10/02/2007, 10:50am, EDT
Tuesday, October 2nd
HD, rentals, P2P coming to Apple TV?
One market research magazine is predicting that the Apple TV will ultimately be a long-term success, despite expected sales of just over 100,000 in 2007. A writer for Seeking Alpha notes that unlike most of Apple's products, except the iPhone, revenue for the Apple TV is being deferred over two years to accomodate software upgrades. What these upgrades might be is uncertain, but three major categories are suggested: rentals, HD media and peer-to-peer distribution.
The most anticipated of these may be rentals, which both Alpha and other publications argue is the major factor needed to improve its appeal. The iTunes Store currently only allows purchases of movies and TV shows, the former often costing at least $10. Apple is expected to add $2.99 movie rentals to iTunes that allow 30 days of unlimited viewing, undercutting physical renters such as Blockbuster, and competing directly with alternatives such as Amazon Unbox. The main obstacle is said to be movie studios, with whom Apple must sign a deal. Rentals will eventually become the second largest source of income from iTunes, Alpha argues.
iTunes has also been missing truly high-definition videos, failing to take advantage of the Apple TV's HDMI output. It is believed that Apple may already have HD movies waiting to launch, the obstacle being how to deliver videos as large as 6 to 10GB in size over the Internet. It is for this it is claimed that Apple has BitTorrent-like distribution built into Mac OS X Leopard, which could be used to evenly distribute bandwidth in exchange for iTunes credits. This might mean, of course, that this option would be limited to Leopard owners.
If real, the exact timeframe for any upgrades has not been proposed. The research gro Blackfriars is predicting, however, that Apple TV profits will escalate to $1.8 billion in 2009.
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And yes, on a 56" set from 6-7' viewing distance, 1080p is noticeably better than 720p in terms of fine detail.
often, netflix arrives and it's something that other one of us picked and both of us aren't into it at the same time. so it sits there. $3 to get something we both will watch right away is well worth it.
Some markets are still years away & I believe downloadable rentals are one of those, the average home doesn't have a fast enough connection. The current model of downloading a copy you can keep makes far more sense as we move into an age where people are becoming used to downloading applications they purchase over the internet vs going to the store for a physical copy. You can buy from home, download, & then no fuss of converting a disk to a file that you can store on your computer.
Throw in the fact that you don't have to deal with the messy Blue-Ray vs HD-DVD & you pay less for the downloaded version than for a DVD from Wal-Mart. Oh yeah, & you can play it on your iPod when you travel, purchase portable screens that attach to iPods now, & buy car DVD players that have iPod attachments. Lets face it, Apple knew what they were doing not to mess with the downloadable rentals for the launch of AppleTV.
The appeal of the AppleTV to me is that I can put all my DVDs on a drive & access them at any time without ever having to put in a disc, once Apple adds HD content I'm in. Oh yeah, & if a friend brings over their iPod with movies or a laptop I can watch their movies too.
We are an ownership society, that's just the way we are. I don't see online rental services being more than a niche market for a long time coming.
The AppleTV does 720p, which means it should also support 1080i. Most lower end consumer LCDs are only 720p as well so Apple pretty much built it for the main part of the market that exists today.
If you are so lucky to be filthy rich then you may have a TV capable of 1080p then you can enjoy the full potential of your XBox or PS3. Of course 1080p maybe a waste anyway with the arrival of 1080p24.
The 720 vs the 1080, in the end, is really just a question of how much money you have & what size TV you want. A LCD under 35" probably won't have a noticibly crisper picture going between 720p & 1080p, your eyes can only percieve so much sharpness on a smaller TV before it can actually ruin the experience.
In my personal opinion the big problem with 1080 is it doesn't just magnify the good, it also magnifies the bad. It drives me crazy to watch a show shot in 1080i & when you enter a dark scene in the show it becomes incredibly grainy. This is a limitation of the camera equipment really & how well it can handle low light but in 720p you don't notice the grain as bad since the lines are less distinct.
In the end what is best or worth the money is all in what your personal preference is. Best test is to hook a laptop to your TV & play some Apple trailers in the various resolutions (they offer both 720p & 1080p versions).
http://www.apple.com/trailers/#section=justhd
This is, I believe, the entire point of having an online rental service. You just look at what's available and download it.
Maybe downloading will be for me in the future when the cost of AppleTV, rental and internet cost becomes cheaper than Netflix. I eagerly wait for that day.