Media Event, iMac, iPod Details and Notes

[1984]

The bit rate isn't that low for 320 x 240 H.264. It's the combination of this modest bitrate and the low 320 x 240 resolution that is the problem. Look at Apple's 848 x 480 HD movie trailers and you'll see that they run at about 3Mbps (some a little lower, some a little higher for 24fps 480p HD).

If I can see color blurring, smoothed out details and digital artifacts at such a low resolution the bitrate is too low. I'm sure they sacrificed bitrate for faster download speeds but took it just a bit too far. I've seen really good quality at 320x240 before.

 

[MontyZ]

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[MontyZ]

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[iAlan]

I think...

we should stop calling it a 'video iPod' or 'iPod video' because it isn't. It is an iPod capable of playing video - an iPod video in my mind id something that watching the video on presents an enjoyable experience - which it seems in not likely on this little puppy (unless you are in fact a real puppy and this screen would be nice, even better if you were a hamster...)

Good baby step forward, but no iPod video as yet...

 

[Veldek]

- Only 5 different TV Shows available at this time. Digital Rights Management is the same as iTunes songs. 5 different computers. Downloaded episodes are .m4v format, 320x240 pixels, AAC Audio. 650kbits/sec. About 200 megs per hour-long episode.

Not exactly the same as burning isn't allowed, which is different to bought songs.

 

[GorillaPaws]

I definitly think the video resolution needs to get upped bigtime for a serious set-top/ home theatre system solution whatever it is. I guess I'm a little dissapointed w/ how the vision of the iMac/Front Row concept is panning out. I feel like a unique device is the real solution as having an iMac sitting next to your plasma is a little weird. To me, it's wasting the power of the computer. I mean as great as Front Row is, it's mostly exciting in the potential it has, as opposed to it's current state. I mean, what does it REALLY do as far as in a living room capacity? How often are we going to sit down and watch our slide shows in our living room of the pics we've taken, or home movies we've edited. It seems like it's something to show off to others more than to be a useful/essential daily device (e.g. the inlaws come to visit and you whip out your remote and say "hey, check out the baby shower pictures"). It's not like you're going to sit down and edit movies from your +5' away lazy boy. So if you were going to use it as a daily machine, you'd keep it at you're desk, but that kind of defeats the purpose of having a remote/ Front Row at all. That's why I think this computer is better suited for the desk environment, but an Applerific™ living room solution should be based around a "work machine on your desk" (where you create your playlists, orgainze and edit your photos, manage your finances etc.) and a cheaper "play" machine that doesn't need the raw graphics/processing power, but still provides an that Apple "feel" we all love so much, that can incorporate into our home theaters and network seemlessly with our "work" box. Don't get me wrong, I was blown away by Front Row, but I think my previous suggestions would really bring it to life and make it more useful/practical for daily use, as opposed to the show-off device that I fear it is at the moment.

 

[ErikGrim]

I am SOOO disappointed there were no new iPod Socks introduced.

I don't know, this sock looks new to me:
Accessories

 

[ddrueckhammer]

I definitly think the video resolution needs to get upped bigtime for a serious set-top/ home theatre system solution whatever it is. I guess I'm a little dissapointed w/ how the vision of the iMac/Front Row concept is panning out. I feel like a unique device is the real solution as having an iMac sitting next to your plasma is a little weird. To me, it's wasting the power of the computer. I mean as great as Front Row is, it's mostly exciting in the potential it has, as opposed to it's current state. I mean, what does it REALLY do as far as in a living room capacity? How often are we going to sit down and watch our slide shows in our living room of the pics we've taken, or home movies we've edited. It seems like it's something to show off to others more than to be a useful/essential daily device (e.g. the inlaws come to visit and you whip out your remote and say "hey, check out the baby shower pictures"). It's not like you're going to sit down and edit movies from your +5' away lazy boy. So if you were going to use it as a daily machine, you'd keep it at you're desk, but that kind of defeats the purpose of having a remote/ Front Row at all. That's why I think this computer is better suited for the desk environment, but an Applerific™ living room solution should be based around a "work machine on your desk" (where you create your playlists, orgainze and edit your photos, manage your finances etc.) and a cheaper "play" machine that doesn't need the raw graphics/processing power, but still provides an that Apple "feel" we all love so much, that can incorporate into our home theaters and network seemlessly with our "work" box. Don't get me wrong, I was blown away by Front Row, but I think my previous suggestions would really bring it to life and make it more useful/practical for daily use, as opposed to the show-off device that I fear it is at the moment.

I agree with you 100% but I would add that we may not even need another machine in our living room as much as a way to stream wirelessly the content that is on our computers i.e. a video APX. If you wanted to actually make it a set-top box then it should have Tivo capabilities too but this isn't really even necessary for me. I would rather be able to purchase good quality movies/shows online be able to stream them or transfer them to my TV somehow than anything else.

 

[Renegate]

Ipod Remote

Think this was overlooked by most initially : Remote is sold seperately and works with Ipod (other MAC's?); wondering if it uses Bluetooth 2.0 which was recently added to all mac's. Does this mean it works with the MAC Mini?? --> Mediacenter evrywhere?

 

[groovebuster]

So that was it? A minor update to the iMac and the legendary Video iPod?



Actually I am not disappointed because I didn't expect much...

But I have to say that especially the iPod update is kind of lame... I never got the hype around the iPod in first place. Nice toy but I never found any excuse to buy one because I would never know when to use it. At home you don't really use an iPod, do you? In the car... well, I am using the traditional car stereo. While not working in my Home-Office, I am using my laptop. So when would I actually use an iPod? Maybe once every two months? Why do I need to carry around my whole music collection? Or a pitcure collection? When I want to show people some of our family pictures, I just bring my laptop and do a slide-show. I never felt the need to carry around all my pictures all the time...

Don't get me wrong, I love music since I was a pro musician myself. But the hype around the iPod amazes me.

I bought an iPod mini for my wife beginning of this year, beacause she is using it while being in the public transportation on her way to and back from university (the car she takes only ocassionaly). But even she is using it relatively seldom.

And now you can watch stupid little videos with the new iPod? Wow! That's innovative!

The iMac update is also not very impressive... Who needs a camera in his computer? I don't know any person who is doing video chatting. And even if, there is still the problem that almost nobody is using AOL for chatting. And Mac users are rare still in general. So for most users it's useless. Now people are forced to take a MightyMouse and an iSight with their iMac. How impressive... I guess Apple was just looking for a way to keep the price point for the iMacs, since the overall performance didn't improve a lot.

Anyway,... I hope they are finally bringing out new machines for their Power lines. I am desperate to finally upgrade my machines after almost a year of waiting time...

groovebuster

 

[GorillaPaws]

I agree with you 100% but I would add that we may not even need another machine in our living room as much as a way to stream wirelessly the content that is on our computers i.e. a video APX. If you wanted to actually make it a set-top box then it should have Tivo capabilities too but this isn't really even necessary for me. I would rather be able to purchase good quality movies/shows online be able to stream them or transfer them to my TV somehow than anything else.

I agree that this wouldn't require a whole set-top box per-se, but I'm a little skeptical of current/near-future wireless technology's ability to stream large quantity's of home theatre quality video + surround sound audio. Oh and it'd definetly need dvr recording capabilitities like you mentioned. As for the remote, it's IR, not Bluetooth and only works w/ the ipod video and iMac .

 

[neutrino23]

Does anyone know how the quality compares to say a TV episode being made available on the torrents. The reason I ask is I am wondering if offering TVs online will reduce TV piracy some - but I need to know how the quality compares.

I think the offerings on BT are of higher quality. Generally, the resolution is higher though some show compression artifacts. I suspect that Disney required the lower resolution.

A complication is that the videos are only being sold in the US while I guess that much of the activity on BT is overseas.

 

[neutrino23]

But Have you noticed how slow iTunes is running right now???? Obviously people aren't to concerned w/ only 5 shows being available right now, and people seem to be downloading them at a good but very slowwwwww pace.

Hmmm. I was just thinking about how much faster it had become. I just bought a book and while it downloaded I saw that it downloaded at about 720 kilobytes / second according to Activity Monitor. Earlier today when I upgraded QT and iTunes I also noticed that the download was running at about a 1MB / second. This is several times faster than I've ever seen Apple's servers run. It is several times faster than any other server I've used.

 

[Truffy]

One more thing ... a damp squib

So, was that it? No dual-duals?

The event's turned out to be no big deal really.

 

[dragoncha]

Trojan Condoms for Ipod

I'm not sure if it's been noted yet but probably the best use of the new iPod video is porn. Just think about all of the 3rd party "accessories" and of course the iCondom. Definitely choose the black iPod for porn unless you like the virginal types.

Haha Trojan CEO just announced iCondom!

 

[groovebuster]

Hmmm. I was just thinking about how much faster it had become. I just bought a book and while it downloaded I saw that it downloaded at about 720 kilobytes / second according to Activity Monitor. Earlier today when I upgraded QT and iTunes I also noticed that the download was running at about a 1MB / second. This is several times faster than I've ever seen Apple's servers run. It is several times faster than any other server I've used.

What kind of connection do you have? I guess the average Broadband Internet User has a 2MBit connections which would equal around 200kB/s counting in protocol overhead...

groovebuster

 

[demallien]

Front Row

Does anybody know if Apple will be making Front Row available for Macs other than the new iMacG5. I mean, I bought an iMac G5 about 4 weeks ago, and I am going to be one miffed macophile if I can't get my hands on this thing. Especially as I was just saying to my partner yesterday morning that that is exactly what my iMac needed!

 

[GorillaPaws]

Does anybody know if Apple will be making Front Row available for Macs other than the new iMacG5. I mean, I bought an iMac G5 about 4 weeks ago, and I am going to be one miffed macophile if I can't get my hands on this thing. Especially as I was just saying to my partner yesterday morning that that is exactly what my iMac needed!

I'm pretty sure you're SOL, but maybe someone will pirate/hack it to work w/ sailingclicker or whatever it's called and a bluetooth device. That's probably your best hope unless you wanted to take a big loss and ebay your current iMac and buy the new one.

 

[Windowlicker]

OI! Where's me video!?

Don't know if someone already pointed this out, but it seems like the video content is by now available only in USA. I'd like to give the tv-show a try. Though I think the resolution should really be 640x480 (or more). The 320x240 is worse than VHS

Anyways, a word about the new iPod Ad with Eminem: hate the guy, love the commercial! Funny how they got the guy to their commercial after the little incident with the iTMS campaign.

Also, I'm very pleased they didn't forget the graphics side on iMac. Guess we should expect PCI-E on PowerMac (and PB?) too very soon.

 

[Windowlicker]

Think this was overlooked by most initially : Remote is sold seperately and works with Ipod (other MAC's?); wondering if it uses Bluetooth 2.0 which was recently added to all mac's. Does this mean it works with the MAC Mini?? --> Mediacenter evrywhere?

Bluetooth sure sounds like a pretty good way of doing it.. And if they're selling it separately, I guess it'll work. Why else would they sell it, because it already ships with the iMacs?!

 

[Trowaman]

The iMac update is also not very impressive... Who needs a camera in his computer? I don't know any person who is doing video chatting. And even if, there is still the problem that almost nobody is using AOL for chatting

*cough* MSN and ICQ may be the items of choice in Europe but in America AIM is the norm. Here it's impossible to find someone with ICQ or MSN buddy lists.

Cultural differences I guess.

 

[gedto]

I don't think that this was a minor update to the iMac:

- Dual Layer 8x Superdrive out of the box in all models.
- Gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth 2, DDR 2, PCI-express, Airport Extreme... all built in at the same (or less) price.
- Great graphics card.
- iSight (actually better than iSight) included. Free.
- Higher processor speed.
- Thinner design.
- Remote control + FrontRow.

 

[FunkSpaceMonkey]

video + iPod = Lame

 

[Trowaman]

Anyways, i was HAPPY with today's releases. I'm not trying to figure out how to keep myself from spending money and buying a 60 gb iPod (my 3ed gen 20 gb does fine, but I'm gonna start going after the videos. already bought Weapon of Choice video on the store). I'm thinking I'll try to hold off til Feb and see if the 80 gb appears.

as for the imac, my Apple club president had to remind me that there are Mactels next year.

I'm not quite sure where apple is going in the form of their computers now, it's very interesting. If the reports are right, new minis are shipping now, but not being mentioned (wonder why) and new Powermacs and Powerbooks should be next week. That'd mean in 1 week apple updated everything computer-wise but XServes and iBooks.

I smell something big relating to the living room as a leopard feature, now is just getting the ducks in a row, hardware-wise.

Also I'm starting to think a video airport express will have something else too it. A mac projector is starting to seem realistic to me. Maybe mac projector the airport hooks up to. Stream Front Row to it. A 23" HD iMac is starting to seem realistic too.

My current mac advise: hold til mactel is over, I smell new living room adjustments across the entire line over the next 8 months.

Besides, we got MWSF in 3 months.

P.S. a lot of you get your hopes up to high and I don't think you are all buying new powerbooks. at least Apple did update their products and is trying to make money instead of going bankrupt.

 

[0423379]

They will also realize that they can hit a much bigger audience by doing so..

Excacty, the Audience that moved from the Tube to the PC/Mac/xbox. Kids now days are more infront of the telly. so why not move the telly to the computer/ipod/psp?

What's gonna be next is that Apple Home Entertainment system.

Music, Video, Pictures, Satellite/Cable recordings etc etc... All neatly stored in the iHome system. With Airport X....
all you need then is what? nothing!! it's the ultimate Media gadget
you can't get any better than that..... playing games, viewing pictures, doing all that infront of your 40" plasma! Oh My God is the Apple future gonna get me there!!! here I come couch!