Apple TV is a digital media receiver made and sold by Apple Inc.
Small and unobtrusive, Apple TV probably the perfect gift for the videophile on your Christmas list. And at $119, the price is also right.
In a nutshell, this gizmo is the missing link between the primary screen in your household, the TV, and the Web.
However, it's a locked down, play-safe tuner that allows you to visit specific Apple-approved sites like Flickr, Netflix or YouTube. This means you won't be able to surf those other video sites unless you hook up a PC as well to your TV.
That said, there's a wealth of movies to rent at prices which seem cheaper than my own Rogers On Demand, that is $4.99 to $5.99 compared to $7.99 for just released HD movies on Rogers.
Don't get too carried away though, because if you go over your Internet-metered capacity on Rogers or Bell by downloading HD movies at 2GB per hour, you'll pay a hefty surcharge on your monthly bill.
Set up is easy, images are crystal clear and the sound is stellar. The biggest pain was figuring out how to set up an Apple account for iTunes.
Once you get it up and running, it is seamless and the quality is stunning. The only small niggle is that Apple TV required an optical cable for sound when running through an AV receiver amplifier and since there are only two slots, I had to decide between unplugging the PS3 which we also use as a BluRay player or the Rogers Digital Box. You'll also obviously need a wired Ethernet connection.