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Will iMac ever come with TV tuner?
- Thread starter swingerofbirch
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ehurtley said:
If Apple had built in tv tuners wouldn't that kill it's partnership with television networks on the itunes music store? If that happened what would the movie studios think about Apple's back stabbing?
I dont think the networks care how you see their shows. If you're watching network TV on a mac you're still going to see commercials. ABC and ABC family post some of their shows online that are free to watch (streaming).......they have three brief commercials, all for the same product. They're the same shows they sell on iTunes for $2. And to me they look like they are higher resolution. The problem is that they can lag and stop playing, and there is no easy way to play them full screen, and can't go on an iPod.
But the point is that they will put the show out in as many ways as they can..whether they make money by having people pay for it or watch commercials.
But the point is that they will put the show out in as many ways as they can..whether they make money by having people pay for it or watch commercials.
milo said:If apple put in CD drives and ripping software in iTunes, wouldn't that kill its partnership with record companies?
What's up with all the eye rolling on macrumors, can't people just reply without being an ass? Difference between ripping cd and recording from television is you already own the content that is on the cd, If you can rip content from your television for free why would you purchase it from itunes? Studios would lose money therefore spoiling the relationship.
dan-o-mac said:
Chill out, if you can't handle people responding to your posts maybe you're not ready to go on a message board.
Television is free because it contains ads, which pay for the programming. And some networks have put content online, some with ads and some completely free.
You can watch shows for free, and yet people pay to watch them on itunes. I don't think including a tuner would really change that.
milo said:
I'm just voicing my opinion.
that's what message boards are for.I know how television advertising works, my point is they have a new revenue stream and would not be happy giving that up. You don't think having a built in tuner would change the way way people purchase t.v. shows, why would you purchase them if you can just record them.
edit:Then again most of the purchases are probably from pc users who won't have this function so it might not be a big deal after all.
Aint no one ever heard of ye olde VCR, or am I too old and out of touch, at a crusty 17. The problem is not the ability to record... tivo, VCRs, some DVD Decks, off brand DVRs, and even elGato equipped macs can record just fine. You could rip CDs before iTunes as well. It's just the visibility, ease, and propagatability of computer based (and apple designed) recording that give people like the RIAA hangups. Rip it, watch it, pod it, and/or share it. They like a little more control.
I would see there being an easy solution to this. If Apple were to allow some third party hooks to Front Row, then folks like Elgato could simply create a link from Front Row to their full screen controls. Imagine, third parties could create new icons that would appear along with the DVD, Music, Photos, and Videos icons that currently show up in Front Row.
dan-o-mac said:
Because then there's no money to be made and they are incurring a loss actually with bandwidth fees (if they were to post them without ads).
They could presumably work out a deal with Apple to cover the bandwith costs and pay Apple as their distributor and include commercials and make them free on iTunes.....or they could post the shows as podcasts with commercials and host them on their own servers.
As it is, the shows on their web-sites that are free are streamed...someone else would have to comment on whether that requires more or less bandwidth than a download service. I'm guessing it requires less.
I have actually switched over from buying the show Kyle XY from iTunes to watching it for free on ABC Family's website. They are each released on the same day (Saturday, airs for the first time on Monday).
ABC Family's website feed is a flash video that cannot be played full screen so I just enable screen zooming (from the Universal Access system preference) and zoom in on the box to make it essentially full screen. A bit more of a hassle than buying from iTunes but the hassle costs me less than $2 of effort.
I don't agree with the notion that a tv tuner would take away from the iTunes market simply because the way in which tv programming has changed. If you look at the way a season is being aired and how viewers are watching content, it represents a flow:
Shows are not played into summer rerun mode because there is this need to compete with other networks that offer shows specifically based on their status as fresh. This has been noted in various media outlets as a trend and not a fad.
With the lack of immediate repeats, a season is run only once until you have to wait for syndication to catch up. At this point, this is where the iTunes/DVD market comes into play; if you missed recording the shows, this is your last recourse (legal mind you).
In regards to iTunes, it's a volatile format compared to hard formats such as DVD, and to a lesser extent, VHS.
In this whole flow, I think I have created some questions that I think would really determine whether a tv tuner would hurt or work exclusively to the iTunes market:
How many people actually backup their iTunes purchases?
Is it a viewing habit to pickup a show in mid-series run? Do people go back to see the unseen portion of series? If so, is it through DVD form, syndication, or both?
Would people purchase upgrades/external storage in order keep all the on air tv they record and iTunes material or would they purchase hard copies that contain additional features?
Imo, all these questions have responses that point to the TV tuner not being an influence to the way in which iTunes would be used by the TV Viewing Audience. The VHS did not kill syndication and the DVD will not kill hard copy/iTunes. And I highly doubt that when it comes to shows that people enjoy, they chose iTunes over DVD's which offer much more. To me, iTunes serves as a quick fix to those who want programming that isn't avaliable in other formats or choose to have only snippets of items that they don't enjoy on an entire level.
I hope this didn't seem like a rambling post, but I wanted to really engage into a discussion on this topic because with the way in which dvr's have become prevelant, the TV landscape has changed in ways that I don't think has been fully understood.
Shows are not played into summer rerun mode because there is this need to compete with other networks that offer shows specifically based on their status as fresh. This has been noted in various media outlets as a trend and not a fad.
With the lack of immediate repeats, a season is run only once until you have to wait for syndication to catch up. At this point, this is where the iTunes/DVD market comes into play; if you missed recording the shows, this is your last recourse (legal mind you).
In regards to iTunes, it's a volatile format compared to hard formats such as DVD, and to a lesser extent, VHS.
In this whole flow, I think I have created some questions that I think would really determine whether a tv tuner would hurt or work exclusively to the iTunes market:
How many people actually backup their iTunes purchases?
Is it a viewing habit to pickup a show in mid-series run? Do people go back to see the unseen portion of series? If so, is it through DVD form, syndication, or both?
Would people purchase upgrades/external storage in order keep all the on air tv they record and iTunes material or would they purchase hard copies that contain additional features?
Imo, all these questions have responses that point to the TV tuner not being an influence to the way in which iTunes would be used by the TV Viewing Audience. The VHS did not kill syndication and the DVD will not kill hard copy/iTunes. And I highly doubt that when it comes to shows that people enjoy, they chose iTunes over DVD's which offer much more. To me, iTunes serves as a quick fix to those who want programming that isn't avaliable in other formats or choose to have only snippets of items that they don't enjoy on an entire level.
I hope this didn't seem like a rambling post, but I wanted to really engage into a discussion on this topic because with the way in which dvr's have become prevelant, the TV landscape has changed in ways that I don't think has been fully understood.