“Compared to the high profile sales of iPhones, iPods, and Mac computers, shipments of Apple TV are barely registering. Pundits present rival media boxes as potential “Apple TV killers,” but the entire market segment seems to have little life in it yet. Here’s what’s holding the market for downloadable videos back, leading up to what Apple can do to shake up the market and why it is unique in being able to disrupt how the world watches video,” Daniel Eran Dilger writes for RoughlyDrafted.
“Despite its advantages of being linked to iTunes and the iPod, Apple TV faces three difficult barriers that also affect every other comparable device on the market, including several products that have already failed while trying to sell movie downloads through a set top box,” Dilger writes.
• Lower quality downloads don’t look very good on HDTV sets.
• Studios want DVD-like profits from higher quality downloads.
• Video downloads are big, and require fast network access to deliver.
Much more in the full article here.
No DVD drive!
I want one device for all of my movies and music. Just because I have a DVD drive doesn’t mean I won’t buy from iTunes.
Some simple software fixes to improve AppleTV:
• auto-recognise an external USB drive (mentioned above)
• net-share DVD, BlueRay (using MBA technology) or support external USB DVD drive- and don’t tell me this would stop Apple’s download sales, since MacOS X plays movie DVDs not purchased through Apple
• support USB EyeTV or other D-TV input – and don’t tell me this would stop Apple’s download sales, since iTunes supports importing music CD-ROMs not purchased through Apple
• release an AppleTV SDK and sell games/utilities in App store
• add Bluetooth (via USB is necessary) to support 3rd party external input devices
You wrote, “maybe comcast is throttling down the stream?”
Yeah, right. Comcast is deliberately slowing their throughput because increasing wait times for internet access and delaying data transfer are sure fire methods of increasing public satisfaction and generating company profits.
You obviously didn’t read Dilger’s treatise of tripe. It’s all your fault, Shen. I don’t know how you can live with yourself.
HolyMackerel has provided the answers to instantaneous access to HD video.
Hmmm. Now why didn’t the self-professed genius, Dilger, comprehend these unmistakable solutions? Maybe Dilger is simply a moron for missing such obvious cures to evenings of absent entertainment.
I’ve got 6 MB DSL (5 MB in reality), and a MacMini driving a 50″ 720p HDTV. The rentals are great, even though MacMini is limited to 480p movies which start almost instantly.
Sound and picture quality seems very good.
“Where the puck will be.” Right.
I watch my first HD movie on my Apple TV. It demolished all three of the suggested barriers.
1-The quality was magnificent on my 47″ LCD 1080p TV.
2-The movie was ready to watch once 1% of it was downloaded, it took less the 3 minutes.
3-It cost 4.99 to see and it was a fairly recent movie. So in my case it’s here, it’s ready, and it’s extremely good quality.
“The general public is just not ready for the “Jetson” life style.”
They are, but they’re buying it for $100 one off and $8.95 fixed/month from Netflix.
“Dilger, you’re simply an imbecile”
Since when was this news to anyone?
TV needs 1080p. PERIOD.
Sure, there are fewer Full-HD TVs out there. But as prices drop, many people are replacing their old TVs with HDTV.
Until then, for me, a Mac mini is a better choice to connect to a Full-HDTV as a full-time media server. Yeah, it costs more, BUT it does SO MUCH MORE than an TV because it’s a full-tilt Macintosh. I can connect an external FIREWIRE hard drive to add capacity.
That means I can run EVERY application I’ve got on my hard drive or network! Safari. Google Earth. Mail. Games. It’s cool to sit back with my Apple Wireless keyboard and Bluetooth mouse and show people stuff on my 40″ HDTV, not crowd around my 20″ monitor.
Build for the future, not what’s out there now.
“Dilger, you’re simply an imbecile”
Since when was this news to anyone?
The fanbois at MDN who consider Dilger the epitome of Apple intellectualism.
I’m running my aTV on an 18-year-old 32″ Tohsiba TV via a S-Video converter than downscales to 480i. Works like a charm.
What OpJ said, the Mac mini is an uncrippled version. If it’s discontinued, just hook an old tower to the TV. It’ll play anything, thanks to VLC – my movies with my subtitles in my formats with my languages of choice. Apple’s DVD player will never be used because of its region limitations whereas my dvd player dudn’t give a shit. Conclusion: make it mine, then give me the option to buy your stuff.
the 3 reasons holding me from getting AppleTV are:
– lack of 1080p support
– lack of DVR capability
– lack of BlueRay drive
When Apple implements any of those (or combination) I will be getting AppleTV in a heartbeat.
PS. Don’t give me “BlueRay not needed” or “BlueRay is dead” – I need it for playing home movies from my HD camcorder – and yes, scr*w movie studios for hefty BlueRay movie prices.
++
DVR Support
++
I have one more: old-school grognards like me who like to own media.
One could also add that the price point doesn’t make sense: for a typical tv show, buying the individual downloads usually costs more than buying the dvd set at a store. So you get a lower rez picture, no permanent media, for a greater cost. Sorry, gotta beat that before digital download takes off.
@OpJ
Yes intentionally cripped at the order of an industry obsessed with profits and protection against piracy. Yet even with all the trouble you say you’re having you still seem to be able to watch you dubiuosly obtained content. So either upgrade your systems or quit complaining.
As for all the other yahoos that claim ATV needs 1080P support. Test demonstrated on this very site by an independent service would indicate otherwise. The test concluded that among the highest resolution provided by Cable and phone companes when compared to ATV’s max resolution of 1080I (yes mine has that option), ATV’s content came the closest to near 1080P when compared to a Bluray disk.
Broadcast HD currently uses only 1080I max due to limitations in Bandwidth. For all you videophiles out there that claim yuo can tell the difference, it sound like the audiophile at the beginning of the CD era that claimed they could hear the bit transitions in the D/A converters when the music was being converted back to analog audio, which is totally silly.
Lower quality videos only look good on small CRT’s so I don’t know what this guy is thinking. The ultimate resolution of the end device resolution will either display the content with brilliant fidelity or show the flaws of older content warts and all.
Ever watch old porn circa 1910 to 1960? I’m talking about the kind of stuff your dad or your friends dad would keep in a special drawer in garage and bring out at stag parties full of cigars cards and cheap beer. The worst content on ATV is no where near bad as some of that stuff and yet that stuff still floats around the internet making billions a year. Go figure…some people just like to complain.
“Apple intellectualism”
There’s an oxymoron.
• Lower quality downloads don’t look very good on HDTV sets.
Remember AppleTV is above the $20 DVD-player-from-WalMart crowd. At this level HD had better be HD.
• Studios want DVD-like profits from higher quality downloads.
This is only short-term; the old school studios will need to either adapt or die. As for Apple, they can work closer with Disney, or even turn iTunes into a studio.
• Video downloads are big, and require fast network access to deliver.
Obviously. Not everyone has good connection into their living room. Things will change when WiMAX is more prevalent.
arrrrrrghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! I don’t understand any of this, maybe I should spend more of my life in front of TV rather than living it?
The 720p looks great on my Pioneer 720p 42″ plasma.
!080P would not help.
If I had a 1080p LCD, the 720p video would look just as good as 1080p.
If I had a screen over 60″, I might be able to see a difference between 720 and 1080 up close.
720p files load much faster than a pointless 1080p file.
To those who say ” I won’t buy until they offer 1080P”, then don’t. It is your loss.
I want the option to buy an HD movie for an additional $10-$15 after renting it.
I don’t care to buy the standard definition.
I also want games with the iPhone as a controller.
I believe Apple has a lot in store for the TV, or I wouldn’t have bought one.
Remote DVD access would be great. The remote controls iTunes, why not DVD Player? Big files? Can’t 802.11n handle it?
god deluded-it’s not how much time you spend doing anything, it is the quality. Are you using an Apple computer? ’nuff said.
Get either VisualHub or the FREE MPEG StreamClip.
Now your Apple TV plays many varieties of video.