The Offical iTV Speculation Thread

[RedTomato]

So.

It's revealed. The media gadget we've all been waiting for.

I have one burning question, echoed by a cast of thousands:

Will this iTV play back on my TV all the DVDs that I have on my hard drive?

If so, I am all over it(tm)

A Concern: that it will only playback DVDs that have been brought through the AppleStore.

A Possibility: that it only plays DVDs that have been encoded in h.264

A New Smell: 'Odour de burning chips' as millions upon millons of underpowered macs and pcs struggle to re-encode vast DVD collections into h.264.

Let fly your speculations, spockulations and spackulations below.

 

[Steamboatwillie]

My burning question... Will it playback DivX and XviD ???

 

[vega07]

And how fast the internet connection has to be to stream HD content.

 

[tyr2]

Formats: I wouldn't be surprised if i can play anything that quicktime plays on your mac and transcodes it before it sends it, providing you've got the cpu power to do that.

Content: Given ripping DVDs isn't likelly to be supported for legal reasons, I wonder how apple are going to let you play your dvds on it (without you ripping them yourselves). Or are they just going to support itunes movie downloads?

OS: I wonder what it runs. Embedded linux? osx even?

 

[pxlmvr7]

iTV...again

http://www.theapplemuseum.com/index.php?id=45

https://www.macrumors.com/pages/2000/04/20000426204518.shtml

 

[jimmy3030]

and...

whether it will run off a NAS......

It's a bit useless if your computer has to be on all the time you want to stream music off your hard drive. What a shame it's got no PVR though. I understand why they don't want to do it, but it makes the package less complete when you have to add on of Elgato's dongles to it.

I am about the buy a Sonos zoneplayer system for my music, but now......

I HATE technology!

 

[SilentPanda]

And how fast the internet connection has to be to stream HD content.

You won't use your internet connection. You'll only be streaming from your Mac to the iTV.

I would guess that iTV will play anything that iTunes can play. Of course I don't know and nobody really will know until it's released. I do know that once iTV comes out my poor iMac will be encoding all my DVD's to a format I can play on iTV.

 

[TheInevitable]

On the front page of digg says that it was announced. How come gizmodo is the only one with this announcement?
http://digg.com/apple/Apple_Anounces_iTV
http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/tag/apple-itv-200138.php

 

[daveL]

iLife

Given that iTV will have to support any content created by iLife apps, including iMovie and iDVD, it seems to me that playing VIDEO_TS folders would have to be supported. If you can play a VIDEO_TS folder, you should be able to play a DVD rip to your hard drive.

On another note, has anyone tried bringing a Divx movie into iTunes7?

 

[timnosenzo]

A New Smell: 'Odour de burning chips' as millions upon millons of underpowered macs and pcs struggle to re-encode vast DVD collections into h.264.

Let fly your speculations, spockulations and spackulations below.

haha!

I have to say, I never really gave much thought to these rumors, but I am very curious to see how this thing pans out. I'm surprised Apple let the cat out of the bag while it seems like its still pretty early on in development.

 

[spicyapple]

So much hoping for movies in high definition, preferably 1280x720, so Apple could lead the way in destroying blu-ray and HD DVD. I think Apple's approach is the future of movie and media delivery.

 

[vega07]

You won't use your internet connection. You'll only be streaming from your Mac to the iTV.

I would guess that iTV will play anything that iTunes can play. Of course I don't know and nobody really will know until it's released. I do know that once iTV comes out my poor iMac will be encoding all my DVD's to a format I can play on iTV.

oh that's right. silly me, wasn't thinking.

 

[jeremy.king]

I wonder if the iTV will run OS X/Linux? Or better, how long do you think until user manage to turn it into a Mac Mini Lite, and even smaller desktop machine.

 

[RedTomato]

And how fast the internet connection has to be to stream HD content.

Call me a noob, but I was actually quite impressed with the streaming Quicktime video of the event.

It was 640 x 360 x 30fps (ie. almost full bandwidth for any normal SD TV), with a max download rate of 1.5MB/sec (my home connection is 16MB/sec) and ran reasonably smoothly even tho thousands were watching it at the same time.

I could jump to any point in the video almost instantly, even tho the download had just started.

In the past, I well remember watching pictures download off Compuserve, building up pixel by pixel over a 700 baud connection (0.7 kb/sec) ...

 

[carfac]

299 for a glorified wireless link? Lots of crack smoking in Cupertino this month, I think.

Add in a DVR, and have iTunes/front page include tivo-like functions, and 299 makes sense. But for a wireless link that interfaces with a mediocre (at best) media manager and you gotta see this for what it really is- just something to try and sell more movies from iTunes, not something thast is really useful.

d

 

[prady16]

maybe its a way steve jobs wants to see if the market is ready for such a product like iTV. also he might be spying on this thread to find out what kind of expectations people have from this "set-top box" which to me sounds just like a wireless mac mini with a tv tuner!

 

[Queso]

The first thing I wondered was whether ITV (as opposed to iTV) will demand Apple change the product name for the UK market. After all ITV have been around for 40 odd years, and are even associated with set top boxes thanks to their failed ITV Digital experience.

 

[Motley]

299 for a glorified wireless link? Lots of crack smoking in Cupertino this month, I think.

Add in a DVR, and have iTunes/front page include tivo-like functions, and 299 makes sense. But for a wireless link that interfaces with a mediocre (at best) media manager and you gotta see this for what it really is- just something to try and sell more movies from iTunes, not something thast is really useful.

d

I was thinking some along the line of hooking an eyetv (like the new $150 one that does sd and hd signals) up to your mac to record tv/movies and then using the iTV to play those movies on tv (or in my case projector). Still a bit $$, but I definately see possibilites.

Of if apple ever gave in and allowed rentals through iTunes or some sort of ON Demand option, that would be pretty nice.

The first thing I wondered was whether ITV (as opposed to iTV) will demand Apple change the product name for the UK market. After all ITV have been around for 40 odd years, and are even associated with set top boxes thanks to their failed ITV Digital experience.

Didn't they say it was more of a temporary/code name and had to come up with something better?

 

[carfac]

Motley:

Yeah- that is exactly what I do want- I just do not want to build it with "parts"- I can do that now. I want something, all in one box, smooth interface- something that won't scare off the wife. And 299 would sell that to me in a heartbeat.

d

 

[RedTomato]

I'm surprised Apple let the cat out of the bag while it seems like its still pretty early on in development.

Apple doesn't sell anything that would suffer from this pre-announcement, and they want to destroy the sales of other media-station type doohickeys.

They've learned from shooting themselves in the foot in exactly this way early in their history.

 

[steve_hill4]

This is by no means the finished version. We may this model at $299, but others may well come with HD and even TV tuner for recording.

If it is $299 for basically a souped up Airport Express AV, I wouldn't touch it. HD streaming adds to the price, but I think there will potentially be more to this when it finally is released.

Also, this is unusual as it is a preview well in advance. Not only does it stop wild rumours flying around, but also fuels them. If only he'd announced they were working on an iPhone for Q1 2007 aswell.

 

[roland.g]

who thinks it will be 802.11g or 802.11n. will that mean that all new macs at that time will be 802.11n as well or will the streaming from a 802.11g mac to the itv just be crap.

 

[Doctor Q]

Thread cross reference: The main news story's Apple Provides Sneak Peak Of Media Center thread discusses all aspects of the new media center.

 

[wpwj40e]

What would be the advantage of this over a low end mac mini. Outside of price - wouldn't you have MORE capability with the Mac Mini.

I relaly do not get this announcement...

 

[milo]

299 for a glorified wireless link? Lots of crack smoking in Cupertino this month, I think.

Add in a DVR, and have iTunes/front page include tivo-like functions, and 299 makes sense. But for a wireless link that interfaces with a mediocre (at best) media manager and you gotta see this for what it really is- just something to try and sell more movies from iTunes, not something thast is really useful.

For the record, this was running an updated version of Front Row. Can't really call it mediocre without seeing the update.

The first thing I wondered was whether ITV (as opposed to iTV) will demand Apple change the product name for the UK market.

It's just a codename, Jobs himself said the product won't be called that.

What would be the advantage of this over a low end mac mini. Outside of price - wouldn't you have MORE capability with the Mac Mini.

It's cheaper, and you can use it with any computer you want (mac or PC). And that computer doesn't have to sit in your living room.