Apple TV

[Gabriel]

Alright, so I'm paying way too much for my cable bill and am looking into alternatives.

Basically, I watch CBC, TSN and SportsNet. My girlfriend would like to have Animal Planet, A&E and the Food Network.

Can I get any of this through the Apple TV? Or is it just limited to iTunes, Netflix and the subscription services for MLB.tv and NHL GameCenter Live?

[Herr Matzat]

Apple TV is very limited. You pretty much can only use iTunes, files you can put in iTunes (mp4 only for video I believe) or alowe you to stream. I don´t know how far it has been jailbroken, i think there was something in the past but i never got into it to deep because it was lacking the functions i wanted (mostly having my entire iTunes library of my Mac and on my Apple TV, but since they striped the HDD completely that´s not going to happen)

I am not a 100% on the US, you got more options on iTunes like the 99cent tv show episodes n stuff. In Germany it´s downright terrible because you only get overpriced dubbed stuff. Who pays 17€ on a dubbed movie with no extras wen you can get the DVD for 5€?!

If you look for illegal downloads you can always just hook up your computer to your TV/Stero... if you got a Smartphone or Tablet you can even control VLC via an APP so you don´t loose the couch factor. - If you´re looking for something more Apple TV like with an interface on your screen you could go "plex player" which should be able to play every video file around. (i think they have a tv box as well)

Obviously you could still watch all your legal downloads via a cable connection as well. Just not outside of iTunes since their video is very DRM ridden.

http://www.videolan.org/

http://www.plexapp.com/