Even though the e-mail that I got from Apple showed an expected delivery date of March 23 for my AppleTV, I just tracked it with FedEx and it's out for delivery this morning, which is awesome as I'll get to play with it this evening and tomorrow.
I have had to order a few additional things to get the AppleTV to easily integrate with my home entertainment system:
- Octava 4 port HDMI switch with TOSLink. I've covered the full features of the Octava switch before, but basically I need it because I don't have a HDMI tuner to switch sources and I only have 1 TOSLink input on the audio solution that I use. What I didn't realize when I reviewed the unit before was that it is auto-switching between HDMI and TOSLink sources, which means that I should not need to even program the remote control functions into the my Harmony remote (I probably will anyway since the unit is supported and I have an extra IR blaster port available, but good to know still the same).
- HDMI and TOSLink cables. Even Radio Shack and Home Depot are raking consumers over the coals with their pricing on high definition audio and video cables. I recommend shopping at either FireFold or monoPrice as online cable sources -- a 15' HDMI cable at FireFold is $8.06 and is $7.53 at monoPrice.
Octava did send me an e-mail stating that they were running behind in shipments, but they were hoping to ship on the 23rd, so I'm hopeful that I'll receive the switcher some time next week. My cables should arrive either on Friday or some time early next week as well.
I think I'm going to temporarily hook up the AppleTV using some spare component video and RCA audio cables just to test it and play with it while I wait for the rest of my gack to arrive rather than permanently placing it right away.
My biggest hope is that Logitech has updated the Harmony programming site with the codes for the Apple remote so that I can program macros for AppleTV viewing and will be able to control AppleTV functions with the remote. If anyone has any knowledge about this, I would be grateful if you would let me know.
I've seen enough unboxing pictures on the web that I don't think that I need to do that song and dance, though I am glad to if any of you really want to see my unboxing routine -- just let me know.
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