Apple TV vs Tivo - DVR interface

[ps56k]

I was at a local social gathering, and the guys wer chatting....
One of them - Mr. Have-Everything - was talking about some of the movies he had downloaded in HD from some normal vendor site (can't recall which service).

I mentioned that my Tivo recording in "basic quality" is less than 1GB for most of the 1hr programs, so how much space did the HD downloads require ?
He thought about 6GB, but depended upon which format/codec was used (6GB seemed low).

Anyway - he said that the Apple interface is GREAT compared to any other DVR system - even Tivo.

SO - wonder if anyone knows:

#1 - how much space does a downloaded HD movie use ?
#2 - how is the Apple TV interface compared to Tivo... which I love :)

[ps56k]

just a followup on the download size -
here's a link to the iTunes site, for a movie -
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/guide/hd/fantasticfour.html

How can it be only 54mb (480) or 121mb (720) ???
or...is this for a computer vs a HD TV ?
since the specs seem the same - I'm confused ?

The Amazon link shows 2.4GB for TiVo...
http://www.amazon.com/Fantastic-Four/dp/B000I9X690

[MickeS]

The Apple TV interface is similar to a spruced up iPod. It's very good for what it does, but it has a different purpose than TiVo. Hard to make direct comparisons.
See this review for example, which showcases the UI: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cg1ovFTDr1U

[MickeS]

just a followup on the download size -
here's a link to the iTunes site, for a movie -
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/guide/hd/fantasticfour.html

How can it be only 54mb (480) or 121mb (720) ???
or...is this for a computer vs a HD TV ?
since the specs seem the same - I'm confused ?

The Amazon link shows 2.4GB for TiVo...
http://www.amazon.com/Fantastic-Four/dp/B000I9X690

The iTunes site is just showing the info for the TRAILER, not for the whole movie. So that's 121 MB for 3 minutes and 39 seconds.

That said, the encoding used by AppleTV is much more efficient than the one TiVo currently uses. That's why their HD files can be of similar size as TiVos SD files.

TiVo has just started enabled videos using a similar format that AppleTV uses, for their YouTube content (only on the Series 3 and TiVoHD models). It is expected that they will use this format more widely for other content as well.

[ps56k]

The Apple TV interface is similar to a spruced up iPod. It's very good for what it does, but it has a different purpose than TiVo. Hard to make direct comparisons.
See this review for example, which showcases the UI: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cg1ovFTDr1U

tnx for all the info -
here is another link showing the Apple TV reviewed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nL3hrD8WjY&NR=1

since I didn't originally know that it was not a DVR, as you said, it's not a direct comparison...

[MickeS]

since I didn't originally know that it was not a DVR, as you said, it's not a direct comparison...

Yeah. Although if you WANT to do a direct comparison with the similar features (playback of networked video and audio), the AppleTV UI blows TiVo's UI out of the water when it comes to attractiveness and usability.