The concept of this is great - to basically have itunes on your TV. I've been a user of itunes for a number of years. I mostly use it to download music and also occassionally movies but the only way I could watch them back was through my iphone which wasn't ideal considering the small screen size. This was the main reason why I purchased this. It is really easy to set up and all you need is an itunes account, internet connection and an HDMI cable.

The movie download aspect works great. The menus are beautifully presented and its easy to navigate your way through. There's plenty of catergories to choose from and each movie offers further suggested titles which is perfect when you don't know what to watch. Each movie also includes a synopsis of the plot and a trailer which is free to watch.

Downloading time depends of course of the length of the movie and most take a few hours. But you can usually start watching after a few minutes. On a lot of movies (but not all) you have the choice of viewing them in standard or high definition. The picture quality is very good on both but HD is no match for blu ray.

My intention was just to rent titles and this is where this falls down slightly. Every movie is available to buy but the number of titles available to rent is somewhat limited. There's still a good selection but many of the latest releases are buy only. I also have an issue with pricing. Prices vary depending on what you watch but you can pay £3.49 to rent one movie in standard definition or £4.49 in HD (you have to watch within 30 days or 48 hours once you start watching). This is quite expensive when compared to lovefilm where I can watch two blu ray discs for £3.99 (There is also a much larger number of titles available on lovefilm). Buying movies is more reasonably priced with the latest titles typically at £9.99 (Although older movies are somewhat overpriced at £6.99). Also most of these titles do not come with any special features when compared to buying DVDs/blu rays. The itunes movie library itself is also a bit limited particularly with older less well known titles. Though it is getting bigger all the time it is still no match for it's music library

You can also download TV shows in exactly the same way though mostly only to buy. There is the option of purchasing individual episodes or the entire series. The pricing is fairly good here and compares favourably to DVD. Once again all the latest TV shows are here but somewhat limited in the availability of some of the older TV shows. Also the picture quality on some of them is fairly poor in comparison to the movies.

You can also download music just as on itunes as well as music playback. You have all the search options as you do on an ipod and the sound quality is very good. It's also great to view your photos on the big screen. I take all my photos on my iphone and once put on itunes I simply sync to Apple TV. The photos look good, you can have a slideshow and put them to music.

The other main feature I like to use is watching youtube videos. Obviously the picture quality is not great on my 40" flatscreen TV but perfectly watchable. There's plently of search options/related videos and you can log in and pick favourites as you normally would. The menus are big and bright and it's great to chill out and relax watching the videos from the comfort of my sofa rather than a poxy computer screen. The number of videos available is not quite what you'd get on the computer though it does have most of them.

The only real problem I have with the box itself is when I have to type a keyword into the search box. This is done using the remote control and an on screen keypad. It takes ages and can be a bit fiddly. Fortunately after every letter selected more suggestions come up on screen. Also there are lots of other search options you can try before you have to resort to this. It could really do with a QWERTY keyboard being supplied.

Apart from this the Apple TV is great in what it can do. It's also so easy to use and there's plenty of storage capability. It's only held back by itunes itself which is a real shame as it really could have been an absolutely brilliant device.