“Although the iPod approach to music has come in for criticism, especially from European antitrust regulators, I think it has served consumers well. The iTunes Store is the only online source of purchased iPod music, but this does not limit customers, since nearly anything you can buy online can be gotten from iTunes. And the record companies have effectively forced all online stores to price tracks at 99 cents, just like iTunes,” Wildstrom reports.
Wildstrom reports, “The video world, by contrast, is fragmented into incompatible sources and formats. (I’ll be examining the digital video mess in more detail next week.) The $299 Apple TV set-top box, designed to move video from your computer to your TV, can only play movies and TV shows from iTunes. That adds up to about 400 movies from Disney, Paramount, and Lionsgate and a couple hundred TV series. There are thousands of other shows and movies you can download from other sources, but they haven’t been licensed to Apple, so you can’t get them from iTunes. Unless iTunes becomes a universal source for video, as it is for music, Apple TV’s simplicity and convenience will require unreasonable trade-offs.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Joe Architect” for the heads up.]
Before you examine anything more about digital video next week, Mr. Wildstrom, you should learn what the heck you’re typing about first.
Some hints:
1. iTunes does not equal iTunes Store.
2. Apple TV content does not have to come from Apple’s iTunes Store. (Extra special bonus hints: rip dvds, P2P, video podcasts, home movies, etc.)
We’ll leave it at that for now, Mr. Wildstrom. We wouldn’t want you to strain yourself trying to understand anything beyond the absolute basics.
BusinessWeek and Wildstrom should be as embarrassed as we are for them.
Contact: techandyou@businessweek.com
MacDailyNews Note: Apple TV specs:
• Video formats supported: H.264 and protected H.264 (from iTunes Store): 640 by 480, 30 fps, LC version of Baseline Profile; 320 by 240, 30 fps, Baseline profile up to Level 1.3; 1280 by 720, 24 fps, Progressive Main Profile. MPEG-4: 640 by 480, 30 fps, Simple Profile
• Audio formats supported: AAC (16 to 320 Kbps); protected AAC (from iTunes Store); MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps); MP3 VBR; Apple Lossless; AIFF; WAV
• Photo formats supported: JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, PNG
• Enhanced-definition or high-definition widescreen TVs capable of 1080i 60/50Hz, 720p 60/50Hz, 576p 50Hz (PAL format), or 480p 60Hz
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