Tech Gear Thread

[Mike]

Early bird gets the wrom... I got mine at about 8 am from barnes and noble.com. I'll see if I can find anymore.

[b_beau_09]

I didn't hear about it until last night while I was browsing from my phone in bed.  I'm going to check the best buy next to my office after work.  I'm not going to be upset if I miss out on it.. it'd just be a perk for me really.. with all the tech crap I have laying around, it's really unnecessary. haha

[Mike]

amazon and sears have yet to drop there prices. Keep an eye out.

[b_beau_09]

will do. Thanks

[gargantula99]

What's the general consensus with apple tv?  I know some of you have it, just trying to get opinions on it before I make a purchase.  My wife and I finally sat Down and figured out the whole home shaing thing with iTunes.  I know we're a little bit behind, but whatever.  Let me know and thanks in advance.

[b_beau_09]

I just recently got the apple tv 2 (the newer tiny one) for free with credit card reward points..  Prices for HD movies are about the same as comcast ondemand prices.. comcast seems to get newer movies faster though.  I've never used the pay for a single episode of a tv show before because I can't justify spending a buck on a single episode of some show to watch one time.  If you have an extensive movie library on your computer, then that's where it can come in handy..  you sync it with your itunes on your computer through your home network (it can do wifi out of the box) and you can watch anything you have in itunes through it on your tv.  So say you want to listen to music you have on your computer but don't have loud enough speakers, or your home entertainment system is setup, you can listen through it wirelessly without having to hook up your computer to those speakers.  Also, if you're watching something on your computer, you can pause it, then send it to your apple tv and continue watching it on your big screen instead of computer monitor.

My fiance and I do use it quite often to watch movies, and such.  And renting the movies is easy as well, as long as you have it set up with your itunes account with a credit card or debit card.

[Mike]

So it's akin to streaming netflix?

[alpha]

^^ So I just read that as Media Center plus Netflix subscription.

[gargantula99]

Brian, so I take it that you really like it and would recommend it. 

[timot_one]

So it's akin to streaming netflix?

I'd say it's somewhat similar, but you do have the option to own instead of rent.  I have a fairly large music and video collection from stuff I already owned and purchased on iTunes.  I also have a 1st generation Apple TV and have been very happy with it.  I prefer it over the 2nd generation Apple TV because it has a hard drive, so I don't have to worry about keeping it linked to my computer to stream content.  It's also cool to bring with you if you go to someone else's house or go out of town.

[b_beau_09]

^^ So I just read that as Media Center plus Netflix subscription.

That's pretty much it, except you have to pay for each movie, there's no monthly fee.  if I remember correctly, you can use netflix with it.. but I dont have netflix so I don't remember.

Brian, so I take it that you really like it and would recommend it. 

For being free (because of my rewards points) it wasn't a bad "purchase".  it has definitely gotten it's fair share of use in my house and will be getting more once I purchase a surround sound system.  Not to mention, I hate comcast and don't want to give them any more money for on demand movies.

I'd say it's somewhat similar, but you do have the option to own instead of rent.  I have a fairly large music and video collection from stuff I already owned and purchased on iTunes.  I also have a 1st generation Apple TV and have been very happy with it.  I prefer it over the 2nd generation Apple TV because it has a hard drive, so I don't have to worry about keeping it linked to my computer to stream content.  It's also cool to bring with you if you go to someone else's house or go out of town.

That's the one thing I wasn't happy with.. no hard drive.  But with it hooked up to my home network over wi-fi, I don't really think about it.  All of my content is still easily accessible that way.

[timot_one]

^^ So I just read that as Media Center plus Netflix subscription.

That's pretty much it, except you have to pay for each movie, there's no monthly fee.  if I remember correctly, you can use netflix with it.. but I dont have netflix so I don't remember.

Yes, it does have netflix on the one you have.  If you could get netflix on the first generation AppleTV, I'd be in love.

[gargantula99]

Ok.  So I'm about 700 points away from my $80 rewards from my credit card.  I'll just use that and just add in the extra $20 to get it.  Thanks for your help Brian.  Greatly appreciated.

[b_beau_09]

^^ So I just read that as Media Center plus Netflix subscription.

That's pretty much it, except you have to pay for each movie, there's no monthly fee.  if I remember correctly, you can use netflix with it.. but I dont have netflix so I don't remember.

Yes, it does have netflix on the one you have.  If you could get netflix on the first generation AppleTV, I'd be in love.

Oh ok, thanks.  I've just never been overly impressed with the selection on netflix, so I have never signed up.

Ok.  So I'm about 700 points away from my $80 rewards from my credit card.  I'll just use that and just add in the extra $20 to get it.  Thanks for your help Brian.  Greatly appreciated.

No problem man.  Hope you like it.

[timot_one]

I've never used netflix, so I don't know what I'm missing.  At this point, I have enough stuff to keep me occupied without adding netflix.