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Big W: Apple TV $127 includes $20 iTunes card

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The Apple TV is rarely discounted - the $127 price isn't too bad ($2 off), but the $20 iTunes bundle makes this a little sweeter.

When you jailbreak it, this is one of the cheapest ways to get the XBMC media player (but 720p output only).

I don't know when this expires, but I've put in 1 week.
Available in store or online.
Edit: Seems to be out of stock online

Related Stores

BIG W
BIG W

closed Comments

  • -2

    $7 delivery kills the deal for me.

    • It's available in store, so if you have a Big W anywhere near you, that's your best bang-for-buck. (Doesn't help regional or rural readers, I appreciate).

    • -7

      $14 to cairns…. stuff that! :(

      • Helmuth said that it is available in-store tho. So for me thats still a + vote

    • Sweet, Glad that its available in store - Postage for me was $14.50!

  • Good deal, wish i waited.

  • +6

    A + for putting XBMC on it - best way to go ;-)

    • +2

      An absolute must for the ATV. Turns it into one of the best bang for buck media players.

      • vote from me for this deal
  • +2

    I have 2 of these (altho 1 of them is 1st gen with a hdd) & would recommend them for Itunes users.

    Cons
    No HDD - Computer always needs to be on & cannot put a movie on it to take to your mates
    Unless you jailbreak needs itunes.
    While it can open 1080 it only runs @ 720

    Pros
    Itunes keeps track of your watched TV epp so you know exactly where your up to.
    Quick streaming over wireless (about 5 seconds to load)
    TINY!!

  • how does xbmc handle rmvb and mkv files?

    • +1

      plays mkv perfectly (up to 720p I believe, haven't tried 1080p). Not sure about rmvb

      • I've been playing my 1080p mkv's on it without issue. It does downscale to 720p but the quality is still brilliant..

        The newer nightly builds are proving the most stable/speedy

        http://mirrors.xbmc.org/nightlies/darwin/atv2/

    • Depends on the bitrate of the MKV /MVB. Some run pretty well, others just don't run well at all. There are some tweaks, you're basically limited to 100Mbps as a theoretical maximum. Some of my 1080p videos are 15-25Mbps bitrates. Sometimes fast-forwarding through the first minute or so settles it down (over multiple Apple TV devices).

  • +1

    Is the apple tv worth getting even if you dont jailbreak it?

    • +2

      Yes if you use Itunes for all your media.
      No if you dont…….

  • Apple TV is a bit useless, now that Google TV is better… Plus, it doesn't connect too well with Windows…

    Btw, does it handle .flv?

    • +2

      What makes you say that?, all of it?

      Also is Google TV products even available in Australia?

      • Available at Amazon, US $99 plus delivery

    • +1

      I use windows, no connection problems at all (though i have not jailbroken it)

  • +2

    After jailbreaking a neighbour's ATV I can say please don't get one.
    Get a ACRYAN or popcorn hour or something better.

  • +5

    I agree, great deal, but horrible product, even with XBMC. I bought an ATV a few weeks ago to experiment with XBMC and was pretty disappointed. I've had XBMC since the original XBOX version and currently using an asrock mini htpc and have to say the ATV is very clunky. Barely adequate remote, slow navigation and underpowered.

    I would recommend the WDTV Live. Out of the box, even without cfw, the WDTV is so much better than ATV. And ATV is made for the US market. A lot of the streaming channels weren't relevant to me.

    I'm now waiting for iOS 5 to see how airplay and iPad wireless screen mirroring goes. The ATV might be good for that…

    • +1

      Completely agree, I'm not sure why people would by an ATV over something like a WDTV Live for more money unless it was for the Apple badge

    • Question - have you upgraded XBMC? I'm running 10.0.0.9 and it's a significant step-up from the first version(s). Using the remote doesn't take ages to register as it did in the first releases. It's definitely not perfect, but a significant improvement.

    • +2

      I've got 5 AppleTVs in my house, all jailbroken with XBMC. They all share the same MySQL database for movies and TV shows so everything is synced. Seperate fileserver holds all my movies and tv shows. Menu navigation is pretty snappy for me. There is a 5-6 second wait when initially accessing the movie list as I have over 1000 in the database. Plays 1080p MKV files fine. I can pause a movie in one room, then go to another AppleTV and continue where I left off :D

      That being said, my setup is quite involved requiring a fair bit of knowledge setting up everything, but it isn't hard to do with a few appleTVs and some windows shared folders. I use a windows application to put all the media info (posters, imdb etc) into the same folder as the files so XBMC doesn't have to do all the work getting info from the net (which is quite slow on the AppleTVs). If you try to play HD movies while its doing background processing finding info you'll get crap performance.

      In short, if you have some technical expertise, you can do amazing things with the apple TVs. If you want something super easy to setup, without jailbreaking etc, then perhaps get something else.

      The biggest downside to the AppleTV is its total lack of a USB interface. No using an external HDD here. Everything has to be over network (there is ~8gb of space free on the ATVs though…)

      Without jailbreaking, you pretty much have to have everything through iTunes. It's a great product if your heavily invested in the Apple ecosystem.

      Out of the box, you will probably be disappointed. You need to spend some time installing and configuring XBMC to get the best out of it.

      Also, AirPlay for music from iDevices/iTunes, Mirroring from ipads/iphones, and streaming video podcasts from a laptop are pretty awesome features. Grab your iPod touch and you can stream music to every room in the house simultaneously :P

  • +1

    So basically the real perk of apple tv is that you can stream movies from your laptop to the product wirelessly?
    Because I was thinking of getting one, cause I'd be interested in doing this, however it seems that there are other products out there, which seem better?

    • From my super quick searches, the other products don't come with wifi.

      That is a deal breaker for me.

  • +27

    RIP STEVE JOBS

  • Can also use these for Airplay = audio/video streaming from iPhone/iPod/Ipad.
    And with iOS5 .. it can do iPhone4 mirroring to your TV
    XBMC makes it the best bang for buck media streamer (720p only)

    • I think only the iPhone 4S and the iPad 2 support video mirroring, not the iPhone 4.

      Still though, AirPlay is only of the best reasons to get one of these if you already have an iPad, iPhone or iPod touch.

  • One ignorant question: this XBMC player, can only stream movies wirelessly from the laptop (any movie is this correct?) if the Apple TV has been jailbroken?

  • No thanks…Boxee FTW!

    • But Boxee is so expensive - it was $259 or something close to that on special 4 months ago. I like the Boxee's features though, such as channel 7 or ABC iview playback on the unit, and it's got a very slick UI.

      Opted for a WDTV live though in the end at $98, as it got good feedback here & on whirlpool, and was ~40% of the price. Boxee would be much more attractive if it was close to the WDTV's price.

  • anyone know if these generation is still hackable? (ie install Boxee/XMBC)

  • I purchased an ATV a few weeks ago, assume it's the latest, and it was hackable.

  • +2

    A word of warning for people wanting this for XBMC - your mileage may vary. I have a number of Apple TV 2's set up (different firmwares, different manufacturing, all running the same version of XBMC through upgrades), and whilst the device is great, 720p / 1080p stuff can be playful in XBMC, particularly with higher bitrates. (I found that XBMC will run 8GB 720p's OK(ish), but tend to be pot luck with 12-13GB 1080p's).

    However, Plex does exist as a solution to transcode on the PC and stream back to Apple TV 2. The Windows server version has a lot of issues (I believe the Mac server is better?), but none-the-less if the movie can be loaded, Plex will play it pretty well.

    Certainly a good device, don't get me wrong - but it's not entirely without flaw. Standard Definition stuff is perfect though!

    • I agree with "your mileage may vary". You must take into consideration that the CPU isnt very powerful. 1080p plays fine if it can use the hardware decoding stuff, otherwise it chokes the CPU. Likewise, if the CPU is busy doing background stuff, playback is affected with HD. (1080p DIVX is not hardware decodable and will not play smoothly! Why you are using DIVX though must be asked…)

      I recommend using something like Ember Media Manager to put all your media info in with the actual files. Saves a lot of time as XBMC doesn't have to scrape all the info from the net (and your PC is much faster at doing it instead!)

  • Arrggghh !! Just went and bought one of these today..half way through downloading all the software to hack it when I had a closer look at the unit and noticed its only got a freakin micro usb socket !! My only intention for this toy was to plug in my external 2.5' usb drives and watch media files but looks like I'm stuffed right ?? No way of hooking them up is there ? I'm well aware of its wireless capabilities but didn't want to have to have a pc turned on to access files..

  • -6

    Doesn't look like a TV to me

  • Works well jailbroken. Use WinSCP to transfer movies wirelessly.

  • Boxee people! It's AWESOME!!!

  • No stock at QV or South Yarra

  • Good deal for new, but I'd rather buy an xbox 1 from ebay for $40 and get a better platform for XBMC.

  • Not quite dead, see xbmc4xbox. http://www.xbmc4xbox.org

  • Out of stock at Rockdale branch.

  • so if stores have stock, this is still available ?

    • checked in Wa, out of stock

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