Saw the AppleTV in Action

Unlike Ryan who pre-ordered an AppleTV and is already enjoying it, I had to go to the Apple Store to see an AppleTV in action. My first impression is ah, so-so.

First off, I love the integration and just being able to access my iTunes content on a TV. The Front Row interface is beautiful, and everything simply works. On the display unit, I brought up movies, televison shows, music, podcasts, and pictures. Lags and delays were very minimal if any.

The biggest issue I have with the AppleTV is not with the AppleTV per se but with the lack of HD content available. The Apple Store has 3 big Sony screens set up but all the movies, trailers, and television shows from iTunes look blurry, pixelated, and a little washed out (especially the black colors). Not sure which Sony HD displays are being used, but the overall demo of the AppleTV doesn’t completely wow me. That’s the reason for my ah, so-so first impression. Now if there were HD content ready for display then my opinion would be different.

The photos from iPhoto look great and take advantage of the high resolution available in the HD displays, but the “near-DVD quality” videos simply don’t do justice to the HD displays. Because of this, I can easily see users blaming the AppleTV for the inferior quality. I mentioned this lack of HD content to demo to an Apple Store employee, and she concurred. Let’s hope Apple provides some HD content to make the AppleTV demos more compelling.