Apple TV®

Easiest media player you can buy

Being someone that owns two generations of these devices (this model which is the 3rd generation and the previous 2nd generation model), I can tell you this is the easiest to use media player...Read complete review

Being someone that owns two generations of these devices (this model which is the 3rd generation and the previous 2nd generation model), I can tell you this is the easiest to use media player on the market. It's also a no brainer to purchase one of these if you have any iPad, an iPhone (3GS, 4, 4s, or 5), an iPod Touch (3rd generation 32/64, 4th gen, or 5th gen), a Mac, or if you're an avid user of iTunes.

The setup is fairly simple. You connect the power cord to the device, connect an HDMI cable between the device and the TV, and plug it in; optionally, you can also connect an ethernet cord for wired networking and a TOSLINK cable if that's how you feed surround sound audio to your surround receiver or sound bar. If you're connecting to WiFi, I highly recommend using a dual-band router; if you don't already have one, Staples carries a large selection at reasonable prices. I've found that my AppleTV devices work much better on a 5GHz network than they do at the traditional 2.4 GHz.

Once connected to the network, the device may prompt you to do a firmware update. Firmware updates add new features and fix things that don't work right, so I highly recommend updating when you can. You'll also want to setup the iTunes integration; you'll be able to use your iOS devices (with an app) as remote controls, and you'll be able to play movies, music, TV shows, podcasts, and other media in your iTunes collection on the AppleTV this way. You'll also be able to access your PhotoStream directly from the AppleTV.

Access to the different services will have a similar look and feel, meaning that the way you'd access Vimeo would be similar to how you'd access YouTube. Netflix and HuluPlus access is also very similar to each other. Store access for movies, TV shows, and podcasts is also similar to each other and straightforward. Just play with it and you'll learn it quickly.

Another reviewer mentioned jailbreaking. There is no jailbreak for the AppleTV 5 at this time, so don't plan on adding functionality beyond what Apple integrates into the device, or what can be added through AirPlay-enabled apps on your phone. If you don't care too much about shared media playback through iTunes, or AirPlay from your iOS, Mac, or iTunes, consider a Roku box instead, as Roku is meant for multiple kinds of streaming services. In fact, I can tell you that if you don't use iTunes and you don't have any Apple devices or computers, I can't recommend the AppleTV to you because it'll be nothing more than a box you'd access streaming services with, and not the highly functional box that it is for those of us that do use Apple devices, computers, and iTunes.

All in all, if you have Apple devices or you use iTunes, there's not really a reason to not get the AppleTV.

Also, on a technical side-note - If you have an AppleTV 2 and a 1080p TV, upgrade. If you have an AppleTV 2 and a 720p TV, it's not really worth the upgrade. If you have an AppleTV 2 and an older HDTV (capable of 1080i but not 720p), upgrade; the AppleTV 2 only runs your older HDTV at 480p, where the AppleTV 3 would run it at 1080i.