Has anyone seen the apple tvs in action? How do you like them? Ive heard some people say the picture quality doesn't seem to be good, is this true?

If you go to any Apple store to see an Apple TV, you're going to be watching from a distance of less than 36 inches, far too close. You really have to step back a bit to make a comparison to how you have your own TV set up in the den, living room, etc. Having said that, you'll definitely notice that the video is not HD quality. I have to say that it's also not quite standard definition (SD), over-the-air quality either. But, being a proud Tivo owner, it's better than the medium-quality setting on the Tivo, which is how I watch lots of my programming. So, like any other audio-visual buying situation, you have to guage what quality you need, based on the content, location, audience, etc. If you just want to watch episodes of a TV series, Apple TV is fine. If you want to watch "The Matrix" or one of the "Star Wars" films in all their glory, well, Apple TV won't fil the bill. But then, that's the issue when considering Apple TV in the first place--does it fit your audio-video lifestyle?