Apple Introduces Updated Apple TV with Netflix Integration, TV Show Rentals

[German]

Even if there is enough space, the XBMC & Boxee programs from the current Apple TV hack won't run on the A4 processor in the new box.

But a Plex-Client will run on LG Blu-Ray Players (and TVs)

http://elan.plexapp.com/2010/09/02/plex-and-the-future-of-television/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IofjJ5TgJmo

Just hope, that LG will support a lot of codecs.

Plex, taking over the world. Only a few days after releasing Plex/Nine and Plex for iOS, the media center announced a partnership with LG to include a version of the software on its Internet-enabled TVs and Blu-ray players. But you knew that already. Wouldn’t you know it, I have here a brief video demo. Who loves ya?

The deal basically means that you’ll soon be able to find the familiar Plex interface, and plug-ins, on LG’s TVs. You can view Internet content right on your TV, using only your TV, or have your TV network with a Plex instance running on your computer.

http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/09/0...-lg-tv/#ooid=A5bDNwMToUaEW5wSdGRUo6YK21w5gDBo

 

[mohrt]

But that's not what you said. You talked almost entirely about illegitimate sources. I'm simply saying Apple couldn't care less about legitimate sources one way or the other. They simply want you to buy everything from Apple (that includes battery chargers these days). What's next, I wonder? Blenders? Toasters? Oh wait, I think NewTek owns those.

Well to be honest, why wouldn't they? I mean, the Amazon Kindle doesn't make it easy to buy books from anywhere but Amazon. The appleTV is not a device Apple plans on making a killing on the hardware. It is simply another avenue into the iTunes ecosystem. If they wanted to make the swiss-armyknife of set-top boxes, I'm sure they could. But that is not the market they are interested in for appleTV. Another thing is that Apple is trying to lure in the movie studios. You can't do that with hardware that goes against the grain of making them money. Remember iTunes before iPods? "Rip, Mix, Burn." You recall how quickly that campaign was canned when they started recruiting the music labels?

They also threw in a bonus: Netflix. They see the benefit here... selling more iPads and iPhones. However, I'm going to bet in the future Netflix will become a conflict of interest for them, similar to what happened with Google.

 

[miTunes75]

with Netflix, who needs to buy?

This is my thought on the whole Netflix thing. AMAZING! I am not much of a movie purchaser anyway. It takes a lot for me to buy a movie because although I enjoy movies, there are a small amount that I want to watch over and over again.

Now that Netflix will be around, who needs to buy movies? I think a $9 + tax investment per month will be well worth it. Heh, why spend $19.99 on a movie that I'm only going to watch about 4 times anyway?

 

[coryndiego]

if there is no significant storage on the ATV then it doesnt seem that they would later update to install apps...they require storage. Unless there is a new cloud based app service on the way or you can use the apps from other devices via wifi or from .mac. I'm buying one and hoping for a jailbreak that will open up the possibilities. If not then I'm only 99.00 in the hole for my new Mac Mini. It will always make a good portable movie machine for the bedrooms and taking to friends places.

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

Well to be honest, why wouldn't they? I mean, the Amazon Kindle doesn't make it easy to buy books from anywhere but Amazon. The appleTV is not a device Apple plans on making a killing on the hardware.

Well, the thing is I think the consumer WANTS a Swiss army knife. I know I do. Apple has traditionally made their money from hardware, not software, so the whole idea of this cheap $99 thing to sell iTunes content goes against basic Apple economic philosophy. I'd rather pay more and get a Swiss army knife. The problem is NO ONE is making a Swiss army knife with a nice interface. Popcorn, etc. are all cheese even if the hardware is nice. Even XBMC sucks hard compared to the Apple TV interface (no I will not be nice to them until they add M4V chapter switching).

 

[technicolor]

I will be buying myself one for xmas.

 

[NT1440]

Well, we are discussing the new ATV the main new feature of which is renting TV shows from iTunes for $0.99

Where did you get the idea that was the main feature?

 

[Kadman]

Steve completely sold me...on getting a Roku. It's far more useful than this POS. The combination of hardware that can do 1080p video, support component video (not all of our sets are HDMI capable), combined with more versatile source options (without Apple's death grip) make a far better choice in my opinion.

Some will jump in with cries of "Apple's superior design makes it better" or "everyone else has horrible interfaces" but that's just BS in this case. The Roku interface is simple to use and effective.

 

[JAT]

Now that Netflix will be around, who needs to buy movies? I think a $9 + tax investment per month will be well worth it. Heh, why spend $19.99 on a movie that I'm only going to watch about 4 times anyway?

Many people spend more than that on a movie they are watching once. At a theater.

 

[g-boac]

Will you still be able to buy movies or TV shows on your Mac or iPad?

Question, is rental/streaming only JUST for the new Apple TV, or will you still be able to buy TV shows and movies as permanent downloads via a Mac?

Rentals are nice, but I want to be able also to download a show, watch while I'm traveling or commuting, and then finish watching on my TV at home.

thanks!
Mark

 

[OllyW]

Question, is rental/streaming only JUST for the new Apple TV, or will you still be able to buy TV shows and movies as permanent downloads via a Mac?

Rentals are nice, but I want to be able also to download a show, watch while I'm traveling or commuting, and then finish watching on my TV at home.

thanks!
Mark

Yes, you can still buy through iTunes. The only thing that has changed is you can not buy direct from the new Apple TV.

 

[mohrt]

Well, the thing is I think the consumer WANTS a Swiss army knife. I know I do. Apple has traditionally made their money from hardware, not software, so the whole idea of this cheap $99 thing to sell iTunes content goes against basic Apple economic philosophy. I'd rather pay more and get a Swiss army knife. The problem is NO ONE is making a Swiss army knife with a nice interface. Popcorn, etc. are all cheese even if the hardware is nice. Even XBMC sucks hard compared to the Apple TV interface (no I will not be nice to them until they add M4V chapter switching).

agreed, Apple has the user experience nailed, why can't the other swiss-army hardware makers do something similar? At this point I think the AppleTV is just to get people to iTunes. It would be cool if they had a $199 software update that let it do other things. But I think again, they would have a harder time getting movie studios online with them if the hardware made it too easy to circumvent purchases.

 

[mohrt]

Question, is rental/streaming only JUST for the new Apple TV, or will you still be able to buy TV shows and movies as permanent downloads via a Mac?

Rentals are nice, but I want to be able also to download a show, watch while I'm traveling or commuting, and then finish watching on my TV at home.

thanks!
Mark

At this point, the new ATV is just for rentals, and playing content from your iTunes library. You can still purchase from iTunes on a separate PC. They got rid of the hard drive so consumers didn't deal with syncing/storage. But, I think the new facility in NC will become a cloud-service, so you can store purchases there and access them from anywhere. Time will tell.

 

[0009382]

I just saw my first apple tv the other day. Pretty sweet looking.

 

[bergmef]

I, and some neighbors, are going to hold on to our older apple tv's for now. None of us have netflicks so that isn't an issue. We all sync photo's and music, then stream any videos. We would miss not being able to fire up the apple tv and do a slideshow with having to find the laptop, plug it in and have it running. I personally hope for a future version with some storage. Not holding my breath, I think this first step is apples way to get your stuff into the new datacenter. Let's hope the next apple tv change is less than 3 years.

 

[Blackjack556]

Apple tv - can it also stream netflix outside the us?

I travel a lot, outside the us. I have no problems renting movies and buying tv shows on my old apple tv outside the us, with my us iTunes account.

Would I still be able to do these things plus stream netflix with the new apple tv?

 

[Blackjack556]

Apple tv outside the us

I travel a lot, outside the us. I have no problems renting movies and buying tv shows on my old apple tv outside the us, with my us iTunes account.

Would I still be able to do these things plus stream netflix with the new apple tv?

 

[pc-proud]

you aren't getting 1080p OTA or from cable. Satellite has some 1080p ondemand rentals, that's it.

Nevermind, somehow I went to reply to a Amazon VOD post and this is what came up? Weird. I even saw the quote above about Amazon!

I'm with ya on that one and also as a bigger bonus, if you buy a season pass, it's 5% off each episode too. So that makes HD episode $0.95 per ep. My Tivo can receive AOD. This is the real kicker to any apple people, the $0.99 per episode is a purchase/own not a rental. Watch often and whenever you feel like it.

 

[pc-proud]

Don't waste your time trying to convince Apple-hating trolls of reasons why some people might find this device useful.

Steve Jobs could have showed off a device that fits in the palm of your hand and brings every movie and TV show ever made to your TV in full 1080p, for free, and people like this would find some reason to complain about it, or tell you how much better you could do the same thing with a Microsoft/Google solution.

Not true! If he did that, I'd buy it assuming it was reasonably priced. However, steve did not do that and therefore I'm gonna still hate on apple products that are years behind at launch (except the new ipod touch, i have to say, that is kinda cool. I might replace my iphone with that if it breaks and my contract is up).

 

[toujames]

All you guys are stupid!!

Apple TV is for normal average joe that can just plug to tv and watch movies simply.

There is also an optional Apple TV for the geeks. Its called the MAC MINI!!!
YOu can stream using iTunes, and it also has Hulu and works with your photos and movies!! Yes it cost more, but hey! you get what u pay for!!. Mac Mini does so much more.

That is why apple has done this. simple=TV Geeky=Mac mini!

So stop complaining and stop youR WHINING!

 

[alent1234]

This is my thought on the whole Netflix thing. AMAZING! I am not much of a movie purchaser anyway. It takes a lot for me to buy a movie because although I enjoy movies, there are a small amount that I want to watch over and over again.

Now that Netflix will be around, who needs to buy movies? I think a $9 + tax investment per month will be well worth it. Heh, why spend $19.99 on a movie that I'm only going to watch about 4 times anyway?

if you have kids then you have to have disks. and netflix streaming has a very limited selection.

i saw Cars probably 5 times this weekend on blu ray and the quality is amazing. Playstation + blu ray show off a lot of limitations of the tech used to make the movie.

HD is 1990s tech. Blu Ray and soon to be blu ray XL is 21st century technology

 

[eye]

if you have kids then you have to have disks. and netflix streaming has a very limited selection.

i saw Cars probably 5 times this weekend on blu ray and the quality is amazing. Playstation + blu ray show off a lot of limitations of the tech used to make the movie.

HD is 1990s tech. Blu Ray and soon to be blu ray XL is 21st century technology

You had to watch that horrid movie multiple times too? I wish my little guy would be obsessed with a much better movie.

 

[flynz4]

if you have kids then you have to have disks. and netflix streaming has a very limited selection.

i saw Cars probably 5 times this weekend on blu ray and the quality is amazing. Playstation + blu ray show off a lot of limitations of the tech used to make the movie.

HD is 1990s tech. Blu Ray and soon to be blu ray XL is 21st century technology

I agree that for kids, owning some movies is the best choice. I remember ours just watching the same ones over and over.

However... kids do not stay little for very long, and for the vast majority of a person's life, most people do not choose to continually re-watch the same movies. Hence, low cost streaming generally has more value... with a DVD player and a small collection of movies to fill in "watch and repeat" segment of one's life.

Regarding Blu Ray (and XL) being the future... I am afraid I disagree with you on this one. Physical media is dying. It will take a few years... but the trend is clear. Physical media will take the same path as film cameras.

Regarding the very limited selection of streaming movies at Netflix... just looking at the first derivative of available titles should make it abundantly clear that streaming is the future.

/Jim

 

[alent1234]

blu ray penetration is in the tens of millions. this year for $99 you can buy an Apple TV or a blu ray player with more functionality. next year it will be 3D blu ray players will be $149.

if we see a PS4 and x-box 720 next year than they will most likely have blu ray or blu ray XL drives in there and the installed base is close to 100 million for MS and Sony

when Blu Ray XL will come out we'll see TV's with the resolution to support it and as players get cheaper people will buy those

streaming is not going to take off unless Netflix gets a larger selection and then it will probably have to raise prices. no one is going to pay $5 per rental. even then i can rent a new release via my cable box for $5 with no need to buy an appletv. only reason i still pay for netflix is that Dora is cheaper at $10 a month then $15 a DVD with 4 episodes. if i could buy a $20 blu ray with a season of Dora or Little Einsteins it's good bye netflix

a lot of blu-rays now come with digital versions as well. no need to stream over 3G. in the near future we'll also see a huge increase in local flash storage.

 

[GamecockMac]

Foot in mouth I mis-read your quote.
But the solution would be to buy it from your mac and stream it to ATV.. That would work.

Not sure what your point about being "locked" to itunes is. I'm not interested in torrents, but I do like to convert all my DVDs to iTunes compatible m4v files with Handbrake. iTunes makes a good system for accessing these files. That's how I use my existing AppleTVs. I do not envisage buying a new one to rent movies or tv shows. Where's the "lock"?

Well, we are discussing the new ATV the main new feature of which is renting TV shows from iTunes for $0.99

Yes, let's don't dare discuss options and workarounds that would shoot down every "argument" an Apple-hater would use to troll this thread.