Let's see what JCPenney has on sale...

Anybody know if this has the juice to decode h.264 with all the options turned on?

not at 1080i or 1080p that's for sure

Was just looking at the official apple tv page to try to answer my question and noticed that they're charging $20 for an HDMI cable. Yeah that's overpriced but I was actually kind of impressed that they didn't want something like $50 for it.

So, right now I have a 50ft triple cable (S-Video, RCA L-R audio) connecting my video card and sound card to my receiver. I'm using my TV as a 2nd monitor, and I play videos in full-screen on the TV while I work on my monitor.

Will this let me do the same thing, but wirelessly?

I ask because I'm moving soon, and this could be awesome. I'd put off the purchase of the 24" LCD for a bit if this works like this...or better.

can't wait to see sandisk's futile attempt to copy yet another superior apple product

yay for sandisk's sansa mp3 player! /end sarcasm

just buy an xbox($150 tops) and a mod chip ($35) then whatever hard drive you want (let's say 120GB - $80) and a remote ($20), load it up with an evox auto install disk and you now have a system that will play anything, albeit wired for $285, plus you can play games and dvds on it. Course you can add a wireless ethernet adaptor for another $40 or so.

getting poor reviews. How is this a deal?

Hey #8, Your homemade gizmo costs more than AppleTV when you add in the wireless adapter...

#5 -

The AppleTV only outputs Component and HDMI. Make sure your TV handles that. And it probably won't play anything that isn't in iTunes format (h.264 or MPEG-4 video, AAC audio), so you'll need to re-rip or transcode.

For any semi-savvy user I'd suggest a cheap refurbed Mac Mini (there's a single core for $479 on Apple's site). It does really everything the Apple TV does (with the exception of component video), but also plays XviDs and DVDs, has a larger drive, and is a genuine computer to boot (bad pun). And it can even double as a cheap gigabit NAS / media server with external USB or Firewire drives.

Or as #8 said, an XBox works pretty well too.

They couldn't throw in a gigabit Nic? Even older generation mac mini's have 10/100/100. I declare this product Gey(tm)

The Apple TV can't even play >100mbps video. Then again, neither can most PCs. Most HD content today is 20mbps or less. Why would the AppleTV need gigabit?

You can get a D-Link MediaLounge DSM-520 for $150 on sale. Get two of them for the same price as the Apple TV, and put one on each of your TV's (if you have 2), and access all the content from your PC or NAS or whatever other storage device you have. Wirelessly. Or via wired ethernet. Go to www.dlink.com to find out more info. Got mine a couple of weeks ago and LOVE IT. Much better than having to burn stuff to disc to play in my Philips DVP-642 which would overheat and freeze. My ONLY gripe is that they didn't put a DVD player inside the DSM-520 also. There are a few minor annoyances with the UI/etc but those will most likely be addressed in firmware. And if not, well, I can deal -- it's really nice having everything connected. (edit: it even has a USB port from which you can play your media stored on thumb-drives and external hard drives!)

i'm with #14... got my DSM520 a while ago, works like a charm, just remember to enable UPnP, that way it will always see the media server...

anyway, my 2 cents...

My God! Run for your lives! It's a WOOT-OFF!

ha woot-off indeed

God damn you John_Foxen! You burp' thumbplum! Everything's a burp' travesty with you, man! And what was all that baconnaise about Vietnam? What the burp, has anything got to do with Vietnam? What the burp are you talking about?

#18, I finally got your Vietnam jokes.

Dude, they're easy to get after drinking a couple of white russians.