Apple TV Take 2 – No DVR?
Steve Jobs and Apple announced Apple TV Take 2 at the MacWorld Keynote this morning. Lots of cool features:
- Movie Rentals
- HD Movies with Dolby 5.1
- Podcasts – Audio & Video
- Photos from Flickr & .Mac
- YouTube Integration
- Buy TV Shows & Music
- Play iTunes Content & Photos
And it sells for just $229.
Obviously Apple is positioning itself to sell content and a hardware device to potential non-mac users, much like they did with the iPod. Steve Jobs even said they got it wrong with Apple TV Take 1, as did all the other players in this market. But Steve, I think you guys are still missing one important feature. DVR! As far as I know (and I might be wrong here), you can’t DVR your shows from your TV to your Apple TV. Only take content from Apple TV and display it on my television. Integrating digital recording would make this a powerful device, one that I’d consider buying to replace the DVR from my cable company.
Anyone out there aware of why this limitation is in place? Is it a hardware issue with the footprint they put in place for the device? Are there licensing issues with the media moguls. Hopefully I can find some answers to these questions and post them here.
January 15th, 2008 at 11:53 am
aTV lacks antenna in, cable card, and any sort of tuner. Since there is no way to get TV content into it to begin with there is no way to record TV content on it. There is no way a software update will fix this. This is a hardware issue.
I really wanted it to do DVR (might have to buy a Tivo HD today…) but I still think it is a compelling device due to the HD rentals. Downloads will win the HD format war.
January 15th, 2008 at 11:58 am
Right, that’s what I figured. Total bummer this isn’t built in. I’m curious to figure out why Apple is shying away from DVR in aTV.
April 10th, 2008 at 2:47 am
Hey dude,
Really very nice product. It’s features are also good.
As per my knowledge, I would say that it is hardware issue.