“The iTunes LP album and iTunes Extras movie-enriching bonus material bundles Apple introduced as a new feature of iTunes 9 are built using a new TuneKit JavaScript framework and appear aimed to deliver new big screen content to Apple TV,” Prince McLean reports for AppleInsider.
“The new iTunes interactive media content formats are built using open web standards: HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, using a new framework Apple calls TuneKit. The new media authoring framework is referenced repeatedly within the iTunes Extra component files,” McLean reports.
“Similar to Apple’s use of the SproutCore JavaScript framework to build its MobileMe web apps, TuneKit provides media developers with a familiar JavaScript framework for creating interactive bonus materials,” McLean reports. “TuneKit, like SproutCore, proves that a proprietary middleware runtime plugin such as Adobe Flash or Microsoft Silverlight is simply unnecessary to deliver this kind of interactive media content, thanks in part to rapid advances in JavaScript rendering engine optimization.”
“Apple’s new TuneKit is also much easier to develop for than the complex specifications involved with DVD and Blu-Ray disc authoring, and lacks the “bag of hurt” associated with licensing issues that Steve Jobs a year ago predicted would hold back Blu-Ray adoption,” McLean reports. “Even more interesting is the evidence that Apple developed the new media packages with HDTVs in mind.”
McLean reports, “The native resolution exactly fits the HDTV output of Apple TV.”
Full article here.
Much more via RoughlyDrafted here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Dev” for the heads up.]
I would love to see the SDK for this exposed. Coming soon, the AppleTV store?!?
New Cinema Display ( with built in Apple TV?) way overdue for a refresh…
“I would love to see the SDK for this exposed”
Has to better looking than seeing Blu Ray’s bag o’ hurt exposed….
HD ≠ Full-HD
How many times do I have to post ( and then get censored by cowardly MDN) Apple TV is just a HOBBY.
A hobby for now. The only way to get customer feedback is to put the product out there and let the bitching begin. The biggest thing everyone that holds ATV back is licensing content!! Yeah they could just put a browser for us to reach the content but that’s not the apple way and you know every content provider is going to hold thier hand out for money because it’s apple and they already are holding strong with all of iTunes. As it stands ATV actually has the basic foundation laid down, music stream, video stream, and video rentals. Yes there is always room for more, but I think efficiency is apples main goal.
Is Sony hurting now?
I love the “bag of hurt” quote!!!
I would hope that Apple TV would support full 1080p when it becomes a full-fledged product line and not just a hobby. This 720p crap ain’t cuttin’ it.
Hate to say this, but I don’t see much difference between 702p and 1080p. Yes Apple should support 1080p, just saying my eyes can’t really see the difference.
I’m sure ATV will go 1080P on the next refresh, but is 720P really that bad? High Def iTunes movie rentals look pretty darn good on my big screen through Apple TV.
Guess I’m not a videophile.
I notice encoding quality more then I notice differences between 720 and 1080.
I do see blotches on some itunes rented hd movies.
I know bandwidth is a big deal, but encoding quality is what I want.
Could this be the next big development platform for the App Store?
@deepdish
if you are viewing 720 content on a display that’s any larger than 40 inches, you’ll start seeing “blotching” or “banding” more easily because you’re essentially expanding the content to a larger viewing area which exaggerates the compression artifacts. If you were to view the same content rendered to 1080 (even with the same compression), you’d notice less blotching.
Apple TV already supports 1080P (I Have mine setup for that anyway), the problem is iTunes Store Video content is currently limited to 720P.
And with Video Extras being available in iTunes 9, I see an update to Apple TV software very soon! And with Apple TV 40GB now uff the Apple Store, we may see a new Apple TV with Better Hardware before the “Holiday” shopping season.
If you can’t see the difference between 720p and 1080p then you may not be sitting close enough to your tv display to take full advantage of HD.We sit 8′ from our 56″ display.
appletv will probably just be integrated into all macs via a sw update soon
face it , the mac mini does everything an appletv does and miles more
no wonder the atv’s been a relative flop
@rattiemoute: How many times do I have to post ( and then get censored by cowardly MDN) Apple TV is just a HOBBY.
About as many times as you need to be told that you’re an a**hole and not welcome here before you go away?
——RM
I’m pretty sure rattiemouse has a psystar tower running snow leopard driving his HDTV.
I like HD, but my wife HATES it. She thinks it make the movies look cheap. We’ve got a 52″ Samsung LCD. When I’m watching Blu Ray movies it seems like I’m looking through a window at real people and places, which is cool for me. My wife prefers the “softness” of standard def; more like the movie screen version. I will say that for some movie stars, seeing every pore and blemish is not so glamorous. For her sake I’ve gone back to renting standard rez content. Go figure.
@Spark said: “I like HD, but my wife HATES it. She thinks it make the movies look cheap. We’ve got a 52” Samsung LCD. When I’m watching Blu Ray movies it seems like I’m looking through a window at real people and places, which is cool for me. My wife prefers the “softness” of standard def; more like the movie screen version…”
Here’s what might be happening. We recently bought a 52″ Samsung HDTV for my parents. I found that some new features were turned on as the default such as high contrast, and possibly faster motion (I forget what the actual feature names are). When these were turned on, traditionally beautiful looking scripted TV shows now look harsh, contrasty, and like someone shot them with a home video camcorder.
We turned them off, and now the shows have that nice, softer, more film like quality that they were designed to have. I think the new features that had been turned on are better for sports shows which have lots of fast motion.
Hope this helps.
@ Spark
“When I’m watching Blu Ray movies it seems like I’m looking through a window at real people and places, which is cool for me.”
I noticed the exact same effect when I first saw a Samsung LCD playing a Blu-Ray disc of “Pirates of the Caribbean”. The really remarkable thing was that I noticed it from about 30 feet away on a TV showroom floor. I was drawn transfixed, to this surreal image. “Looking through a window” is the effect, and its like nothing I’ve ever seen on a television before, and I’ve been in video for thirty years..
Now, can we see that on Apple TV please?
Generally, when sitting back on your couch watching motion video on a 52″ HD TV, you will rarely if ever notice a detail difference between 1080p and 720p – BUT if you’ve hooked up anything static, like your mac, and you’re reading text onscreen, it’s night and day. Especially if you’re sitting 4 feet or less close to the screen.
Really from 720 to 1080 doesn’t make a motion picture experience any better or worse, when sitting back on your couch. In fact, I’d be more worried about LCD pixel refresh rate / hz – cause motion blur sucks, specially when playing video games, as well as colour representation and contrast.
Having been said, you’ll only find good snappy refresh rates and excellent color/contrast on 1080p televisions 😀