Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple 'Stalling' in Replenishing Reseller Stocks of Apple TV as Shortages Hit Apple Retail
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Would love to be able to replace my Dune
The one thing I use my Dune player for is to watch my Blu-Rays that are on my RAID server. I know, I know. There's DRM stuff that apple probably won't do, but it would be nice. Most media player interfaces are terrible. Apples is simple and elegant. If it did that, I'd ditch the dune and atv2.
The one thing I use my Dune player for is to watch my Blu-Rays that are on my RAID server. I know, I know. There's DRM stuff that apple probably won't do, but it would be nice. Most media player interfaces are terrible. Apples is simple and elegant. If it did that, I'd ditch the dune and atv2.
More like Apple hasn't been able to convince any other companies.
BBC in particular is tricky cause of the funding issues
Apple stores have Apple TV's!!
Apple Stores all over Los Angeles have Apple TV's. They removed all of there inventory off their shelves and saying they are all out. How do I know? I was at the Pasadena Apple store on Sunday, and they had at least 100 or more Apple TV's. I was supposed to pick up 2 for my friends. I called the Apple store this morning as they opened. I made sure they checked if they had any on the shelf. The guy on the phone physically checked and said "We have plenty, come by and pick them up." So I went, and of course, they were completely out. I knew they had pulled them from the shelves and had them in the back. They said check back tomorrow, we might get a shipment. I think they pulled them so people who buy them can't return them in exchange for a new one.
Apple Stores all over Los Angeles have Apple TV's. They removed all of there inventory off their shelves and saying they are all out. How do I know? I was at the Pasadena Apple store on Sunday, and they had at least 100 or more Apple TV's. I was supposed to pick up 2 for my friends. I called the Apple store this morning as they opened. I made sure they checked if they had any on the shelf. The guy on the phone physically checked and said "We have plenty, come by and pick them up." So I went, and of course, they were completely out. I knew they had pulled them from the shelves and had them in the back. They said check back tomorrow, we might get a shipment. I think they pulled them so people who buy them can't return them in exchange for a new one.
Actually the BBC dont restrict it to certain devices. Most just use Opera with the 'bigscreen' mode enabled.
The problem is most on demand / tv services that are online need Flash, and Apple being stupidly stubborn wont allow that.
It's interesting to see so many people talking about buying/renting iTunes content. The death of DVD and BluRay may be a lot closer than I ever imagined. Of course there are some big reasons why you're not going to see an AppleTV in every home:
1. hardly anyone knows you can get TV without a cable/satellite connection
2. most ISPs are also TV providers
3. AppleTV only plays iTunes content
To deal with issue #1 Apple would have to stop treating their little black box as a hobby and advertise where those customers are going to see it: on network TV.
However, there's little they can do about the fact that most of us get our internet from a company that also provides television programming and movies. The last thing our ISPs want is for us to ditch our cable boxes and get all our content from Apple/Netflix/Amazon. The telecom companies have a similar plan for mobile users. Bell Canada now sells a 25 channel live television package for your smart phone.
Apple is going to have a hard time converting the masses when a competitor controls the 'pipe' between them and every end user.
Many people aren't going to want to be tied to iTunes for all their content any more than they like the artificial packages of channels that the cable operators force feed us. I suspect Apple knows this and doesn't care. They probably have a specific target demographic and consider any sales to people outside that group as icing on the cake. That's the Apple way: find and convert the most valuable customers first and then expand if there's sufficient money to be made.
1. hardly anyone knows you can get TV without a cable/satellite connection
2. most ISPs are also TV providers
3. AppleTV only plays iTunes content
To deal with issue #1 Apple would have to stop treating their little black box as a hobby and advertise where those customers are going to see it: on network TV.
However, there's little they can do about the fact that most of us get our internet from a company that also provides television programming and movies. The last thing our ISPs want is for us to ditch our cable boxes and get all our content from Apple/Netflix/Amazon. The telecom companies have a similar plan for mobile users. Bell Canada now sells a 25 channel live television package for your smart phone.
Apple is going to have a hard time converting the masses when a competitor controls the 'pipe' between them and every end user.
Many people aren't going to want to be tied to iTunes for all their content any more than they like the artificial packages of channels that the cable operators force feed us. I suspect Apple knows this and doesn't care. They probably have a specific target demographic and consider any sales to people outside that group as icing on the cake. That's the Apple way: find and convert the most valuable customers first and then expand if there's sufficient money to be made.
don't forget #4
and
4. The network infrastructure doesn't exist to feed DVD-quality (let alone BD-quality) streams to the majority of consumers (bandwidth, GB/month caps, ...)
and
4. The network infrastructure doesn't exist to feed DVD-quality (let alone BD-quality) streams to the majority of consumers (bandwidth, GB/month caps, ...)
Not bad since brand new ones are $89 and free shipping.
----------
So how would you play Angry Birds? The remote? Mouse? Trackpad? No iOS apps have any method for playing them on an AppleTV. I think maybe that's why none are available. It's an iOS operating system, but more of a Mac device.
I'd like to see the ability to stream from either a time casual or a HDD plugged into an air port extreme. That way you could have a few scattered around the house with access to the same media library.
Many of those same services have already blocked the versions of flash running on Android and Google TV.
Last edited:
Have your cake and eat it too
When the revised AppleTV came out, my first-gen AppleTV seemed kind of useless without AirPlay support, Netflix, and the other useful features they added to the second-gen version. Luckily, there's a very active community of AppleTV hackers online, so with very little effort, I installed XBMC and all the various commonly used codecs on the first-gen unit. Now I use the old AppleTV more than the new one. As a person who likes to keep most products stock, I love how the software retains the original look and functionality, while giving you the option of running different software like XBMC. I get all the benefits of an AppleTV, and all the functionality of a custom HTPC.
I haven't looked too far into jailbreaking the new AppleTV, I know it's possible, but with the first-gen unit already modified, I like the new one just how it is.
When the revised AppleTV came out, my first-gen AppleTV seemed kind of useless without AirPlay support, Netflix, and the other useful features they added to the second-gen version. Luckily, there's a very active community of AppleTV hackers online, so with very little effort, I installed XBMC and all the various commonly used codecs on the first-gen unit. Now I use the old AppleTV more than the new one. As a person who likes to keep most products stock, I love how the software retains the original look and functionality, while giving you the option of running different software like XBMC. I get all the benefits of an AppleTV, and all the functionality of a custom HTPC.
I haven't looked too far into jailbreaking the new AppleTV, I know it's possible, but with the first-gen unit already modified, I like the new one just how it is.
One complaint
My one complaint about the AppleTV experience is iTunes - specifically the cost of renting movies and TV shows on iTunes. Until they find a way of matching the price of renting from Redbox, it's always going to be hard for me to rationalize spending 4x as much to rent from iTunes.
Film and television studios must prefer people renting from iTunes vs Redbox style kiosks, if even just because DRM can be enforced far more effectively with digital files from iTunes, compared to physical discs that can be copied with 100% legal, readily available, and simple software. By forcing Apple to charge so much more, they're actually increasing the likelihood of their content being copied.
The small revenue cut Apple takes from sales made via iTunes, would come back 10 times over thanks to Apple footing the bill for the massive amounts of storage space and servers required to deliver content on a scale like that. I honestly can't think of a single reason that studios aren't handing cheaper content over on a silver platter. This is a perfect example of the broken thinking that helped paint them in the corner they currently find themselves in.
My one complaint about the AppleTV experience is iTunes - specifically the cost of renting movies and TV shows on iTunes. Until they find a way of matching the price of renting from Redbox, it's always going to be hard for me to rationalize spending 4x as much to rent from iTunes.
Film and television studios must prefer people renting from iTunes vs Redbox style kiosks, if even just because DRM can be enforced far more effectively with digital files from iTunes, compared to physical discs that can be copied with 100% legal, readily available, and simple software. By forcing Apple to charge so much more, they're actually increasing the likelihood of their content being copied.
The small revenue cut Apple takes from sales made via iTunes, would come back 10 times over thanks to Apple footing the bill for the massive amounts of storage space and servers required to deliver content on a scale like that. I honestly can't think of a single reason that studios aren't handing cheaper content over on a silver platter. This is a perfect example of the broken thinking that helped paint them in the corner they currently find themselves in.
Why do you want support for a dead format? xvid is dead... hell even those dodgy downloads online are coming x264 instead of xvid now.
Also Plex is supported now albeit unofficially.
Only if you're viewing an uncompressed source and your standard cable/satellite/netflix feeds, which is what the average user bases everything on, are far from uncompressed. Even at 720p an uncompressed streaming file on the ATV2 looks better than the standard HD signal from any of the above sources.
Heck, even at 480p, I've streamed content from my HD that at times, and I say at times, rivals some of the HD feeds I see.
So yeah, comparing a 720p stream to a Blu Ray, you CAN tell the difference. But the average person bleating on about 1080p being the deciding factor on when they'll buy an ATV is nutso. They wouldn't know the difference between 720p/1080i/1080p if it jumped in their laps. It's all marketing hooey to rope them in.
A lot of these content providers for one reason or another don't want you accessing their online service from a TV or mobile device. Like Hulu wants you to pay for their Plus service. Or channels like TNT here in the US have deals effectively giving the cable and satellite companies exclusive rights to the living room. Whatever the reason, soon after non-desktop versions of flash plugins started becoming popular they reconfigured their sites to refuse service to them.
Last edited:
Ahh right, I see what you mean now. It's not so much of an issue in the UK.
You can pick up a cheap £30 freeview box that'll have iPlayer, ITV Player and 4OD in addition to Love Film. I find it hard to beleive that Apple couldnt get all these things when all these freeview boxes do is slap a copy of opera on them and point them to the right URL. Some now even have Sky Player (A subscription tv service). Even the Xbox and PS3 has these things. The Apple TV is the only one that doesn't support them. It's got nothing to do with licensing or anything like that, it's Apple not pulling their finger out to add the functionality in.
I did also check - all of the above now offer mp4 based playback on supporting devices, so its not as if Flash would be an issue either.
Seriously, unless it's a laptop, who really turns off their main computer? My Mac Pro has been on since June 2007 and runs as well as it did the day I got it (actually, better, since I replaced the boot drive with an SSD)...
For the poster that is sticking with the PS3 streaming...there is some decent software out there, and I did that for a bit, but the ATV2 is so streamlined and easy, it was no comparison for me. If the new one is 1080p, I will move my ATV2 to the bedroom (older LCD in there) and gladly pick up the new one.
----------
I'll be sorely pissed if they put out a new Apple TV... I just got mine less than a year ago.
New technology comes out all the time....one year for an upgrade is not bad....you can't keep waiting, or you will never buy!
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
You make a number of good points so I'll just offer feedback to this one thing. The Movie/TV Studios don't want to get under Apple's thumb the way their cousins in the Music industry did. With music, Apple flexed dictating everything such as how much their product should cost. Every single- new or old, good or bad, hot or stale- all one price, as decided by Apple, not the owners of those products.
Apple quickly took dominant share of the space. Traditional music outlets where the owners of that content had more say in matters like how their product should be priced were run right out of business. Before long, Apple became the 64000 LB Gorilla that they HAD to deal with... on Apple's terms.
Now the industry must cater to Apple. Options they traditionally controlled themselves were sacrificed.
The movie/TV content owners do not want that history to repeat with their content. They don't want Apple to dominate their space. Of course, it would be a cheaper, more efficient form a distribution. Of course, it could be a more profitable form of distribution (if they get to have a say in how their content is priced). Etc. But they just don't want to cut their own throats to help Apple grow.
The music industry was left with little choice but to turn to viable Apple competitors like Amazon and take even greater hits in the short-to-medium-term by offering Amazon, etc better pricing to try to pull buyers away from getting locked in with Apple. In cliché terms, they don't want all their eggs in one basket. And the movie/TV industry doesn't want to see that same scenario repeat with their content.
It's why Netflix, Amazon, VUDU, and many others get seemingly better deals for lots of video content in spite of what seems like the easy choice of just getting it all on iTunes at a fantastic price to sell more. Make no mistake: the Studios definitely want to sell more too... just not at a cost of giving the whole distribution channel- and thus power to dictate terms- to Apple. In short, the "greedy" Studios understand that giving into the temptatation of Apple now just puts them at the mercy of Apple later. They don't want to be in the same weak position as their cousins in the music industry so they resist the temptation (and work pretty hard to help others offer viable challenges to the Apple option).
The silver platter you perceive is actually tin painted silver. While it would be great for Apple- and for us as Apple product owners- the loser would actually be those Studios who would be taking the hit to make it great for Apple and us.
----------
There's no uncompressed streams from any sources. It's all compressed albeit at varying degrees. Even over-the-air with an antenna is compressed. Blu ray is compressed. Apple iTunes content is all compressed. Home movies shot at 1080p are compressed. iPhone 4s video is compressed. It's all compressed.
Nothing is flowing to the
TV2 uncompressed. To some degree, it depends on fairly steep compression to even push a video onto a HDTV screen.If you've seen 720p uncompressed, you must work at a movie studio or at a video production company with HUGE technology resources.
Last edited:
Apple don't really give a **** about the UK. They don't bother doing a proper British layout keyboard on the Mac, British English dictionary has only just become British English, and the AppleTV totally ignores all the big UK streaming services you mentioned.
I can watch iPlayer on my internet connected TV, on my FreeSAT PVR, and my Blu-Ray player.
Both my ATVs run non-Apple software to make them useful. I doubt I'd have either if they weren't just neat little boxes running XBMC.