Apple TV review

Apple revolutionised the MP3 player market with its iPod, now it's hoping to do the same to video streamers with Apple TV.

Apple TV is designed to stream the music, photos, podcasts and videos stored in your iTunes library on your computer to your television. All your media can be brought to your lounge with minimal fuss via a slick and familiar interface. But has Apple done enough with its first entry into this space?

Design
As usual, Apple's styling of the hardware is near-perfect. It's easily the best-looking video streamer out there. The trademark silver Apple finish means it will fit in with any other Apple hardware you might have.

Apple TV is tiny so it's ideal if you are short on space, or don't like your living room looking like a branch of Currys

The remote control is identical to the one that comes with Frontrow-equipped iMacs. It's wonderfully simple with just six buttons -- four direction buttons, a pause/play key and a menu key. On the downside, it feels a tad cheap and we'll wager it will get lost quickly, or at the very least get eaten by the dog.

Apple TV comes with just a power cable and remote control. There are no HDMI or component cables, which is a bit rich considering the £200 price tag.

You'll need to make sure that your TV supports either component or HDMI before you go out and buy one, as there are no Scart or composite connections. You'll also need a widescreen TV -- there's no configuration option to change the resolution to a 4:3 ratio, which isn't a huge problem because the number of 4:3 British television sets with component or HDMI is tiny.

At the back of the unit there are sockets for Ethernet and USB, component video out, HDMI out and optical digital out. It's one of the few video streamers with an HDMI port, which is a welcome addition.

Features
Unlike other streamers, Apple TV has a hard drive built-in. The idea is that it copies (or syncs) the music, video and pictures from one Mac or PC in your house, so you can watch stuff even when your computer is off.

If you have more than one computer, or a mate pops round for tea, you can also stream content from up to five other computers using the wireless connection.