Well it looks like Apple is going to deliver on the rumors, but not until 2007. It's very unusual for them to preannounce a product so that makes me wonder if they're having some chip shortages or production problems? Or maybe Jobs figured they couldn't keep it under wraps that long?

But regardless, this sounds like a very cool product for $300, iTV (scroll down to the end of this story):

http://www.macworld.com/news/2006/09/12/showtime/index.php?pf=1

“Apple’s in your den now, right?” said Jobs. “iTunes on a Mac or a PC. Apple’s in your living room with iTV, driving your big flat-screen TV. Apple’s in your car, with over 70 percent of the 2007 model cars offering iPod connectivity. And of course, Apple’s in your pocket, with iPods.”

“Den, living room, car, pocket. And i hope this gives you a little idea of where we’re going,” said Jobs. “Thanks for coming. and we’ll see you all soon.”

To me it looks like Apple has some big plans here, and soon they will be competing with the networks, satellite and cable TV companies. With this box you can choose whatever content you want from their store, download and play it back whenever you want. And also notice that Jobs paraded Disney CEO Bob Iger out on stage with him. Makes me wonder whether Disney bought Pixar or if it was the other way around :-)

Awesome! iTV sounds pretty interesting, as far as downloading content goes, I'd prefer something like that to just a regular Tivo-like setup. Maybe Bluray and HD-DVD aren't the way to go, at least for home video purposes, maybe they're destined for storage solutions, particularly Bluray.

If you can download movies, keep them, and be able to download them into other things, like Steve Jobs said, cars, iPods/portable players, and the set-top box next to the TV, then that sounds quite convenient compared to digging around in the DVD collection for one particular movie. However, I would first like to see a suitable solution for us filmmakers to get our films onto a service like that for distribution. I would hope there would be restrictions so something like "Dan's Rockin' Home Videos 2007" doesn't accidentally show up on there. ;)

I watched the presentation and saw the demo of the new box. Very cool. Too bad they can't get it out in time for the holidays.

-gb-

The only problem I see here is that Apple appears to have missed the trend toward widescreen displays as the new TV/computer standard. Steve says all Apple video will be 640x480, which is not what makes sense for the "big flat-screen TVs" he mentioned. Unless Apple is planning to use non-square pixels to deal with this discrepancy, but so far they seem to be stuck at 4:3.

The itunes site says 640x480 depending on the aspect ratio of the movie so maybe they just through out that number for consumers who don't really know the difference. http://www.apple.com/itunes/store/ down near the bottom of the page.

The only problem I see here is that Apple appears to have missed the trend toward widescreen displays as the new TV/computer standard. Steve says all Apple video will be 640x480, which is not what makes sense for the "big flat-screen TVs" he mentioned. Unless Apple is planning to use non-square pixels to deal with this discrepancy, but so far they seem to be stuck at 4:3.

640x480 is more less a pixel count, not neccessarily the dimensions fo rmovies. TV shows yes, movies no. The Apple web site actually has an asterisc next to that spec and when you read the footnote, it says "Exact resolution depends on aspect ratio."

Any way, I downloaded Enemy of the State tonight and it's dimensions are 640x266 which is the prper 2.40 aspect ratio. What I always wondered, and now have the answer to, is whether or not the movies they would offer would be larger. I've learned how to encode my own 16x9-640x360 movies (http://www.daveperry.net/ipod_video.shtml) larger then the publicly stated 320x240 specs that Apple previously offered long before the speculation of the Movie Store rumors were rampant.

You've always been able to play any size movie in iTunes 6, but another nice thing I learned about iTunes 7 tonight is that when you import a movie into iTunes that's not iPod compatible, converting it to an iPod compatible movie in iTunes now produces the largest dimensions possible for the aspect ration of the original. Not just a 320x240. This is nice because before, I was using a combination of custom settings in MPEGStreamclip or HandBrake to get hi res iPod movies onto my iPod.

The way I see it now, Apple was just thrown down the gauntlet to microsoft in the arena of digital convergence in the family home theatre. All of the new Apple home AV stuff is Mac and windows compatible, plug and play, gorgeous, simple, and just works.

Any way, I downloaded Enemy of the State tonight and it's dimensions are 640x266 which is the prper 2.40 aspect ratio. What I always wondered, and now have the answer to, is whether or not the movies they would offer would be larger.

I'd still like to hear more about that from Apple: so far it doesn't sound like they'll exceed 640 x XXX resolution at appropriate aspect ratios, and they're describing the quality as "near DVD". We'll see how well that works in practice, but it doesn't sound like what I'd want for streaming video content to a big-screen HDTV as Steve Jobs described. I'd rather pay a little more to get something which can play at least 720p resolution through an HDMI connection, and I'm hopeful that sooner or later someone will market such a device at a reasonable price. In any case, kudos to Apple for planning to do something interesting along these lines.

This Itv (I used to know people with a company by that name) is a media player. I have been waiting for home theatre Mac, preferably an 56inch 8Mp iMac based on a souped up version of the Playstation 3 (but then again we have to wait to see if Apple takes up the option of releasing Mac OSX for the PS3, so I am not stuck with linux).. Now, that is something that would kick a.. .

http://www.cmo.com.tw/cmo/english/product/showtv.jsp?flag=20051012111324

For it's smaller 30 inch 4MP desktop brother:
http://www.cmo.com.tw/cmo/english/product/showproductd.jsp?size=30

This 24inch is similar to what apple has?:
http://www.cmo.com.tw/cmo/english/product/showproductd.jsp?size=24

ITV has been Independant Television in the UK since I was a kid and dinosaurs roamed the earth.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=ITV&btnG=Google+Search&meta=cr%3DcountryUK%7CcountryGB

It's very unusual for them to preannounce a product so that makes me wonderPerhaps it's a response to AmazonUnbox (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/16261631/ref=topnav_storetab_atv/104-4822704-0679153)? Interestingly, AmazonUnbox currently only works with Windows.

I'd still like to hear more about that from Apple: so far it doesn't sound like they'll exceed 640 x XXX resolution at appropriate aspect ratios, and they're describing the quality as "near DVD".

I encoded American Beauty for iPod at 720x304. Obviously not HD but it looks surprisingly good and is watchable on my 26" HD set.

Dave, what were your encode settings? H264? MPEG4? Bitrate?

640 x ??? and a HDMI connector... ... ookies...


- Mikko

I looked at this and thought, this makes sense and looks pretty good. I might consider just spending the extra $300 and getting a Mac Mini for the living room. I wonder what are some of the drawbacks to this though. Does the Mac Mini output surround sound? If not could you hook up a USB processor? The Mac Mini dual core (which the $600 model is now) can handle 1080 H264 AFAIK from reports but we'll see if the iTV can uncrunch that kind of video. It has "Optical Digital" out, what does that mean? The DVI can output up to 1920x1200.

Some thoughts from Jim Cramer:

http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/markets/activetraderupdate/10308716.html?cm_ven=YAHOO&cm_cat=FREE&cm_ite=NA

I see a lot of things and hear a lot about the hardware and software that is going to win the living room. I thought they are almost all nonsense until I read about the iTunes-PC-to-TV device (nicknamed iTV).

Lot of cool offerings, and maybe The iTunes Store will sell shorts and features by up-and-coming filmmakers.

One thing not announced: the rumored iPhone.

heath

Maybe all Apple's OWN distributed video is 640x480, but I'm betting the iTV will play user-created HD content at full HD resolutions.

apple+disney are tightly knit because of pixar&disney's close affiliation. for all our purposes, they're more/less 1 company now.

I'd still like to hear more about that from Apple: so far it doesn't sound like they'll exceed 640 x XXX resolution at appropriate aspect ratios, and they're describing the quality as "near DVD". We'll see how well that works in practice, but it doesn't sound like what I'd want for streaming video content to a big-screen HDTV as Steve Jobs described. I'd rather pay a little more to get something which can play at least 720p resolution through an HDMI connection, and I'm hopeful that sooner or later someone will market such a device at a reasonable price. In any case, kudos to Apple for planning to do something interesting along these lines.

That's just the resolution of the files provided via iTunes download. I'm fairly certain he device will play at higher resolution. Jobs demonstrated streaming photos to the device stating that they are 'already HD resolution'.

-gb-

Apple continues to carve out a niche in the entertainment business. That sounds like good news for an Apple user, such as myself.

Some more Wall Street analysis...

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/060913/analyst_notes_apple.html?.v=1

"It's the software, stupid," he wrote. "It is an overused expression, but nonetheless software has been the secret sauce of Apple's success in conquering the legal online music market, where it has an 88 percent share in the U.S." ITunes, he added "represents the greatest barrier to competitors ever catching up with Apple's multimedia ecosystem."

Dave, what were your encode settings? H264? MPEG4? Bitrate?

Attached is a screen shot of my MPEGStreamClip settings.

Remember to change your frame rate to match the source footage. I also always deinterlace for iPod.

Also, go here (http://www.daveperry.net/ipod_video.shtml) and read the info and follow the link referencing the material.

I'm fairly certain he device will play at higher resolution. Jobs demonstrated streaming photos to the device stating that they are 'already HD resolution'.

Did Apple state yet what the TV connectivity options and output resolution will be?

I hope it does 1080P. DVI out would be nice for my current TV

I believe it will HAVE to be HDMI only which will eliminate ALL the early adopters of HDTV who dont have such on their TVs. I admire Apple for pushing the envelope here but I think you have a generation of people to change. HD-DVD, Blueray, DVD, downloads, etc. too many choices. Why would I buy a new $300 box from Apple that does the same thing as a decent upconverting DVD player can do for $150? Plus, I dont have to REBUY every movie I own and I can watch those on ANY player, not just one box they live on.

For most people DVD is good enough quality, so now you have to make it about convenience, as MP3 did. What is convenient about paying the same prices as WalMart to have a sub-quality "file" that is tied via very strict DRM to a box in my living room? I promise you that in most peoples situation, they would be able to go to Walmart/Best Buy in the same time it takes to download a full HQ movie.

What does all this mean? That Apple is taking a baby step in the right direction but there will be others. What if Cox/Comcast/etc. get the jukebox in the sky concept going? Your cable box (or internetTV box, etc.) can deliver you any movie at any time. A lifetime license to watch a movie is $9.99, or maybe you can "rent" it for 24 hours for $4 and if you like it, buy the rights for $6 more. As for me? I want something in my hand, as do most people. We will get there but slower than most think.



ash =o)

I believe it will HAVE to be HDMI only which will eliminate ALL the early adopters of HDTV who dont have such on their TVs.

It also has component HD output, along with digital audio output and good old RCA audio output. The attachment is a link to the streaming file of Job's presentation for the iTV section only.

-gb-

Interesting, how are they going to handle DRM over analog out?

Another point made by a friend today was how fast people adapted to the Ipod and other MP3 players, how is this different? I made the counter point that people have been listening to music in their car for 50+ years and people have been using walkmans for 20+ years, it was not a new concept.



ash =o)

Well my crystal ball is a little dirty so I have no idea how the public will accept this. But, with all due respect Ash, your argument above sounds exactly like what people said about the iPod. Heh, I'm glad I kept my Apple stock and didn't listen to them. I wouldn't underestimate Steve Jobs, especially since he and Apple have attracted so much media attention these days.

Of course I could be way off base here, but I think I have some idea of what they're up to here and it goes beyond selling DVD downloads. Once you have the box, you're TV is plugged into Apple's network. It's all software, so they can give it all kinds of capabilities in the future. And I would expect free content to appear on iTunes as well. There's nothing to prevent them from offering the equivalent of on-demand cable TV with this gadget. And the beauty of it is that (in Apple's "pirate" tradition which created the Mac) they will use the expensive pipes which Verizon, Comcast and other companies have built for their own TV service.

Jobs said that Apple would be in your living room, he didn't say they would be in the DVD aisle at WalMart. Using your argument above, this is not a new concept either. People have been watching TV for 60 years. This is really just a new way to deliver it. Their challenge will be making it easy to use, fun, and "cool". In recent years this is something they've been doing pretty well.

But we'll have to wait a few months to see what the iTV really is and how well it goes over... it might just be another Mac TV: http://www.lowendmac.com/500/mactv.shtml

HUGE difference, many people were already getting their music digitally thru the net, burning CDs, etc. etc. etc. Only a FRACTION of those same people are burning DVDs, and getting movies digitally. When iTunes happened the public and the industry were STARVING for digital distribution. The same is not true of movies. The public is luke warm and the industry is weary to say the least. The other gigantic difference is that there are more people in Apples way, cable companies, etc. all want to get in this mix.



ash =o)