A6-Based Apple Television to Come in Three Sizes Ranging from 32 to 55 Inches?

[eNcrypTioN]

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I call bs on this. Apple should really focus on overhauling there current apple tv platform and bring apps to the tv. Let us bring our own screen etc...

 

[gkarris]

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I still think the idea of an Apple TV is sort of absurd. Who is going to replace a whole TV just for the interface that could have been added as an external device anyway?

What about when Apple TV 2 comes out? Are you supposed to buy a whole new TV just to get an interface / OS upgrade?

Well, if the AppleTV 2 has an A4, and the TV set has an A6, you'd have to wait until an AppleTV 5 with an A7 for $99 and just get that and hook it up.

 

[11thIndian]

A5 would be up to the task of any content they would want to display. A6 would only really be necessary if they wanted to leverage it as a gaming TV too. But why do that when you can put the GPU inside the ATV add on and update more often? I still don't buy the idea of apple making a TV either.

That depends. Surely one of the key improvements over the existing AppleTV will be 1080p video playback. "Cracked" current generation AppleTVs have already been proven capable of playing back 1080 content. But that's not really the problem- AND may be the reason why Apple would wait until the A6 to start offering full HD content.

The big problem with iTunes 1080 content is the size of those files to download/stream. Conventional thinking would be that a 1080 movie would be 2x the size of a 720 file. The average size of a iTunesHD movie is 4GB, which would make the average size of a 1080 movie 8GB, and as even a supporter of AppleTV like myself will attest, there's lots of room for improvement in the fine detail of Apple's existing HD content. If Apple wants customers downloading lots of HD content, then they need to get the file size down. So how do you do that with the minimum sacrifice in quality?

In the Pro market, Apple created ProRes422, a broadcast quality codec which is only a fraction of the size of Uncompressed video, with nearly imperceptible reduction in video quality. The flip side? It's a VERY processor intensive codec to run, especially when it first debuted 5 years ago.

So one of the potential benefits to Apple's new video delivery could be "better than broadcast" HD video at relatively small file sizes. This is probably why the A6 is necessary, to decode the heavily compressed HD video.

 

[shompa]

If Apple do this, then it's going to revolutionise the TV market, it won't be a TV with built in ATV2....

Could it have:

1) OSX built in?
2) not a tv at all but some kind of projector?

Think outside the box, they will rethink the whole thing.

Reasonable:
Ios. 700000 Apps on your TV. Games and all that jazz.
8gig cach/flash
Siri
SmartTV. See Apples patents with their vision. Its really interesting.
http://www.patentlyapple.com/patent...-an-enhanced-tv-widget-paradigm-for-hdtv.html
Content subscription from iTunes. Dump your cable provider.

Dream:
4K display. Apple alway have liked high resolution displays. A retina 55 inch display is impossible, but 4K is reasonable.
Anybody can produce a 4K screen, but Apple would be the only company that could support it with content.
----

BTW: A6
All hints points to that TSMC will manufacture it. Apple got back test wafers from TSMC in june. Since a tapeout is specific for the foundry that manufactures them. If Apple wanted Samsung, they would need to redesign the SoC. Samsung = A5, TSMC = A6.
I don't know when Samsung is delivering 28nm silicon. TSMC have finally started produce final products with 3% of Q4 revenue is 28nm. This means that A6 is technically possible to use Feb/Mars right in time for Ipad3.

 

[mdriftmeyer]

A5 would be up to the task of any content they would want to display. A6 would only really be necessary if they wanted to leverage it as a gaming TV too. But why do that when you can put the GPU inside the ATV add on and update more often? I still don't buy the idea of apple making a TV either.

Put it in both. The latest patents discuss CPU/GPGPU sharing across multiple/distributed devices.

 

[damir00]

In the Pro market, Apple created ProRes422, a broadcast quality codec which is only a fraction of the size of Uncompressed video, with nearly imperceptible reduction in video quality.

ProRes 422 produces significantly larger files than the H.264 already being used by the iTunes movie store.

 

[DavidRichards]

Take it from me, this is just another unsubstantiated piece of clickbait cooked up from rumour and guesses, from a site with rock-bottom editorial standards.

SmartHouse and its owner/editor David Richards are good at only one thing, and that's taking stories from other sites and claiming them as their own – check out http://youtu.be/KdtvJAKEHeU when he was outed on national TV for plagiarizm.

 

[mkrishnan]

All of the newest smart televisions have cpu's and graphics chips in them. I think most are using ARM or a derivative thereof. So that's how it is with smart TV's. Built-in computers basically.

Hopefully Apple will do it right and have a module one can replace easily otherwise users will be stuck with the same "computer" just like all the other smart televisions.
My Vizio in my bedroom has one and it had a firmware update a couple of months ago that added functionality to it.
I really don't see having to upgrade the computer components as long as the GUI overlay is done properly.

Yeah, I do see this -- my parents have a TV like this (plays Netflix by itself, with a net connection, etc). That should work, in principle -- you have hardware that can play 1080p video, for instance, and you're really "done" for now on that front. My reservation is that iOS has not worked like that to date, but instead worked on an even faster version of the obsolescence calendar than computers (my computers last me longer than my iPhones). That's a good thing in that development has gone far faster than I think anyone would have expected of the cell phone market four years ago.

 

[damir00]

Anybody can produce a 4K screen, but Apple would be the only company that could support it with content.

From where?

 

[freddiecable]

I see no reason why Apple would not do this:

1. How many Appleheads would not jump on this train? And all those newly converted Applewannabees? They stand in the millions...

2. What is the cost to integrate an Apple TV in a 46"-TV-set? They sell monitors - why not TVs? Why not tap this market? Many TVs are mediocre at best. Plastic pieces of crap. Why leave the upper-end market for B&O and other high-end-sets from Sony & Samsung?

 

[AppleScruff1]

Apple has to be able to sell these things at their retail stores, which do NOT have the warehouse space in back to possibly sell TVs in the quantities Apple fans would ask for. It simply isn't going to happen like that.

Or it will just be very, very ugly.

TV's DO NOT need to do ANYTHING but display a picture. Anything else is upgrade-ware. The stuff that makes you want to buy a new TV every year. Sorry, not going to happen. I'll swap out my components all day long but a new TV more frequently than every 7 years? Forget it.

Do you think the Apple tv's will sell like the iPhone and iPad? Millions of them per week? Do you think people will be camping out to buy them? Will they be in short supply for months to keep the demand high? Will they launch all around the world in the first few months?

 

[mdriftmeyer]

ProRes 422 produces significantly larger files than the H.264 already being used by the iTunes movie store.

Correct, but you could have just linked this to explain the real intent of ProRes 422:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ProRes_422

 

[Nightarchaon]

From what I've heard and deduced Apple is obviously going to skip the TV completely and offer a post-TV experience in a holographic format thats light years ahead of anything the competition is currently working on, George Lucas is already working on the remastered-remastered-Digitaly remastered-3D remastered 2D remaster with added Remastered digital enhanced scenes including the one where neither han no greedo shoot first but instead space aliens drop off indian jones who shoots greedo and tells han solo he is his long lost father for the format as we speak.

The Huge Data centre they built recently is housing Steves Jobs consciousness and is now online and aware and will begin assimilating the planet.

and i think my rumour is just as reliable as any until proven wrong.

Id buy and apple branded TV IF and only IF, it was competitively priced, until then, ill stick with my Hacked Apple TV 1 with the 8TB drobo hanging of the back of it with an ever growing library of TV shows and Movies.

The apple TV 2 was a step backwards IMO, no HDD, no local storage, i like the fact i can load up movies and tv shows, unplug the device, and take it to a friends for movie and pizza night, can't do that with digital media if its tied to your TV set or a streaming only device without a load of hassle.

 

[AppleScruff1]

The Apple tv will play driectly to your brain. There will be no screen. It will be a single cable that you put in your...... Presto! A magical experience.

 

[damir00]

Correct, but you could have just linked this to explain the real intent of ProRes 422:

There wasn't much need, as the post being responded to was suggesting the format would provide a bandwidth benefit for home viewing applications.

 

[ThisIsNotMe]

Maxing out at 55"?
They better continue to sell external AppleTV boxes.

And either way they need to add Air Play mirroring to OS X.
There is no reason why I shouldn't be able to extend my desktop to an AppleTV.

 

[thebasa]

Prices will be 999, 1999 and 2999 and software will be just as crappy and limited as on ATV. Can't wait :/

 

[HelveticaRoman]

I'm waiting for the 15" laptop version. Oh, hold on...

 

[freddiecable]

well - hear you brotha! why don't they just simply release app store on the apple tv? most people hack it anyway...like the iPhone in the beginning. time to wake up and go with the flow apple?

but - i believe in a true apple teve set it will replace my very nice sony bravia...will move it to the master love room

Prices will be 999, 1999 and 2999 and software will be just as crappy and limited as on ATV. Can't wait :/

 

[superman23]

my only request is a MATTE SCREEN!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[DakotaGuy]

Will believe it when I see it. Would be quite surprised if Apple were to offer 3 different sizes for the TV.

If they were to come out with a TV - it would be offered in a single size, which Apple would deem to be "sweet spot". Probably somewhere between 32"-42".

One model sized somewhere between 32" and 42" isn't going to make much of a home theater TV. I wouldn't buy anything less then a 46" for a home theater and I feel 55" is actually the sweet spot. I just got a new 55" LG LED-LCD which actually has less features then a 46" I owned before, but the overall viewing experience is so much better. Especially on Blu-ray and HD broadcasts. I didn't worry about the TV being a wifi connected model because I already have an LG Blu-ray player that is wifi with all of those services.

I'd rather buy a lower priced larger TV and then hook up a nice media center and player that can easily be changed out when technology changes. If everything is integrated what do you do when the technology changes? Throw away the TV and run back to Apple to buy another?

 

[11thIndian]

ProRes 422 produces significantly larger files than the H.264 already being used by the iTunes movie store.

Absolutely. And I'm not suggesting that they'd use PR422 as their delivery format. But I do remember reading about Apple developing a more consumer oriented codec with the same goals in mind: better image quality at lower bitrates- but I think the tradeoff would be the same: a more powerful processor is needed for the decoding.

 

[G4DP]

Super HD is not even close to being near ready for a product on the consumer market.

As for OLED screens, that's more realistic than some stupid woman on TV over here in the UK on Sunday morning. She started spouting about the possibility of an Apple TV and said it would have the same retina display as the iPhone and iPad.

I just laughed at the TV, the first time in a long time.

 

[majortom1981]

smart

If apple was smart they would contact cablevision and put in the downloadable security system that cablevision is working on. This way apple can use their own interface to access the cabletv without a cablebox.

 

[rotax]

While we are dreaming

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn9059

same as

http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220060007222%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20060007222&RS=DN/20060007222

Kinect style gestures.... stereographic facial recognition .... can we get this on iDevices too?