What the AppleTV needs to be successful

What the AppleTV needs to be successful.

The AppleTV is a brilliant strategy marked by a severely flawed design. The current AppleTV is crippled in several ways. I’ll discuss here its problems and what I think Apple could do to correct them.

1. It’s too small.

Some may see the size of the AppleTV as an advantage. It isn’t and here’s why. There is absolutely no reason for the AppleTV to be the same or similar in size to the Mac mini or Airport Extreme. It’s meant to complement a media center with devices much larger like DVRs, DVD/BluRay/HD-DVD playback devices, cable boxes, (God forbid) VCRs, audio components, and the like. It’s very easy for something the size of an AppleTV to get lost in a jungle of components like these. Not to mention that several features of the AppleTV are compromised to make it fit into its case. More about those later.

2. No optical drive.

The AppleTV was designed to complement, not replace, several other components in a typical media center. This is a mistake. Most newer televisions have one or two HDMI inputs, and some number of component and/or composite inputs. Since the HDMI inputs are the ones most valued for digital video, newer components like optical drives, game systems, and others are fighting for the same space. So along with the AppleTV, there are several other devices all wanting to use the same inputs. The AppleTV needs an optical drive to replace a standard DVD player, not act as a separate component. The optical drive should be accessible and capable of being replaced with newer technology as it emerges. Maybe even put multiple HDMI inputs/outputs and have other components brought up through Front Row.

3. Quality of video from iTunes

The unit as designed is meant to take content from iTunes or a folder filled with audio or video and output it to an HDTV. The problem is that there is no High-definition content being sold on iTunes. I’ve seen the AppleTV hooked up to a very nice Sony HDTV at a few different Apple Stores now and the video as shown is terrible. Check it out yourself the next time you’re at an Apple Store that has one displayed. Bring up through the AppleTV menu (Front Row) the video snippet they have for “The Incredibles”. The part I’ve seen is when little Dash is being chased through the jungle. Lot’s of very well done computer animation of him running past trees and over water and through the AppleTV it looks like crap. The problem is that video from iTunes really wasn’t meant for the big screen, but on small by comparison computer displays and iPods. It really doesn’t hold up that well and won’t until iTunes offers better quality video for sale. Sure you can take your existing DVDs or whatever and using HandBrake or something similar rip them onto a hard drive in higher quality, but this is not the easy solution that Apple is typically known for. Use the “Mom” test. Would you buy this for your mother and expect her to be able to do all you need to do now for additional higher quality video?

4. Hard Drives are small and slow

This is an easy fix for Apple if they would only get out of this mind set that everything has to be as small as humanly possible (told you I’d get back to this). Make the case bigger, stop using slower, smaller, and more expensive laptop hard drives. Reduces the costs AND increases performance. Sounds like a win to me.

5. No expansion

I was complaining earlier about the AppleTV taking up space with all those other components. This is where expansion can fit in. This would require cooperation from the cable companies (which means it will never happen), but how about a card input as an alternative to those hideous cable conversion boxes we’re forced to “rent”. A card input could take the digital signal straight from the companies and output it through the AppleTV. A removable top or bottom would allow us to replace the hard drive or optical drive. Most people wouldn’t do it, but I bet the some people would take advantage of it and the techs responsible for working on these units when they break would be very appreciative as well.

6. Crappy remote.
Yes, I’m sure there are some of you that enjoy the simplicity of the AppleTV/Mac mini/MacBook/iMac remote. I’m not one of them. Again, get to the heart of the matter and make it simple. One remote kept up to date via a USB cable to your computer or the AppleTV itself to control all the components of your media center. Belkin I believe currently makes one that pretty much does just that.

That’s about it. Those are my complaints and possible fixes for what ails the AppleTV. We’ll see in a few weeks what Apple may do about the AppleTV at Macworld. Have some complaints of your own? Post them here.