I'm trying to convince my wife to let me replace our old Xbox running XBMC with a nice new Apple TV (I've considered a Mac Mini but can't justify the price).
Of course the issue is that she would like to be able to see one in action and use it for a length of time before committing.
I wonder what would be the best way to approach this? Something tells me that if I bowl up to a MagnumMac (we're in Auckland) and ask if we can try one out for 30 minutes to an hour I might get told that was not an option.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how we might get our hands on a unit for a good test drive?

What are you wanting to test?

If it's an interface thing then get her used to using FrontRow because it's pretty much the same interface.

I was under the impression that the way that TV Series were presented on Apple TV was quite different to how it is under Frontrow. In Frontrow if I have say 12 series of a program then the program shows up 12 times in the listing and the only way to tell them apart is by the artwork associated with them. I would have thought that Apple TV would have gone for a more tree-like structure that shows a program / series / episode structure

Realistically I'd like to get a loan of one for a day or two to have a good play with and see what the wireless performance is like as well as to confirm that it will actually play all of the media that I have in iTunes. But obviously this isn't going to happen.

Maybe I'm just better to use a recently decommissioned PC and turn it into a media box running XBMC, but the appeal of Apple TV is that it is virtually silent and also not a PC

If I recall correctly (and it's been a while since I had TV shows in iTunes) it actually separates the shows according to show then season in a hierarchal structure like you are wanting.

I'll test this tonight. The trick is though that the TV shows need to be set as TV shows in iTunes for it to work though.

This might be frowned upon but you can purchase one, have a play with it. If it doesn't work out then return the unit within 14 days. Initially Apple TV gave me lots of problems on syncing, but after a few days now its constantly connected to my itunes. Really awesome device imo...

After doing more research I've put an old Windows PC in the lounge running XBMC.

It works well and means that I don't need to import several hundred items into iTunes.
In reality I just don't think that the AppleTV would have really done what I needed/wanted anyway.

Eventually it would be nice to run XBMC on a Mac Mini but until I have spare money it's just not going to happen.

Just bumping the topic as we're once again considering an Apple TV as the PC running XBMC just isn't reliable enough. I have approx. 700 GB of TV Shows and Movies that I will migrate to iTunes (once I have an external 1GB HDD and move my iTunes library to it - any pointers on this?).

I still have some concerns over how things will look and run on Apple TV (from the way it displays TV series information to the quality of the picture) and if possible would really like to have a good play with one before committing to it.

Is there anyone on these forums in the Auckland area that has an Apple TV that they might be prepared to either lend to me or let me come and have a good play with it to see how it all hangs together (perhaps in exchange .or Pizza and/or beer).

I am particularly intersted in the display of TV series. eg I have 11 seasons of Top Gear and want to know that it will display them all in a logical manner - also as these are all DivX I will most likely need to have Perian installed on the Apple TV to save having to convert to MOV files - again any pointers and/or advice on this would be appreciated.

Feel free to PM me to discuss if this is something that you feel would be better taken outside of the forums.

Even if someone who has an Apple TV can send me some screen shots (if that's possible) of how TV Series etc. are displayed it would be appreciated as I believe that it is a little different to Front Row.

Cheers

Jamie