you have all your songs in iTunes, your entire music collection that is stored in iTunes gets copied into the hard disk inside the AppleTV whenever you do a "SYNC". Once the AppleTV is synchronized with the iTunes database, your computer no longer needs to be left on.

Another slick feature of AppleTV is that you can not even bother connecting it to a TV at all. iPhones and iPod Touch can be used as remotes to control the AppleTV. I believe the AppleTV interface gets displayed directly on the iPhone GUI. I don't have this ability.

I think that pretty much sums it up for using an AppleTV as a music server. As far as sound quality between the AppleTV and a basic CD player, I can't tell the difference.

Thanks ivansfo for the explanation.

toucanet

Lasareath wrote: »

free shipping, 28 mins left, at $112.50 now

http://cgi.ebay.com/Apple-TV-160GB-HD-FREE-SHIPPING-/220700225914?pt=PCC_Drives_Storage_Internal&hash=item3362c2317a

No Affiliation

Is the difference between this one and the $99.00 one the internal HDD and the component outputs? Is the streaming video quality the same?

danz1906

Lasareath wrote: »

I'd buy the new one. it's only $99

But has no internal hdd

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_ipod/family/apple_tv?mco=MTM3NTM1Nzk

Agreed, I bought the new Apple TV for $99.00 and 500gb hdd
for $59.99.

newrival

ivansfo wrote: »

I just noticed Apple has lowered the price of its 160GB Apple TV to just $150! I remember them selling for $329. Any cheaper, I'd consider getting another as a backup.

For those of you looking for low cost music server, this is an excellent choice. I've had mine for just over a year now and love it.

I just hope Apple isn't phasing out Apple TVs with built in storage.

Unfortunately the future is as you fear. Apple is phasing out hard drive storage. and is actually trying to phase out the great majority of local storage on most of their hardware (laptops, tablets, etc.) in favor of moving everything to "the cloud." And OS10.7 Lion is just a small vision of whats to come.

txcoastal1

newrival wrote: »

Unfortunately the future is as you fear. Apple is phasing out hard drive storage. and is actually trying to phase out the great majority of local storage on most of their hardware (laptops, tablets, etc.) in favor of moving everything to "the cloud." And OS10.7 Lion is just a small vision of whats to come.

Cloud is the future of storage, "scary part is who has access?"....Amazon's core business is cloud and was around before there sales website

newrival

Yeah, the access does bother me, but I just hate not physically having something. It's the control issues. I utilize offsite storage for home and office, but I couldnt just hand over all my data to a farm without having a copy on my desk or comfortably whirring in my computer's case.