Computer, television learning to get along

This may sound un-American, but some of my friends don't subscribe to a cable or satellite television package. They're not anti-TV. They just choose not to throw away money on hundreds of channels of programming they never watch.

For them, the iTunes approach has been a boon: Buy just the movies or TV shows they want to watch by episode or by season.

But there are tradeoffs: viewing shows on the computer is generally not comfortable, and for many people seems like work (because that's where work generally happens). Synchronizing the content to a video-enabled iPod is fine on the go, but the screen is too small for long viewing.

Hooking up the computer to a television directly, which many people have done with the Mac mini, works best, but you're still dealing with a computer interface (even using the Front Row software included on recent Macs) — more work.

The just-released Apple TV solves those limitations, bridging the media on your computers to the television in the living room. And it does so with an emphasis on the quality of the experience, so you can concentrate on the media and forget that computers are involved in the process.

Of course, the Apple TV is a computer, one that runs a modified version of Mac OS X. But that's hidden behind a polished interface controlled by Apple's diminutive remote that features just six buttons arranged like the iPod's click wheel.

The unit itself is a silver, round-edged box measuring 7.7 inches square and 1.1 inch tall, making it something that's intended to fit well with your existing home video and audio equipment. (It runs pretty warm, though, so you wouldn't want to stack other components on top of it.)

It connects to the TV via high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) or component video cables (which you must purchase separately); component and optical audio outputs deliver sound to a TV or stereo system.

Not all TVs compatible

But this cabling points to the first of a few limitations. It requires a relatively new widescreen high-definition television (HDTV) or an enhanced-definition TV capable of at least 480p playback, which is 480 progressive (full-screen) frames per second; many HDTVs are capable of 720p or 1080i (interlaced) playback.

Although not advertised in the specifications, the Apple TV also will work with recent standard-definition TVs that include component (not composite) inputs. But people with older, yet perfectly functional, televisions are out of luck.

For my testing, I connected the Apple TV to a beautiful 40-inch Sony Bravia KDL-40S2400 HDTV (not mine to keep, unfortunately) using a single HDMI cable that carries video and audio.

To get media to the television from my computer, I set up the Apple TV to connect to my secure home wireless network. You also can connect an Ethernet cable for wired networks; if both are present, the Apple TV defaults to the Ethernet connection.

Sort of a big-screen iPod

Consistent with Apple's digital hub strategy, the Apple TV acts as an extension of your Mac or PC — think of the Apple TV as a cool iPod with a really large screen. Like an iPod, it synchronizes videos, music and photos with one computer, copying the files to the Apple TV's internal 40 GB hard drive.

In fact, the Apple TV also syncs information about where you've paused a movie or audiobook, so that if you watch or listen for a while on the TV, then sync with the computer, and then sync your iPod, the program picks up where you left off on the iPod; sync the iPod again later and the Apple TV knows where you last paused.

If your library exceeds 40 GB (and as you add more video content, it will), you can fine-tune the selectors that determine what gets automatically copied. For example, you can choose to copy only the five most recent unwatched movies to save disk space. To be honest, 40 GB seems a bit skimpy (more so because it's actually 33 GB of usable space), and I'm sure that future Apple TV models will differentiate themselves by offering more storage.

Copying in background

Fortunately, synchronizing doesn't interrupt using the Apple TV. Copying happens in the background, and although the first sync will take a while depending on your network connection, you can start watching most content right away by streaming it over the network. The exception is photos, which can be viewed only after they're copied to the Apple TV's hard drive.

Streaming is also the way to access media on up to five other computers on your network. Once you pair the Apple TV with a copy of iTunes on another computer (by entering a five-digit code the Apple TV supplies), it can play back iTunes content, including AAC-protected files from the iTunes Store; the Apple TV does not count as one of your five iTunes authorizations.

According to Apple, you can also stream from one computer to multiple Apple TVs in the house, depending on the power of the computer and the speed of your network. However, I wasn't able to test this since I have just one Apple TV.

Some movies look sludgy

In most of my testing, streaming movies (purchased from iTunes and also ripped from my own DVD collection using MediaFork, handbrake.m0k.org) and music worked flawlessly. The exception was an HD movie shot in 1080i HDV format I exported from iMovie HD using the new Apple TV QuickTime preset, which saves the video as 720p. The playback stuttered a bit over an 802.11g wireless connection, but performed smoothly over an 802.11n connection using Apple's latest AirPort Extreme base station.

However, this brings me to the next limitation of the Apple TV, which I think will cause potential buyers to either shrug their shoulders or avoid this incarnation altogether. Given that the device requires an HDTV, the "near-DVD-quality" movies sold by the iTunes Store tend to look a little sludgy — not bad, and certainly quite acceptable, but not up to the level that I believe someone who's invested in an HDTV and a $300 Apple TV will be happy with.

You can improve the quality by ripping your own DVDs at relatively high bitrates, but since the Apple TV is more than likely going to be sitting on top of a DVD player, the only advantage to this approach is to maintain an online catalog.

As I said, for most people, this probably isn't an issue; being able to stream music effectively from multiple sources and play photo slideshows (which do appear in glorious high resolution) makes the Apple TV worthwhile. But I know some people who will hope for a future capability to purchase high-def iTunes content.

Limited to Pro Logic

My few remaining qualms are minor, and will be remedied, I hope, by updates (the Settings screen includes an Update Software item that checks for new software over the Internet). The Apple TV can access Internet content in the form of movie trailers and previews, but you can't purchase content directly; granted, doing so would require more than just an update, but the potential is there to take advantage of people's immediate-gratification triggers.

Also, for a device that hooks up to high-quality video hardware, the Apple TV's audio output is limited to Dolby Pro Logic, not Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound. And, oddly, you can't use the Apple remote to adjust volume, something you can do with Front Row.

Despite my few reservations, the Apple TV is compelling because Apple has done the living room right. The quality of the experience stands out the most, supported by the overall polish and attention to detail ranging from the easy navigation to the drifting photo screensaver that kicks into gear to prevent screen burn-in on plasma displays.

My friends who eschew cable TV can stop huddling around a laptop and watch the shows they want on the big screen.

Jeff Carlson and Glenn Fleishman write the Practical Mac column for Personal Technology and about technology in general for The Seattle Times and other publications.

Send questions to carlsoncolumn@mac.com.

More Practical Mac columns at www.seattletimes.com/columnists.