Movie Tech is a feature on Criticize This! that looks at how technology is affecting our movie-viewing habits. In our first piece we look at devices capable of handling all your digital media needs from the comfort of your couch.
If you’re an entertainment junkie like myself you have many devices in your house that you can use to play games, watch movies, surf the web, stream music, and what not. But trying to decide on one overall device that can do it all — without confusing the whole family — can prove difficult. I’ve tested a few options over the last couple of months and these are my findings as to what offers the most features for the best money without having to write an instruction guide for someone else to use.
Apple TV 2.0
Price: $119 CDN
Ease of use: Simple
Main use: Video
Comes with: Apple TV unit, Apple remote, power cable
Required/recommended additions: HDMI cable, iTunes account, Ethernet cable
The nice thing about the Apple TV is that it’s extremely small and fits perfectly under an LCD TV (blending in so well most people won’t even know it’s there). The only option to connect it to your TV straight from the box is via an HDMI cable (not included) so the setup is a breeze. As the device relies solely on streaming content over the Internet it comes with built-in WiFi and an Ethernet port (I recommend using the Ethernet port for a more reliable connection).
What it can do: The Apple TV is great at streaming video from the iTunes store, including movies in high-def that you can rent or buy directly from your couch (you need an iTunes account to do this). It also streams Netflix and handles the service better than most Netflix-ready devices. You can access YouTube on it if you desire, and it can stream H.264 video content and music you have stored on any computer in your house running iTunes. It can also connect to Flickr or a computer with iPhoto if you wish to look at photos on it with the family.
Bonus: You can use your iPhone or iPod touch to control the Apple TV via the free Remote app Apple offers. This allows you to use your handheld device as a keyboard as well, making it easier to enter passwords or search terms.
What it can’t do: Since there is no accessible internal storage and no USB port to connect an external hard drive, you can’t store anything locally making it useless if your network goes down. It also can’t play different types of video files, such as content in WMV or AVI format. There is no web browser. And although it is a high-def device, the highest quality it can handle is 720p. I should also point out that in Canada users can’t rent television shows directly from the device.
Final thoughts: The Apple TV is easy to use, a good price, and with rumours of iPhone-like apps coming for it down the road, it could become more of a must-have device than it currently is. With the limited options for viewing different video formats though, and with no internal storage, it fails at being the one device for my entertaining needs.
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