“The biggest problem with Apple TV: It doesn’t replace anything. It’s yet another box hooked up to your TV that many people don’t have room for — space-wise, money-wise, HD video port-wise, etc.,” Dan Frommer opines or Silicon Alley Insider.
“So Apple’s first step should be to throw a disc reader in there and make it a high-end DVD player replacement, something people will still need/use for years, for $199 or less. Then, get a good deal from Sony to offer a premium Blu-ray edition for cheap — $399 tops; ideally $299 or less. And now you have a much, much bigger potential market than if Apple TV were just an iTunes player,” Frommer writes.
“After that: As we’ve said in the past, open it up a bit. Make Apple TV the go-to box for people to watch any Internet video on their TVs, not just iTunes or Google’s YouTube. Add Safari with Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight plugins so we can watch MLB.TV, Hulu, ESPN 360, ABC/NBC/CBS shows, etc.,” Frommer writes. “Even support iTunes rivals like Amazon’s new streaming service, and Netflix streaming, when it’s available for Mac.”
Frommer writes, “If Apple were to combine something many people want — a set-top box that can display all Internet video on a TV — with a DVD player, something that people are still going to need for years — then Apple TV might take off.”
More in the full article here.
No, it doesn’t need one. Maybe the DVD’s need an option to copy to iTunes (which some already do). Then it will be just like making the transition from music CD to iPod+iTunes.
Wow, so many people looking toward the future only see the past.
I didn’t see one person who understands what the AppleTV is. But, I didn’t read all the comments so my apologies if I am wrong. The AppleTV is going to replace your set-top box. Ta-Da! That is it. So simple. So obvious. So just waiting for Steve to pull the trigger. What is a DVR/Set-top box? It is a GUI and a HD. Anyone think AAPL can come up with a good one of those? Oh they already have? Maybe if there was some looming all digital conversion coming up in the next 4 months, then they would have something. Oh, there is? Oh, then I guess they really are onto something. Replace a DVD player?!? That would serve their client base about as well as an iToaster.
Please don’t write about what you don’t understand. That apparently includes all things AAPL.
” Microsoft Silverlight plugins so we can watch MLB.TV, Hulu, ESPN 360, ABC/NBC/CBS shows, etc.,” Frommer writes.
Another lefty – should add Fox also, to cover the people with the most money.
I own TV, and I find myself more and more not wanting to pay for TV shows and movie rentals. The $99 Netflix ROKU box has no “extra” subscription fees, so there’s alot of stuff to watch at no extra cost. Hulu.com has tons of TV shows (including Daily/Colbert), so now I’ll probably stop subscribing to those on iTunes. I think in these economic times, more people will become more cheap with their money.
He’s right about the optical drive and wrong about almost all the rest. The next AppleTV will either have an optical drive, or it will start to fail in the market.
To those stating that the Mac Mini is this already, you are dead wrong.
If you can’t tell the difference between “a possible/theoretical solution exists” and “a consumer product exists” you shouldn’t be in the pundit game, or commenting at all.
It *does* need an optical drive, for sharing with the household computers, for playing games, and to play the DVDs that people already have. It’s all well and good to say that the future is digital, but most everyone I know has between a hundred and a thousand DVD’s in their house.
Sure you *can* burn them to digital formats with your computer, but face the facts jack, no one is going to do that. Your Mom and Dad sure aren’t going to be doing that.
There will be a need to play DVD’s and BluRay discs for many years to come (as referenced in the article), and if the AppleTV wants to be a “one stop” set-top box, then it needs to have an optical drive. At least as an option.
maybe we should all fill out applications at apple and do all the bells and whistles ourselves. they already know all this stuff people, its a marketing ploy, give them just enough to want more and more, mean while keeping their pockets full. i agree just make the appletv a full blown media center that supports every format. but realistically not going to happen, so many things will have to be licensed and apple won’t go that way especially since they’re always at odds against MS and Adobe over internet plugins.
If Apple did throw a DVD in the box, I’d bet you dollars to doughnuts that all it will have is the standard set of Quicktime codecs. Right out of the box it wouldn’t play the majority of video found on the net (DivX, etc). You’ll have to go find em and download em and install em, and most people won’t/can’t do that.
You would think that if Apple wanted QT to be the premier video player of all time that it would come with codecs for every conceivable format (written by Apple, not the open-source community). If they did this they could invade the WinTel universe with QT, something that isn’t exactly happening right now.
Faroudja is so 2003, it’s DCDi technology was surpassed years ago by the likes of Gennum VXP, Silicon Optix HQV, and VRS from ABT.
ABT (Anchor Bay Technology) are an interesting company, they were originally known as DVDO and were a bunch of ex-Apple hardware engineers.
http://www.anchorbaytech.com
ABT’s VRS is well regarded as extremely good price/performance and is used by the likes of Yamaha, Esoteric, Marantz, Denon, and Arcam in their high-end upscaling DVD-players, Blu-ray players, and upscaling receivers.
Apple should license the deinterlacing and scaling algorithms from ABT — their old employees — as they would have the best deinterlacing/upscaling computer/phone/AppleTV on the market.
I can say this: if Apple TV came with a DVD player, or the ability to read a DVD streamed from my Mac, I would buy one today.
I say, “Give it a kitchen sink!” The more stuff it can do, the more people will want it. Wahoo!
@SumJungGai, Victor:
The Apple TV still has no definable purpose; a laptop or Mini will do pretty much the same thing.
You may choose to cancel cable, or get rid of your DVD player, but you don’t need an ATV to do that.
I would love to see TV + Time Capsule + Mac mini in one machine!
“What a stupid article.
Apple TV doesn’t replace anything??? When Apple TV 2.0 came out, we cancelled both cable ($60/month) and NetFlix ($20/month). We don’t watch anywhere near the forty TV shows a month we’d have to watch to cost make this break even, so we’re coming out way ahead.”
Me too!! My silly kids want to watch football and NASCAR on live TV. I used to watch the news everynight to see what was going on in the world. But thanks to ATV, I canceled my cable and no longer get live TV. I use my $250 box to rent movies for $4 each on iTunes (no more being “hassled” by driving 1/2 mile to the video store and renting DVDs for $1 for 3 days) and buy TV shows for for $2…
Apple TV is all anyone needs!!!! DVDs are dead, because Steve said so. He has suggested we just by off of him on iTunes!!! What a great idea!!!!!!
If this is where the “puck is going to be”, I’ll give up watching hockey – oh, I already did because ATV users cancel cable…
Its needs a disc player AND a DVR
A DVR.
Tivo announced making their software available for PCs with an appropriate video card.
Unfortunately, being in Bed with the content providers hampers providing DVR functionality
If AppleTV had Blu-Ray/DVD player then I would get one & ditch my cheesy DVD box entirely.
‘Nuff said
from Alaska
@bjh
What I said on its introduction – the Apple TV is a box that doesn’t yet serve a real purpose.
So I guess having access wirelessly to my movie library ripped from original DVD and stored on my MacPro is not a real purpose. Nether to have access to the iTunes movie collection, or to be able to view all our photos on our living room, or to listen to any song stored on any household Mac.
You right, what the heck was I thinking.
@ron
1. Jeez, people will use ANYTHING as an excuse to interject politics.
2. I had no idea that ESPN and baseball were “lefty,” outside of southpaws and left-handed hitters.
3. I didn’t know trailer-park people had that much money.
S&M;…Frommer writes. Frommer is the lefty I was indicating. Just learn to read the content – not what’s in your biases. Or something like that.
As hot as the aTV runs, your discs will most likely melt in there. Probably not the best idea.
I think it would be much easier for Apple to add optical disk sharing such as they have done for MacBook Air. This way, the AppleTV will be able to play DVD’s as well as other optical media that MacOSX will support.
Doesn’t do anything you can’t do with a laptop.
“Doesn’t do anything you can’t do with a laptop.”
Sure, but it cost $200 not $1299 and my 2 year old can use it.