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iTV: What you need to know
macworld.com — Its not every day that Apple gives use a preview of a piece of hardware thats not going to arrive for at least three months, and maybe as long as six. But the release of the new iTunes Store, including the sale of full-length motion pictures, wouldnt have had as much impact ....
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- bryguy000, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6I am puzzled by the abnormal preview of an unfinished product, but I like it. I like it a lot.
- DoctorNo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I don't know. . .
$300 for the iTV and $15 to download 640x480 movies. . . might be a hard sell compared to $30 DVD players and $10-20 DVDs.
Also, without Xvid/Divx support its kinda pointless for people that actually have movies on their PC/Mac to use iTV to watch it on their TV. Also other then the TV-out on your PC, their are other products on the market, that cost much less, that already do this with Divx support.
Also, if you want to be cheap, you could just get the Phillips DVP642 and watch $15 DVDs and Divx (burned to disc) for like 60 bucks. - adamlindsay, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Hard sell?
The same could have been said for DVD Players and iPods just a few years ago. VHS players were dirt cheap when DVD Players hit. Sony walkmans were dirt cheap, as were cassettes when the iPod hit. Who ever thought people would be so willing to spend $300+ for a portable music player. Sony sure didn't. :) Anyways, the iTV at $300 is a steal. You could be looking at the last transport for a while. No more cable box, no more dvd player, forget cd players. This thing will show and play all, well all as long as it comes from iTS or local collection. This is the promised IPTV from yesteryear.
All that being said, I think the media is expensive for the quality. I suspect when Apple goes HD, they will also finally offer Lossless Audio. If they don't I will continue to get my music elsewhere. What else do you really want? The media is well priced, unless you pirate or buy from russia. - CPUGUy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1But you can buy an XBox360 for $300, wich is an MCE extender.
- DoctorNo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I don't know. . .
- anonymoustroll, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2They need to be careful with this one...
There are many things that can go wrong:
1 - sling need to hurry and get their OS X client out the door; they've already got a year and a half lead on Apple and their price point is lower too! All they need to do is grow some balls and allow recording and multicasting.
2 - there aren't that many TV tuner and capture cards out for Macs; there's window of opportunity for third parties who wake up and get a clue.
3 - itunes downloads of movies too slow; see, this is what happens when you use DRM... you can't leverage things like bittorrent.
4 - why the fsck would I need one of these if I've already got an ipod and video doc? From what I understand, this thing is play back only, no recording... thanks for not filling a niche Apple
5 - what ever happened to "share your PVR" folks? ...I think they're still lurking around looking for the right opportunity (or a stupid venture capitalist to mugg (again)).
6 - that skype TV USB stick
7 - etc.- milkmage, on 10/12/2007, -5/+31 - what does sling have to do with it? they're not comparable products.
2 - why do you need a tuner card (see elgato hybridTV)
3 - what does DRM have to do with it, 1 GB of encrypted data is the same a 1 GB of no-encrypted data. and FYI - iTunes plays torrents (assuming the codec is supported) you do not need iTunes store content to use iTunes software (duh) I can rip my DVD's and play the file in iTunes and on my ipod
4 - wireless playback is handy (and what's the USB port on the back for) - I smell accessories (pvr, hard drive, play direct from ipod)
5 - what is your question?
6 - skype USB stick for what?
7 - you clearly don't understand what you're talking about (see #5 and #6) - milkmage, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4and you didn't RTFA:
Will the iTV be limited to playing back videos I bought on the iTunes Store?
Probably not. Our prediction is that, at the very least, the iTV will be able to play back MPEG-4- and H.264-encoded videos you add to the iTunes library on a Mac or PC on your home network. It’s possible, but not as likely, that iTV will play back other video formats, such as Divx, or even the MPEG-2 format used by DVDs. But at the very least, you should be able to convert DVDs and other video files using a tool such as Handbrake or Visual Hub, add the resulting files to iTunes, and get them to be detected and played back by the iTV. - juzzle, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Apple have made a big mistake here. The irony about this product is that it doesn't play "TV" (sure it outputs to your television) - the only "TV" is plays are actually videos (downloaded, at a cost!, from Apple). Come on Apple!
A better solution is Mac Mini with eyeTV (a digital tuner) running Front Row. With that you get:
- an iTV like interface ;-) (it's iTV is a Front Row interface)
- music and audio podcasts
- video podcasts
- stored video
- photo browser
- dvd player (and burner)
- digital TV (HD)
- digital TV capture with EPG
- and even Disney movies via iTunes
Besides any thing else, why woiuld I want my PC or Mac to be running separately to watch a movie or listening to music.
Apple you've missed the mark. Instead, Apple should simply:
1) Put more effort into the integration of Front Row into Mac Mini,
2) add the native digital TV tuner
.. then you'd have a beatiful device. Quiet, fully featured, and a web connnected Mac (if that whets your whistle).
See ya,
Juzzle - GoodBrain, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1My guess is that most people aren't going to care about the lack of a digital tuner and PVR.
If they really cared, they'd already have a Tivo. Guess what? Not many people really care about having a Tivo. If they did, Tivio would be a much fatter company right now. Those who might be curious about having a PVR, but not curious enough to buy a Tivo can probably get a crummy PVR in their cable TV set top box. Either way you slice it, it's not a very attractive market for Apple. - SupaFupa, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1You can complain all you want that the iTV is overpriced, light on features, a glorified RCA cable, whatever. All that matters is the Reality Distortion Field. Smug, elitist, condescending fanboys will herald it as the Windows Media Center killer, and Apple will throw a ton of advertising dollars at it, and just like the Ipod, it will be a huge financial success, for no other reason than marketing. But returning from the land of make believe, the rest of us will use a $75 tuner card, free PVR software, some coax/RCAs, and bittorrent, and life will go on.
- milkmage, on 10/12/2007, -5/+31 - what does sling have to do with it? they're not comparable products.
- h0zae, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3with front row integration you would expect it to have a cdrom/dvd slot...
- geminitojanus, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3No you wouldn't, it's a set top box, not a DVD player. It's meant to play the media on your computer, that's it.
- juzzle, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1Think of iTV as Front Row without storage and without a TV.
Alternatively, think of it as a Front Row development killer :-(
- Mudcrutch, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1better article: http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6449_7-6638689-1.html?tag=cnetfd.ld1
- heyitsme23, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1news is it is going to have a hard drive, for uploading and "maybe" recording, so don't start complainin yet.
- anonymoustroll, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1It's going to have some flash memory ("hard drive", bah!) so it can pre-schlep data across wireless (ha!) without making you so angry you blew $300 on the lastest AWB (Apple White Box) that you put your foot through your $2000 TV.
- kevnaca, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7I'm really starting to think that the iTV will be a hard sell for Apple. It just doesn't have the wow factor. But on the other hand it's still in development and i'm sure Apple has some surprises up their turtleneck sleeves, just have to wait and see.
- jhnshft, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I hope so. I have media center now and will probably get a mac for my next computer but if I get an Xbox 360 it already does more. Why would this be special? Its Apple, so a little cool factor, but what they are trying to do isn't all that amazing. There needs to be a little more.
- Kickboy, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2I think the best feature for iTV would be iTunes visualizations, or even new and better visualizations, when listening to music. Imagine those crazy ass visualizations on a 50" plasma.
Now that's entertainment! - eschompthis, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Like im really gonna spend 15 dollars for ***** lower resolution movie. i can do that with payperview
- spahn, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2You have to remember there are only HDMI and Component outputs on the back of this thing for video. i.e. the video connectors needed for HD video. To me that implies that they're going to be releasing HD content for download with the release of the iTV and I certainly hope that's the case. Without that, though it's definitely going to be a tough sell.
- DoctorNo, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Not likely.
Problem with HD movies are that they are absolutely massive, a full-length 1080p film in H.264 codec is around 10GBs depending on its length and bitrate. 1920 × 1080 movies are big. 10GBs+ is an awful lot to download, and it'll fill up a HDD real fast, especially the 2.5" ones the iTV uses. Probably have enough space for a half a dozen movies. Start adding HD audio, multi-languages, extras, becomes kinda pointless.
Even at 480p you're still asking the consumer to download in the gigabytes for a movie, depending on your connection it'll probably take longer to download the movie then to watch it.
And $15 for a 480p movie is kinda steep considering DVD prices that offer the same quality and more extras, plus not having to download it.
- kingjokin, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Consumers are friggin cry babies. You always want what is not available. I know that is what brings change. But geeez. The iTV may be just what some people are looking for. And Im sure Apple can handle a flop product. But I seriously doubt that they will have one.
- boohoo, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1here's all you need to know about iTV...
http://www.digg.com/apple/mac_s_300_iTV_versus_a_15_generic_cable_generic_cable_WINS - Moviespo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0So it's set to launch in April and by Christmas they will launch the wireless keyboard to go with it making it the first I-webtv
Hummmm - ITVNW, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0if you are really interested in ITV, that is "Independent Television" out of Seattle, WA you can find out more info here www.itvnw.com.
ITV Staff
P.S. We were actually around in January of 2005, lol. - smokeonit, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0why did apple leave out divx/divxHd support, it the standard like mp3 for audio now... i love h.264, but one needs a >10mbit line in order to get decent download time. i have 16mbit here in germany so a hr.hdtv divx is like 30min-2h hours, 700MB, depending on the seeder quality, but via the major TV series clans the speeds are very reliable and fast, so i don't worry about that... KISS, a linksys subsidiary, has a divXHD capable dvd player/HD recorder, that is actually much better, it has 100mbit ethernet and connects to my mac very easily... i also use the elgato eyehome for HD rips that are SD widecreen, it does a superb job at doing this... i wish elgsto would deliver a new eyehome with HD support... @ least apple included HDMI AND component, just hdmi is too limiting... let's see if apple delivers and opens the iTV box up to divx, or if there will be a hack enabling this codec...
my 2 cents - smokeonit, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0oh, and will we be able to connect our elgato HD ATSC tuner to it in order to make a real HD DVR out of it??? that one naggs me very much, no mention of it in the iTV apple tech specs... major bummer this uncertainty...
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