What a difference the right equipment makes.
Today, a Qwest tech came out and immediately noticed that the modem sent to us less than 6 months ago was - in his words - "a relic".
Apparently the device we were sent was not capable of the 7mbps service by design. No wonder AppleTV doesn't work.
So, 15 minutes and a new modem later, our internet is usable - so time to test out the AppleTV again.
First test: Netflix streaming. Within 45 seconds, the movie started, and 10 minutes in, there was no jitter or chop. Looking good.
Next test: Rent a movie from iTunes. Immediately after purchasing the rental, I went to play the film. AppleTV reported that the movie was loading. After a minute or so, it reported that it would be ready to play in 1 hour and 1 minute. About 5 minutes later it was ready to play. Shortly after (within 5 more minutes) I started the movie, which began to play within a few seconds of me starting it. It was only an SD (standard definition) movie, and not HD, it played flawlessly for my 10-15 minute test period. I'll watch the whole film later tonight, but I highly suspect that it will run flawlessly.
Final test: Search, navigation and general usability. The iTunes store implementation on the AppleTV is a pleasure to use. Much like all Apple products, it is intuitive and responsive. Reviews and recommendations come up very quickly and look great on the 42" LCD TV that I have connected.
All told, today is a complete 180 for me on AppleTV. I'm glad we stuck with it and got the internet connection up to speed. If you have good, fast, reliable internet, the AppleTV is quite a nice device that is super-easy to set up, reasonably priced and performs well on a good connection. I'll be doing some more tests over the next week or so, but tonight was a good night for AppleTV.
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