Apple TV, is it worth it?

Any thoughts? I saw one on eBay for $175 and my family loves to watch movies.
How is HD content? I heard it was not as good.

 

HD is 720p for the Apple TV.

It really depends on you...do you like to/do you use iTunes a lot? If so, you may enjoy using it, and it is very easy to use, absolutely.

 

My father got one for his place, and loves the thing.

He spent damn near a week straight just watching videos on YouTube on his TV.

Personally I don't think most people can actually see the difference in video quality from 720p to 1080p, regardless of what they claim. I used to be a cable guy, and occasionally when people would say "now make sure this thing works at 1080i/p", I'd show them 720p, then show them 720p again... And wouldn't you believe it, it was 100 times better with a placebo. I'd then change it to 1080i/p (depending on their TV), and they wouldn't notice any change.

If you would enjoy renting movies from the AppleTV, or would use it's AirTunes capability, then it would be a great device to have.

 

I do like iTunes and is my primary media usage. I have a 720p/1080i HDTV and yes there is no difference, unless you're close to the TV, between 1080p vs. 720p.

What I'm concerned about is that do Rentals come out right when DVD releases come out?

 

Currently they have them out about 1 month after the release, but it will be sped up eventually when they get caught up on the older movies that they are adding to the library.

 

Another thing you have to worry about is if your current library of videos is compatible. Apple tv can only play h264 and mp4 videos.

 

Looks like I'm going to have to wait.

 

http://www.popcornhour.com/onlinestore/
I'm not sure if this is in line with what your looking for but you might want to take a look.

 

The HD content of iTunes is pretty poor. It's only marginally better than standard definition, because they use heavier compression on the HD stuff. What you're really buying is convinience. With a fast connection (5Mbps+), you can immediately start playing a movie when you click buy. If you're looking for a crisp HD image, get a PS3 or wait until Blu-Ray players get cheaper.

 

Not on TV but on Computer screen i can easily spot the difference between 720p & 1080p. But on HDTV if u stand at a distance of 2 feet then u can see otherwise on HDTV's 720p is more than enough for next couple of years.

Rite there aint even any channels of 720p in the world. donno about US.
720p HDTV will last atleast 10 more years easily. and 1080p channels wont be there for atleast next 7-8 years.
1080p cant be broadcasted.. its tooo huge of the bandwidth.

So 720p will be more than enough for next 7-8 years.

 

Just get neflix? An upscaled DVD looks better than apples "HD" content. Blu-ray just looks fantastic.