Is the Apple TV still running hot?

Question

I have been thinking of getting one, but all my friends keep telling me that it runs extremely hot and has ruined furniture surfaces, etc.
Has this been fixed in newer versions of the Apple TV? If so, what is a good manufacture date? I have heard that HDMI was having problems too and that was fixed. So i'd like to watch out for those bad units too.

Answer 1

The AppleTv casing behaves like a heat isnk - designed to dissipate heat.
They all run hot, though i guess some might be worse than others (and even if so, it won't be a manufacturing batch thing more interdevice variation and occasional faulty fans or whatever).
HDMI does cause issues for some, mainly when used via incompatible switches or receivers (your guess is as good as mine how you identify thise in advance). Most TVs, receivers will work fine though. The HDMI behaviour seems to change from time to time as well as software upgrades are applied, sometimes for better sometimes for worse.
As far as damage to furniture goes, there might be some truth in that but it will depend on the finish.
I have one on glas which is obviously fine, another on a wooden chest which has shown no signs of discolouration, though I thought it would (longest AppleTV location too - 18 months or so). The third and most recent is in the bedroom on a pine chest of drawers that I've also used to support a 32" TV - the waxed finish has already been affected slightly so I've put cthick UK £1 coins under each corner though I doubt that'll do much apart from conduct heat through them - we'll see.
Having said all that AppleTv is a great little device - when it works well it's superb. There are some niggles but for me the benefits greatly outweight the negatives.
Can you borrow a friend's unit to test the HDMI?
You could even add your iTunes as a shared library to test streaming (don't add it as a sync unless your friend is happy to lose their synced content!).
AC