• by Steve Smith , Staff Writer @popeyesm, October 8, 2010

After spending years with the original-issue Apple TV, and being one of its sole fans and defenders, the new hockey puck-sized streaming media version is a bit of a let down. Generally Apple bets big on the core principle that less is more when it comes to consumer devices. In this case, the Apple TV is really an on-demand rental center, pure and simple. While there are podcasts, links to your PC's iTunes and Netflix, the basic functionality is around renting movies and TV episodes.

As everyone already has pointed out, Apple TV suffers noticeably from a limited selection of 99-cent TV episode rentals. Very few TV companies signed on to the Steve Jobs' train to the pricing valley. For those of us who had the old Apple TV, that means a lot less, because now we don't even have the option of buying episodes if we want the fuller catalog. My season-long subscription to Mad Men for instance now needs to stream off of my Desktop. The total absence of most cable and broadcast networks from the catalog means I can't even sample across anything like the range of shows I once had.

I admit that I have yet to try the new generation of Roku and upcoming Google TV box, but I am still fully satisfied with the interface, output and range of content types Apple is aiming for here. I still am not convinced that people want a computer interface on their TV, and too many streaming media, Web-to-TV interfaces really think that more is more. On the upside, Apple's highly visual approach to perusing film and TV titles is thoroughly engaging.

The Netflix integration is much smoother and usable than the ones I have seen in the game consoles. The Apple TV interface, which uses a wall of thumbnails presents media as a kind of cornucopia waiting to be devoured. Video quality over Apple TV appears to be at least as good and most often better than I was experiencing from either PS3 or Xbox, and the WiFi generally is less prone to hiccups and fall backs to lower resolutions.

Speaking of resolution, those preoccupied with Apple TV's low-res, hi-res limitations will have to convince someone else sitting two feet from a 60-inch screen that 1080p will make a visible difference in most cases. My guess is that differences of resolution at these levels matter to a small slice of pixel junkies and not to most people for whom 'blu-ray' is still a big 'huh?'

We will see how all of this pans out when I plug in the Roku and get my hands on the Google TV box. My guess from a week with the Apple TV box is that this hockey puck is hobbled but promising. Betting on a narrow but elegantly executed utility that targets the two main needs of most consumers, TV and film, is a kind of Nintendo Wii maneuver. Nintendo was unconcerned with the hardcore tech junkies who sniffed at the Wii's low-res, small horsepower engine and limited title support at launch. While Microsoft and Sony chased the fan boys with high-priced and high horsepower multi-purpose muscle cars, Nintendo undercut them on price and power and won the hearts of a wider audience who just wanted to play something.