Video Icons in iTunes 5 Spawns Speculation

Macrumors said:

An Ars journal article points to new "Gift Video", "Buy Video", and "Add Video" icons found in the most recent release of iTunes 5.

The article blurb points to this as definitive evidence that Apple is planning a "Video Store".

More likely, these icons will be used to sell Music Videos as previously reported in July. At that time, the Wall Street Journal reported that Apple was seeking to license music videos to sell through the iTunes Music Store. The songs were expected to cost $1.99 a piece.

Apple has already started bundling music videos with some songs as far back as May of this year.

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Excuse me but, I was the one who found those graphics and I posted them on these forums on Sept. 9th https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/148363/
"Found some cool stuff in the iTunes.rsrc and Localized.rsrc files within iTunes. A new "Purchased Movies" icon. And the iPod placeholder from iTunes 4.9 wasn't in there. In no way did it match up with the iPod nano's source column icon. Included the iPod nano pics for fun

http://tinypic.com/dlksp4.png (Graphics relating to a future movie store)
http://tinypic.com/dlkvmh.png (Graphics relating to the iPod nano)

photobucket hosted versions of the pics:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b355/eisnerguy1/iTunesvideocopy.png
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b355/eisnerguy1/iPodnanocopy.png "
Here's the updated pic with the credit tag
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b355/eisnerguy1/de5b9f32.png


So, I would appreciate if you could change the story to give me credit for finding the graphics.

I can see it now, we can only watch 30 second previews of music videos, gone are the days of getting to watch music videos for free on itms. I would rather just get the videos for free off bittorent. Unless they are surround sound mixed with high definition and some other features to make it seem better I think the service wouldn't do well. How about a subscription itms service that unlocks the ability to play music videos on your iPod, along with getting a discount on purchasing songs and maybe even unlimited downloads like napster has. I know Jobs has stated "people want to own, not rent", but he changed his mind about flash players. It would make more sense to have unlimited music videos and a discount on itms with the payed subscription then to expect people to buy a music video they will only watch a few times. Official VideoCasting is also a good bet, it should still be free though. News company's could also post shows with commercials for free on the Video section. It would be cool to have count down with keith oberman available every night for free. And eventually apple could try to allow the transfer of tivo recorded video onto the iPod. I bet a lot of teen girls would like TRL on their iPods for free (with subscription). I don't think they will treat the videos like rentals though, just when you cancel your subscription you can no longer download anymore videos. Eventually a few TV shows might be added (hopefully family guy and ATHF) and then movies.

coolsoldier said:

If Apple does decide to provide movies, I think it's much more likely that they will provide a digital rental service ... than a purchase service for several reasons:

1. Price. Buying a movie (recent movies especially) costs too much to be attractive to most of the market. To rent a movie to view within a time span of a few days might cost only $3-$5. To buy a movie to keep on your computer and/or burn to DVD is likely to cost $10-$15 (These prices, of course, are speculative based on the prices of renting and buying DVDs)

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Your numbers are too high.

It costs $3-5 to rent a physical DVD today. A download-rental service would have to cost less. Why would you pay the same price to get inferior content? Especially if the time to download one movie (probably two hours over broadband) is longer than the time it takes to go to the store?

As for purchasing, DVDs cost $10-25. An on-line purchase plan would have to cost less than that (say, $5-10). Again, why would you pay the same price for inferior content?

Then again, there are tons of idiots who pay more ($3-5) for a ringtone than they do for a full-length song ($1 from iTMS). So maybe they can be conned into paying a premium for inferior content and really long download times. I'm already prepared to laugh at them.

Proud Liberal said:

I guess I have a completely different "vision" of a video iPod...I don't think it would be so much for downloading movies from iTunes. Rather, I see it as a device where you could load converted Tivo programs/ripped DVDs to the iPod, much like what you can currently do with the Archos AV400/700 players.

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Sounds like a reasonable possibility to me.

Now, I'm also wondering about the movies themselves (if they are ever offered). Do they have to be full screen HD in order for people to buy and download them? What if the movies were in .h264 format at a much smaller size which fits the screen of a video iPod?

Looking at my son's Playstation Portable I can see where this might be a viable direction. The little UMD movie discs look decent enough on the PSP screen. Yet the movies cost as much as a full-fledged DVD!

I could see someone paying (at a reasonable cost) for downloadable movies that are only large enough to play on a video iPod (could also be scaled up to play on a larger external monitor?)

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Putting The Cart Before The Horse

I don't mean to sound rude, but I think many people in this discussion are "putting the cart before the horse", so to speak, when it comes to the "video ipod" or whatever it's going to be called. I think many people are expecting something before it's feasible/available. Let me explain (and for the record, I'm by no means a video expert at all).

My own personal belief is that if Apple releases a vpod, it won't be so much for downloading movies from an iTunes-like stored (I think there are too many issues with this for them to make that leap yet), but more so for providing a capability for vpod owners to carry both their music collections AND a few of their own movies/TV shows that have been ripped from DVD/Tivo to a PC/Mac hard drive. I think we need to think of this in terms of "evolutionary acquisition", i.e. vpod version 1, version 2, etc. Just think of how Apple has grown the iPod line as technology has matured/evolved over the last 4 years. I think the vpod will be similar. First introduce something that allows owners to carry both music and movies/TV programming. And yes, I know that there are already devices that do this, but there were also other devices that allowed users to carry MP3 collections prior to the introduction of the iPod. But Apple came along w/the iPod and blew everything else out of the water for several reasons. Why can't they do the same w/a video player? I'm not buying the argument that it would be mostly for downloading & watching music videos - who sits down and watches 2 hours of music videos, anyway (disclaimer: I'm NOT 13 years old, so maybe there's something about the Echo Boomers I'm not aware of!!)

Then the next logical step (a la iTunes introduction) would be to introduce a video store where you can download & buy feature films, episodes of TV shows (like you can buy an entire season of a TV Show at Best Buy on DVD, etc), as well as introducing the next evolution of technology for video devices...

Well I'm done my rant! Since this makes entirely too much sense to me, I'm sure it's about as plausible as pigs flying!

MontyZ said:

Playing songs on the radio is also done to sell CDs and promote the artist.

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Radio stations play music in order to sell the advertisements that play between the songs.

Record companies give radio stations free/pre-release copies in order to promote CD sales.

These two goals don't always overlap.

Proud Liberal said:

My own personal belief is that if Apple releases a vpod, it won't be so much for downloading movies from an iTunes-like store (I think there are too many issues with this for them to make that leap yet), but more so for providing a capability for vpod owners to carry both their music collections AND a few of their own movies/TV shows that have been ripped from DVD/Tivo to a PC/Mac hard drive.

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Good insight. I think you may be on to something here.

Proud Liberal said:

First introduce something that allows owners to carry both music and movies/TV programming.

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Perhaps an audio/video capture device (featuring TV/radio tuners and a FireWire interface) that a user can attach to a Mac and record shows a-la TiVo. (Asteroid???)

Then, allow users to sync recorded shows with an iPod for transport to other locations. The idea being that people can attach their iPod (via the video-out jack) to TVs, so you can play your recordings in the living room or at other people's houses. The nano doesn't have the video out, but with only 2G or 4G of storage, people won't be transporting a lot of video with it anyway.

Then talk with automakers to get interface kits so the iPod's video programs can be played on those overhead screens people get installed in minivans.

I still don't think there will be too much demand for watching videos/movies on the iPod's own screen, but you can pretty much get that for free if you develop the hardware/software for video playback through the line-out jack.

Proud Liberal said:

Then the next logical step (a la iTunes introduction) would be to introduce a video store ...

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IMO, this could be introduced at any time, once Apple's marketing people think there's a demand for it. (Assuming the movie studios get on-board, of course.) I would expect Disney to be one of the first adopters, due to their relationship with Pixar and the fact that kids movies would be most desirable for playback in minivans.

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shamino said:

Good insight. I think you may be on to something here.
Perhaps an audio/video capture device (featuring TV/radio tuners and a FireWire interface) that a user can attach to a Mac and record shows a-la TiVo. (Asteroid???)

Then, allow users to sync recorded shows with an iPod for transport to other locations. The idea being that people can attach their iPod (via the video-out jack) to TVs, so you can play your recordings in the living room or at other people's houses. The nano doesn't have the video out, but with only 2G or 4G of storage, people won't be transporting a lot of video with it anyway.

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The Archos AV400/700 players do just that and they completely bypass the middle step of recording shows to a PC/Mac & then download to the player - you can hook it to your TV/Tivo and record DIRECTLY to the device, and with a 4" screen, it's completely conceivable that you could watch "programming" (i.e. shows recorded from TV or movies ripped from DVD to a HD). It would be a great device for those of us who are "road warriors" for our jobs - instead of carrying an iPod & a portable DVD player, you get the best of both worlds - and you don't have to carry the DVDs!

The technology is definatley there & already being used, just like the MP3 technology already existed when Apple introduced the iPod. But they took it to the next level and I don't see any reason why they couldn't do it with "video". MP3 players didn't really "take off" until AFTER the iPod was introduced and then they quickly became a part of pop culture. Perhaps it will be Apple that will do the same for the PVP industry.

Proud Liberal said:

The Archos AV400/700 players do just that and they completely bypass the middle step of recording shows to a PC/Mac & then download to the player - you can hook it to your TV/Tivo and record DIRECTLY to the device, and with a 4" screen, it's completely conceivable that you could watch "programming" (i.e. shows recorded from TV or movies ripped from DVD to a HD). It would be a great device for those of us who are "road warriors" for our jobs - instead of carrying an iPod & a portable DVD player, you get the best of both worlds - and you don't have to carry the DVDs!

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If you use these Archos players to rip protected DVD content, then the resulting files can only be played on the device it was transferred to; you can't play from a computer, or output to a TV, and presumably when you replace the device you lose those copies.

Loge said:

If you use these Archos players to rip protected DVD content, then the resulting files can only be played on the device it was transferred to; you can't play from a computer, or output to a TV, and presumably when you replace the device you lose those copies.

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I don't have an Archos, so I'm not too familiar w/the details, but from the reading/research I've done, I wasn't under the impression that the Archos itself could "rip" a DVD. I thought this needed to be done on a PC w/software and then load the file to the Archos for viewing. But if you hook it up to a TV, you can record directly from the TV to the Archos.

The next big event is scheduled for Oct 7 (+/-). Chatter is that there will be major update for the iTMS and video is the subject. The day will be long remembered.

New Video Gen iPod will be the big story. Smaller scroll wheel, larger, higher resolution display. A few mm thinner than the 4th Gen.

Again and again I hear of an update to the Airport Express to provide video output (analog??). Some speculate WiFi in the Video Gen iPod but maybe the Airport Express product spin is for your desktop as the source.

So Stevie has been a busy boy lately!!

podfuture said:

New Video Gen iPod will be the big story. Smaller scroll wheel, larger, higher resolution display. A few mm thinner than the 4th Gen.

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So I can transfer content from my existing DVDs to this new device, right?

Loge said:

So I can transfer content from my existing DVDs to this new device, right?

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Yes you will. Maybe not directly with iTunes or whatever Apple software, but you can always rip your DVD and convert to any format/resolution/bitrate. At that point there is no discrimination between your movie and any other video file.