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

[gotchan]

This is getting to close to what i've been looking for to replace cable/satellite, not to replace my DVD library.

1) Simple to use
2) No commercials
3) Cheaper than cable/satellite for the number of programs i watch
3a) I don't have to subscribe to twenty or a hundred channels in order to watch two programs that are on different channels which are in different tiers or groups

The programs i really like i will buy later in season collections.

If they can work out agreements so i can watch Doctor Who (BBC), Being Erica (CBC), The Big Bang Theory (CBS), and Daily Planet (Discovery (Canada)), this will be a game changer. This is aimed at the network/channel/tier model, replacing it with a show model. Steve Jobs said people want professionally produced content not amateur hour. But professionally produced is not the same as network. See Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog for an early example of what could be a new trend of independent TV.

 

[Small White Car]

That is like saying a 3 megapixel camera doesn't provide a better image than a 1.5 megapixel camera.

If you compress the photos to the same size and put it on the web then, no, there's really not a difference.

And if you say there is no difference in 1080p and 720p, you simply do not know what you are talking about or do not have a screen larger than 45 inches.

Tidbit: A lot of people don't!

This is why most people don't care about 1080p. You think it matters on a 32" TV from across a big living room? It's not nearly the same difference as you see in your state-of-the-art home theater setup.

 

[ChrisA]

Well, there's another nail in the coffin of Blu Ray. In a couple of years people are going to be wondering why they spent all of that money on those expensive discs.

Blu Ray quality is far better than what you get streamed over the Internet. The streamed video is very compressed and it's only 720p.

Yes I know the average consumer just does not care about quality and was happy with iTunes at 128K

 

[Small White Car]

Oh, i see what you're saying.

Yep, you have a lot more freedom than Apple does in some things.

 

[zengod]

Gonna skip this - The lack of local storage means this is no longer a device suitable for me.

I store all of my music on my Apple TV so that I can play it direct to my amp without needing to have my mac on whenever I want. Prior to AppleTV I had my iPod connected to the amp to do the same but with the smaller capacity iPhones and Touches this was not possible.

Being able to rent films was also great but I always found that downloading first was much better than streaming - particularly in the UK where most of us still get sub 4Mb broadband (Despite the laughable suggestions by BT that they can do 20Mb). In fact even streaming from MAC to AppleTV was never that good unless it was hardwired even after several router upgrades.

This is then for me a very backwards step for Apple and they are trying to enter a market where others already exist and I doubt that the take up will be great for this device in the UK.

 

[ArcaneDevice]

So those TV's integrate with an iPad, iPod Touch and iPhone?

Which isn't needed when the very same content providers are creating apps to run specifically on those platforms all tied in to one account.

 

[lilo777]

So those TV's integrate with an iPad, iPod Touch and iPhone?

No, but they integrate with Samsung Galaxy S (via DLNA). The way to go is for Apple to support open standards (like DLNA) and not to push their own proprietary stuff.

 

[alent1234]

There are VERY few movies that I like enough to watch more then once. I'll happily pay $5 to rent most movies and maybe buy a select few BD to collect.

that's because you probably don't have kids

 

[JSMencer]

When will TV Shows be Available for RENT? The day after, or right after the show airs?

 

[skery]

why aTv over Roku etc. simple

I haven't read the whole thread, but its very simple why aTV over Roku, etc, and it has all to do with media, every one talks aboutdivx blah blah, well how about the stuff I buy off of itunes, all of my kids tv shows, movies, easy to do, all the old music I bought that I haven't wanted to upgrade to itunes plus. yea, you could argue they have me trapped with the DRM, but hell i did it, I bought it, I knew that, and frankly I don't care. I wish I had bought more, I only watch movies on my apple tvs, I have a bluray player, can't be bothered getting a disc, does it look better, yeah, sure, but i forget about that after the first 10 minutes. So I rip my dvd, handbrake is easy, but has a bug that as far as I know hasn't been resolved with subtitles, especially the english ones, so a movie like Angels & Demons which has some german spoken, the english subtitles aren't there, but would be if I just bought the itunes movie, not to mention itunes extras...

really, things like the roku are hacks for getting things free, and it makes it more difficult to do, the apple system is what we are buying and frankly makes it worth it. Maybe I drink the cool-aid, if so I've been doing it since 82 with my apple ][e, so I suppose it could be true, but I would rather do something cleanly, like apple does than hack my way through life... Simplicity and efficiency is worth paying for, especially since the quality is (mostly) there.

 

[Erwin-Br]

Most people don't care. Most people prefer ease and convenience.

People don't care about a number, like 720 or 1080, but they DO care when they see the difference in quality.

Before a product like this is released lots and lots of market research is done to determine if it is something that people are going to purchase or not.

Ah, so that's why Apple TV has been a HUGE success so far.

No, I'm skeptical about the Apple TV. The rental system is more expensive than you realize, as well. 99 cents for one episode seems cheap, but it means one season will cost you about 22 bucks. Watch the season again some other time, you paid 44 bucks in total, which means you would've been better off buying it in the store. If you were allowed to keep your episodes for 99 cents, then it would be revolutionary.

 

[scriptx]

I' say it. Most of the tech people will decry this because it will not play 1080p. Are you ready? 3, 2,1, go!

Nah, I'd decry it because it still is not convergent enough. Get me something so I can throw my DVD player away, do netflix and not have to leave a second computer on all day in the event that I want to play music...

 

[err404]

If you compress the photos to the same size and put it on the web then, no, there's really not a difference.

Exactly. When I compress a movie, I target about 8GB in size. At this size I find 720p looks very good with little to no artifacts. The same movie in 1080p compressed to the same size actually looks worse; especial during heavy motion scenes.

Considering that Apple will be streaming content, I would expect that a typical movie will be a little over 4GB (given typical customer bandwidth). At this compression level, 720p will look significantly better then 1080p.

 

[JAT]

Well, I'm still holding out for GoogleTV. Apple hasn't set the bar very high for Google to exceed all expectations.

And yet....they won't.

 

[lilo777]

Most people don't care. Most people prefer ease and convenience. Before a product like this is released lots and lots of market research is done to determine if it is something that people are going to purchase or not. What the research shows is that most people are not going to miss a little bit of extra resolution. What is also shown is that people are going to love the convenience that comes with media integration and instant access to new movies the day they come out without having to drive to the store or risk not getting an available copy.

It's only a matter of time now before Blu Ray has nothing more to offer than AppleTV.

It's inevitable, the VHS cassette, DVD, Blu Ray model is dying. It's wasteful, it's unnecessary, it's costly. There is just no need to separate digital content, place it on a stand alone disc, ship it all over the world, and store it outside of a media center.

And that is why they got rid of button on Shuffle? Before they decided to go back

 

[gri]

AppleTV is aimed directly at the technologically ignorant because if that audience took a look around they would see everything AppleTV is providing being literally thrown in as freebies on other devices.

But what if my device does not have this functionality. My 3 year old Samsung LCD does not have it and neither does my OPPO DVD player. Would I like to have a BR DVD player, probably yes but do I need it - no. My TV works fine so I am not buying a new one any anticipated time soon. Now here comes a device for 100 bucks which plugs nicely into my air port system (may need to upgrade to n, still on the previous one but thats fine) and provides that functionality. And I don't need to disconnect my laptop from its ACD and get it over to the TV to connect. And I do not consider me technologically ignorant given my work...

 

[JAT]

No, but they integrate with Samsung Galaxy S (via DLNA). The way to go is for Apple to support open standards (like DLNA) and not to push their own proprietary stuff.

Do you actually USE DLNA? Because it really kinda sucks. Because it only works with certain things. Open on one side, not the other.

 

[Bevz]

New ATV = EPIC FAIL

Great for new customers especially at the price point.. Lot's more people will probably get an ATV now, but existing customers have absolutely nothing new that i can see... In fact, if we upgraded we'd lose the ability to buy content and sync!

With no HD and only streaming, i would have at least expected to see the ability to stream from a network drive without having a server!!!

iOS based OS with an a4 chip and all they could think of doing was mimicking the old interface! WTF! Not even a cool interface update... let alone apps!!

I'll be skipping this one i think...

 

[lilo777]

Exactly. When I compress a movie, I target about 8GB in size. At this size I find 720p looks very good with little to no artifacts. The same movie in 1080p compressed to the same size actually looks worse; especial during heavy motion scenes.

Considering that Apple will be streaming content, I would expect that a typical movie will be a little over 4GB (given typical customer bandwidth). At this compression level, 720p will look significantly better then 1080p.

Just another reason to watch it on cable, right?

 

[scriptx]

People don't care about a number, like 720 or 1080, but they DO care when they see the difference in quality.



Ah, so that's why Apple TV has been a HUGE success so far.

No, I'm skeptical about the Apple TV. The rental system is more expensive than you realize, as well. 99 cents for one episode seems cheap, but it means one season will cost you about 22 bucks. Watch the season again some other time, you paid 44 bucks in total, which means you would've been better off buying it in the store. If you were allowed to store episodes for 99 cents, then it would be revolutionary.

How do you measure success? I am not aware of any published sales numbers on the Apple TV and I still don't know a single person that owns one. But again, I don't know what Apple or you consider to be the "it's successful" metric.

 

[skeep5]

I am certain people here will $&%^ about the lack of purchasing, but there are 2 things to remember:

1) You can still do it on your Mac and stream them. (Get off the couch for 30 seconds!)

2) I think Steve is right, this AppleTV contains the stuff the regular public cares about the most. I'm betting it will be much more popular because of the things it leaves out.

People want simple things to hook up to their TV. That's why only nerds like us hook up computers to televisions. If everyone liked that they'd have done it by now. But they haven't.




Simple. People want to rent The Bourne Identity.

They DON'T want to rent: AVI (Xvid, AVC, MPEG1/2/4), MPG/MPEG, VOB, MKV (h.264, x.264, AVC, MPEG1/2/4, VC-1), TS/TP/M2T (MPEG1/2/4, AVC, VC-1), MP4/MOV (MPEG4, h.264), M2TS, WMV9

:glassy eyed consumer:

+1 they're doing it right

 

[Appleoholic]

And if you say there is no difference in 1080p and 720p, you simply do not know what you are talking about or do not have a screen larger than 45 inches.

In before tha fail... oops, wait.

I have 90% of all my content in 720p and it looks great on my 136" screen. In my opinion, 1080p ain't worth the extra space.

 

[lilo777]

Do you actually USE DLNA? Because it really kinda sucks. Because it only works with certain things. Open on one side, not the other.

I do not use it with the phone (kind of pointless). I do use it to stream music from my PC to Denon AV Receiver.

 

[swissmann]

Fail!

I want my Blu-Ray. Seriously my $120 Blu-Ray player does all this and more - like play Blu-Ray discs at 1080p! What is this "hi-def" 720p garbage. The only reason why Apple doesn't support Blu-Ray is because it doesn't sell Blu-Ray discs. It is not about a bag of hurt it is about Apple's pocket. Not supporting Blu-Ray is a major mistake!

 

[JAT]

There are VERY few movies that I like enough to watch more then once. I'll happily pay $5 to rent most movies and maybe buy a select few BD to collect.

You should get a BDp with Netflix. Rent movies on BD from Netflix for less dollars, more quality, and the same streaming.