Apple Provides Sneak Peak Of Media Center

[mtrctyjoe]

La Dee Fricken Da

Wooop Deee Doooo..... I can spend $299 to watch my $14.99 non-HD Quality movie. No Way. This looks like a stinker to me.

 

[dual64bit]

This is a start, get it. Everyone is(was) expecting so much more, seriousely... there has to be a start, this is it. Apple will examine how the customers treat this product and develop future products/services based upon the comments and success of iTV.

When we wanted to land on the moon we didn't just build a rocket and land on it.. it took years.

HD, blueRay, etc.... all in due time.

 

[jordonringel]

For Once....

I do not like the idea of having seperate units for everything. Example, I still need a DVD player, still need a satellite box, still need a universal remote, still need an iTV. Apple should stop half a$$'n and put an end to this nonsense and go all out with this idea. The future of a home theater (3-4 years from now) is buy a HDTV, a receiver, speakers, and an apple iTV Box(Rev. D). This box will have a blue-ray DVD player, HD TIVO satellite/cable programming(your choice), and front row computer all built into one. It MUST also come with a universal remote (LOGITECH HARMONY APPLE EDITION) that controls the TV, receiver, and iTV. I would have no problem dropping $2,000 on a device like this today or in 5 years.

 

[EagerDragon]

The other possible reason for the sneak-peak from Apple is that analysts on wall street have been talking up a storm about a video-capable Airport Express. [EDIT]This was unusual for the event - I've never seen analysts buy into so many of the obviously fake rumors. This morning an analyst even used the word "TubePort" to describe the potential release. He totally lost any credibility the moment he did that. Anyway - Wall Street's expectations were high and I think Steve Jobs had to give in a little bit in order to keep stock holders happy.[/EDIT] Also, if you've read the recent reviews about Amazon's new Unbox service, everything comes down to the fact that you ultimately pay the same price (if not more) for the file, wait for it to download, and are then limited to watching it on your computer or iPod.

They were expected to introduce an end-to-end solution that would allow people to download movies and play them back on a TV - unlike Amazon's Unbox service that limits viewing to the TV. So now Apple can't be grouped in the Amazon category and people will start buying movies with Apple's iTunes serivce since they know that within 3-4 months they'll have an end-to-end solution with the "iTV". Why get stuck with the Amazon service if you can't get it to the TV...

You can not lend the movie like you can with a DVD, you can not borrow from a friend and use it on this. If you want to share with friends you have to either invite them to your place...... Or use DVD's and play them on the computer and stream it to this. LOTS missing here. Sorry guys, ill save my $ for something else.

 

[WildPalms]

Well, two Tuesday's have come and gone and there is no Conroe based mid-tower.

You'd have to be real, proven idiot to still be peddling that line...

 

[Hattig]

I don't agree with the people who are saying 'stick a DVD drive into it' because everybodies got a DVD player already, and the technology is old - why spend money replicating existing functionality, and introducing another point of failure?

However I would like to see, eventually, an external matching BluRay player that interfaced with the iTV.

For what it does it looks useful, although for my music I'd rather have a high quality Squeezebox with all the nice audio equipment and navigation without a TV.

This will work if it allows you to rip DVDs, cut out the crap and go straight to the movie, and recompresses the DVD so that you don't need a 1TB file server to store a library of 100 DVDs. On the other hand, as I said, I'm quite happy to physically put a DVD into a DVD player, shock horror. Apple wants you to get your movies from iTMS, not DVDs. The price will have to change, or the quality improve (not going to happen soon because of limitations in the iPod video decoder chip which can only do 1.5mbit H.264 640x480 streams.

Also iTunes 7 hunted down all my hidden pr0n and stuck it in 'Movies' with nice graphic freezeframes. Thanks, I'd lost some of it.... i've also finally got iTunes to display compilations as a single entity whilst ordering the view by artist otherwise, hurrah. and the gapless playback is a noticable improvement.

 

[dmelgar]

and another thing, I don't thing my mini connects to my tv??

You can get a DVI-Video adapter which provides composite and S-Video output that you can use to connect your Mini to a TV. The Intel mini also has a digital audio output to connect to your surround sound TV, and a remote control to run Frontrow.

 

[mizzoucat]

I already have one of these and it even plays video games. I hate to say it, but Apple's "iTV" can't hold a candle to the Xbox 360.

 

[blybug]

Not that there's a terribly large number of ways to create a media hub device but seeing the iTV (exactly what I'd hoped and predicted except $100 more) makes me wonder even more if this isn't Elgato's EyeHome dressed up in a shiny Apple wrapper. You really have to dig through Elgato's site to find the EyeHome anymore, as if they are sort of quietly phasing it out...like SoundJam before iTunes...

iTV

EyeHome

All the naysayers are missing the point. Take it from someone who has used the EyeHome for a couple years...having all your music, pictures, and videos (yes, Handbraked DVDs of course as a "video jukebox", but home videos! anyone here have kids!!?) instantly accessible on the living room TV is great. You just don't get it until you've used it. Just like you couldn't imagine what anyone would want with 10,000 songs in their pocket until you fondled your first iPod. And now with the Apple spit and polish, I'll buy one on Day #1 to replace the EyeHome.

 

[bhibbert]

Connect360 and an XBOX 360

The XBOX 360 along with Connect360 is a great option for playing your music and photos on a TV. Works in HD, is fast and you get an XBOX 360. Chances are if you wait a few months the X360 will also include an HD-DVD drive for not much more than the current price of the premium bundle.

In short, $299 for a standalone unit like this is way too expensive. The price point needs to be nearer $149 for it to be attractive.

 

[dongmin]

Bandwidth issues

Questions: Will 802.11n be ready by Q1 2007??? I'm doubtful. Maybe a draft of the standard is there, but not the final. At least that's what Wiki says.

802.11n will top out at 540 Mbps (220 Mbps typical) which should be more than OK for 720p. Anyhow, if you're dead set on streaming HD content from your Mac/PC and are worried about the bandwidth, get a bloody ethernet cable! It's just one cable, if you're so worried about it.

 

[GoCubsGo]

So it seems from the coverage that the device has no optical drive, and no internal mass storage? Is that correct? And also that it is not itself a DVR? Don't get me wrong -- I'm reserving judgment. I just want to understand at this point. It sounds as if the basic purpose of the device is to draw high quality AV off a computer and onto a home entertainment system, sort of as the Roku SoundBridge did for the iPod's audio, but in a very Apple sort of way? In other words, it follows the computer-centric sort of model where a desktop or notebook Mac on the network is the "server"?

Why not just buy the appropriate cable for the ipod video for about $20?

 

[dongmin]

I don't agree with the people who are saying 'stick a DVD drive into it' because everybodies got a DVD player already, and the technology is old - why spend money replicating existing functionality, and introducing another point of failure?

Yeah but wouldn't it be nice to have one slim box that handles everything??? It'd be so easy for Apple to add a DVD drive a la the Mini and charge $50 more for this 'souped-up' version.

I know why Apple's doing this and it has nothing to do with making people's lives easier. They want to encourage people to buy content directly off iTunes and not mess with Blockbuster, Netflix, whatever. But what about the large chunk of the consumer population who'd rather rent their video content, not buy.

 

[Richard Bleiche]

Sneak Peek: Why?

Steve has been looking thinner and thinner.

Am I the only one that noticed? Today he wore a regular shirt...no mock turtleneck. I bet his neck looked too thin in one.

Perhaps the sneak peak - which Apple NEVER does, because he wanted to announce this because won't be around by the 1st Q of 2007.

 

[EagerDragon]

who thinks it will be 802.11g or will it be 802.11n?

will that mean that all new macs Q1 07 also come with 802.11n as well?

or will the streaming from a 802.11g mac to the iTV just be crap?

if that's the case what will everyone with a current mac do, dongle it?

Steve should have been more explicit about the 802.11 or at least assured us that 802.11g macs will stream to it just fine.

Does anyone know if 802.11g can handle streaming video at that resolution?

I believe it has to be 802.11-Pre-N. No way to push that over G and still have much of a network left, and even then it will be stop and go. By the way, did you noticed he never showed the computer that was doing the streaming?

Only new Intel boxes will be able to do this or your will need a new device for the old computers, start adding the cost of new computer or old and adapter, new AirPort Extreme, new ITV (one per room with a TV) and you still have to get up and go to the den to change the DVD that is on your computer you also have to go to the den to change the channel on the cable box. Also you need a new Cable box for the den, an elgato to push the cable content into the PC/Mac and the rest of the stuff I mention to finaly get the signal to the TV for other than iTune content. By the time you get all that is cheaper to move the computer to the living room and use a cable to the TV. If it is a laptop there is little issue. If it is a mini, again little issue.

 

[digitalbiker]

Why not just buy the appropriate cable for the ipod video for about $20?

That's what I don't get about the people who are in love with this device.

I don't see where it provides any other functionality other than a wireless connection to your computer. Wireless video streaming is nice but $299.00 nice? I say more like $50.00 nice.

If it provided router fuctionality then maybe $120.00 nice.

Either Apple is holding a lot back or they really blew the market analysis. Similar to the overpricing of the Cube a few years back. It's a nice idea but the pricing is ridiculous.

 

[SPUY767]

I'm really impressed with the price. Obviously they're not gonna talk about all the features this early, but so far it looks good. Will it record TV? I guess "no."

Well, it's interesting that you bring that up, as that could be exactly the type of "One more thing" feature that we've grown accustomed to. This thing obviously has a built in hardware decoder for various types of media as ethernet is simply not fast enough to send uncompressed video data, and the box is doing the compression. I know for a fact that scientific atlanta, recently acquired by cisco, already had hardware h.264 codec chips out months ago. Let's say this thing is packed with one of those chips. It can take encoded video that you send it via 802.11x or, it could potentially encode video that it gets and send it across the network to the computer for storage. Food for thought, no doubt.

 

[stew278]

Eyehome

Same thing as the Eyehome, just about ...

 

[Keebler]

regardless of whether or not they expand the features..the point is simple: this is a very exciting time in our generation. just think about it...you dload a newly released movie to your computer, zip it over to your TV and watch it.

think of how insane that is! some ppl will say...ah..c'mon get out of your house, but for some of us, ie. like me a stay-at-home Dad, I WOULD LOVE to dload a new movie in my house. wicked! the music aspect would be cool too...and maybe the pics as a slideshow. but the movies is where it's at for me.

maybe they add to it...maybe they don't. maybe they add more component capability like dvd players etc..etc.. but i love where it is going.

gotta love apple..still innovating.

i think the entire movie industry just went *bump*.

sure amazong and some others got into it first, but they aren't apple and ppl watch what apple will do and go for it.

giddy up!

 

[stew278]

And now with the Apple spit and polish, I'll buy one on Day #1 to replace the EyeHome.

Whoops - didn't see your post there about EyeHome blybug. What makes you want to replace it though with the upcoming iTV? Tell us more about your EyeHome - what you like/hate about it, etc.

THNX

 

[SAN66]

I think its a decent deal, with one of these (And when we finally get a iTMS TV Show store in Canada), I could ditch my cable subscription (-$50 per month), buy the shows I want (~$30 per month), sell my cable box (-$250) and buy an iTV or probably a Mac Mini with a DVI connector to my TV.

I'm dissapointed they don't offer downloads of HD movies, but I'm sure that will happen in the future.

Now one thing I find odd. They're offering these new TV shows and movies in DD 5.1, which is great, but my iMac only does stereo, and the only downside to using a mac mini as a media center at the moment is its meager Stereo sound output.

All I need is a digital audio out port on my mac mini and it would be perfect as a media center. Everything else can be third party. Audio, unfortunately can't.

I don't know why all these post are pooh pooing about iTVs lack of DVD drive or TV Tuner. If you want a DVD Drive, get a mini (then use it to play games too). TV Tuners are a waste, unless they include cablecard (which most people won't use) or simplu receive useless analogue signals (which is redundant)

I love the interface for the iTV, its awesome, can't waint until they update Front Row to be the same.

 

[jwsmiths]

Who cares if it has a hard drive if you hve at least one other computer on your network you can "share" a folder and then the iTV will act as if it does have a hard drive..

My guess.. iTV is a mini with no optical drive, a very small hard drive (to store the software and hold a small local cache) and an Intel video chip that can do HD formats

I can envision a third party device that has the same form factor as the iTV so it could stack on or under it. This gadget would have a cable TV tunner and digitizer and connect to the iTV via USB. This way cable TV shows could be saved automatically to your iTunes library where they would show up in the Front Row menu. I doubt Apple would offer this but I'll bet someoe else will.

Is the Ethernet port 100BaseT or Gigabit? How many iTVs can you have on one network. Can a Mac Pro stream 2, 10 or 20 video streams. I can see this used in an educational setting. A school could keep large numbers of recored lectures on a server. Students could water on big screens, thier PC/Mac or on an iPod. There are uses for this other than to feed the typical brain dead TV zombie

The iTV is probably NOT a mini with a a different set of I/O ports - the cost of building that would probably be $299 in and of itself not including R&D and would thus leave $0 profit for Apple - bad move. It is probably somewhere on the order of a G3 in terms of CPU and it probably has a dedicated video chip to do the MPEG4/H.264 decoding and is capable of supporting various HD resolutions. I doubt that we'll see a USB TV Tuner - that would require the iTV to have drivers for it - unlikely Apple has been granted the support of it's sales partners to build a Tivo. It probably has GigE since all of Apple's current products have GigE (or in the case of APE/APEX will receive updates to include 802.11n which I would assume this product uses and GigE when this is released). The USB port probably exists so that iPods specifically can be plugged into this thus instantly adding your friend's library or your portable library to your TV without the need to stream anything. I doubt this thing will even do print-serving as it is designed for living rooms (how many people have printers in their living rooms? And yes I realize not everyone will use this in their living room - but Apple tends to design products perfectly for ONE task and not try to load them down with tons of extra gadgetry that isn't needed - but if it does do print serving so much the better ) I think the limit as to how many clients can be on a network is probably determined by the capacity of the network. Just guesses though.

 

[age234]

Steve has been looking thinner and thinner.

Am I the only one that noticed? Today he wore a regular shirt...no mock turtleneck. I bet his neck looked too thin in one.

Perhaps the sneak peak - which Apple NEVER does, because he wanted to announce this because won't be around by the 1st Q of 2007.

Apple released a statement awhile back almost laughing that people were so concerned. True, he had cancer and all, but I believe they had to cut out a portion of his stomach, which would tend to make someone thinner over time.

 

[EagerDragon]

Wow, a TON OF YOU totally miss the iTV purpose, to stream content FROM YOUR MAC! That's why no tuner, no storage, no anything!! Does Airport Express have storage, an antenna, etc?!? NO!!!

I love this! I want one today! I'm going to get a huge HD, maybe two of them and start my stored media collection on my G5 that I can wirelessly access in my HT room from the iTV's wireless remote!! I love it!! Music, Family photos in a slide show, eyegato to record HD programs!! Awesome!!!

This so rocks and will make a ton of money for Apple! I can't wait, this is truly what I've been looking for as there's no HDMI out on my G5!!

Not really, we get the point, but we also see that we can save a lot with a $5 cable by putting a computer next to the TV and get a better video than if we transmit it over the air. For those in the 802.11N, it is not here yet, and may not be here soon. There is a preliminary N for 2007 and a formal ratification in 2008. If you buy pre-N buy from 1 source so it is compatible. Also your old G5 will need a new wireless card, your old mini the same and your old laptop will need a new PCMIA card or a USB adapter. Still it will be subsecptible to interference even with caching, it just depends on the source and lenght of the interference. Hard wired cable its lots better and cheaper. Eitherway you need a computer, it is just where to locate the computer.

 

[digitalbiker]

regardless of whether or not they expand the features..the point is simple: this is a very exciting time in our generation. just think about it...you dload a newly released movie to your computer, zip it over to your TV and watch it.

think of how insane that is! some ppl will say...ah..c'mon get out of your house, but for some of us, ie. like me a stay-at-home Dad, I WOULD LOVE to dload a new movie in my house. wicked! the music aspect would be cool too...and maybe the pics as a slideshow. but the movies is where it's at for me.

maybe they add to it...maybe they don't. maybe they add more component capability like dvd players etc..etc.. but i love where it is going.

gotta love apple..still innovating.

i think the entire movie industry just went *bump*.

sure amazong and some others got into it first, but they aren't apple and ppl watch what apple will do and go for it.

giddy up!

OK so what is the improvement over Directv Pay-per-View. Order the movie online or with a touchtone phone. Boom the movie comes via satellite to your TV in full high-def. Current price $3.99.