Apple TV, iTunes, iTunes Store: BusinessWeek’s Wildstrom blows it

39 Comments

1. >Dave:

   >It seems Apple TV is doing absolutely nothing worthwhile for you. Why did you buy it >in the first place?

   I ordered it in January right after the product was annouced at the MacWorld Keynote. I’m totally and completely behind the CONCEPT, but the implementation at this point is not ideal… I do expect that most of my current issues will be resolved (in fact, I’m surprised the content issue hasn’t already been resolved and I’m sure it’s not for the lack of Apple trying to get content).

   This is a 1.0 product, I have been a long time Mac user and generally feel that Apple does an above average job at most things. However, I don’t feel that any company or product shouldn’t be subject to subject to criticism or for that matter ones opinion.

   The situation with photos not being able to be streamed was not known, nor expected, from the demo at the Keynote (again, considering my TiVo can do it running on an 802.11b network and my AppleTV is running on an exclusive 802.11n draft network).

   I certainly wouldn’t have known about the heat issue, so I don’t really get your point. Haven’t you ever purchased a product that disappointed you and you wanted the company that produced the product to improve it, so you could honestly recommend it to your friends?

   I have two other TVs and I expect at some point they will all have AppleTVs attached to them, but at this point, it’s not going to happen right away.

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2. Before coming down to hard on the guy, remember that Apple’s usual selling point is that there stuff is easy to understand, easy to operate, and just works.

   It is not unreasonable to review a new Apple product on that basis.

   I find just fscking amusing the idiots that say, “Oh. but that isn’t true as long as you remove the hard drive, stick it into an external shell, mount that on another machine, install some patches, then stick the hard drive back in the Apple TV.” Come on, that’s just retarded.

   Not quite as retarded, but not by much, is those that suggest that by installing some some confusing, esoteric piece of freeware (mediafork) or by buying a separate program, unmentioned in any Apple documentation of Apple TV (VisualHub–which is basically handbrake/mediafork codecs wrapped in a less esoteric shell) other formats can be converted.

   The fact is that without hacking the Apple TV or obtaining somewhat suspect utilities (I love VisualHub, but even it has to go out and download codecs from other sites because of copyright/patent issues) AppleTV is very limited in what it will play.

   Note that the article doesn’t blame this on Apple.

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3. hey go easy on the guy. he’s always a big supporter of the mac. vitriolic, ridiculing statement only perpetuate the impression that mac users are condescending jerks. please don’t be the ugly mac user.

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4. I have an apology for Mr. Stephen H. Wildstrom …somewhere ..

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5. @ Yoko Geri Kekomi, I’ve been using a Mac mini for 2 generations of the Mac mini now. It shares the itunes library on my macbook. I have it hooked up to both an ATSC and NTSC antenna through Elgato eyeTV and a Newer Technology 300 Gig hard drive. The Eye TV ver 2 software can store content in your itunes library to transfer to your ipod so you can watch those long nature documentaries on those cross country flights.My display is a 50″ diagonal Plasma by Zenith. The Mac mini has been my DVR, PVR converter and DVD player for the last year. I find it more than adequate at all these task. In addition a beta of a piece of software call “Drive In”, that creates an image of a DVD on your hard drive. I use it to create images of my Netflix DVD so I can watch them later. Unless you put in the actual IBSN barcode of the DVD the software will not store the content on your library but you can hold the image and hide the program indefinately until you intend to watch it.

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6. Oh, I get it now. Windstrom. Blows.

   Ha ha ha ha. Ha ha ha ha.

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7. Ok, it’s not Windsrom, it’s Wildstorm.

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8. never mond. It’s just dyslexia.

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9. Looks to me like MDN blew it big time. Rip DVD’s? WTF do you want to rip a DVD for if you got the freaking disk? Just stick it in your player and play the damn thing. Besides, ripping DVD’s is illegal in the US because of a thing called the DMCA and CSS.

   So now MDN is openly advocating that Apple TV users break the law? Hmmmmmm…… I think it’s about time MDN get rid of the glasses with the big chrome apples on the lenses. Looks to me like Mr. Wildstrom knows one f–k of a lot more about it than MDN does. I’m betting there’s a reason he writes for BusinessWeek and MDN writes for a half-assed Mac site.

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10. @ Dave: “Sorry, but I agree with the authors … on this one… I ordered an Apple TV … and have been using it since Friday… Apple mostly nailed the ease of use, but the content is sorry lacking (and don’t even talk about ripping DVDs – first, it’s illegal … and second, it’s a VERY time consuming … process)… Here are my issues … and I’m hoping Apple will address them soon:

    1. Inability to stream photos (even my TiVo can stream photos from iPhoto). I don’t want to be wasting AppleTV hard disk space for photos.”

    I hadn’t even thought of this, but you’re right – this is more than a little screwy.

    “2. Purchased video media quality. If Apple wants me to purchase video, I’d prefer HD quality and a much greater selection (especially in the movie area).”

    This part of your post really caught my eye:

    You may have a while to wait on both issues. The first relates to Apple continuing its pointless courtship of an industry that would rather they die. Hollywood has no interest in giving Jobs power over them like he has over the recording industry, and that power comes from broad & deep access to content. That’s why only a couple studios have gone with iTunes up to now, and only selected titles. Second, HD quality would require a lot of bandwidth that the typical US household can’t afford or get. With HD, AppleTV becomes an inconvenience, not a solution.

    Both issues are why I think AppleTV should’ve had a built in DVR & disc slot right from the start; b/c it fills the content gap, and aleviates the HD issue (as long as either the DVR or optical disc or both deal in HD). Frankly, I think Apple is missing a golden opportunity by being so afraid to do this, and are ignoring their only mega-success.

    Newsflash: iPod & iTunes, together, are a Digital AUDIO Recorder system (portable & homebound), and that’s THE main reason why they’re so damn popular. Jobs always says that Apple’s approach with iPod/iTunes came from people already having lots of music to draw from, and that allowing them to get in on their iPod was absolutely necessary otherwise they wouldn’t buy it. Further, iTMS was never designed to replace those other ‘music resevoirs’, or be a big money-maker, but just supplement the core functionality that people wanted – again, a DAR system.

    Well, people have a library of video too (DVDs), as well as plenty of ways to legally get more via over-the-air broadcasts & cable. So why is AppleTV reinventing the wheel here? Streaming and internet downloads of video are fine features, and someday may even be the ‘way of things’. But until then, reality is now; and without a disc player or DVR capability AppleTV is half done. Furthermore, consider the studios are only going to provide content if Steve-o bends over the negotiating table with his pants round his legs. Yet Jobs is sooo close to solving that problem. If AppleTV offered people a way of legally getting content WITHOUT the studios being on iTS, they’d have no choice but to soften their demands for fear of losing the whole enchelada.

    Make me ‘Steve For A Day’ and here’s my strategy: Break off negotiations with the studios who haven’t come around vis a vis offering content on iTS. Make iTS the portal of choice for independent content. Then initiate a crash program to combine present AppleTV functions into a fullblown MacMini – which already has the computing power, HDD space, and optical disc player/recorder necessary to make a TiVo look like a breadbox – and incorporate a USB connected tuner or coax dongle to get a signal in it. This lets people get their content anyway they want, and even lets them connect an extra HDD when things get tight (which AppleTV, stupidly, does not). Continue to offer TV shows on iTS, of course, as basically this makes iTS an option for paid cable. Prepare for the stampede – not just by the Macinistas, but by EVERYBODY – as the multitudes already spending hundreds-to-thousands of dollars/year on cable & Tivo fees start dropping both, in favor of spending significantly less on season passes for fave shows on iTS. What isn’t on iTS, they get from the antenna (or perhaps a less expensive cable package), or play via their optical discs.

    Content problem solved. Negotiating inpass broken. Rainbows. Love. Babies. Etc …

    Call me crazy, but to me the above is what Apple should be doing. They’ll make a bundle off the hardware (as usual), get massive mindshare with the public (as usual), stocks go up another 100% or so, AND the video content providers – petulant asses for the last 3 years – get some religion. Hell, if Apple ALSO turns Comcast into little more than another ISP, don’t be surprised if Jobs gets a monument built for him in Washington DC someday too.
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    MDN magic word = “course”

    As in, “Apple needs to change course on what AppleTV is supposed to be.”

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11. This is a version 1.0 product rushed to market in the usual (of late) Apple fashion.

    What Apple should be doing is partnering with Comcast or other cable providers (similar to DirectTV and TiVO in the past) to deliver an integrated premium set-top cable box. This would be no different than iPhone + Cingular.

    Mintdog

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12. Odyssey67: “HD quality would require a lot of bandwidth that the typical US household can’t afford or get.”

    Due… First of all, anyone who REALLY needs or cares about HDTV can afford the technology without blinking, and for that matter, it’s not difficult at all…

    Streaming HD is perfectly doable on a LAN, wired or even wireless. Even 802.11g UNDER OPTIMAL CONDITIONS can handle streaming HD 1080p, which requires about 18-20Mbps of steadily available bandwidth. 720p, which is what almost all broadcast HDTV is, needs only about 10-12Mbps. Optimal conditions are difficult to come by with “g” networks, but 802.11a is far less likely to experience problems due to being a 5Ghz protocol instead of using the crowded 2.4Ghz range that “g” uses.

    Today, with (most) modern Macs coming pre-equipped with 802.11n, and the new $180 Airport Extreme router, as well as other brands of 802.11n routers and adapters out there, and there is more than enough bandwidth available (especially when using the 5Ghz range. No, it’s not going to be able to do the optimal, maximum of 540Mbps, but who really cares if it can easily fit one or two HD 1080p 20Mbps streams with no drop-outs?

    But, seriously, let’s get real… unless you have a REALLY HUGE DLP projection home cinema, 1080p is simply total overkill. Case in point… Go out to a movie at a Digital Cinema this weekend and you will most likely be looking at a screen that is about 20 feet tall. Can you see lines on that 20′ tall screen? If you said “yes,” you are a bold-faced liar!

    Now consider that all digital cinema is currently displayed using “2k” projector hardware which is 2048×1080 lines of resolution, just like HDTV1080i/p. Albeit, Digital Cinema’s aspect ration is 2.35:1 with 2048 pixels width, compared to HDTV1080i/p’s 1920 pixel width which works out to an aspect ration of 1.78:1 (16:9), but that aside, it’s the same number of LINES as a 1080i/p home HDTV CAN display unless you have a projector with an anamorphic lens and a 2.35:1 screen, even Blu-Ray and HD-DVD will have black bars above and below the picture on a 1080p display.

    Now, scale down to a 65″ DLP rear projector… Or the far more common 42″ Plasma… Do you REALLY need 1080 lines of resolution? The only honest answer is no. 720p is more than acceptable, and that is precisely why broadcast HDTV is almost all 720p. That so many people who think they understand HDTV want 1080p just goes to prove that there is an effective HDTV marketing system in place.

    By the way, this also explains VERY clearly why TV supports 720p, but not 1080p. It’s totally unnecessary overkill for the target market. People who can afford to buy Runco SC-1 projectors with motorized Anamorphic lenses and Stewart CineCurve screens are not likely interested in TV. They are far more likely to invest in a top of the line $1200 BluRay/HD-DVD combo player or have a automated control system managing their media server which would certainly be hard wired to their projector, and have many TBs of storage loaded up by their butler Jeeves when he isn’t out polishing the Maybach.

    Man

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13. *Due = Dude

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14. @Dave & Odessy: THANK YOU for your unbiased input. I seriously considered buying an AppleTV, but the lack of a DVR capability was a serious turn off. I didn’t even know the other issues existed.

    If Apple creates a mac mini + DVR + AppleTV, I’d buy it immediately… until, then they can keep this thing.

    Reply

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