“Apple Computer hopes to do for television and other types of video what it did for music: provide a way for it to be sold — on demand, at a whim — over the Internet,” Dawn C. Chmielewski reports for The Mercury News. “Apple’s unveiling Wednesday of a new video iPod came with the groundbreaking announcement that it would sell prime-time television shows like ‘Desperate Housewives’ and ‘Lost,’ Pixar short films and music videos — all for download to an iPod for $1.99. Apple’s announcement had echoes of April 2003, when it started selling music,” Dawn C. Chmielewski reports for The Mercury News.
“The experience of watching an early episode of ‘Lost’ displayed on a 2 1/2-inch screen was surprisingly compelling, with sharp images and stereo sound. I found myself drawn into the scene showing the aftermath of the plane crash that defines the show.,” Chmielewski reports.
Chmielewski reports, “Just as was true with music, no device maker has yet to offer an equivalent to iTunes: a single place to go to find music, TV shows, movie shorts or music videos, buy something and move it to your iPod. That could be just the ticket for Hollywood studios struggling with Internet piracy and the growing threat of file-swapping applications designed expressly to distribute large video files.”
Full article here.
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Just a note that the new iPods can display audio and video on any TV or other video device using a US$19.99 Apple iPod AV Cable or S-video cable. An Apple iPod Universal Dock ($39.99) plus an Apple Remote ($19.99, included free with the new iMac G5) are a nice solution for using your iPod to play video on any size screen.
Related articles:
Analyst: Apple has just produced ‘the tipping point’ for entertainment content – October 13, 2005
Fortune: With video iPod, iTunes 6, iMac G5 and Front Row, Apple ready for ‘a good holiday season’ – October 13, 2005
Analyst: Unlike Microsoft, Apple has the advantage by not licensing their technology – October 13, 2005
BusinessWeek: Microsoft fumbles while Apple turns the needlessly complex into the beautifully simple – October 13, 2005
Video report: Apple CEO Steve Jobs discusses new iPod, iMac and earnings report – October 13, 2005
NBC TV shows up next for Apple’s iTunes? – October 13, 2005
Analyst: Real and Microsoft deal ‘doesn’t change the dynamics for Apple in any way, shape or form’ – October 12, 2005
Apple’s video play likely to unsettle movie, TV, advertising and retail markets for years to come – October 12, 2005
Analyst: ‘media companies will call Apple to strike deals, Front Row is Media Center done right’ – October 12, 2005
Analyst: Apple rewriting media distribution rules, more people will consider switching to Mac now – October 12, 2005
Apple and Disney usher in new media era – October 12, 2005
Apple posts QuickTime of ‘One More Thing’ special media event – October 12, 2005
Apple’s Front Row with Apple Remote and iMac G5: media center done right – October 12, 2005
Apple introduces new thinner iMac G5 with built-in iSight video camera, ‘Front Row’ media experience – October 12, 2005
Apple releases iTunes 6 with 2,000 music videos, Pixar short films & hit TV shows for $1.99 – October 12, 2005
Apple unveils new 5th generation iPod, now plays music, photos, and video – October 12, 2005
Has anyone downloaded any TV episodes yet? I’m curious to see how big the files are, as I’m on a campus network that caps bandwidth levels. Also, do the files have DRM built into them with the same restrictions as music (only 5 computers permitted per usage)?
Either way, this seems very interesting. Sure saves a lot of time to look for torrents to download TV! But iTunes 6 won’t import my AVI files. Boo.
Next version–Turn the screen 90 degrees and shrink the wheel a little.
why post links to articles that require registration? Can’t MDN post the entire content here or is there some issue with copyright?
Next version–Turn an ‘enlarged’ screen 90 degrees and shrink the wheel a little.
Alan,
To play .avi files you need to download the DviX codec from DivX.com, which loads an extension into Quicktime.
Note that the DIvX 5 codec doesn’t work with Tiger or QT7 yet, so you may have to download an earlier version of DivX and see it it works with your QT6.
If you do download DivX 5, and find that your Classic doesn’t startup past it’s splash screen, see: http://discussions.info.apple.com/webx?13@90.McatatJfX1x.0@.68bac570/1
aren’t the ipod remote and the imac remote different?
I bought episode #3 of Lost (“Orientation”) and it is 197.8mb
It looks and sounds excellent at full (17″) screen size.
Alan:
Yes the files are DRMed, and to my understanding you can put the movie on 5 iPod/Computers, but you can’t burn them.
I have some WMV and AVI that I wanted to get into Quicktime format, and I have two solutions. If you have Quicktime Pro you can open the AVI and either “Save as…” or Export to a QT format that iTunes can read.
If you don’t have QT Pro then get ScreenSnapz from Ambrosia Software (http://www.ambrosiasw.com) and do a video capture of the footage and then put the captured footage into iTunes.
HBO & FOX pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeaze sign up.
please.
Bartsimpsonhead:
There is a DivX component for Q7, it is just a beta. It is called DivX Fusion. Get it here!
http://labs.divx.com/archives/000057.html
I wonder how compelling a XXX porno is on an iPod, on the subway during rush hour. hmmmm
Last night I downloaded and watched several episode of Lost that I had missed.
The quality of the video and sound on my 20″ 2 GHz iMac (set for full screen display) was surprisingly good. This is for real — Apple has got a viable format for distributing video. I really enjoyed watching the ‘missing’ episodes. At $1.99 per episode, the price is attractive; I may very well collect a great many episodes of favorite TV shows.
Each Lost episode runs for about 43 minutes and requires on average some 200 MB storage space (no commercials). Given the low cost of storage media these days, Apple’s distribution method will allow ordinary users to make collections of favorite videos easily and affordably. This is a winner. I’ll probably get both a video iPod and an new iMac.
May be I have to take a visit to Apple store to see the new iPod and iMac.
It is to far for me 120 ml and I might $2000 poorer when I come out. By the way I see a good post on this web how to convert stuff to iPod http://diveintomark.org/howto/ipod-porn-conversion-guide/
I want to see how these videos hold up when played on a 46 inch TV screen. Does H264 scale up that well without any apparent pixeling. If it does, then Apple are sitting on a gold mine.
Personally I wouldn’t buy TV shows since I have a DVR. However, movies would be interesting if the picture quality was good on an HDTV.
Perhaps I’m asking for too much at the moment. I like DVR, but it would be good if titles could be archived and playable on a PC. Sadly, neither itunes nor regular DVRs will allow you to burn to DVD.
if they released the entire Simpsons catalogue I, and many others, would go broke very quickly…
One thing that I would like to see added to this solution is some sort of package/deal to buy the following:
power brick for iPod
extra USB cable
Universal dock
remote
AV cable
This is all that you need to make your iPod a true movie box for your entertainment center, but I just wish there was a way to get it cheaper/easier than buying each separate component.
I bought Series Premeire episode of Desperate Housewives; then season one episode 2 after watching the premiere. I viewed it through iTunes. The file size was just over 200MB and it downloaded in about 10-12min on my DSL connection. My throughput does get up to 6.5Mbps, but typically hoovers around 3.5-4Mbps. Plus I used wireless.
>>alan smalan>>Convert those avi files to .mov files with DivX Doctor II you can get it from http://www.3ivx.com. I download most of my TV from television specific torrent sites, and DivX Doctor is my best friend.
I love the new Video management window. It had me watching some videos that I had forgotten or hadn’t noticed were part of various iTunes Music Store purchases–some Gorillaz, Shins, and Damien Rice.
gspank get yourself a pc, attach it to broadband, load kazaa, and you will have that catalog in a week.
Fo’ FREE
spent maybe 25-30min to download and the rate was at 150 kbs And of course there is DRM. From what I heard you can’t make a DVD from he files but you can back them up on disks as data.
Get info shows this.
Duration 00:42:29.24
AAC (protected), Stereo, 44.100 kHz
AVC0 Media, 320 x 240, Millions
FPS 24.00
Data size 208.52 MB
Data rate 693.96 kbits/sec
320 x 240 pixels
Get it right
same as for music except no video playable burnings, only as data for backup.
5 computers, unlimited ipods
I wish I could rent them for even less than $1.99.
That would be cool. I really don’t care to own episodes of Lost. I’d watch them once or twice. Free ABC news cast would be cool.
I also downloaded the first episodes of LOST since our family doesn’t watch regular television. We watched LOST on my Pismo while in bed and it looked great full frame (detail, smoothness, color!). Plus hooked a couple of portable speakers and the sound was awesome. I may not have the new iPod but I will gladly download these shows from iTunes and watch on my Powerbook.
G Spank, you got that right.
I bought all those Pixar shorts last night. My daughter absolutely loves them.
Hmm… I think I’ll just rent DVDs of TV episodes for $1 at my local movie rental shop. Each DVD usually has 2 or 3 episodes on it, too.
Still, the new iPods are really cool – thinner, lighter, bigger screen.
Anyone know if there’s any device or any other way to allow ipod video to record tv shows or documentary shows directly from video signal, as a regular video recorder does for instance?. Now that would be a “must”, at least for me.