What is Apple TV? Everything about it

One of questions we get asked
more is 'What is an
Apple TV box?'. Here, we explain
what Apple TV actually is. See
Apple TV review (2012).
It's fair to say that Apple TV is a
little bit confusing to the
uninitiated. The first thing to
understand is that it's not, as its
name would suggest, a TV made
by Apple.
It is actually Apple's
own media streamer, and it's
pretty much as simple as that.

What's a media streamer, you
ask? It's a device that plugs into
your TV or HD TV and allows you
to watch films, movie trailers, TV
shows, home videos, photos and
other media from either
computers or devices on your
home network, or the internet.
Unlike the first-generation Apple
TV, the second- and third-
generation (which both cost £99)
have no internal hard disk, so
they can only play content over
your network. Take a look at
Group test: what's the best TV?
The main difference from an
Apple TV box to all other digital
streamers/receivers, is that Apple
TV is set up to work seamlessly
with Apple products such as
Macs and iOS devices like the
iPhone or iPad. See also WD TV
Live media streamer review.
What is Apple TV?

In 2008 Steve Jobs managed to
explain what Apple TV is as
succinctly as anyone has
managed to date. He said "Apple
TV was designed to be an
accessory for iTunes and your
computer. It was not what people
wanted. We learned what people
wanted was movies, movies,
movies."
Of course, the box does more
than just "movies, movies,
movies”. While the Apple TV box
can be used to play movies and
video on your TV wirelessly over
Wi-Fi, it can also play audio files
(think your MP3 collection) and
display photo slideshows on your
television.
However, Apple TV is a little
more complicated when you look
into how it interacts with other
Apple devices such as iPads,
iPhones and iPod touches.
Similarly Apple TV's limitations
are equally confusing, as it will
only work with certain video/
audio formats. In short, the fact
that the Apple TV box is geared
up to work with other Apple
devices is a bit of a double-
edged sword.

It's good as Apple has made
each of its AirPlay compatible
devices ridiculously easy to use
with Apple TV. AirPlay means
you can stream media from your
handheld device to the Apple TV
box with a couple of easy clicks.
For example, you could be part
way through watching a movie
on your iPhone 5 and then
stream the rest of it onto your
TV, via the Apple TV box, with a
couple of taps of your iPhone's
screen. Also, AirPlay can be used
to display a game from your
iPad, for example, on your TV,
while using the iPad's screen for
extra information, such as the
track layout in a racing game.
The Apple TV box can also play
movies/audio from iTunes on
your computer. Simply turn on
your Home Sharing in iTunes and
providing Apple TV is connected
to the same wireless network as
your computer with iTunes is,
then you can stream content in
seconds.
The downside to Apple TV is that
it only plays the formats that
Apple likes, which isn't a problem
if you buy all your content from
Apple, as they will all work on
Apple TV. However the chances
of having all of your media in
Apple approved formats are
pretty slim, which makes the
restrictions a bit of a pain for the
non-Apple fanboy. The media
formats that an Apple TV box can
play are:
Video:
H.264 up to 720p at 30 frames
per second (1st & 2nd
generation)
H.264 up to 1080p at 30 frames
per second (3rd generation)
MPEG-4 up to 720×432 (432p) or
640×480 pixels at 30 frame/s
Motion JPEG up to 720p at 30
frame/s
Images:
JPEG
GIF
TIFF
Audio:
HE-AAC (V1)
AAC (16–320 kbit/s)
FairPlay protected AAC
AC-3 Dolby Digital pass-through
[36]
MP3 (16–320 kbit/s, with VBR)
Apple Lossless
AIFF
WAV
What else does Apple TV do?
Like a lot of media streamers,
Apple TV also gives you the
ability to connect to the internet
and watch content from a
number of different providers.
Unfortunately the list of providers
that would appeal to an UK
audience are a bit limited at the
minute, with Netflix and YouTube
being the only channels that
really would really satisfy the
average UK consumer. There's no
BBC iPlayer or any other catch-
up TV services, for example.
Nevertheless here is a list of all
the Apple TV channels that are
currently available: Netflix, Hulu
Plus, YouTube, Flickr, iCloud,
MLB.tv, NBA League Pass, NHL
GameCenter.