Music first; I love making playlists for parties, or for music I want to jam out to.  I enjoy being able to play music videos easily as well.  Sound quality is more than adequate for our needs.  Mandy also jams out to her Jimmy Buffett from a playlist I’ve created.

Pictures; Another great feature because I can load it up with pictures and show it off on a beautiful big screen so everyone in the room can enjoy.  I can set an album as a screen saver during a party (ie, this is what I did for our last party with pictures from Sydney) which people can enjoy.  Pictures also make great conversation pieces!

Movies; This is my second favorite feature.  I download a number of movies and put them on the apple TV for Mandy and I to enjoy!  I also rip DVD’s of Mandy’s favorite movies which watches repeatably (ie. The Italian Job, Any of the Pirates, The Holiday, The Incredibles, National Treasure 1 & 2, etc.).  This is very convenient because she doesn’t have to pop in a DVD and we don’t have to buy a 5 disc DVD player, we’re only limited to the amount of storage it can hold!  Also being able rent HD movies from Apple is also a huge convenience for a wife that loves renting movies from Blockbuster and On-Demand.

TV Shows;  This is my first favorite feature!  Again I download TV shows (don’t ask how), and put them on the apple TV for Mandy and I to catch up on.  This is great because I don’t have to worry about fast forwarding through commercials!  That convenience alone has made this device priceless!  We are usually one day behind on TV Shows, but if we can’t wait, we’ll just watch it live.  This has eliminated the need for a DVR type device (although I do have a software solution on my macbook pro for how I get tv shows).

The interface is very easy and beautiful, and not having a techy wife this makes her life a lot easier and more enjoyable to watch, and listen to things on the Apple TV.  We currently have the 40gb version, but I plan to hack it with a bigger drive.

So while on this aggressive travel schedule, I’ll download a whole bunch of movies, music and tv shows and then when I’m home get them on the Apple TV for Mandy to enjoy while I’m away.  It’s a win  win for the whole family!  So if you’re on the fence between a netflix streaming box, HTPC, or other home media device, research what your needs are, because Apple TV is a sure winner for us.