“After months of speculation, Apple Computer finally rolled out their iTunes Movie store as well as new iPods and, perhaps even more importantly, their own version of Microsoft’s Media Center PC architecture currently code named iTV,” Tim Bajarin writes for Technology Pundits.
Bajarin writes, “Of course, the movie store has gotten all of the attention and even though Apple rolled it out with just Disney, within a short time the other studios will have to follow suit just to be competitive. How long will the other studios hold out and just let Disney get all of the new movie downloads for themselves? I bet not for long. The original iTunes TV store started only with one company, Disney, but within 12 months 40 other networks have signed on and any network not on iTunes is left in the digital dust.
Jobs’ deal with Disney will set the tone for digital download movie pricing as well.”
“New releases will come out on iTunes the same day they roll out on DVD. But it is the pricing that is important. For example, Car’s, a Disney Pixar movie, will come out on Nov 7th and will be offered for $12.99 for the first week and then $14.99 after that. And library films like Good Will Hunting will be just $9.99,” Bajarin writes.
“Another thing that sets Apple apart is their integration of the movie store into iTunes and the amazing user interface they have that amplifies the music and movie store in this new version of iTunes, version 7. Take a look at Amazon’s movie store and then look closely at Apple’s. You will immediately understand that Apple knows how to do software and Amazon does not! Apple not only has the edge on current movie download sites, but its approach to providing a complete digital eco-system in which the OS, devices and store are tightly integrated makes them hard to beat,” Bajarin writes.
Bajarin writes, “The other big news was their technology demo of iTV. This box that sits next to the TV will allow all content from a Mac to be displayed on a TV in DVD quality resolution. Although it will not come to market until Q1 2007, Apples preview of this product is highly disruptive to the market and makes Microsoft’s own Media Center PC seem old-fashioned in comparison. Apple will not explain the technology behind it, but clearly the have applied a new UI along with some serious compression and high speed wireless technology in order to deliver video, images and music to a TV screen at this level of quality.”
“In the end, the way people manage and access especially the downloaded TV and movie content via this iTV /iTunes model will become the standard in which all other similar media adaptor schemes, devices and services will be compared to in the future,” Bajarin writes. “Bottom line is that Apple has delivered the better PC-to-TV media experience and with their integrated approach to even extending that personal content to iPods, the Car, etc, Apple becomes the gold standard for what the digital home of the future could look like in the coming years.”
Full article here.
Related articles:
The Motley Fool’s Lomax: Apple news ‘mostly underwhelming, with some potential future bright spots’ – September 12, 2006
Analyst: Apple ‘s iTunes+iPod+iTV ‘will be hard for other players to match’ – September 12, 2006
Apple gives sneak peek of ‘iTV’ set-top box to debut Q1 2007 (with images) – September 12, 2006
Apple posts new iPod nano ad online – September 12, 2006
Apple’s QuickTime stream of Steve Jobs special event now live – September 12, 2006
Apple’s iTunes 7 installer shows ‘iTunes Phone Driver’ as greyed-out option – September 12, 2006
NFL and Apple team up to offer 2006 NFL game highlights via iTunes Store – September 12, 2006
Apple debuts iTunes 7 – September 12, 2006
Apple debuts new iPod in 30GB and 80GB with Hollywood movies, games and new lower price – September 12, 2006
Apple unveils new iPod shuffle: world’s smallest digital music player – September 12, 2006
Apple intros new iPod nano with new aluminum design in five colors and 24-hour battery life – September 12, 2006
Can I add my own DVDs to iTunes for playing in my TV via iTV? Nope.
Can my iTV record TV shows? Nope.
Is $299 a little too much compard to the price of a normal mac mini? Yep
We are getting closer Apple, but not quite there yet. I will buy everything you sell, but I need a little more added this this iTV thing first.
Yeah!
MW-see
true.
look for Apple to explode in early 2007.
When iTv comes out the price will be dropped to $199.00 and every one will be happy.
Why o why does Apple say no to a simple dual tv-tuner? What is the big deal? The iTV will of course be an exellent piece of bridge between my mac and my TV, but now I am tired of waiting for Apple to give me back TV-tuner possibilities. Geeezzzz I had tv-tuner on my Performa 630! Give us TV-tuner before the new piece is released in Q1 2007! Enough is enough.
Surely they will allow you to play a DVD in your Mac and stream it to iTV. That would have to be a no-brainer. And streaming a TV show to your hard drive would also seem like a very small step. Or perhaps recording it over the ethernet or USB2 port to a hard drive doesn’t seem like it would be that difficult to implement either.
(But getting the TV studios to agree to the latter, especially for DVD quality recordings, is going to be hard.)
So it “began”!
I must admit to not being blown away by the iTV.
Why would anyone want to watch 640×480 on a big flat screen tv. Sorry Steve, I’d rather by the DVD or rent it and watch it less compressed.
Its not quite there yet. I’ll have the v2.0 HD version.
“Can I add my own DVDs to iTunes for playing in my TV via iTV? Nope.”
I would like to see this as well, although i think you are being a bit harsh. If you have DVD’s one would assume you also have a DVD player. get off the couch and put a DVD in.
yes, just rip the dvd to your hard drive, load into itunes or your movies folder and stream to “iTV”.
MegaMe,
You raise some very interesting points.
“Can I add my own DVDs to iTunes for playing in my TV via iTV? Nope.”
No studio wants to open the Pandora’s box of DVD ripping without some sort of fair-use agreement being hashed out first, so don’t hold out hope that any such capability will materialize in the near future.
“Can my iTV record TV shows? Nope.”
The fact that iTV’s design is very similar to the Mac mini suggests to me that Apple has plans for the mini as a living room box, as much speculation has touched on since it’s release.
“Is $299 a little too much compard to the price of a normal mac mini? Yep”
It’s not a computer. And we don’t know what transmission protocol is being used, but clearly it has to be either a new compression scheme, a new high-speed wireless protocol (the keynote says 802.11 but doesn’t specify which version, or a combination of both. This might have far-reaching consequences for Apple’s portables as well, not just the living room experience.
“We are getting closer Apple, but not quite there yet. I will buy everything you sell, but I need a little more added this this iTV thing first.”
We won’t know if we’re there until the thing is actually named and released. A pre-announcement such as this is highly unusual for Apple, and I have no doubt that they still haven’t told us the entire story. Let’s wait and see.
This guy needs to learn how to use apostrophes.
I agree. We don’t know the whole story yet, but I know that I’m not alone when I say that I really want to see a DVR added to this. That being said, I don’t expect to get one. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
First Quarter ’07 could be 31st march. That’s more than 6 months away.
6 months is time enough for radical changes… he’s just whetting the appetite!
MegaMe:
It is trivial to use HandBrake to make a quicktime movie of a DVD then ‘Add to Library’ in iTunes. It appears in the Movies section of FrontRow. I’ve downloaded movie trailers for the kids and added them this way so they can play them on their iPod.
I agree the iTV is too expensive, but it is a solid-state ‘dumb’ device that should never need upgrading, unlike a Mac. I just hope it can talk back to the controlling Mac. I can imagine having an iTV and a Mac Mini replacing all but the TV /cable channels in my HiFi.
The Mac Mini will rule the living room, not iTV.
To RS:
cf. Panda: eats, shoots, and leaves…
To all the idiots who say you can’t rip your own DVD’s and play them in iTunes. I’ve been doing it for a year now. The sofware is called “Handbrake” (and a 10 year old could run this app). So ergo if its in iTunes it will stream to this new device.
I bet you will be able to stream full HD movies (ie. 1080) directly to either this iTV or your Mac and then through the iTV to your TV when it comes out. That way you can watch fully high definition movies but nothing is saved to your computer for you to crack or copy.
To clarify my post a bit – there will be a smaller version of the movie that you download and a larger version on the iTMS that you have access to for streaming.
Itunes 7 really slow to launch on my PC. Takes 1-2 minutes.I didn’t have any issues with previous version.
Anyone else have same problem??
Kool Aid-
I’m having a lot of problems too.
This is purely flame, but just to bring it to everyone’s attention the Drudge Report, for which I used to get my news updates, is clearly biased against Apple. They have never posted anything on Apple and it’s products except negative articles. I am urging all to boycott the Drudge Report and not support their advertisers. I know “get a life” but screw that, I am an Apple Man and proud.
Quit yer bitching you fools. Better to have something to get started with than to speculate and be stuck with MS Media Center. Compared to today’s iPods, the first gens are kinda cheesy and limited. Rome wasn’t built in a day folks.
The Mac Mini will rule the living room, not iTV.
————–
Yeah, that’s why it was updated last week without HDMI connectors.
Anyone ordered the new iMac(s)? I’m hella itchin’ for it to get here. I got it maxed out…but Apple still hasn’t cashed out on my debit card….3 days before ship time. Wut Up Yo!!!!