Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Like everything Apple makes, this device is lovely and elegant and intuitive to use. If you're content buying things from the iTunes store and streaming videos from its short list of approved partners, you will probably adore this device. I was really disappointed. And I will tell you why. The problem is that if you'd like to do ANYTHING else, no matter how standard it might be on similar devices, you are out of luck. Want to watch that Blu-Ray you ripped into Xvid/avi? Nope. An .mkv file... half the tvs and Blu-Ray players out today can do that. Not your ATV. It only plays H264 stuff ripped into its formats. How about that camera phone video you made of your kid? Hardly. Maybe you made that video in one of the short list of approved formats. I hope you have it on a Mac or a PC running bloated old iTunes, because your shared network folders mean nothing to ATV. What if I just put it on a thumb drive and plug it in? Sorry, no USB ports. So if you're on Linux or you just don't like iTunes, you're S.O.L. I'm told there are elaborate ways to convert files and funnel them over from iTunes, but when competing devices offer plug n' play, how is that not an annoying hassle? How about streaming stuff... Maybe you'll just watch Hulu. Nope. (EDIT: Hulu has been added.) Amazon Instant Video? Nope. Blockbuster On Demand? Nope. Maybe listen to Pandora? Nope. Spotify? Don't kid yourself. Even my phone can play stuff off a UPnP server. Can't Apple TV? Nope again. No device has every service, every file format, but the ATV only has the ones that don't interfere with their moneymaking efforts. You could try and jailbreak it to get it to be more flexible... but there isn't a working jailbreak for Apple TV 3. If you browse through other compact media players, you're going to find that things like mkv/xvid support, USB ports, Hulu, and Pandora aren't just available, they're increasingly standard. Half the Blu-Ray players coming out today can do much of this stuff, many of the tvs, too. But even though the iPhone offers similar functionality to competing phones, the iPad offers similar features to other tablets, and Apple laptops serve similar needs to PC laptops, the Apple TV isn't really analogous to other home media players at all. It lacks most of the functionality those devices have in common and exists primarily as an aesthetically pleasing way of expanding your existing relationship with Apple and its partners onto your television set. If this is all you need/want, consider this a four star review. But for me, looking for an all purpose media player, I felt really let down. If you want your media player to play YOUR media, your way or if you're interested in services that have any competing interest to the iTunes store, best look elsewhere. It's not that this is a bad device, it's just that it's not really a true peer to similar devices. As a post-script, please let me add that I'm not antagonistic to Apple products AT ALL. I have an iPad I adore. I also have a Windows desktop, an Android phone, and a Linux laptop. I'm just looking for the best stuff. I'm not pushing any OS-specific agenda. If you're an all-Apple-all-the-time person, you may love the Apple TV. But I wanted to offer my review for people who aren't.