Wish List for next upgrade

[ipedro]

Now that 2.0.1 has solved most of the major bugs that people were experiencing since Take 2, what features would you like to see added to TV?

My big feature request is for a Leopard widget sync. TV would sync widgets from its iTunes machine.

Useful widgets would be the weather and even WebClip.

Apple's been making the computer experience into self contained appliances that take information from a central computer. iPod, iPhone and now TV follow that philosophy. It would be nice to want to check the weather or a web clip of your favorite site and not have to go any further than your TV.

This could also be a workaround for live TV. Get a web clip of CNN.com's livecasts and you'd have CNN live on your TV.

Now let's hear your ideas.... and please be at least a little realistic. We already know that Apple will not add DVR/tuner capabilities to TV. It goes against the philosophy that they're following.

 

[yoyo5280]

TV Streaming

like you could have a skinned down version of CNN playing brief news and ads and Fox playing mini shows and stuff and Indie TV

That would be cool.

 

[nlivo]

So after every software update (as minor as it is) we have to see a thread saying "So what do we want for the next software update". It's very annoying.

 

[uva25]

So after every software update (as minor as it is) we have to see a thread saying "So what do we want for the next software update". It's very annoying.

You don't have to read it. Move on to the next topic and zip it.

 

[uva25]

I still want the ability to be able to create jukebox-like playlists on the fly when browsing and listening to music.

 

[3247]

A TV tuner that connects to the USB or LAN port! It's an Apple "TV", so you should be able to actually watch TV.

A BluRay drive that connects to the USB or LAN port!

 

[northy124]

^^^ I think this is a software upgrade wish list, But not a bad idea although a DVR would do for me.

 

[ratter]

I like the web clip idea. I'd like to see more screensaver options too. Like movie trailers, rss, etc.

 

[ipedro]

^^ Yes, definitely an RSS agregator! That would make so much sense.

The thing about RSS is that it's actually very TV friendly in that it doesn't require a mouse to click and move the page around.

Again, the people asking for a TV input so that they can connect their cable or satelite aren't getting the point.

Apple is changing the way we watch TV, just like they did so successfully with music. They didn't go and build a radio receiver into the iPod. They know that people want to hear/see content relevant to them and at their own convenience.

TV does just that. The case for network TV is a dying one. When I had cable, I mostly watched reruns of my favorite shows when I could catch them on. Then I got a DVR and began watching more of those reruns. I also had a couple of new shows that I followed weekly.

In the TV case, the question is asked: why are you paying for all these channels and being fed all this crap when all you want to watch are a handful of shows?

Once you break the 'addiction', the answer becomes clear: you watch the new shows that you want to watch. In the meantime you're building up your library of tv shows eventually, they become the "reruns" that you watch on network tv today. You'll have a large enough library to play all sorts of content and never get tired of it. You will have effectively created your own custom channel.

However, the case for killing cable and adopting an TV still lacks a couple of points but they can be addressed:

1 - Live sports: YouTube is adding live video feeds in the short term. Big players will want to become a part of it. If it happens this spring like the speculation says, I think we'll see some Olympic 2008 events being broadcast on YouTube.
The CNN/YouTube political debates are also a no brainer and addresses the next point...

2 - Up to the minute news: an RSS aggregator will take care of this. You'll be able to subscribe to the kind of news that you want to follow and the era of being selectively fed news to meet the broadcasters political agenda will be over.
YouTube Live will likely be joined by a major news organization (at least CNN) in broadcasting live news.
A web clip of BBC's or CNN's live web video feed would also contribute to this.

3 - Weather network: a weather widget would solve that problem immediately and would be 100% customizable to where you live, no matter how small or remote a city/town/farm you live in.

 

[synthfreek]

For the love of God can we get the ability to make video playlists? Please?

 

[Tilpots]

Now let's hear your ideas.... and please be at least a little realistic. We already know that Apple will not add DVR/tuner capabilities to TV. It goes against the philosophy that they're following.

How do you know the philosphy?

Once you break the 'addiction', the answer becomes clear: you watch the new shows that you want to watch. In the meantime you're building up your library of tv shows eventually, they become the "reruns" that you watch on network tv today. You'll have a large enough library to play all sorts of content and never get tired of it. You will have effectively created your own custom channel.

How many times do you watch a TV show? Apple CANNOT take over the TV industry the way the took over the Music industry. People don't watch TV the way they listen to music. Music can be listened to any time while doing any task, you just have to listen. TV takes two senses and complete attention.

IF the TV is going to relevant to the masses, it needs three things:

1. TV Tuner
2. DVR
3. Blu-Ray/DVD player

These are the things that get us to sit down and watch TV. If they fail to start including these items, they will not succeed. Someone else will build a better device and that's what people will buy. They're ahead of the game now becasue they're the first to market, but technological companies copy and catch up quick.

Sorry to rant, but if you're going to start a wish list thread, please don't tell people what's in the realm of possibility.

 

[mhall]

A way to search my own media in the same way we can search the store, and the ability to create on the go playlists.
Give me those two things & I will be as happy as a pig in the proverbial.

 

[Maynerd]

A way to search my own media in the same way we can search the store

This is the single biggest thing missing.

 

[williedigital]

leopard

I don't understand why the atv isn't upgraded to leopard. I'm hoping that would improve the performance tremendously. Also, the ability to search/sort. The one thing I still have cable for is live sports, and I would love for them to add that, but I realize it's unlikely.

 

[mr_matalino]

Maybe update the ATV OS from 10.4.8 to 10.5.2(3)??

 

[pj4533]

divx and xvid.

With every reencode I do, I move closer to just hacking my atv. I really don't want to though. siiggghhhh.

edit: or using my xbox360 for divx/xvid viewing.

-pj

 

[mondesi43]

A TV tuner that connects to the USB or LAN port! It's an Apple "TV", so you should be able to actually watch TV.

A BluRay drive that connects to the USB or LAN port!

They just had something on DLTV's podcast that will do that. It looked pretty sweet. It was OTA SD/HD capable.

 

[FaasNat]

Subtitle support (not just closed captioning). Being able to turn subtitling off or on.

 

[ipedro]

How do you know the philosphy?,

It's in plain view. TV is another iTunes appliance. It's essentially an iPod for your TV.

IF the TV is going to relevant to the masses, it needs three things:

1. TV Tuner
2. DVR
3. Blu-Ray/DVD player

You're entitled to your opinion but what you're proposing is against both the business model and the feature set of TV.

You're attached to all the theories and ways of thinking that you've known all your life. Step out of the box for a second and realize that none of that makes very much sense.

Apple is selling you tv shows and movies on iTunes. Instead of $100 per month, you may end up spending just $20 to $40 in tv shows and movie rentals. Guess what: Apple made that money. Give TV a TV Tuner, DVR and BluRay drive and Apple gets nothing.

They've come up with a model that I think can be quite successful. It's coerced me to happily cancel my cable subscription that I've had all my life. You may not be in tune with this philosophy (yet) but I think that eventually more people will come around to this model.

I don't watch sports (but I did anticipate that in my proposals above) and I prefer to read my news or view specifically what I'm interested in online (an RSS aggregator and WebClip would add that feature to TV), but the one thing that I do miss is the spontaneity of TV. That's a product of a lifetime of being fed TV. New generations won't be submitted to that.
Nonetheless, by building a library of TV shows and with the ever growing video podcast population, smart video playlists would solve this by "feeding" you your favorite shows.

iPod also started off like this. A pretty covert little (big) device. No advertising whatsoever. There were early adopters that saw the potential while others sat on the sidelines wondering: what do you mean it can't play CDs??
Once Apple thought it was ready for the prime time, it let it out into the wild and promoted the heck of out if. Now look...

May I ask: do you own an TV?

 

[Tilpots]

You're attached to all the theories and ways of thinking that you've known all your life. Step out of the box for a second and realize that none of that makes very much sense.

Huh?

Give TV a TV Tuner, DVR and BluRay drive and Apple gets nothing.

Except a ton of customers. In case you haven't noticed, Apple is a hardware based company. They don't produce TV shows or own a music label. The iTunes store is a distribution center, albeit a very successful one. They're money is made from selling the thousands of iPods, not millions of songs. Why should I have to buy multiple devices (DVR, Cable box, DVD Player) where one should do and the technology to do it exists?

They've come up with a model that I think can be quite successful. It's coerced me to happily cancel my cable subscription that I've had all my life. You may not be in tune with this philosophy (yet) but I think that eventually more people will come around to this model.

That's great. You and others I've seen on this forum have saved yourself a big chunk of change from dropping cable. I wish I could do the same, but I like Live TV, and News, and Sports. Not to mention cable channels like Sci Fi or ESPN, or CNN and The Weather Channel. You may not miss them, but I would.

May I ask: do you own an TV?

Nope. And I won't until they put readily available technology together in one form factor. It's not asking for much.

1. TV Tuner
2. DVR
3. Blu-Ray/DVD player

That's my wishlist and I'm sticking to it.

 

[mallbritton]

For the next update I would like TV to be able to better sort my movies based on all the tags. For example if I have a Show and episode numbers specified in the iTunes tags TV should sort on those values to keep movie series, such as James Bond or Planet of the Apes or Alien movies together and in order. Simply sorting alphabetically isn't enough.

I would also like the TV to display TV episodes and seasons correctly. Displaying them highest to lowest is dumb. No one starts at the bottom of the list to watch TV eps in sequence. I don't want to have to scroll all the way to the bottom of a list of 10 seasons of 20 episodes to watch the pilot movie of Stargate SG-1. Episode 1 of Season 1 should be at the top of the list. Sheesh.

I would like to be able to subscribe to podcasts directly from TV.

Regards,
Michael

 

[ipedro]

I would also like the TV to display TV episodes and seasons correctly. Displaying them highest to lowest is dumb. No one starts at the bottom of the list to watch TV eps in sequence. I don't want to have to scroll all the way to the bottom of a list of 10 seasons of 20 episodes to watch the pilot movie of Stargate SG-1. Episode 1 of Season 1 should be at the top of the list. Sheesh.

I would like to be able to subscribe to podcasts directly from TV.

... on that logic, don't you think that it would be odd to buy the latest episode of a TV show and then have to scroll all the way down the list to watch it? The current order makes perfect sense.

Re: Podcasts - Subscribing from TV should definitely be there. Right now I have a ton of Favorites set up but I never know when there's a new podcast available for one of them.

Either have an indicator on the thumbnail in the Favorites menu that a new podcast has been added since you last checked that favorite or add the ability to subscribe from TV.

TV is still in its infancy. I'm excited at the possibilities.

 

[ipedro]

In case you haven't noticed, Apple is a hardware based company. They don't produce TV shows or own a music label. The iTunes store is a distribution center, albeit a very successful one. They're money is made from selling the thousands of iPods, not millions of songs. Why should I have to buy multiple devices (DVR, Cable box, DVD Player) where one should do and the technology to do it exists?

Those are good points but you're missing an important part of the system: Loyalty.

By creating a library of music in iTunes, users have become loyal to that application and by extension to the iPod. They've gone on to buy more iPods and then the iPhone and now TV. Take that library out of the equation (and you would be doing that by having live TV on TV) and users have no reason to go out and buy more Apple hardware.

This is all an iTunes ecosystem and I heavily doubt that Apple would circumvent their own successful central app by shipping a tv tuner and Blu Ray player with TV.

I do have to say one thing: if you haven't used TV as your primary way of watching TV, you may not have given it a chance to win you over.

I was skeptical and kept my cable subscription for a couple of months. I slowly built my DVD movie library into TV and got some tv shows, discovered Podcasts and weaned myself off of cable.

It was a difficult habit to kick, but I can say it was absolutely worth it. How do I know for sure? I wouldn't go back to cable.

I understand that in your case it wouldn't be sufficient because of the lack of live sports, but like I said, I can see workarounds for that coming up in future editions (i.e. via YouTube Live).

 

[mallbritton]

... on that logic, you would think that it would be odd to buy a the latest episode of a TV show and then have to scroll all the way down the list to watch it.
The current order makes perfect sense.

We should at least have the option to tell TV how we want TV seasons and eps sorted. I find it more logical to have ep 14 come after ep 13 at the bottom of the list than at the top. But that's just me.

TV is still in its infancy. I'm excited at the possibilities.

Indeed. I feel that with this version of the firmware I am pretty much set for my idea of an all digital entertainment system. It can use some improvement but all the pieces are finally in place.

Regards,
Michael

 

[mallbritton]

I understand that in your case it wouldn't be sufficient because of the lack of live sports, but like I said, I can see workarounds for that coming up in future editions (i.e. via YouTube Live).

This is an interesting idea but I think for me this would be no substitute for my NFL Sunday Ticket in Hi Def from DirecTV. For this reason alone I don't see myself giving up DTV for the forseeable future.

Regards,
Michael