And this is where it gets infuriating. Apple TV makes the assumption that users have no knowledge of networking, so when it comes time to configure the networking capability, the task is just a royal pain. If you need to enter a custom IP address or gateway, or even netmask, you have to fiddle it in with the remote. And, if you fiddled in even one digit wrong, you have to re-enter the entire thing -- the entire IP address, gateway, netmask, and DNS server -- from scratch.

Do that five or six times and you'll see why we're annoyed.

The other gotcha is there are absolutely no informative diagnostics (there's a self-diagnose button, but other than having the Apple TV tell you everything works when you know it doesn't, it's worthless), and we've yet to be able to find a technician mode for this thing. We've got two PCs set up as iTunes hosts. The Apple TV happily syncs with one of those, containing most of the music files and some video files downloaded from iTunes. However, if we even launch iTunes on the second PC, which is the streaming copy of iTunes, the Apple TV from there on out refuses to recognize the original iTunes. Period.

And there's no mode, diagnostics, or system to help figure out why. Apple support's recommendation: reinstall the Apple TV, clear the drive, resync everything, and start over. Each time. Helpful.

Should you buy this?
We haven't discussed implementation of photo slideshows because, honestly, we haven't tried that out. But, like many other media centers, Apple TV lets you play slideshows of pictures downloaded from either iPhoto or Adobe Album.

The question is, should you buy this? At $300 it's a relatively expensive single-purpose box. When the Apple TV is working smoothly, it's a joy. When it's not, it's an Apple.

There's a lot this device can do, including easily playing video and audio podcasts. But the company goes so far to make the product easy to use that it's often a pain to use.

If you really want a tightly integrated connection between your iTunes library and your TV, and if you've got an HDTV, and if you don't mind relatively low-resolution video, and if you don't mind fighting with it to get it to work "just so", then we wholeheartedly recommend it.

On the other hand, the XBox 360 does substantially the same video and audio streaming to TV (although not from iTunes) for about a hundred bucks more -- and you get to play games. The Wii plays all YouTube videos and lets you surf the net -- for about $50 less -- and you get to play games.

Bottom line: if you're a die-hard Apple fanatic, love iTunes, and want to connect it all up, go ahead and get an Apple TV. But if you're just thinking about playing some video or tunes, look elsewhere.

OUR RATING: 3 of 5

Dr. Humayun Bakht completed his Ph.D at the School of Computing and Mathematics in Liverpool at John Moores University. Prior to his current course of studies, he has successfully completed his MSc Software Engineering and BSc Electronics Engineering from University of Liverpool UK and Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology in Karachi, Pakistan. Humayun's research interest is mobile ad-hoc networks, in particular, the development of a new routing algorithm for this type of networking. He can be reached at humayunbakht@yahoo.co.uk and you can visit his Web site at http://www.geocities.com/humayunbakht/.