commentary The launch of Apple TV this month raises interesting questions for owners of video-capable iPods and home entertainment enthusiasts.
Will the mid-March release coincide with the addition of movies and TV episodes to the Australian iTunes Store?
Although Apple won't answer the question -- nothing new here -- the latest version of iTunes released last week hints movie downloads are on their way, with OFLC ratings (G, PG, M, MA15+, R18+) being added to the parental controls in iTunes. (They've also been added for New Zealand, Canada, Ireland and the UK.) For those not familiar with iTunes, it's the jukebox software from which you decide the music, photos, videos and podcasts to sync with your iPod and Apple TV.
Still, it's unclear when Apple will make movie downloads available locally, how much they will cost, and how much of a strain it will be on bandwidth -- iTunes feature-length films are currently only VGA resolution in the US, but still clock in at around 1.5GB. Who knows what the bandwidth implications will be if the resolution is increased to something more befitting of the 720p/1080i-capable Apple TV.
We're also pondering if Apple TV can do for video what iPod did for music. Both are managed through iTunes, both feature easy-to-use, elegant interfaces. The iPod, however, was natively compatible with the world's most Internet-distributed music format, MP3, when it was released. Apple TV, on the other hand, doesn't support what is arguably the world's most distributed video format, DivX.
Naturally Apple prefers users to purchase movies through its iTunes Store than download them through BitTorrent, but the Web is rife with software that can convert DivX movies into a format that can be imported into iTunes, and therefore played via Apple TV (MPEG-4, H.264). Even so, the iPod had a leg-up in that it could play the music-equivalent of DivX -- MP3 -- out of the box.
Now that the iTunes Store is the fourth-biggest music retailer in the US -- and selling five million songs per day worldwide -- perhaps it's not such a gamble introducing a device that doesn't cater for the average joe. (Another barrier is that Apple TV will only work if you've upgraded to a widescreen television, too).
We hope to be getting a first-generation Apple TV localised for Australia in the next couple of weeks so stay tuned to CNET.com.au for our full review of its design, features and performance.
Do you currently look at photos, videos and music stored on your PC on your TV? Do you think Apple will impact how we get our movie and TV fix? Leave your comments below.
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pspicerwensley
16/03/2007 01:41 AM
Apple is unlikely to support DIVX not because it wasn't made by them but because it's not technically adaptable enough nor DRM compliant (too open). DIVX is great video - it's tight and small but Apple's Quicktime (which is supported) is codec independent. iPod video is much lesser quality but you aren't restricted to lower quality video. The EyeTV 250 (which also works with PCs) is a great example of what Apple would do if they didn't have to worry about becoming a target for some media magnate's legal department. (YouTube vs Viacom comes to mind). Remember that Apple could have also supported the OggVorbis audio format which like DIVX is a very capable format and much better than mp3 at the same bit rates but they developed their own AAC format with DRM probably for legal rather than technical reasons. Apple would prefer that they could use open formatsd and probably got away with MP3 because they supported it but it wasn't the default (AAC encoding is) but was widespread. DIVX isn't so common (when compared to wmv, avi, mov, mpeg2 and mpeg4). It's a shame that they won't but it's the world we live in. Never ind some clever person will hack a workaround.
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jamelshouse
18/03/2007 01:15 AM
I've never used iTunes, and i can't stand the fact that if ever you wish to download Quicktime, whether it be to watch videos on the net, or for some strange reason, use it as a media player. I do have admit however, my bias for iTunes is mostly because I, like most of the world, use a PC, and I can't stand having to use a mac or any software that comes with it. Now, back on track, i do think Apple will chose to go with the MP4 format, however i do not believe this will fly well with most 'nerds' or avid DivX users out there. I think it is fair to say that most people who use the DivX compression the most are people who download video files through sources like Bittorrent, i also think that most of these people, being as smart as they are, are going to be using a PC and hopefully like me, won't use the new Apple software. If Apple really did want this software to be popular, they would create it to have the ability to use DivX files because this is what i believe would attract the biggest group of video watchers. I hope my rant made sense (Y)
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EvilNOD
22/03/2007 06:20 AM
if you got divx player already, why would you want to buy this?? aren't apple tv only support up to 720?? and i need to convert all my video into apple format?? i for one wouldnt waste my time like this. for video, apple tv got very limited codec format support. pretty much their own .. QT! e for music i connect my music library to home speaker with SPDIF optic cable. which far better then TV build in. nothing against apple tv, but they need to support more then just QT.
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