Apple Sunset

Apple TV 1st Generation

Discontinued 30 Sept 2010

Latest release

21 Mar 2007

Discontinued

30 Sept 2010

Lifespan

3 years, 6 months

Starting price

$299

Category
Apple TV
Status
Discontinued
Apple support status
Obsolete (Apple no longer services it)
Release type
All-new product
Official Apple page
apple.com ↗
More information
Apple TV 1st Generation (Wiki) ↗

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Notes

The Apple TV was originally shown off under the codename "iTV" in 2006, before Apple renamed it ahead of launch, reportedly to avoid a clash with the British broadcaster ITV. It shared its footprint with the Mac mini of the time, designed to sit unobtrusively in an AV cabinet alongside a games console or set-top box, and was controlled entirely with the same white plastic remote that shipped with iMacs, there was no keyboard, no touch input, nothing beyond a simple directional pad.

It launched with 40GB of storage, enough for around 50 hours of video, 9,000 songs, or 25,000 photos, with a roomier 160GB option added a couple of months later. Crucially, it didn't stream or buy anything on its own at first: content had to be synced or streamed in from up to five Macs or PCs running iTunes on the same network. It took a software update the following year before you could rent a movie directly on the device itself, without a computer involved at all.

Connections were HDMI and component video out for the TV, plus optical and standard analogue audio, and it could join a network over Wi-Fi or a wired Ethernet cable, the wired option was generally recommended given how much smoother video playback was over a stable connection.

Release history

  1. 2022

  2. 18 Oct 2022

    Apple TV 4K 3rd Generation Current

    Apple TV 4K 2nd Generation Discontinued

  3. ↑ 1 year, 5 months later
  4. 2021

  5. 20 Apr 2021

    Apple TV 4K 2nd Generation

    Apple TV 4K 1st Generation Discontinued

  6. ↑ 3 years, 7 months later
  7. 2017

  8. 12 Sept 2017

    Apple TV 4K 1st Generation

    Apple TV (HD) 4th Generation Discontinued

  9. ↑ 1 year, 10 months later
  10. 2015

  11. 30 Oct 2015

    Apple TV (HD) 4th Generation

    Apple TV 3rd Generation Discontinued

  12. ↑ 3 years, 7 months later
  13. 2012

  14. 7 Mar 2012

    Apple TV 3rd Generation

    Apple TV 2nd Generation Discontinued

  15. ↑ 1 year, 5 months later
  16. 2010

  17. 30 Sept 2010

    Apple TV 2nd Generation

    Apple TV 1st Generation Discontinued

  18. ↑ 3 years, 6 months later
  19. 2007

  20. 21 Mar 2007

    Apple TV 1st Generation Launch

More in Apple TV

Apple TV 4K 3rd Generation 1435 days since refresh Apple TV (HD) 4th Generation Discontinued 12 Sept 2017 Apple TV 2nd Generation Discontinued 7 Mar 2012 Apple TV 3rd Generation Discontinued 30 Oct 2015 Apple TV 4K 1st Generation Discontinued 20 Apr 2021 Apple TV 4K 2nd Generation Discontinued 18 Oct 2022

All Apple TV →

From the gallery

Apple TV 1st Generation Packaging +3 6 photos Apple TV 1st Generation Packaging United Kingdom