I have two of the old AppleTVs (with the hard drives). We like them a lot. Stream movies directly from my computer to my TVs ... we’ve been able to pretty much retire my substantial DVD collection.
SnakeDoc
The AppleTV looks interesting. I have a WD TV Live device which is similar in concept, but doesn’t have very refined features. I’m assuming the AppleTv will have a more intuitive user interface, which makes it appealing for the “wife approval factor”.
One thing I’ve been curious about, but haven’t seen addressed anywhere, is if the AppleTV can stream pretty much any video from the local network? Not just the stuff you rent through iTunes. I’d like to rip my DVDs to a big network attached disk and be able to play them through the AppleTV. Can it do this? Will it support the DVD menus?