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Jun 13
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Apple TVIphone | 5 views No Comments »
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Another mind blowing product developed by Apple Inc – the Apple TV. This device has changed the way we see TV. With an aim to provide users with high definition television experience, the Apple TV device has challenged the dynamics of regular TV viewership. Though it was announced on September 12th 2006 it started officially being shipped on March 21st 2007 and since then there has been no looking back for this device. With each year Apple upgraded the device and created more space, more refined tuning system and more flexibility.
FEATURES OF APPLE TV
The device provides an HDTV platform for users to view photos on Flickr, watch live streaming videos on YouTube, get latest songs and videos on iTUNES, purchase television shows, rent movies or subscribe to podcasts etc. Everything related to Internet media is captured on the Apple TV.
CONNECTIVITY
The device is flexible enough to be connected to a regular television or any other video device through a high definition multimedia interface (HDMI) or video connections.
The problem here is that the device does not have any other cable other than its own AC power cable, so a user has to buy an individual HDMI cable. For regular television it is necessary that it should support anamorphic widescreen other wise the image would be vertically stretched. If you want to connect to the internet, then an Ethernet connection or wireless protocols can be used.
FORMAT OF CONTENTS
Apple TV support videos that have H.264 codec with a resolution of 720p at 24 frame/sec, the MPEG-4 video codec and audio code is AAC, MP3, Apple Lossless, AIFF or WAV audio codecs. For picture contents the formats are JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, PNG.
LIMITATIONS
Though Apple TV does provide promising features, it is in many ways quite limited. It does not connect to popular sites such as Amazon, Picasso, Rhapsody, Last.fm, Shoutcast and many others. It has limited itself to only Apple related products or to big giants like YouTube. The rest of the sites are brutally ignored and this limited attribute is what is causing a slow acceptance of the device. It is considered just like another DVD player and not as a flexible media device that it has portrayed itself to be.Besides these there are many other limitations regarding media players, codecs, hardwares, softwares, remote control issues, USB port etc.
Though these are the current problems with the Apple TV, efforts are being made to gradually turn it into a flexible, global device that can give users a total control of media content available on the Internet. So all fingers crossed for a revolutionary break in TV viewership.
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