Return to the Apple TV as a Cable/Satellite Replacement

Three years ago I wrote an article here entitled Review of the Apple TV as a Cable/Satellite Replacement where I reviewed my use of the Apple TV device as a replacement for my satellite service. At the time, I recommended the device for its ease of use and savings potential. Returning to the device three years later, it hasn't kept up with the times.

The Apple TV is a good device. It offers an easy way to stream your music and video content from your computer to your televisions set. Unless you want to get into making modifications to the box that will void the warranty all your media needs to be in an iTunes compatible format. That's easy enough considering iTunes is one of the biggest sellers of music today and has a substantial library of movies and TV shows. The Apple TV even allows you to purchase and download this media directly to the device. It's an easy to setup device that can be used by just about anyone. It's a good device for what it does. Unfortunately, it doesn't do enough, anymore.

In the three years since my first review I used the Apple TV almost exclusively for watching movies and TV at home. It was a reliable device that saw multiple updates that included allowing me to rent movies directly on the Apple TV to download and watch. The updates to the device offered less improvements and more superficial changes as time went on. The interface for the device is in its third revision without a substantial change in the actual versatility of the device.

Not Quite That Cost Effective

In addition to the lack of updates to the Apple TV, the argument that it offers savings over paying a monthly Cable or Satellite bill seem to have been overstated. While you can certainly control how much you pay iTunes for content and could budget accordingly to maintain a cost lower than previous Cable or Satellite bills there comes the cost of content storage.

Assuming you keep all your downloaded iTunes content, which you probably would as re-downloading content you deleted would require contacting Apple Support, you need ample hard drive space to store that content as time goes on. I soon found that I needed to expand my storage, which set me back a few hundred dollars ever time expansion was needed. A new hard drive to store your media should be a one time cost but that's not always the case. I had to replace one of my hard drives due to errors, which resulted in several of my TV show files becoming unwatchable.

Not Keeping Up With The Competition

The lack of a substantial change to the Apple TV's capabilities and the need for increasing amounts of storage would be frustrations I would dismiss if alternatives weren't available. Put simply, the Apple TV just isn't worth the money, because cheaper solutions have become more viable.

Take, for example, Netflix. Netflix has integrated its Instant Watch streaming capabilities into a variety of devices. You can get TVs with Instant Watch capabilities built in. You can play Instant Watch titles on your PlayStation 3, XBox, TiVo, or Wii. Netflix also has a much broader library of film and television media to pick from. In addition, it can all be had on your TV for less than $10 a month.

One device that serves up Netflix streaming titles distinguishes itself in particular as a rival to the Apple TV device: Roku's Digital Video Player. Roku's player offers Netflix streaming, Amazon OnDemand, Pandora, MLB.tv, and many other video and audio services. Nothing is downloaded, everything is streamed over your internet connection, so you don't have to purchase additional hardware to enjoy a variety of media.

Amazon's OnDemand service offers advantages over iTunes in that it is cheaper and more versatile. Amazon's OnDemand video can be watched on the Roku Digital Video Player, through a TiVo, or on Amazon's website. If you are running a Windows PC you can also download your purchases or rentals from Amazon to play on the computer whenever you like or to watch on a mobile device.

In addition, a TV episode is on average $0.10 cheaper on Amazon. Amazon, like iTunes, offers users the ability to subscribe to a TV show so that they can download new episodes as they become available. Unlike iTunes, Amazon charges as the episodes become available and a user can cancel any time and won't be charged for future episodes.

Recent Developments

The Apple TV and iTunes just aren't competing with these services. The Roku Digital Video Player even offers the ability to watch live sports including Baseball and UFC. Between Amazon and Netflix the media available on iTunes is more than covered.

Even with the recent announcement of a refresh to the Apple TV, I suspect that mine will continue to see a decline in usage. Since I purchased my, substantially cheaper, Roku player, my Apple TV has started to gather dust. It doesn't go unused but I use it less and less every month. It is disappointing, because the Apple TV showed a lot of promise when I first purchased it and reviewed it three years ago. Its declining position in the market could, perhaps, be linked to Apple treating the device as a "hobby" or, possibly the closed nature of Apple and iTunes. The recent announcement of a Google TV product may make the Apple TV seem even less useful.