gizmodo.com — The new product: a box to connect to your TV to play all these iTunes Movies and iTunes TV shows on it. This box supports wireless—no stringing cables—and is the missing piece. iTV looks like a small Mac Mini. It's just an internal codename, and will be renamed later.
Sep 12, 2006 View in Crawl 4
zeeeejSep 12, 2006
Except for decrypt DRM, this doesn't do anything that a TiVo plus a wireless USB adapter plus free MPG conversion software (Videora) doesn't do already. In fact, it does far, far less.
b111Sep 12, 2006
No DVR functionality, no thanks.
dominatusSep 12, 2006
Uhh....no it wouldn'tThe processing could be done on the computer and the processed image sent to the iTVYou do realize that the difficulty is in the decoding not in the presenting, right?
escamilloSep 12, 2006
A $300 media extender that's locked into iTunes videos? *yawn*
ethergnatSep 13, 2006
It all depends on what your definition of "good" is (and maybe what your definition of "is" is). NTSC television resolution is ambiguous despite heydigital's implications. DVD resolution is 720x480 so it's a good reference point. iTunes movies at 640x480 may possibly be near-DVD quality as Jobs claimed. It depends on bitrate, encoding method, and a host of other factors. Until we actually see it nobody knows for sure--and even then people will likely have wildly differing opinions. It should at least be better-than-standard-TV watchable.
ubergmrSep 13, 2006
apple makes a lot more off an iTunes download than a BluRay disk
soundboy64Sep 13, 2006
Maybe it's for an external hard drive, Rip your DVD's and throw them on there and you won't have to worry about streaming from your Mac
waverunningnakdSep 14, 2006
Anyone else notice the similarities between Apple's iTv and Miglia's TvMax?<a class="user" href="http://www.miglia.com/products/video/tvmax/index.html">http://www.miglia.com/products/video/tvmax/index.html</a>
johnnysoftwareSep 16, 2006
I think you are right about the goals/purpose of the product.Apple already provides streaming digital audio of music/books/whatever played in iTunes - via the AirTunes feature of Airport Express, an expensive yet powerful 802.11g WAP for Macs - and MS-Windows PCs.The existing Airport Express "AirTunes" is great for people who have all their music in iTunes, organized by rating and playlist and artist and mood and so forth.It lets them play it on the awesome sound system of their home theater in their living room or den, instead of the great sound system of their Mac+iSub in their bedroom or study.Faster wireless for the home is on the horizon and Apple currently cannot stream video from their Macs to the TV set, except with 3rd party products and probably not HD wirelessly even with those.Apple's TV gizmo next year will make it more convenient to play movies from their Mac. It will be the entertainment "hub" of the house; a super smart info/entertainment media "hub" of the home.Just imagine how people could use something like this in a business/office/institution/retail environment. Nobody talks about that. It could be equally awesome.Apple does not have to duplicate products. They invent them.
xerom0biusSep 17, 2006
Seriously. This is just another apple attempt to play off of thier fanbase and overcharge for a crappy, limited version of something that a bunch of other companies already have. I dont see why you would buy this. It seems like it would be fine for a regular person, until the thing begins to crash (as all apples inevitably do), but I rather just hook my computer to my TV through my DVI. It's instant, it lets me use all of my regular computer functionality, and my ATI TV card lets me record stuff and has a tuner. Oh, yeah. And i can use a decent OS...
juicygossipNov 10, 2006
i think i heard something about that. it sound like apple is trying to do wayyyy to much.
borisbairAug 6, 2009
It is not required to me.
jmccarthymusicFeb 5, 2011
Got it