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Chess Engine Communication Protocol

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Chess Engine Communication Protocol is an open communication protocol that enables a chess engine to communicate with its user interface.

It was designed by Tim Mann, the author of XBoard. It was initially intended to only communicate with the GNU Chess engine which only accepted text input and produced text output. In fact, the first version of this protocol is nothing more than the behavior of GNU Chess's command line interface. XBoard, using the protocol, "wrapped around" GNU Chess by feeding the engine the expected text input, parsing the text output, and presenting this information on a graphical chess board.

Since its early days, the protocol has grown more robust and now supports standard chess games along with various chess variants including Wild Castle, No Castle, Fischer Random, Bughouse, Crazyhouse, Losers, Suicide, Give Away, Two Kings, Kriegspiel, Atomic, and Three Check. The protocol also supports three different styles of time control: conventional clocks, incremental clocks (Fischer Delay), and exact seconds per move. As of 2006^[update], there are more than 300 chess engines (including GNU Chess and Crafty) and 30 chess interface programs (including XBoard itself and eboard) that support this protocol with varying degrees of compatibility.

As of 2008^[update] work is being done to update the Chess Engine Communication Protocol with some convenient features such as the ability to set memory usage and the number of search threads (the latter is essential forSymmetric multiprocessing architectures).

CHESS ENGINE TO DOWNLOAD FOR FREE

 File archiver 7-Zip File Manager download

Released	Cursor	Author	Standard	Country	Download
01/15/2011	Houdini 1.5a w32	Robert Houdart	UCI		Download
03/22/2010	Tankist 1.7 32-bit	Alex Kutuzoff	UCI		Download
10/04/2009	Stockfish 1.5 JA mp	Marco Costalba	UCI		Download
12/20/2008	Glaurung 2.2 JA mp	Tord Romstad	UCI		Download
02/10/2008	Bright-0.4a mp	Allard Siemelink	UCI		Download
07/24/2008	Delfi 5.4	Dr. Fabio Cavicchio	UCI		Download
03/28/2008	Toga II 1.4.2JD mp	Thomas Gaksch	UCI		Download
01/25/2008	Alfil 8.1.1	Enrique Sanchez	UCI		Download
08/01/2008	Strelka 2.0 B	Jury Osipov	UCI		Download
01/08/2007	Fruit 2.3.1	Fabien Letouzey	UCI		Download
07/13/2007	Alaric 707	Peter Fendrich	UCI		Download
12/06/2006	Rybka 2.2n2 mp 32-bit	Vasik Rajlich	UCI		Download
09/09/2006	Naum 2.0	Aleksandar Naumov	UCI		Download
03/09/2006	Pharaon 3.5.1	Franck Zibi	UCI		Download
24/05/2006	Spike 1.2 Turin	Ralf Schäfer, Volker Böhm	UCI		Download
17/03/2006	SlowChess Blitz WV2.1	Jonathan Kreuzer	Own, UCI		Download
06/17/2005	Fruit 2.1	Fabien Letouzey	UCI		Download
22/02/2005	SOS 5 for Arena	Rudolf Huber	UCI		Download
05/10/2004	Aristarch 4.50	Stefan Zipproth	UCI		Download
24/02/2004	Ruffian 2.1.0	Per-Ola Valfridsson	UCI		Download

Universal Chess Interface

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

(UCI) is an open communication protocol that enables a chess program's engine to communicate with its user interface.

It was designed and released by Rudolf Huber and Stefan Meyer-Kahlen, the author of Shredder, in November 2000, and can be seen as a rival to the older XBoard/WinBoard Communication protocol. Like the latter, it is free to use without license fees.
Customarily, UCI assigns some tasks to the user interface that have traditionally been handled by the engine itself. Most notably, the opening book is usually expected to be handled by the interface, by simply selecting moves to play until it is out of book, and only then starting up the engine for calculation in the resulting position. (UCI does not specify any on-disk format for the opening book; different UIs usually have their own, proprietary formats.) Also, the user interface may handle endgame tablebases if the engine does not support it itself, although this is often better handled in the engine, as having tablebase information can be useful to consider a possible future position.
Only a few interfaces and engines supported this protocol until Chessbase, the chess software company which markets Fritz, began to support UCI in 2002. As of 2007^[update], there are well over 100 engines that support UCI.

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When chess engines are discussed, there is a tendency among reviewers to overdo the hyperbole. Part of this is natural enthusiasm, but one does get tired of watching one engine or another come out on top, depending on who runs the test, the conditions, opening books used, etc (no offense to engine testers intended). Occasionally there is some consensus that one engine is better than the others. This happened with some versions of Fritz, and with Shredder. However, the situation is now slightly different with Rybka. This engine, with it's very modest and unassuming name (roughly translated as "fish" in many Slavic languages) has done more than produce agreement among the majority - in the case of Rybka, almost everyone agrees that it's the strongest engine, bar none.

Furthermore, Rybka's rating is around 100 ELO over the next strongest engine. So this is not a matter of a small increase - this is a large jump in playing strength and it accounts for the wide agreement as to the engine's robustness. Indeed, one is hard pressed not to find a rating list in which Rybka holds the top spot (see rating list). Convekta states that the ELO on this engine is over 3000. This is probably quite close to the mark.

The program's author, IM Vasik Rajlich, states that the reason for this leap in playing strength is Rybka's evaluation function, which is purported to be different in conception from any other chess engine. Of course, we'll never know for sure - and every engine programmer is certainly entitled to keeping a secret or two. Of course, it certainly doesn't hurt that Jeroen Noomen (of Rebel fame) designed the opening book for Rybka. Even so, without the benefit of this opening book, Rybka is still incredibly strong.

Convekta has really pulled it off with Rybka. It is without a doubt the strongest engine available today. And it's simply great that the engine is available in a UCI version, which ensures compatibility with every popular GUI out there (Arena, Chessbase, Fritz, Shredder, Chess Assistant, etc). If you do purchase the engine for use in Chess Assistant, make sure you read the engine setup notes below.

Engine setup notes:

Installation of this engine has to be done manually, and the documentation for doing this is located on the CD. It's not a difficult procedure but I think it would be nice for future versions to have a setup program. I also noted that the instructions made reference to setting the engine type to be "Rybka". However, in the version of Chess Assistant that I'm using (9.03 as of this writing), there is no Rybka engine type, so you should select DLL (UCI) as engine type in the engine's setup dialog box (but only if you're using the dll version). If you're using the executable version, then you need to set the engine type to "UCI". 

Personality Settings for Optimal use with Chess Assistant (Tools->Engine's Setup->Personalities)

As can be seen in the above screenshot, Rybka has a number of interesting settings. There are a few that I'd like to call attention to. The first of these is the setting for limiting playing strength. Note that you must adjust both the playing strength slider (UCI_Elo) and check the "UCI_LimitStrength" box to use this feature. You also might want to adjust the time settings on the right hand side of the screen, especially if you find that Rybka is playing too quickly for you. Rybkachess.com has a good FAQ that discusses some of these settings.

I would also suggest checking the "Preserve Analysis" box. if you are planning to use Rybka for either the background analysis or interactive analysis functions within Chess Assistant. These functions make heavy use of hash tables and previously analyzed positions. Don't forget to uncheck "UCI_LimitStrength" if you're using Rybka for analysis

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CHESS ENGINE INSTALATION FOR JUNIOR / FRITZ / Chess Base GUI 

GUI = (Graphical User Interface = program to display chess analysis)

Follow steps described below:

STEP 1

Copy chess engine to directory on your computer.

STEP 2

Open Junior / Fritz / Chess Base GUI.

STEP 3

As shown in picture below click on ENGINE then click on CREATE UCI ENGINE 

STEP 4
You will see something similar to this picture:

Find directory where you had copy RYBKA engine.

Underline and click on engine file i.e. Rybka v2.2.w32.exe

Click open. You should see:

Click OK. You install Rybka engine inside Fritz GUI.

If you see the error message "Engine: could not load" make sure that you want to install the right Rybka version (the 64-bit version needs a computer and operating system that supports 64-bit) and if there's still this error, you should try to remove the path to the Nalimov endgame tablebases in the options for the installation (restart Fritz after removing the path). This seems to be a bug in Fritz.

STEP 5 

Now, you have to only change an engine. To do it click on icon of the engine you are currently using.
On the picture below it is Junior 9

In a gray window "Load engine" which will appear you will see list of engines.

Pick the one you want to analyze chess with and click OK.

In gray window you can also choose the numbers of MB for hash tables according to the type of computer you have.

Rybka engine uses this memory (MB) to remember the positions it has searched, so a bigger hash table will slightly increase its level.
Just make sure that your computer has enough memory for the hash tables well as any other applications (programs) which are running (i.e. music in the background).
If you set the hash table size too high, the operating system will start using the hard drive, which you definitely want to avoid. If you're not sure, choose a small value.
If you choose to big number for your hash table it can slow down the engine.

Click OK. You are finally done.

Enjoy your chess analysis

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What is the best chess engine?

CCRL 40/40 Rating List — All engines (Quote)

Ponder off, General book (up to 12 moves), 3-4-5 piece EGTB
Time control: Equivalent to 40 moves in 40 minutes on Athlon 64 X2 4600+ (2.4 GHz)
Computed on October 3, 2008 with Bayeselo based on 140'522 games

All engines (top 12, best versions only)

Pic#1

Pic#2

SCCT rating List -top 20 chess engines

 

 

 

IPON Rating List 9/11/2011

2011.09.11
This is the ranking of a tourney of the best. Just a 'one on one' of the best 23 engines.
Nothing else!

   1 Houdini 2.0 STD          3024   14   14  2200   81%  2773   23%
   2 Komodo64 3 SSE42         2969   13   13  2200   75%  2775   29%
   3 Critter 1.2              2959   13   13  2200   75%  2776   35%
   4 Deep Rybka 4.1 SSE42     2958   13   13  2200   75%  2776   35%
   5 Stockfish 2.1.1 JA       2943   13   13  2200   72%  2776   33%
   6 Naum 4.2                 2834   12   12  2200   58%  2781   40%
   7 Gull 1.2                 2802   12   12  2200   53%  2783   36%
   8 Deep Shredder 12         2800   12   12  2200   53%  2783   39%
   9 Deep Sjeng c't 2010 32b  2798   12   12  2200   52%  2783   40%
  10 Deep Fritz 12 32b        2790   12   12  2200   51%  2783   38%
  11 Spike 1.4 32b            2788   12   12  2200   51%  2783   39%
  12 Hannibal 1.1             2764   12   12  2200   47%  2784   41%
  13 Protector 1.4.0 x64      2763   12   12  2200   47%  2784   37%
  14 spark-1.0 SSE42          2756   12   12  2200   46%  2785   41%
  15 HIARCS 13.2 MP 32b       2752   12   12  2200   46%  2785   37%
  16 Deep Junior 12.5         2736   12   12  2200   43%  2786   34%
  17 Zappa Mexico II          2710   12   12  2200   40%  2787   36%
  18 Deep Onno 1-2-70         2690   12   12  2200   37%  2788   36%
  19 Strelka 2.0 B            2676   12   13  2200   34%  2788   36%
  20 Umko 1.2 SSE42           2670   12   13  2200   34%  2789   37%
  21 Loop 13.6/2007           2635   13   13  2200   29%  2790   32%
  22 Jonny 4.00 32b           2611   13   13  2200   27%  2791   29%
  23 Crafty 23.3 JA           2592   13   13  2200   24%  2792   27%
 

Pope Benedict XVI Resignation: 7 Expert Picks for the Next Pontiff

By ALYSSA NEWCOMB (@alyssanewcomb)

Feb. 11, 2013

The below is the official Vatican translation of what the pope said today regarding his resignation.

Dear Brothers,

I have convoked you to this Consistory, not only for the three canonizations, but also to communicate to you a decision of great importance for the life of the Church.

After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry. I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only with words and deeds, but no less with prayer and suffering.

FULL COVERAGE: Pope Benedict XVI Resignation

Gregorio Borgia/AP Photo

Pope Benedict XVI delivers his "Urbi et Orbi"... View Full Size

Cardinal Ratzinger Emerges as Pope in 2005 Watch Video

Joseph Ratzinger: The Man Who Became Pope Watch Video

Pope Benedict Brings Message of Peace to Middle East Watch Video

However, in today's world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the bark of Saint Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me.

PHOTOS: Pope Benedict XVI Through the Years

For this reason, and well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint Peter, entrusted to me by the Cardinals on 19 April 2005, in such a way, that as from 28 February 2013, at 20:00 hours, the See of Rome, the See of Saint Peter, will be vacant and a Conclave to elect the new Supreme Pontiff will have to be convoked by those whose competence it is.

Dear Brothers, I thank you most sincerely for all the love and work with which you have supported me in my ministry and I ask pardon for all my defects. And now, let us entrust the Holy Church to the care of Our Supreme Pastor, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and implore his holy Mother Mary, so that she may assist the Cardinal Fathers with her maternal solicitude, in electing a new Supreme Pontiff. With regard to myself, I wish to also devotedly serve the Holy Church of God in the future through a life dedicated to prayer.

From the Vatican, 10 February 2013 BENEDICTUS PP XVI

Transcript for Pope Benedict to Resign, Vatican Says

This is NB BC news special report. Good morning I'm George Stephanopoulos in New York -- -- coming on the air right now because Pope Benedict the sixteenth is resigning on February 28 that was announced by the Vatican. Just moments ago.

He'll resign after which when he -- the Pope saying himself. At a meeting for the edification -- in -- that he had been edification saying it's the -- the Pope has been. Pope since April 2005.

Is actually best security in May of 2005 after the death of Pope John Paul the second. He is the first -- Who will be resigning in more than almost 500 years Pope Gregory the last Pope. To resign in 1415.

The leader of the world's more than one billion Catholics. Will be stepping down on February 28 that announcement from the Vatican this morning we have much more ahead. On Good Morning America.

Watch More News Videos at ABC | Technology News | Celebrity News

Smart TVs: Maybe too smart for mere humans

Wilson Rothman / msnbc.com

Smart TVs at the Sony booth at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas

There has been a lot of news about smart TVs and apps and interfaces this week at the Consumer Electronics Show. But just as 3-D TVs haven't captured the fancy of many buyers, there's no guarantee that smart TVs will do any better. A TV that connects to the Internet for downloading movies or TV shows in one thing; but navigating a screen full of app icons may be more appealing on a smartphone or tablet than on the crown jewel of screens, the home TV.

Google has renewed its effort at Google TV after Version 1.0 fared poorly last year. Users and critics complained of complexity, confusing interface and lack of premium content. The search giant has commitments from Samsung, Sony, LG and VIzio to use the new and improved version this year in some sets, but many consumers don't want to deal with the app hassle — or the number of apps, which can multiply faster than cable channels.

Leading TV maker Samsung says it has "improved the user interface" for its native, non-Google smart TVs this year. "The Smart Hub interface has a cleaner, more intuitive UI," said Ethan Rasiel, Samsung Electronics America spokesman.

Rasiel says there are now "over 1,400 apps through Samsung Apps, in categories such as music, sports, fitness, social networking and news. Also, through Media Hub, Samsung offers a diverse selection of on-demand movies, TV shows and 3-D content right to the living room. If you purchase content on one device, you can watch it on all of your Samsung devices."

"Smart TVs have a pretty strong level of capability, but consumers may be intimidated by the complexity, especially around set up," said Paul Gagnon, NPD DisplaySearch director of North American TV research. "If a manufacturer can come up with a better out-of-the-box experience, it would be a big help to encouraging sooner adoption among the less techie crowd."

And when it comes to apps, "social apps are interesting, but with the usage of these apps effectively interrupting the TV view experience — a big problem if more than one person is watching TV — I think most consumers will stick to a preference for streaming video apps on the TV. For now, at least."

Officials from Sony, which is fighting to regain its leading role as a TV maker, say they realize that there's still some consumer convincing that needs to be done before buyers choose sets with Internet connections, much less fuss with apps.

"We do have some work to do to make it easier for the consumer who may not be so savvy about how to connect to the Internet (via TV)," said Phil Molyneux, head of Sony Electronics (USA).

"One of the things we at Sony need to do — and perhaps the electronics industry as a whole when it comes to TVs and connectivity — is to get the message out to our customers," said Kaz Hirai, president and group CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment. "We have to make sure the connectivity is as easy as possible, (and) promote and talk about that excitement."

Beyond connectivity and apps, other problems arise with the various remote controls and software updates that Internet-connect TVs need.

Samsung says it's "breaking down consumers' biggest barrier to purchase — rapidly outdated technology — by future-proofing the TV."

The company's "Smart Evolution" kit lets buyers "enjoy the latest technology and services on their TV, years after they purchased their set":

Consumers don't have to worry about their newly purchased TV becoming 'out of date.' This solution will be easily available. Consumers can purchase the Evolution Kit, which includes software and hardware enhancements, and easily plug it into a slot on the back of their TVs.

Still, all of these things are additional add-ons to deal with, think about, and factor in when it comes to the TV experience. That may be why there's more excitement this year at CES about 55-inch OLED screens and voice and motion controls for TV than for smart TVs. The phrase alone elicits a glazed-over look by many, while others snicker at the oxymoronic possibilities.

There are so many products that now use "smart" in their names that the word has lost its impact to some degree. And it may be in danger of turning away buyers, instead of turning them on.

Wilson Rothman / msnbc.com

A smart TV at the Samsung booth at CES.

Waiting, floating somewhere off to the side of the TV wars is word of a possible TV from Apple, something Steve Jobs talked about before he died to biographer Walter Isaacson.

"It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine. I finally cracked it," Jobs told Isaacson.

An Apple TV set has manufacturers such as Sony on edge, with Apple making ease of use a key ingredient in its products, and the element behind much of the company's success.

NPD DisplaySearch, in a new report, says that it sees demand for Internet-connected growing from 9 million shipments in 2011 to 24.7 million in 2014.

How many of those TVs will be smart TVs, as we know them know, remains to be seen.

"Heavy interactivity requires a re-think of the remote control. It also can be far beyond the familiar passive entertainment of conventional television," the research firm said in its "Connected Home: Smart TV Special" report, adding:

Some set makers have decided to bring the full Internet to the living room and incorporate (Web) browsers. While this is an attractive idea, it places serious burdens on the TV designer: solving the ease of use when a screen is three or four meters away is not easy. Websites require a cursor and complicated movements such as ‘click and drag’ which is not easily achieved with a conventional TV remote control. A shift to wireless remote controls is becoming necessary to handle more complex interactivity tasks. At the same time, the TV will have to be capable of updating itself — we are all familiar with the regular updates to Flash Player and Java —and such updating is not simple: who would we call if an update failed and our TV software crashed?

Consumers, the research firm said "increasingly expect their devices to share seamlessly and interoperability with handheld devices will become a critical factor for the development of smart TVs. In terms of units shipped worldwide, the tablet market alone is expected to be bigger than TV by 2017."

It sees the future of smart TV as one that will "share tasks with other devices. It’s not comfortable to watch an entire TV program on a tablet or smartphone, but these devices are very good at searching. So the best outcome is to be able to search and select on the handheld, then to transfer the final viewing experience to the TV and slouch on the sofa."

The "killer app" for TV won't be apps, the firm said. It "will remain as watching television — but in future that will be video from an ever-widening choice of sources."

The firm may be onto something. One commenter on a recent msnbc.com story about smart TVs posted this sentiment:

I'm not sure I care so much about all these Smart TV features. Some may be nice, but overall, I want a great picture, a TV that won't break. I'm very into high tech, but could care less if my TV hooks up to Facebook or a bunch of this other stuff. Why pay a bunch extra for something I probably will never use? Adding 100 more features I'll never use really isn't going to make the TV any more desirable to me.

But ultimately one of the biggest complications of the "smart TV" revolution is that it doesn't cost a "bunch extra." In fact, the chances are great that the next TV you buy has smart features, even if you choose your TV strictly on performance or reputation. You'll only find out that it's "smart" when you get it home, and start fiddling around for an Ethernet port or a Wi-Fi password — working through the 27-step wizard before you can get to the six channels of TV you actually care about. 

Related stories:

SMART TV UPGRADER

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Equiso puts the Power of an Android tablet on your TV.  Combined with our interactive remote, Equiso will truly refine your TV experience.

Watch stunning 1080p HD content from Netflix, Hulu Plus, YouTube and many more! Send emails, update your facebook status, play Angry Birds or Fruit Ninja like never before. Download new apps, create and display a powerpoint, listen to music, read books, and play most all those interactive games you love so much on your phone or tablet.

On the Go - Plug n' Play

Imagine showing up to do a presentation, and all you had to do, was plug it in, grab your remote, and you're ready to go. Game night with your buddies is now easier than ever.  Bring your device with you in your pocket, plug in and play. Our 1.4 HDMI 1080p port allows for direct plugin to any TV, Monitor, or Projector. This enables any of these devices to instantly become a Smart TV and eliminates the need for extra cables.

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Review: Apple TV (2nd generation, late 2010)

By Jonathan Seff and Jason Snell, Macworld

• Sep 30, 2010 6:00 AM
• print

The original Apple TV, announced in 2006 and released in early 2007, was Apple’sfirst take on providing media streaming to the living room. Four years and three software updates later, the Apple TV remained just a “hobby,” to use the word repeatedly uttered by Apple executives to describe the product. With the release of the new second-generation Apple TV, Apple has dramatically changed the device’s technology while also redefining the product’s target audience. It’s an enormous change with a huge amount of upside, but until the device becomes more flexible it’s still a work in progress.

The big picture

Before digging into the details of what the Apple TV’s software does and doesn’t do, it’s worth reviewing the hardware itself. Almost the only thing the new Apple TV has in common with its predecessor is its name: The previous silver-and-white model was essentially a stripped down Mac powered by a single-core Intel processor and running a modified version of OS X 10.4. With its included hard drive, it had a bigger footprint than a Mac mini, consumed a lot of power, and threw off a whole lot of heat.

Contrast that with this new black box, a quarter of the size of the original Apple TV, running a version of iOS just like the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, and powered by the same Apple A4 processor used in the iPad. The new Apple TV relies on solid-state storage (8GB worth, according to iFixIt) rather than a moving hard drive, sips power, and runs cool to the touch. To top it all off, the previous Apple TV cost $229; this new, vastly more advanced model will set you back $99.

The Apple TV is 3.9 inches square, 0.9 inches high, and weighs 0.6 pounds—or, to put it another way, it’s really small. On the back you’ll find a plug for the included power cable, an HDMI port capable of carrying HD video and 5.1-channel digital audio to your TV, an optical digital audio port for connecting directly to a surround-sound audio system, a 10/100Base-T ethernet port (in case you prefer wired networking to the Apple TV’s built-in 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi), and a micro-USB port that Apple says is reserved for service and support (at least until some industrious people came up with a way to use it for other purposes). You’ll need to supply your own HDMI cable for use with the Apple TV, because Apple doesn’t supply one. And if your HDTV only has support for component inputs, and not HDMI, you’re out of luck.

Rear ports of the new Apple TV (top) versus the original.

Along with the major hardware upgrade, this new Apple TV comes with a shift in Apple’s philosophy about what the Apple TV is for. If we had to sum up the original Apple TV philosophy, it would be that the device existed as a way to take the iTunes content you stored on your computer and play it back in your living room, and also facilitate the purchase and rental of additional items from the iTunes store.

The new model, in contrast, won’t let you buy stuff at all. The only financial transactions that happen on the box itself are rentals—of movies and, for the first time, TV shows. Since buying stuff from iTunes requires you to download the file and store it somewhere, you’ve got to do that from a Mac or PC running iTunes. (The Apple TV will play those purchases back, of course, but you must make the purchase on your computer.) Without a hard drive, there’s no way to sync that content from your computer to the Apple TV, so playback requires a Mac or PC with iTunes 10.0.1 or later to be running to watch anything not coming from the Internet. This is a big change for older Apple TV owners, who may have dumped lots of content onto the Apple TV’s drive and preferred to shut down their computers before sitting on the couch for the evening’s entertainment. It also marks the first time that Apple has truly embraced using its own hardware to facilitate the playback of paid video content from a service other than Apple, because the new Apple TV offers full support for Netflix video streaming.

Remote control

By default, you control the Apple TV via the included infrared remote. It’s basically the same aluminum remote Apple sells for $19 for Macs, but with a tiny design variation: the ring of buttons is ever so slightly raised.

If you prefer to stow your Apple TV somewhere out of your line of sight (or aren’t a fan of Apple’s remote) you’ll need to control it by other means. The good news is, version 2.0 of Apple’s Remote app for iOS released this week will work as a Wi-Fi-based remote—and it’s now a universal app for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.

The Remote app functions more or less the same as the the hardware remote, with the main difference between that you swipe and tap in the app instead of clicking buttons on the remote. It still works well for scrolling around the Apple TV interface and selecting items, and the addition of iPad support for the app makes an even more expansive and functional interface.

Getting set up

The contents of the Apple TV box.

Apple seems to have gotten in a groove recently when it comes to packaging. The company has slimmed down and eliminated as much plastic and waste as possible, especially on Macs and iPhones. The Apple TV follows that trend, arriving in a tiny cardboard box. Inside there’s just the Apple TV, an elegantly wrapped power cable, the remote, and a small paper Getting Started guide.

After attaching an HDMI cable and plugging the Apple TV in to our officialMacworld flat-screen HDTV, we were up and running. The problem with a device like the Apple TV, though, is that to really get it working you need to enter in some data on a device that doesn’t come with a keyboard. Yes, the iOS Remote app will let you key in text—but only once it’s sharing the same network as the Apple TV! We had to enter in a Wi-Fi password and then an iTunes ID and password (in order to connect to iTunes and the Remote app via Home Sharing), all with the remote, before everything started working smoothly. It’s a pain, and there’s probably no alternative. At least it’s something you only have to do once.

The first time we tried to rent a movie, we did run into a bit of security: the Apple TV prompted us for the security number on the back of the default credit card on the iTunes account we were using. Once we entered it, all future rentals happened with just a couple of clicks and no other identification was necessary.

iTunes rentals

The current TV rentals on iTunes are a bit sparse.

With the Apple TV limited to movie and TV show rentals, its view of the iTunes Store is now decidedly different: If something’s not for rent, it’s not there as far as the Apple TV is concerned. Although Apple counts 8000 movie rentals in the iTunes Store—about 3500 of which are in HD—the TV section is where the rental issue is especially apparent: there are some shows from Fox, ABC, and the BBC, but it’s not a huge selection and many popular shows from the regular iTunes list are conspicuously absent. Likewise, any movies available for purchase but not for rental are no-shows on the device.

This is one of those cases where the deals Apple makes with content providers—and not the hardware or the software—have the biggest impact on the user experience of this product. If Apple fails to make rental deals with major networks (and statements from NBC and others indicate an uphill battle) or agrees to delay rentals of certain movies for 30 days after DVD release (for example, you can buy Iron Man 2 right now, but not rent it), that will make the Apple TV’s selection poorer.

Although the Apple TV doesn’t have the storage to archive purchased content permanently, we have to wonder if there might not be some way to allow Apple TV users to buy videos that are available only for purchase and somehow queue up a download on a linked Mac or PC. It does seem a bit silly that you can rent a TV show for $1 but not buy one for $3. Instead, if you want to purchase content on iTunes, you need to do it from your Mac or PC.

Streaming from your computer

As before, you can still stream content stored in an iTunes library on your network to the Apple TV. The new model changes how the process works, however. In the past, you’d go to Settings -> Computers -> Add Shared iTunes Library and enter a 5-digit code in iTunes to link up your library and your Apple TV. Once you linked to an iTunes library, its contents would display in the My Movies, My TV Shows, and My Music sub-menus of the Movies, TV Shows, and Music menus.

Now you accomplish the same thing using iTunes’ Home Sharing feature. In iTunes, select Advanced -> Turn On Home Sharing and you’re prompted to enter your iTunes Store ID and password. Once Home Sharing is turned on, you can select the contents of a synced computer’s iTunes library by choosing that computer by name from the Apple TV’s new Computers menu.

In many ways, this setup process is easier than a code appearing on your TV and you having to go to the computer you want to link and enter the code. But in order to see each other, your Apple TV and any iTunes libraries with Home Sharing enabled must be using the same iTunes Store account. So if you have more than one account in your house, you won’t be able to stream all your content without some extra hassle.

And how you stream is very important, because, as we’ve mentioned, there’s no longer any concept of syncing content to the Apple TV. With only a small amount of on-board storage—which is reserved mainly for buffering streaming content—the new Apple TV doesn’t let you transfer files to it from your iTunes library. Everything is either streaming over the Internet (from iTunes, Netflix, YouTube, Flickr, MobileMe, and the like) or from a Mac or PC.

An informal survey of Macworld editors revealed that most of us gave up on syncing our Apple TVs with our iTunes libraries, due to the slowness of the syncing and the functionality of media streaming. But we admit, if you’re the kind of person who regularly filled the hard drive on the original Apple TV and wished that the drive was larger, you may be disappointed with the new Apple TV’s affinity for streaming and lack of storage.

Netflix streaming

Just about every Blu-ray player, HDTV, and video-streaming device for sale today seems to include the ability to play streaming Netflix content. (Full credit to Netflix for making support for its service so pervasive.) The Apple TV, with its strong focus on Apple’s own iTunes Store, has never supported such a service in the past, but that’s all changed now. Netflix subscribers with streaming access (all plans $9 or higher offer unlimited streaming) can use the new Apple TV to watch the entire Netflix streaming video library.

The Netflix interface the Apple TV uses doesn’t look like the ones found in most other devices that feature embedded Netflix support. Apple TV’s Netflix feature uses the same interface conventions as browsing through TV shows and movies on the iTunes Store. Apple says it wanted a consistent design with the rest of the Apple TV interface, and in that area the company succeeded. Poster thumbnails are laid out and look as they do when browsing Apple’s own iTunes Store catalog, and if you know how to use the Apple TV, you know how to use Netflix on the Apple TV. You can see what’s in your Instant queue; watch a queued item; search for new movies and TV shows by genre, new release, or name, and watch them or add them to your queue; remove items from your queue; and rate TV shows and movies.

In our tests playing back both SD and HD streaming content from Netflix, the quality was generally as good as the source material, and on a par with the same content viewed streaming from Roku’s new XDS streaming video player. As with all the content we tried out, Wi-Fi and ethernet were equally acceptable options for streaming Netflix content.

Improved performance

Anyone with the previous generation of Apple TV will tell you that its performance was severely lacking in many ways. It only could play 720p HD video files if they were 24 frames per second (and didn’t even manage that task particularly well in many cases). Pressing buttons on its remote was often an exercise in futility, as such actions would apparently go unheeded because of a complete lack of feedback from the UI—until they all triggered at once and you ended up playing and pausing a video half a dozen times, or clicked your way several menus past the command you were looking for.

Those woes are a thing of the past. The new Apple TV plays 720p videos with ease. No stuttering, no frame drops. And the Apple TV’s interface is much more responsive to commands. We never felt frustrated when driving this Apple TV.

The new Apple TV also runs much cooler than before, due mostly to the fact that it has no spinning hard drive to produce lots of heat. In fact, there are no moving parts—not even a fan. Apple says that in normal use, the Apple TV consumes a little more than two watts of power, and in Sleep mode (which is a true sleep, unlike the faux-sleep of the previous model) that number drops to less than one watt.

After playing around with it in the Macworld offices for several hours, including an hour of streaming 720p video, our test unit stayed at a pretty consistent temperature, and never even got warm to the touch. (Compare that to the old Apple TV, which was a handy stand-in for a George Foreman grill if the need arose.)

AirPlay on the way

Just as with the previous Apple TV, you can use this new model to play back audio from a Mac or PC running iTunes via Apple’s AirPlay system, previously known as AirTunes. The name change is due to the fact that iOS devices running iOS 4.2 (due in November) will gain the ability to send videos and photos wirelessly to your TV set via the Apple TV. With iOS 4.2, iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch users will be able to tap on an AirTunes icon while playing media on their devices, select an Apple TV on their local network, and see the media routed directly to the TV attached to that Apple TV. This feature will not only be supported in the built-in iOS media apps, but in third-party apps as well. (AirPlay video playback will likely be limited to formats that the Apple TV understands—namely, MPEG-4 and H.264.)

Unfortunately, because iOS 4.2 is still in development, we weren’t able to test AirPlay’s video-sharing features. They sound like they could be pretty cool, but for now it’s just a promise—it’ll be up to Apple to deliver a good-quality AirPlay experience in November.

But wait, is there more?

We already know that the new Apple TV is using the same processor as the iPad, is running iOS, and has at least some internal storage. And that opens the door for the possibility of the Apple TV one day being able to run third-party apps that could expand its capabilities. If the Apple TV could stream live baseball from MLB.com or play back Hulu Plus videos, for example, that could make it an even more interesting product to appeal to more users. (Those services will probably work via AirPlay, but it would seem much more efficient to offer them directly on the device.)

The Apple TV’s Netflix interface makes it clear that Apple wants the Apple TV user interface to be consistent across different services. But it’s not hard to imagine Netflix as the perfect example for third-party developers wanting to add features to the Apple TV. If Netflix support is any indication, Apple is no longer afraid to offer Apple TV owners alternatives to the company’s own iTunes Store—and for the Apple TV to make a big splash, it’ll have to compete with the Rokus of the world that give users lots of choices.

Then there’s the question of whether the Apple TV’s iOS base could mean that it becomes a new gaming platform. There are certainly lots of iOS games out there, and if they could be adapted to the big screen (with iOS devices like iPod touches and iPhones as Wii-like controllers, complete with gyroscopes and accelerometers) there might be a lot of potential there. Still, it’s hard to gauge how likely this scenario is. We certainly don’t advise anyone buying an Apple TV in the hope that it will become a game console—but it’s an interesting possibility to consider.

Macworld’s buying advice

The new Apple TV is a spectacular hardware upgrade from the old model. The device is easy to use, and excels at three tasks: playing back content from local iTunes computers, renting iTunes content over the Internet, and playing back Netflix streams. But it’s somewhat hampered by a limited selection of TV shows available for rent, and locked out of the larger catalog of items available for purchase. And until Apple expands the Apple TV’s capabilities, either by adding support for other Internet streaming services or by opening the device to third-party development, the product is locked in to only a few content sources.

But at $99, this tiny box is a remarkable deal if you’ve got an HDTV and have made an investment in iTunes purchases. Once iOS 4.2 arrives, users of iPhones and iPads will likely find AirPlay a great way to get the content on their devices up onto a big screen. And if you’re both an iTunes user and a Netflix subscriber, the product is right in your wheelhouse. This is a good product that has the potential to erase its status as a hobby and become a hit—but it feels like a few pieces of the puzzle are still missing.