If it's for podcast viewing and your own viewing then it works fine. If you use certain applications you can stream to the television. 

For the legal buying of content itunes UK and US are the best. In that case you should be able to get the content you desire. 

If you have a swiss itunes account and want to buy the content you may be dissapointed. 

Western Digital have a device that works relatively well: 

http://wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=330

Richard A

Thanks for the reply.

If I understand your response correctly, if we access the Apple TV material through our US Itunes account then it should be the same as if we are in the US.  Also, we can hook the unit directly to a Swiss purchased TV through the HDMI input, correct?  

I think we will have DSL in our house, any issues with that and Apple TV or does it just take a bit long to download?

We are thinking of also having a basic cable subscription for CNN, BBC, ESPN and the few other english language channels.

Thank you again for your help.

Dave L 

If you have an apple TV with a US or UK itunes account, then you're good to go accessing apple contents from those 2 countries.

Dave,

The Apple TV primarily streams media (music, photos, TV shows, movies, etc.) from your computer to your TV *without* having to sit in front of the computer all the time. It also has many links directly to the internet: movie trailers, iTunes store, YouTube, radio stations, podcasts, NBA, MLB, NHL, and and and....

You can also buy/rent things directly from the Apple TV. Depending on the configuration and whether you buy or rent, the media you buy using the Apple TV will also automatically download to configured computers.

I have installed / configured about a dozen Apple TVs in the last few months, so if you have any questions, problems, don't hesitate to contact me. I'm not hard to find here on glocals. ;) 

Z

Zonker, would you recommend an Apple TV over a Mac Mini (assuming that cost is not an issue)?  From a home theater perspective, can it do anything that the Mac cannot?

@richardm hmmmm, interesting question.

A Mac mini is a fully-working computer. You can manage your photos in iPhoto, you can use MS Office, surf the web, etc.

An Apple TV is just an internet-connected, wired or wireless link between your computer/s and your TV.

When the mini first was introduced, there were lots of tutorials about how to use it ("headless") as a media server. While it is possible, most people (self included), don't want to futz around trying to make it work.

I would guess that the Apple TV would serve the purpose of serving media to your TV better and more easily.

Can the Apple TV surf YouPo^H^H^H^H^HYouTube?  I'm thinking that without Adobe flash support.....  :-/

@richardm the reason doesn't support Flash on its mobile devices is because of battery drain. Since the Apple TV runs off the mains, that's not an issue.

In any case, YouTube is easily accessible on the Apple TV.

I'm impressed. Not many people know/remember ^H. :)

I've noticed that for while renting some films on Apple TV under the Suisse site, although it's marked up Films in French or in German, they've decided to incorporate this little guessing game into the mix. This involves not telling you the actual language it'll be in or if subtitles are available. I'd like to know if anyone has had the same trouble and if so how did they remedy it?

I know I could get a UK account but there are films I'd like to see in French and for my missus in English so this Swiss Apple site should be okay apart from this language issue.