Sept. 5th is definitely AppleTV news...

[EricNau]

ABC has recently added full-episode HD streaming on their website.

I know it's a long-shot, but wouldn't it be nice it we could stream episodes from abc.com in HD to our Apple TV?

Second thoughts: Could the Apple TV support HD? ...And would Apple be willing to cannibalize their ABC sales in the iTunes Store (most likely at least 50% of their TV sales)?

 

[d.f]

more content announcements....?

it's not looking likely after the NBC news.

but i'm hopeful that apple will now give us the obvious next step in iTunes - ripping DVD's for ATV. i know about the legals, but this are can't be the reason Apple doesn't do it (FairUse could cover them legally or make it stream only..)

the reason has been the relationships with the content providers. lack of content is hurting ATV, as it's sold on watching at home. and movies may also be a big selling feature of one of the forthcoming iPod refreshes.

all your movie 'favourites', old and new, accessible at a few clicks - like the genius of the iPod, could be the new plan to drive hardware sales.

 

[MikieMikie]

I'm not sure that ABC's website streaming HD to my computer, in my home office, would mean anything to me. Unless, of course, you know how to get this to my living room, where my HDTV lives...

-- Mikie

 

[Chupa Chupa]

it's not looking likely after the NBC news.

What does NBC have to do w/ ABC? ABC is locked into iTunes as long as Steve Jobs is on the BOD and is the largest Disney shareholder.

As for AppleTV, it needs help. It needs DVR functionality and HD material from iTMS, not just upconverted from low res crap. Maybe Slingbox capabilities to your WiFi iPod, iPhone, or computer. AppleTV NEEDS a killer app for ATV and soon or it's punching a ticket to G4 Cubeland.

 

[milo]

ABC has recently added full-episode HD streaming on their website.

I know it's a long-shot, but wouldn't it be nice it we could stream episodes from abc.com in HD to our Apple TV?

Second thoughts: Could the Apple TV support HD? ...And would Apple be willing to cannibalize their ABC sales in the iTunes Store (most likely at least 50% of their TV sales)?

Good questions. It's cool that the networks stream full episodes, but if it can only be watched on a computer, it's pretty worthless. Apple would do well to make a deal that would make these shows aTV compatible.

I don't think DVR is ever going to happen, not unless they lose all for-sale content. I don't think there's any question that part of their TV/movie contract is a clause saying no dvd ripping or DVR in iTunes.

 

[Lazernet]

TV 2 wishlist:

• up to 1080p support (via Core Duo and ATi x2400/x2600)
• NAND memory for caching for improved wireless streaming, doing away with hard disk
• Dolby Digital and DTS 7.1 (user payware upgrade if it has to be)
• User updatable third party Quicktime codec plugins, including support for MPEG4 ASP (Divx, Xvid etc.)

Forget about all those options... give us full screen high def iTunes visualizer for our streamed music so we can have some great animated background graphics displaying on flat screen TVs!

- Eric

 

[Scarpad]

To each his own. The AppleTV is great for those who want it. I wouldn't buy an XBOX for anything. No need for it. But I bought an AppleTV the first weekend it was out and use it everyday for music, videos, video podcasts, YouTube, and home movies. YouTube gets used daily for sure. I love it. I had thought about connecting our Mini to the TV, but this little thing is great for what we needed.

The Interface for Media is awful on the 360, Apple TV has a great Interface for playing media

 

[Nicolasdec]

What did i say. Apple has NOT announced anything NEW about the ATV we are probably going to hear in a press release that they are dropping it. Not even Itunes WIFI on the ATVmad:). My ATV is going straight to eBay. Apple dose not even care about it anymore. They dropped the 4GB iPhone and soon they will do the same to the Apple TV.

 

[wPod]

What did i say. Apple has NOT announced anything NEW about the ATV we are probably going to hear in a press release that they are dropping it. Not even Itunes WIFI on the ATVmad:). My ATV is going straight to eBay. Apple dose not even care about it anymore. They dropped the 4GB iPhone and soon they will do the same to the Apple TV.

I don't think they are dropping it. . . yet. They dropped the iPod HiFi and when you click the 'buy now' button on apples web site it says "sorry The item you have selected is currently not available from the Apple Store." but the appleTV is still for sale so thats a good sign right now.

I too am kind of mad that they didnt anounce iTunes WiFi for the appleTV. that is one thing that has disappointed me since i got the appleTV is I can watch previews of the top 10 movies but cant buy.

 

[Cave Man]

What did i say. Apple has NOT announced anything NEW about the ATV we are probably going to hear in a press release that they are dropping it.

I seriously doubt this. I wasn't too surprised that we didn't hear anything about ATV (although I was hoping we would).

Not even Itunes WIFI on the ATVmad:).

What good would WiFi on the ATV be? The only thing I could think of would be for movie rentals - which Apple has not come up with (for whatever reasons). If rentals come one day, then perhaps we'll see direct downloads to the ATV.

My ATV is going straight to eBay. Apple dose not even care about it anymore. They dropped the 4GB iPhone and soon they will do the same to the Apple TV.

I think we'll see some nice things in the coming months. Perhaps when Leopard is released and Apple is fully into HD.

 

[Nicolasdec]

What good would WiFi on the ATV be? The only thing I could think of would be for movie rentals - which Apple has not come up with (for whatever reasons). If rentals come one day, then perhaps we'll see direct downloads to the ATV.

So we could buy stuff from the apple tv. They did it for the iPod touch and the iphone Why not the Apple TV?? After all Music and Video is also a part of the Apple TVs market. Now im also certain that they will drop the ATV.

 

[MarkCollette]

How fair would it be to say that, functionality-wise, if you hooked the two up to your TV with the right cabling, that:

iPod Touch - screen - 8GB flash == TV - remote - 40GB HDD

Although the TV can more easily be hacked to do everything a desktop computer can.

But in the end, I haven't bought either, because they can't be trivially modified to play divx files. (I don't mind installing a codec myself, I do mind having to make B.S. wrapper quicktime files.

 

[thecritix]

apple said when they released the new iMacs that there would be news coming soon for the appletv....this has to be it..i'm certain of it....i can't believe they (macrumors) haven't made any mention of this in their posts about likely announcements.....here comes rentals and iTunes store on appletv and a **** load more features!!!! I'm excited!!!!

'this has to be it.. i'm certain of it'
lol

 

[nlivo]

'this has to be it.. i'm certain of it'
lol

hahaha, yeah im an idiot. i was certain of it though.

 

[EricNau]

I don't think DVR is ever going to happen, not unless they lose all for-sale content. I don't think there's any question that part of their TV/movie contract is a clause saying no dvd ripping or DVR in iTunes.

Yes, I think it's quite safe to say that Apple's view of the future doesn't include cable/satellite, much less DVRs.

Clearly, Apple sees itself as the next content provider ...unfortunately, I have a completely different opinion.

 

[MikieMikie]

It wont be just about iPods.... they cant talk about iPods for 2 hours! They will announce the new iPods, the release date of leopard, and possibly an AppleTV update
and some more to fill the time, lol

You were right. He talked about them for 1 hour 24 minutes.

 

[MikieMikie]

It is clear that Apple is taking a "long view" toward the iTunes File Server and its remote devices. Apple has two major hurdles to overcome yet: content, and "the living room device."

It's strategic for them to leave the living room alone, for now -- until they have the content issue solved, bringing up a satellite iTunes device in the living room is marketing folly as it only shows the weakness in the content issues.

They will turn their attention to TV when they are ready to take it out of the hobbyist arena and go head-to-head with DVD manufacturers, etc.

Sept. 5 was, as The Steve so aptly put, "setting up for the holiday season."

Apple is a retailer, with a lot of stores and a lot of product to move. They have limited staff, and the staff gets focused on moving along the iTunes server paradigm a piece at a time. As I said, too much else needs to be solved before TV gets addressed.

--Mikie
"Always remember to buy the product as-is, not as a could-be."

 

[Cave Man]

So we could buy stuff from the apple tv. They did it for the iPod touch and the iphone Why not the Apple TV?? After all Music and Video is also a part of the Apple TVs market. Now im also certain that they will drop the ATV.

That would have to either (1) get put onto your sync computer for iTunes to manage it (which would require a change to iTunes) or (2) use only as a subscription/rental service so the file is stored on the ATV's hard drive (as the source). Until those services are available from Apple, there's still no need for direct access to the iTMS from your ATV.

 

[Floris]

apple said when they released the new iMacs that there would be news coming soon for the appletv....this has to be it..i'm certain of it....i can't believe they (macrumors) haven't made any mention of this in their posts about likely announcements.....here comes rentals and iTunes store on appletv and a **** load more features!!!! I'm excited!!!!

Sorry to hear you were wrong

 

[Diode]

Second thoughts: Could the Apple TV support HD? ...And would Apple be willing to cannibalize their ABC sales in the iTunes Store (most likely at least 50% of their TV sales)?

I've viewed some 720P torrents before and I can say YES and it looks damn good on the ATV. Not to huge either ... it was around 2GB for a 2 hour movie.

 

[CmdrLaForge]

I don't think that they will drop the ATV. On the other hand I would not have thought that they drop the HiFi either. So what do I know ? Steve said at D5 that the ATV is a hobby. It could become quite serious if they would offer better content from a price perspecitve

 

[The Stig]

I guess there was no Apple tv news eh? ha ha

The Stig

 

[mrgreen4242]

The Interface for Media is awful on the 360, Apple TV has a great Interface for playing media

The 360 interface isn't great, but I wouldn't call it awful. It's not as good as the ATV, but it's certainly usable.

How fair would it be to say that, functionality-wise, if you hooked the two up to your TV with the right cabling, that:

iPod Touch - screen - 8GB flash == TV - remote - 40GB HDD

Although the TV can more easily be hacked to do everything a desktop computer can.

But in the end, I haven't bought either, because they can't be trivially modified to play divx files. (I don't mind installing a codec myself, I do mind having to make B.S. wrapper quicktime files.

Well the big thing that the touch would be missing is the optical out (not a big deal until the ATV supports something other than DPLII) and the HD support. The Touch only supports 480i output and 640x480 videos. The ATV will output 720p and 1080i and will playback files up to 1280x720.

Finally, as someone who has hooked up their iPod video to the TV, having the "remote" tethered to the TV by a cable is a PITA, especially if you have pets or kids.

 

[dont24]

I thought about an ATV, but my 360 is doing the job fine for now. As someone stated, the interface is not the greatest, but that's the only downside. Works great for watching movies or photo slideshow.

 

[MarkCollette]

Finally, as someone who has hooked up their iPod video to the TV, having the "remote" tethered to the TV by a cable is a PITA, especially if you have pets or kids.

Is it possible to put the iPod into one of those docks that comes with a remote control?