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TUAW says "Is the Apple TV being replaced?"

Biggest drawback for me is spending time to put all my films and tv series on it. Films arent so bad i guess but having loads of tv shows series it would take me forever to do. And then i dont think id watch them often enough to go through all that effort.
 
Peace said:
Tell that to Elgato.
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Elgato doesn't have a relationship with TV networks and doesn't have the responsibility of insuring sales on iTunes to keep those networks happy.

It's quite simple logic really: You wouldn't buy tv shows on iTunes if the same device that sells them to you also allowed you to get them for free.

TV networks wouldn't sell shows because everybody would be getting them for free so there would be no use in having them on iTunes. :apple:tv would become an expensive DVR with nothing to differentiate it from cheaper alternatives provided by cable companies.
 
ipedro said:
Elgato doesn't have a relationship with TV networks and doesn't have the responsibility of insuring sales on iTunes to keep those networks happy.

It's quite simple logic really: You wouldn't buy tv shows on iTunes if the same device that sells them to you also allowed you to get them for free.

TV networks wouldn't sell shows because everybody would be getting them for free so there would be no use in having them on iTunes. :apple:tv would become an expensive DVR with nothing to differentiate it from cheaper alternatives provided by cable companies.
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I really don't get why you can't understand the logic of incorporating DVR into the :apple:TV. You have no cable, but do have an :apple:TV and a separate DVR, correct? How much did that separate DVR cost? How much of that money went to Apple?

Do you buy new shows on iTunes that you get for free OTA? For the most part, probably not. And how much of that money goes to Apple or the networks?

Please believe me when I tell you that the networks are more than OK with giving away their newest content for free to the public. The advertisers pay for it, not you. And any money they do happen to make off of sales of older shows is EXTRA cash for them. They've already made their money when it was released, in fact they usually make a whole lot of money, even if the show fails.

I get my perspective from working at a big network affiliated TV station. We don't charge anyone but advertisers a dime to watch our content. We even offer classic shows on our website, also free. Where are you coming from? I appreciate your input on what the :apple:TV actually does do, I read many of your posts, but I'm really frustrated when you continue to use arguments that are in no way logical for what the :apple:TV does not do and why.
 
So everyone already says it's false but then why would all these stores have them on clearance unless they all wanted to get rid of them for some reason and what about that webcast "kick-off" then?
 
I-Bot said:
So everyone already says it's false but then why would all these stores have them on clearance unless they all wanted to get rid of them for some reason and what about that webcast "kick-off" then?
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Completely different e-mail from the other. I would say that stores are depleting their inventory because they aren't selling. People are probably going directly to Apple to purchase and not places like Target.

"Join Channel Program Manager Paddy Wong and Apple Channel East Regional Sales Manager Mary Philipsek for a "kick off" webcast for the 2009 fiscal year."
 
CAn I ask a question

what is the Apple TV suppose to do???
I never got it
:apple: and who buys that other than fanboys??
 
I-Bot said:
So everyone already says it's false but then why would all these stores have them on clearance unless they all wanted to get rid of them for some reason and what about that webcast "kick-off" then?
Click to expand...

From my understanding, Apple holds webcasts semi regularly with their retail channel.

arn
 
ipedro said:
Well, aside from this rumor being shown to be a misunderstanding – :apple:tv is not being discontinued – I'll address your BluRay comment.

Although BluRay won the format war against HD-DVD, that war went on for too long and it's becoming apparent that both will lose in the end as a media format. Adoption has been slow and digital online distribution is beginning to take hold.

Most people are happy with their DVD collection. Without the online features of BluRay 2.0 being heavily advertised, the majority of consumers can't see the benefit and aren't adopting the technology with the critical mass that is needed to make it a success. By the time 2.0 is finalized and the prices come down enough to satisfy the broader market, digital distribution will already be in people's homes with devices that are quite inexpensive to make.

I'm skipping BluRay and have gone straight to :apple:tv and I can see many people doing the same.

If anything, the next :apple:tv will be a refresh with a bigger HDD and a more attractive price.
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Holy mama, that's a nice fantasy. Problem is yer facts.

1) It's Blu-ray (or Blu-ray Disc).
2) Even if BD had been the only format from the start, the movies are mostly $30 when they come out new. Most DVD movies are $15-20 in their first week. That is THE reason the format is stagnating. But...
3) There was a big BD player price cut this week. Best Buy and Circuit City now have BD-Live-ready players for $300 from Samsung and Sony. That was about the price point that DVD started to take off at. I'll agree with you about the uber-crappy advertising that BD-Live is getting (or not getting). However, that's probably a minor issue to people who just want to watch HD movies. HD downloads have zero special features, so that's kinda moot between the two.
4) Digital distribution is hardly "beginning to take hold" if you mean being a primary distribution method. DVDs still play in anything and are frickin' cheap, which is why they're still going to be around for a good while. BD will probably co-exist with DVD since there are tens of millions of people who could care less about HD.
5) Digital distribution has its own format war. You can only play the iTunes movies and TV shows through iTunes, and iPod/iPhone or Apple TV. None of those are as seamless as a DVD player yet. Then there's another method for Hulu, might as well throw in Amazon, and hell, what about Netflix? Everybody wants their own stupid proprietary system because the stupid movie studios think that DRM prevents piracy. If I wanted to, I could use Mac the Ripper to pirate every single DVD I own. But I don't. It's just like I could start robbing banks and picking pockets, but I don't. DRM is hurting ALL video formats, but it really stymies digital video because of the 30 different playback methods you need instead of just DVD or BD.

The most important thing is BANDWIDTH. If digital downloads really took off the way half the people on here think in their pipe dream, the Internet would get clogged like crazy and ISPs would start capping usage. YouTube already provides a lot of clutter with a lot of really useless crap like, as Dana Carvey said, a cat peeing in a toilet. Most anything on there worth watching is, um, pirated.

So basically it's all a fustercluck and digital downloads aren't going to kill video formats like digital audio has slightly done.
 
After my rant, I forgot about my speculation on this new ATV device!

If Apple wants it to take off, they combine ATV with either a DVD or Blu-ray player, if not a choice for both. Think of it as the "getting people in the store" method. Sell a $300 ATV+DVD or a $450-500 ATV+BD that is expandable using external HDDs. Make the firmware not suck like the present one (can we get playlists already? Bluetooth for a keyboard or a useful remote?).

The only way DVR software works is if it isn't a useless feature for people who have satellite. I may be wrong about this, but I can't use a TiVo-branded box with my satellite because then I don't have control over the programming info. I have a DVR in my Dish Network box, but all of these computer DVR devices and TiVo boxes are worthless to me. DVRs seem to be really tied into the service provider due to all of this, so I don't see the point of it in some sort of new ATV. If Apple knows how to get past all that, then by all means I'm for it.

But my real hope is they put a disc player in them. Then when I want a BD player with BD-Live, I can buy an ATV and also have my digital videos on my television. Two birds, one stone.
 
:apple:TV Clearance item at Target stores

This weekend I picked up a 40GB :apple:TV, normally priced at US$229.99 for US$195.48 (15% off) at Target. Then if you open a Target credit card, you get another 10% off for a final price of US$175.93 (or so)!

I don't know if they are clearance at all Target stores. So, now I have a new toy! :)
 
Don't worry about Apple TV.... I have new info

Hey guys!
Do not worry about Apple TV. On this site always make predictions entirely
accurate, so much so that sometimes I think they have
a kind of informant inside Apple or whether they are hackers who steal secrets
from Apple, but the fact is that until now haven't been wrong with any predictions about any new hardware or software.
The principal editor always leaves clues, then when you are looking
clear information. Read what it says respect the Apple TV.

I particularly like the final sentence. something like: Can a brick, break a
window? If you want light read for yourself...

http://applediario.com/2008/09/29/apple-tv-pasara-a-formar-parte-de-los-renovados/
 
tshort said:
The TiVo Series 2 supports satellite.
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That's good to know, although the service plan (which kept me away from TiVo when it first came out) is still shockingly high compared to the $5 or $6 that DirecTV or Dish Network charge. Unless some Apple-style DVR was cheaper per month and/or allowed video exports to iTunes/iPods, I don't think I personally would be into it.

I still have this feeling that something will happen in the next 5 years that will make us long for the early days of DVRs because advertisers are pissed that we aren't watching their crappy commercials. When Microsoft wants me to sit around for 60 seconds watching a commercial that has nothing to do with what they're selling, give me a break. There's also stuff like that dumb Life Water commercial from the Super Bowl that are just insanely stupid. I don't even have time for beer commercials. :)
 
Michael CM1 said:
Unless some Apple-style DVR was cheaper per month and/or allowed video exports to iTunes/iPods, I don't think I personally would be into it.
Click to expand...
See, there's the kicker... Apple could (if legals allow it) create a seamless flow of recorded TV to iTunes and iPod. Just reverse the flow of how things go now (iTunes -> :apple:TV or iTunes -> iPod).

For those who say they'll never do it because it will cut into sales of TV shows in the store, well... I think a good look at the numbers of music sales when you can rip your own CDs could be an indicator.

Yeah, yeah... I know... Difference in price, whole different game, supposed to own the CD first, etc... But many people look at it as if the only TV show sales that :apple: makes are the brand new episodes that just came out last night (or within the last week)... There are plenty of older episodes of TV shows that you're not going to get into your DVR until they syndicate over to TNT/TBS/USA/Whoever. Same applies to movies. And keep in mind when you forget to set the DVR.

Then there's the shows that could be sold out of market (overseas) over iTMS. I know outside the US there's some serious limitations on TV shows like that, but there's still many changes to come (I would think) in that regard.
 
ipedro said:
Well, aside from this rumor being shown to be a misunderstanding – :apple:tv is not being discontinued – I'll address your BluRay comment.

Although BluRay won the format war against HD-DVD, that war went on for too long and it's becoming apparent that both will lose in the end as a media format. Adoption has been slow and digital online distribution is beginning to take hold.

Most people are happy with their DVD collection. Without the online features of BluRay 2.0 being heavily advertised, the majority of consumers can't see the benefit and aren't adopting the technology with the critical mass that is needed to make it a success. By the time 2.0 is finalized and the prices come down enough to satisfy the broader market, digital distribution will already be in people's homes with devices that are quite inexpensive to make.

I'm skipping BluRay and have gone straight to :apple:tv and I can see many people doing the same.

If anything, the next :apple:tv will be a refresh with a bigger HDD and a more attractive price.
Click to expand...


I own a PS3 but I have'nt bought a lot of disks, I've been mainly ripping my existing DVD collection to the ATV along with my TV shows. On my 46" Sony the content looks fine. Blu looks better but I find the convienience of the ATV hard to beat.
 
Apple TV is no more than an Itunes Media Extender. I bought it as such and for me it works fantastically. I encode my Hour long shows in Handbrake to a 800MB file and they look fantastic, and ai can box up my sets and get them out of my living space. What more could I want... I already have a DVR on my Direct TV amd a Blu Ray on my PS3 so they would be redundant.
 
Here's what I would like.

Put a DVD drive in the :apple:TV so I can pop in a DVD which is then instantly ripped to its hard disk (or better yet, to a NAS). After this initial ripping, you can watch the DVD off the hard disk.

This would of course make piracy easy (rent a movie from your local rental shop and watch it indefinitely after returning it). Actually, I wouldn't mind if the rip would be encrypted somehow so I can only view it on my particular :apple:TV, as my use case is that I already own the physical DVDs. The reason I want this is because my kids watch the same movies over and over again, usually handling the original media in such a way that they are rendered useless in a few weeks.

I tried doing this on a "homebrew" system using a KISS network player, but this has several drawbacks: The ripping process is a tedious, manual process, and the UI to the thing is not suitable for kids who can't read yet. They would grok cover flow, but obviously can't use the remote to scroll through a list and select the proper VOB file on my NAS.

Surely there's a solution for this use case somewhere - anyone know of a product which does this?
 
Sander said:
Here's what I would like.

Put a DVD drive in the :apple:TV so I can pop in a DVD which is then instantly ripped to its hard disk (or better yet, to a NAS). After this initial ripping, you can watch the DVD off the hard disk.
Click to expand...
Um, do you have any idea how long it would take the processor in the appletv to rip a dvd, even if it could ? Can you say "days" ? "Instantly Ripped" is pie in the sky even for a state of the art Mac Pro. As well, actually *using* the atv during this process for viewing previously created content would be completely useless.
 
WHEW = I just bought one yesterday. I'm glad it's not going to be a three day old outdated device..
 
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