Macenstein

Posted by Lab Rat

For those of us who are drooling over the new Apple TV but have read reports that you’d be throwing away money unless you own an HDTV to hook it up to, it turns out a good percentage of regular “SQUARE” TVs will work just fine with the device. Apparently, despite Apple’s literature on the Apple TV saying the words “HDTV” over and over again, if you happen to own a high-end 4:3 TV with component inputs on the back, the Apple TV should work for you.

The folks over at Rouge Amoeba have pictures of the Apple TV running at a 480i resolution on a Magnovox 27″ standard set. It looks like the Apple TV has the 480i option in its setup menu, and the output does not appear to be stretched or distorted in any way. We happen to own a Sony WEGA set with component inputs, and are now very excited about the idea of an Apple TV (and the expanded hard drive hack).

Rogue Amoeba thinks (and we agree) that Apple likely has chosen to not even mention that analog 4×3 sets can work with the Apple TV to avoid confusing consumers. Many sets made in the last 3 years or so contain component jacks on the back, but they are rarely found on sets costing under $500-$700 until recently. Apple likely doesn’t want to face a backlog of returns from angry customers trying to hook up the device via coax on a $150 set.