i can see why apple wants to use ARM CPU etc - what i cant understand is why they STILL only have 720p playback coming from the current
TV. the
TV is already capable of 1080p playback - apple is just being lame.
interesting though, at that entry point i mightnt be able to resist!
I'm starting to understand why the political polls jump up and down so darn much despite the facts being relatively stable. There is SO MUCH MISINFORMATION out there that people are going through waves and waves of nonsense, lies and deception from every side.
Here, we have a statement that Apple TV is already capable of 1080p. Since WHEN??? Apple TV cannot even play high-bit 720P, let alone 1080p!!! Just because the menu says "1080p output" that does not mean it's capable of 1080p playback. It simply up-converts the signal (i.e. 720P information hidden in 1080p clothing; essentially it's still 720p perhaps even worse since as people using LCD monitors can attest, "Native" output ALWAYS looks better than any kind of up or down-conversion scaling. Broadcom modifications with XBMC hacking don't count because it's a major hardware modification and not something Apple can just throw a software switch to "fix" all the models already out there with. It also eliminates the 802.11N capability so I hope such users have an Ethernet connection. Otherwise, they'll have to add an external USB option and the unit will always have to be hacked to operate it.
This is probably also why 720P HD movies look better to those of us using 720P projectors than those using 1080p projectors or LCD TV sets. It has to scale it (either externally or internally in the projector) up to 1080p, thus giving it a "soft" look or some other defect. This is probably why so many Blu-Ray users SWEAR on here that Blu-Ray looks SO SO SO SO much better than AppleTV (supposedly not only due to the higher resolution, but also due to the fact that Apple has to compress it more than Blu-Ray), despite many users showing side-by-sides that prove the lack of pixellation of the picture (i.e. NO proof that the human eye can detect even minor differences at lower rates) and then the question of how many users are even seeing 1080p on their 1080p sets due to the eye's inability to resolve detail the further you sit away from your set. MOST people are NOT seeing 1080p worth of information. Many are not even seeing 720p (e.g. sit 20 feet away from your 50" set and you aren't seeing SQUAT). But NONE of those facts will persuade ignorant people that they are wrong when can say "But I can SEE the difference and you are an idiot if you cannot. I win the argument!" It's FAR more likely they have never seen a native 720P signal (i.e. NO frame of comparison except possibly on their own set), they're standing right in front of their television when doing the "test" (i.e. comparing 1080P to 720P at 2 feet will probably show a sizeable difference in resolution, but that's NOT where you will be watching the set from in actual use so it's meaningless and MOST people do not have 90+ inch screens that are needed to see 1080P at a mere 8-10 feet distance, let alone longer ones.
So in the final analysis by those that actually know what they're talking about, 720P isn't the evil/awful/crappy format many keep making it out to be. It's a bunch of overblown roosters making as much noise as possible. For SOME people, 1080p makes a lot of sense (I do happen to have a 93" screen at 9 feet from my couch and so I could see an increase in resolution and yet even so, 720P still looks GREAT and everyone who has seen my system has gushed when they've seen it (the Panasonic projector I have was one of the top-rated models when it came out) and most AppleTV rentals look better than even the BEST 1080i cable signals (and once again this could also be partly due to scaling DOWNWARD to 720p, although looking at 720p native stations in 720p off the cable box did not show huge differences as the scaler in the projector is better than the one in the cable box by far.
But I can guarantee every time the truth is presented to the masses, they will reject it and proclaim "their truth" (i.e. what they see on their own usually tiny set and whatever buying choice they have made) is "right". They probably could be convinced in a proper test setup using their own equipment (otherwise they'd NEVER believe it as their set is magical and may not even work right unless it's plugged into their own magic outlet), but no one is going to go to those lengths to convince people the world isn't flat. Ignorance often takes a LONG time to conquer, especially when minds are closed (might as well forget about it). The Internet age hasn't change that much because just as much dis-information is broadcast (if not much more) than voices telling the truth.
The one valid point being made out there by the "we want 1080p" voices is that AppleTV will NEVER sell in big numbers until it gets 1080p because regardless of whether people actually need it or not, they THINK they need it and this guides their buying decisions. I do agree it would be better to be building up 1080p libraries, not 720p ones or else the day you CAN use 1080p at a useful location, you won't have it. Given Apple is not selling many movies at 720p (a handful at most), this probably isn't an issue. Most ATV users that are watching lots of HD movies are either renting them from Apple (they do have a good selection there) or they're converting or downloading converts made from Blu-Ray, HDDVD and other sources (i.e. pirating).
If Apple does have some idea of selling or renting 1080p, I hope they start selling some very large hard drives. Typical Blu-Ray encodes in 1080p online are 8-10GB (about 2x-3x more than a typical 720P "low" encode). At that rate, a 1TB drive could be filled up with as few as 100 movies!!! I don't believe most people are ready to address the massive storage amounts needed to maintain HD libraries. Ideally you would need around 4 to 8TB for a decent sized library (don't forget about TV shows). Currently that would require combining two to four 2TB drives and would probably cost at least $300-600 MINIMUM for external enclosures (many of those are combined multiple 1TB drives) and that's sloppy (i.e. drives are not combined into one list, so you'd have multiple locations needed to store it all). You'd then need ANOTHER set MINIMUM to BACK THEM UP (or else goodbye data when a drive fails). How many people are ready to spend $600-1200 JUST FOR STORAGE? People are whining about spending the outlay just to get the AppleTV itself (cheap by comparison).
Ultimately, people want their cake and they want it for nothing. I call it the Wal-Mart mentality. They talk BIG about 1080p and how awful 720p is and then they settle for watching heavily compressed YouTube and Hulu because it's free.
