Dear Gang,
As some of you know, I'm an Apple whore. I've been using the Apple TV as the sole input to my televisions for some time now as I feel it the ultimate digital media hub. And, at the risk of starting a heated forum debate, I believe the Apple ecosystem (i.e. using the beautiful iTunes software to sort, store and buy media) is the best software solution in terms of "future-proof-ness". With the time and effort put in to "importing" media files (particularly video media files), I thought long and hard before starting to encode my DVDs via Handbrake as I only want to go through this arduous process once. The concept of a "light" hardware unit in the "front" having media "pushed" to it via a more "heavy" computer / server in the background is appealing. I also like that people in white coats in Cupertino are constantly updating the software across all the aforementioned pieces of hardware to keep the experience easy and up-to-date (as opposed to people in Struer occasionally finding the time to update the media software - ONLY FOR WINDOWS MACHINES).
I'm very happy having made this a decision to proceed with this solution. A side benefit that I didn't consider much originally, but that has proven especially nice, are the economic benefits of making this transition. I've gone from paying at least a few hundred dollars a month to several different companies (cable, telephone, internet, Netflix, etc.) to having fewer bills (one for my fiber internet connection, one for internet telephony, and one from Apple each time I purchase media) and lower costs. Plus, when I purchase media, it's mine forever.
That last point might not sound too pertinent, particularly with digital video media, as a common belief is that we want to own our music and "rent" or "subscribe" to all our video media. In general, I think this statement is true, and I find myself renting rather purchasing most of the new movies on iTunes. However, there's one advantage to "owning" the video content, too: if you have more than one home, you can set up an Apple TV at any other location and enjoy all your video and music content (assuming you own it). We have two vacation home, which may sound extravagant, but we actually own them with other couples. At each of these locations, I plan on placing an Apple TV in the near future. I'll either wait until the Apple TV gets more space (i.e. 1TB and above) or Apple allows for the use of an easily integrated media server (something that I believe is coming soon). I'll thus have the majority of my media, which includes a lot of Disney and Pixar videos as I have small children, at these locales.
With this concept in mind, I found it odd that some of you are suggesting that iTunes has to be running on a background computer for an Apple TV to truly function well. I disagree with this assertion. I find the Apple TV to function extremely well with the computers in the background (to which it's synching) shut "off". Now, ideally, it's best to have internet connections to the Apple TV running, particularly when wanting to buy or rent new media or play back previously purchased media. However, if you're using the Apple TV to simply play back stuff that you've "imported" from physical media, you don't need the internet connection (which is the beauty of using it in a vacation home as you don't have to pay a cable or internet bill to access your digital media library).
You may argue that "protected" media purchased via the iTunes store can only be played with an internet connection. I've only found this to be true the first time an individual "protected" file is played via an individual Apple TV. Once you've at least initiated that, it even plays the protected files without an internet connection (i.e. it's the perfect stand-alone media solution for a second home IMHO).
Beonut1 / Mark D
P.S. As an aside, I want to repeat my previously mentioned belief that B&O would serve themselves well to stop putz-ing with digital media hub stuff (i.e. trying to design digital hub hardware and software), leave that part to Apple (remember: iTunes works with both Apple machines AND Windows machines!), and concentrating on building great end-experience technology like their beautiful self-amplified speakers and TV flat panels.
