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Apple Fairy: high-def AppleTV content coming soon

crunchgear.com — there’s gonna be a pretty substantial update to iTunes sometime this month that ’ll help to bring AppleTV back from the teetering edge of extinction. Apple has apparently placed a gargantuan order for more AppleTV units in anticipation for the upcoming “iTunes HD” or whatever it’ll be called.

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  • liuping, on 10/14/2007, -2/+47Please let iTunesHD include a rental model...
  • gbreed, on 10/10/2007, -13/+6Let's get to the dirt. If any one downloaded a HD 2 hour movie or Television show. Know it can be a long wait or an overnighter; depending on your service and where live. Apple doesn't have any control over speed of the delivery of the file once it enters your ISP. This will leads to a bad customer experience which customer blames Apple. Instead of demanding that the system be upgrade to increase speed. I'll stick with Net Flicks
    • reallydigginit, on 10/14/2007, -3/+9Yeah, 'cept there's wide spread rumor that 10.5 will include a p2p feature to help solve the bandwith/delivery problem.... 'Course it's just a rumor and I don't know *****.
      • daldredge, on 10/14/2007, -1/+6You mean not only do I have to pay money to download the content I also have to share my connection with others for FREE!

        Explain how that is a good deal please.
    • jonahan52, on 10/14/2007, -2/+7Luckily I have FiOS!
    • MrSilverblood, on 10/14/2007, -1/+8Xbox Live already has HD movies you can download. Granted there are probably more Apple computers out there than Xbox 360's, but this is what Microsoft is doing right now. You're right, it does take a while, and it is dependent on the both the speed of the server and the user, but if HD is what people want, then HD is what people should get.

      Apple wouldn't miss the mark on this one. HD content for iTunes and Apple TV is coming. I think you under estimate the end users too. I think people are smart enough to understand that HD movies will be bigger files. It's the nature of the beast.
      • djphatjive, on 10/14/2007, -1/+1Its about 3 hours for a full HD movie, But with XBOX 360 you don't have to download it all, after its loaded a bunch on there you can play it as its downloading.
    • Gabberwok, on 10/14/2007, -2/+6It still doesn't matter if your own connection is too slow to handle HD videos - as most probably are.
      • B1663r, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2Meh my comcast service lets we watch hd movies ~almost~ as they download. But still Im waiting a half an hour before I can start watching them. I usually spend the time playing some xbla game.
    • MackPrime, on 10/14/2007, -2/+2maybe letting users pre-load before the videos are officially released?
    • ArthurSucks, on 10/14/2007, -1/+6I download 720p episodes of shows off bittorrent and they're only about 400 - 500 MBs. That should only take about 30-40 minutes on a normal broadband connection.
    • VCAT, on 10/14/2007, -1/+9Netfilx is faster than an "overnighter"? *boggle*
    • ThankTheCheese, on 10/14/2007, -0/+4the problem for many countries is download size. not because of speed, but because of download limits imposed by ISPs.
    • yabos, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Who cares how long it takes. If there's a subscription type thing for tv shows then they can automatically download when they become available like iTunes does for podcasts. The only thing I want is that the Apple TV does all this for you instead of the iTunes client. There's no reason why I should have to keep all this stuff on my computer to put it on the Apple TV. It's networked, based on OS X, it should be able to subscribe to podcasts, tv shows, download movies etc. all by itself. Hopefully there will be an update to do this. And hopefully Apple releases the update for the older Apple TVs.
  • rmwimpee, on 10/14/2007, -2/+13are you kidding? the last Fairy "tale" was 100% incorrect. In other words a random guess based on nothing.
    • Gabberwok, on 10/10/2007, -1/+6You missed a great opportunity to be Shakespearean: Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing!
  • cutlarock, on 10/14/2007, -2/+26If bandwidth is such an issue, why are there no people complaining about HD delivery over at the Xbox360 Marketplace? I for one am desperate for HD content from iTunes. As of right now, my AppleTV is doing absolutely nothing for me without content to match the technology. The iTunes store is pretty damn fast when it comes to download speeds, and the increase in file size and extra time it takes to download is not going to deter me from downloading content AT ALL.
    • lo0ol, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6It does seem like AppleTV is a good idea just waiting for some real meat to chew on, doesn't it? The form factor is great, it's a cool idea about having access to your iTunes library in your living room. I've been ripping all of my DVDs to iTunes the last few weeks myself, and even though my TV isn't phenomenal, I'm still teetering on the edge about picking up an AppleTV. Having quick access to my media in the living room without running it through my MacBook or hassling with cords all the time can be a bit of a pain. Having HD available from iTunes (with a few more features on the side) would make it much harder for me to resist picking one up.

      Maybe Steve's idea of the AppleTV being their "hobby" sector will finally mature into something with a bit more teeth.
      • WiseWeasel, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3I love my AppleTV! Being able to browse all the iTunes libraries on the home LAN on a big HDTV in the living room is revolutionary. The CD as a playback medium is now completely obsolete. If only there was the iTunes music visualizer, music playback would be perfect. I've been busy ripping my extensive DVD collection to H.264 format with the freeware Handbrake for playback on the AppleTV, and it is freaking awesome never to have to hunt through a shiny disc collection ever again! Video podcasts are nice too...
    • subliiime, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1I don't have an Apple TV, but am I correct in assuming you can queue downloads up for them to run over night while you sleep?
      • drjones78, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0Sure, but your still tethered to your computer, which is the other big drawback of the AppleTV. It doesnt have an iTunes store. You must first, go to your computer, then download/purchase what you want, and sync it to your appletv.
  • indiefan, on 10/10/2007, -7/+7The only way i can imagine the bandwidth could support this would be if they turned iTunes into a massive psp network. I'm all for it.
    • lordtyros, on 10/14/2007, -0/+13psp? i don't think sony would go for that.
    • knightboat, on 10/14/2007, -0/+11The Apple TV can only play up to 5mbps h.264 video. Conveniently, many average American broadband customers enjoy speeds of 5mbps or more.

      The bandwidth won't be a problem just like it hasn't been a problem for Microsoft on the 360.
  • SenatorChubby, on 10/10/2007, -1/+6Can't wait till October 26th.
  • keswick, on 10/10/2007, -11/+6Great, maybe they can fix the damn iPod Classic one of these days.
  • totorototoro, on 10/10/2007, -1/+7I'm starting to wonder about the real impact delaying Leopard has had on Apple's product line- if the rumors about integral Leopard integration with the iPhone and AppleTV turn out to be true, and it was Leopards delay that has made these two products less useful in the interim. Can't wait to see what shakes out at the end of the month.
  • Repeater2000, on 10/10/2007, -14/+3This thing still on the market?
  • andrew.bell, on 10/14/2007, -1/+13You need to be able to order content directly from the AppleTV for this product to make it big. Apple has the framework for this with the Wifi Store on the iPhone/iPod Touch. Port it to the AppleTV.
  • mrroarke, on 10/14/2007, -18/+15"Apple Fairy"

    That is SO redundant.
  • dagamer34, on 10/10/2007, -4/+2If you've ever downloaded Diggnation HD podcast, you'd know that it's roughly 700MB for 42 minutes of video and might take upto an hour on a decent connection?

    Granted, unless you have a GOOD high-speed connection, you aren't going to want to download this stuff, but you need to have content to give people a reason to upgrade to that top tier internet package.
    • LoganT, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4Actually that 700+ MB Digggnation HD episode only took me about 10 minutes to download. Maybe it's because my connection speed is 6748 kbps.
  • Purin, on 10/14/2007, -3/+19In contrast, the Microsoft fairy is a balding man whose favorite phrase is "developers, developers, developers, developers!"
  • TGMD, on 10/14/2007, -17/+10AppleTV? That's still around?
    • hotdamn, on 10/10/2007, -4/+9You're so original, you're only the 3rd person in the comments to say this.
      • pinchies, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1Not everyone reads every single comment in every layer.
        The rule is "three strikes and you're out". You can shoot the next guy though...
  • DarkDx, on 10/14/2007, -9/+3But those willl be in h.264 wich are lessquality, I wouuld prefer VC1 or XviD but that won't happen :(
    • colincornaby, on 10/14/2007, -1/+4What? VC1 and H.264 are pretty much the same thing...
    • ArthurSucks, on 10/14/2007, -1/+1As much as I absolutely love Xvid, h264 does have a higher compression level. Xvid looks better, but the files will always be bigger.
    • srg13, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Where do you get that from? H.264 can be very good quality if you compress it well...
  • aznhomig, on 10/10/2007, -9/+4They're only about five years late.
    • DarkSideofMoon, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Most people were still on a dial-up connection five years ago. Even today's connection speeds take a very long time to download HD content (at least in North America).
  • zeppo, on 10/14/2007, -1/+4h.264/AVC and VC1 are of equal quality geez...

    I didn't think AppleTV has enough cpu power for HD though. I would guess these would be 1280x720p same as xbox live and not 1920x1080p like HD DVD and Blu-ray.
    • ismith, on 10/10/2007, -2/+2I really hope it's 1080p... I didn't buy that HDTV for nothin' :
      • skellener, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2AppleTV's limit is 720p. The only way to get ANY 1080p content is BluRay, HD-DVD or torrents. You'll never see 1080p broadcast or through cable/satellite.
        • MacParrot, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Never say never. 15 years ago most people were using 2400-33k modems and AOL
    • yabos, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1It has HD outputs so it'd be pretty lame if it couldn't decode 720p material.
  • foris, on 10/10/2007, -2/+1"teetering edge of extinction"? Factually incorrect, still selling in large volume. Buried as inaccurate.
    • nfxmedia, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3State your sources, otherwise you're just as inaccurate.
    • gnyd, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0"Large" volume? Maybe, sales are certainly still very healthy... pretty good for a product which is definitely a niche product, and which Steve Jobs described as a "hobby".
    • MacParrot, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1"still selling in large volume"
      Where is this "large volume" place that you speak of? And why did they stop selling it in other places?
  • DaveOrZach, on 10/10/2007, -1/+0The site quotes macosrumors.com; if you follow Apple rumors sites you MOSR tells some pretty tall tails. I wouldn't believe this rumor until a more reputable site confirms it or an Apple take down notice occurs.
  • Quix, on 10/10/2007, -2/+3One who references the perpetually wrong Mac OS Rumors site instantly loses all credibility...
  • flux1, on 10/10/2007, -4/+3I hope everyone with a first gen AppleTV will like paying for a second gen one to play the HD content.
    • MacParrot, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I don't have an AppleTV, but won't it play 720p content?
      • DazWiLLiE, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1My hacked AppleTV plays 720p .mkv, but it's unwatchable. The sound is good, but the video.. get a few frames, then paus, a few frames, paus etc lagging behind badly.
        I haven't tried h.264 720p, but I doubt it's much faster.
  • coreyb, on 10/10/2007, -1/+5I love my first generation TV, I use it every day. As for HD content, if it comes then great, if not then it is not going to kill me, I cannot tell the difference between 780p and 1080p unless I am two feet away... and honestly the last time I was that close was when I was eight and watching Looney Tunes.
    • 3vno, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2HD mattters more the bigger the tv you have. My appletv looks like sh*t on my sister's $$$ 65 dlp 1080p. But, it like great on my 32 1080i LCD.
    • logandurand, on 10/14/2007, -0/+1You know why you can't tell the difference? Because it isn't there - the Apple TV only goes up to 720.
  • luckk, on 10/10/2007, -4/+1Be sure to check out my compilation of over 100 HD podcasts at http://hd.appletvsource.com
    • koick, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4Borderline spam and you don't really have much content...
  • nex9, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2I was just talking to a co-worker about the apple TV... what apple (or Tivo, Slingbox, or someone else) needs is a box that's a PVR, has the distribution capabilities of a slingbox, and allow downloading of content & media library capabilities like the AppleTV. Right now there's no all in one solution that I'm aware of.
  • aliguana, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3great, that means it'll be coming to iTMS UK/Australia/Canada/France/Germany/Spain/India/China in about 2025 then....
  • PabloEscobar666, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Of course people who never used the AppleTV give valid opinions about it. Hello Digg.
  • ARob, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1I'm more excited about the $250 Mac Nano...
  • wbienek, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0This is a big deal? They should have had that day 1!
  • alkaline300, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1apple is taking over the world
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