Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

ghall

macrumors 68040
Jun 27, 2006
3,771
1
Rhode Island
And maybe, just maybe, HD content won't cost significantly more than SD. I always buy/rent SD content from iTunes instead of HD out of principal.

Not counting on it though.
 

skellener

macrumors 68000
Jun 23, 2003
1,786
543
So. Cal.
While our devices may be able to capture and soon playback 1080p, many of us are lacking the bandwidth to stream 1080p thanks to the greedy ISPs that not only would throttle such bandwidth, but charge you additionally for exceeding any data caps. Right now many of us are lucky if we can get through a Netflix or Hulu session without seeing a buffering interruption at 720p.

So more power to Apple for moving our devices forward, but I cannot see 1080p streaming becoming a standard for a long, long time. That is unless something happens to get us to gigiabit up and down like Google is doing in Kansas City, Kansas.

Time and time again, we've seen the weak link in this chain. It's the cell carriers and ISPs that prohibit innovation and growth.
 

profets

macrumors 603
Mar 18, 2009
5,111
6,138
Suddenly a 10" screen capable of 1080p will warrant an Apple TV upgrade to handle 1080p as well? Were these Apple TVs not already connected to TVs most likely capable of 1080p?
 

Goodeye

macrumors 6502a
Jan 30, 2009
746
269
The problems with the recent iTunes Live presentation of the Paul McCartney Live concert certainly point out that the little black box ain't got the guts to do what it's sposed to do...so a refresh would be a good thing. My frustration threshold was passed the first night we tried to use it for the live stream. Looking closely at what was streamed subsequently certainly looked like a low resolution version of the original...artifacting, etc. If there's going to be a TV then there's still a ton of work to be done before that puppy is ready for prime time.

Are you kidding me? Other than the little issue at the start where it wouldn't stream (likely an issue on Apple's end needing a switch to basically be flipped) the stream still worked over iTunes and AirPlay to the Apple TV and looked amazing in HD. Even when the stream started working directly on the Apple TV the HD stream still looked amazing. I'm guessing either your connection was not the greatest.
 
Last edited:

faroZ06

macrumors 68040
Apr 3, 2009
3,387
1
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

1080p content has been a long time coming. IDK why Apple contradicts their occasional revolutions (retina display, thunderbolt, ACD) with archaic offerings (MBP 13" res, 720p iTunes HD, Pro PCI graphics...etc)

1080p ≠ good, actually. Blu Ray is 1080p, but it is compressed enough that the quality is still not so good. I found my DVD player with a 1080p upscaler higher quality than Blu Ray with the exception of the colors not being as good.

My mom's 1080p AVCHD camcorder is lower quality than my HDV tape camera in 720p or 1080i.
 

pmz

macrumors 68000
Nov 18, 2009
1,949
0
NJ
Oh sure just read my posts on 9to5mac and turn them into an article here.

;)
 

emaja

macrumors 68000
May 3, 2005
1,706
11
Chicago, IL
1080p ≠ good, actually. Blu Ray is 1080p, but it is compressed enough that the quality is still not so good. I found my DVD player with a 1080p upscaler higher quality than Blu Ray with the exception of the colors not being as good,.

Then you have the world's crappiest BD player. There is NO WAY that SD looks better than 1080P if all things are set up the correct way.
 

profets

macrumors 603
Mar 18, 2009
5,111
6,138
1080p ≠ good, actually. Blu Ray is 1080p, but it is compressed enough that the quality is still not so good. I found my DVD player with a 1080p upscaler higher quality than Blu Ray with the exception of the colors not being as good.

My mom's 1080p AVCHD camcorder is lower quality than my HDV tape camera in 720p or 1080i.

Did I read that right? A DVD player that upscales to 1080p looks better than a high bitrate 1080p bluray itself?

I dunno, I honestly would have thought a video at 1920x1080 up to 50 mbps would look better than a video at 720x480 up to 10mbps.
 

Keebler

macrumors 68030
Jun 20, 2005
2,960
207
Canada
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

iTunes movie packages are required to be 1080p. You have to submit a prores file. Apple does the encoding from there. I don't think studios have to resubmit anything.

I'm not sure about that Portishead. From this part of the statement, it clouds what the studios have to provide:

"Meanwhile, Apple has reportedly asked movie studios to start submitting 1080p content to the iTunes Store late last year."


For me, I think this would be fantastic. To me personally, I hate artifacts or shimmering I see from some of their iTunes offerings. It drives me nuts. I'm not anal retentive about much in life, but I like to see as good an image as the director and/or photography team intended.

I still find Blu Ray much superior to that of the current iTunes offerings so 1080P would be great (if the encoding is done right too). I've seen some Blu Ray rips which are fantastic as well. Of course, it's the audio from Blu Ray which I find to be the best part.

Cheers,
Keebler
 

marcusj0015

macrumors 65816
Aug 29, 2011
1,024
1
U.S.A.
But what will the bitrate be?

----------

He's clearly trolling you. it's impossible for ANY DVD to look better than a Blu-ray. period.
 

Spectrum Abuser

macrumors 65816
Aug 27, 2011
1,377
48
Theres a bottleneck to full 1080P streaming. Most Americans do not have the opportunity to subscribe to a network that can support it. So outside of major cities your best bet would be DSL and while at maximum speeds 'can' support one stream it would cripple your network and any other activity(s) would cease to operate or perform at very low speeds.

And the maximum speed AT&T offers for subscribers is 6Mbps. If you want higher speeds then U-Verse is your only choice and that has not been rolled out near as much as DSL.
 

Oracle1729

macrumors 6502a
Feb 4, 2009
638
0
Since when does apple care about quality?

Their so-called HD video from itunes is 4Mbps. An old-fashioned DVD is 10Mbps, 2.5 times the data. If you actually take a moment to view the video on something bigger than a iPad, DVD is far, far superior in terms of picture quality to apple's HD.

This is also why apple's war on optical media is so pathetically stupid. You're supposed to give up DVD's which are dirt cheap at the big box stores and instead pay apple a lot more for a fake-HD download that has much worse quality.

And now we're supposed to get excited that apple wants to squeeze more pixels into their over-compressed streams?
 

bushido

Suspended
Mar 26, 2008
8,070
2,755
Germany
unless they finally change the business strategy im not interested. why would i pay 17$ for a compressed and protected "file" if i can get a BD + DVD + DIGITAL COPY combo pack for 14$
 

jaw04005

macrumors 601
Aug 19, 2003
4,513
400
AR
Since when does apple care about quality?

Their so-called HD video from itunes is 4Mbps. An old-fashioned DVD is 10Mbps, 2.5 times the data. If you actually take a moment to view the video on something bigger than a iPad, DVD is far, far superior in terms of picture quality to apple's HD.

I'd personally take 4Mbps 720p H.264 over 10Mbps 480i/p MPEG-2 any day.
 

RamGuy

macrumors 65816
Jun 7, 2011
1,349
1,899
Norway
There are three things that made me return my Apple TV 2.

#1: No way to play / stream neither video nor audio without having a dedicated iTunes server running. Why can't the Apple TV 2 play files straight from a Apple Time Capsule? Doesn't make any sense to me and goes against the whole "it just works" deal from Apple.

#2: No apps. This was the numbers reason why I bought it in the first place. I was fully aware there was never announced anything about apps support on the Apple TV 2, but as it's running iOS and it does indeed features Apple A4-hardware I hoped to see apps support after a while. Apple has a unique possibility with the Apple TV 2 if they would just brought apps to it!

#3: The video rental quality is simply inferior, limited to 720P with rather low bitrate and only Dolby Digital 5.1 audio tracks. Give us twice the bitrate, or even better 1080P with three to four times the bitrate with Dolby True HD and DTS Master Audio we are talking.

The lack of MKV didn't surprise any, but it would indeed be positive to have the clearly most used HD container supported.
 

Oracle1729

macrumors 6502a
Feb 4, 2009
638
0
I'd personally take 4Mbps 720p H.264 over 10Mbps 480i/p MPEG-2 any day.

That only shows what you get when you're used to a 9.6" screen for watching video.

Even on a cheap little 32" 720p screen I have, DVD blows apple HD out of the water.
 

JesterJJZ

macrumors 68020
Jul 21, 2004
2,443
808
I'll stick with my Blu-rays thank you. Been finding so many great deals lately. Picked up about 20 of my favorites over the past few months in the $5-$10 range. Also nice to have shelf of physical discs to look at when browsing for a film.
 

apolloa

Suspended
Oct 21, 2008
12,318
7,802
Time, because it rules EVERYTHING!
I still think we will not get a resolution on the next iPad that's being talked about, I think it's stupid. But that's me, IF Apple uses the PowerVR 6 series GPU's then I would much rather have a 1080P resolution and faster FPS in games etc.
But when I look at other phones, I still look back at my iPhone 4 and think it's a much clearer screen?? Meh, I won't be buying one anyway, I've just ordered a 7" tablet for my needs. Pity Apple don't make a 7" iPad.

As for Apple TV rumours.... it really looks like no one has a clue. It will be a surprising 2012 from Apple I think, but I'm only interested in the iPhone 5... get those rumours started!!
 

TMay

macrumors 68000
Dec 24, 2001
1,520
1
Carson City, NV
1080p ≠ good, actually. Blu Ray is 1080p, but it is compressed enough that the quality is still not so good. I found my DVD player with a 1080p upscaler higher quality than Blu Ray with the exception of the colors not being as good.

My mom's 1080p AVCHD camcorder is lower quality than my HDV tape camera in 720p or 1080i.

Nobody seems to be buying what you are saying, albeit that you acknowledge that color is not that important to you.

Unfortunately, and even though I have two very current LG BD670 players available, I don't have matching screens that I could do an A/B comparison of the BD and DVD's that I have available from the purchase of combo media packs.

Early and currently inexpensive consumer AVCHD video cameras were and are constrained by bandwidth to the flash memory, not to mention extremely small imagers. There are many pro and prosumer AVCHD cameras including dslr's with various AVC profiles available today that meet and exceed HDV.
 

damir00

macrumors 6502a
Oct 30, 2011
744
7
I found my DVD player with a 1080p upscaler higher quality than Blu Ray with the exception of the colors not being as good.

Then there is something seriously messed up with your system, because they aren't even close.
 

Bokito

macrumors 6502
May 29, 2007
300
1,161
Netherlands
The current Apple TV already supports 1080p playback, with a software update Apple should be able to allow 1080p output on the current Apple TV.

Also the iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPad and iPad 2 are able to play 1080p. Apple is probably just waiting to charge us again for the devices that officially support 1080p since every A4 or newer device doesn't have any problems with it. Kinda sad but true.
 

Roy G Biv

macrumors 6502
Dec 26, 2010
362
104
1080p ≠ good, actually. Blu Ray is 1080p, but it is compressed enough that the quality is still not so good. I found my DVD player with a 1080p upscaler higher quality than Blu Ray with the exception of the colors not being as good.

My mom's 1080p AVCHD camcorder is lower quality than my HDV tape camera in 720p or 1080i.

My betamax makes Blu-ray look like Boo-ray.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.