Apple TV - Taking out the middle man!

I do love the idea of Media Center and streaming video to your home theater system. In a way Apple TV is the Media Center and also is a streaming device!

If you want to pull files from your itunes or from your pc or mac you can stream it to your televsion. You can also save file directrly to the unit "taking out the middle man" and play it when ever you want.

It's a Media Center, a wireless streaming device, network storage unit!

Now that it has a 160GB drive, it's worth the price point upgrade from the 40GB model.


System Requirements
• Widescreen (16:9) enhanced definition or high definition television with an HDMI, DVI, or component video input
• Wired or wireless network
• iTunes 7.1 (available as a free download)
• Broadband Internet connection (fees may apply)
• Macintosh computer with Mac OS X v10.3.9 or later; or PC with Windows XP Home or Professional (SP2).

Media Spec Requirements

Video formats supported:

H.264 and protected H.264 (from iTunes Store):

VIDEO:
• up to 5 Mbps, Progressive Main Profile (CAVLC) with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps (maximum resolution 1280x720 @ 24fps, 960x540 @ 30fps)
• iTunes Store purchased video, 320x240 or 640x480

MPEG-4:
• up to 3 Mbps, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps (maximum resolution 720x432 @ 30 fps)

Audio
• Audio formats supported: AAC (16 to 320 Kbps); protected AAC (from iTunes store); MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps); MP3 VBR; Apple Lossless; AIFF; WAV

It means that MP4 encoded content will be near DVD quality. You can convert Divx\Avi ACC encoded files to MP4 720x432 with the cucusoft Apple TV converter bundle.