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MotherBoards and iTunes

Wow.

The future is so bright. I've gota wear shades.

This is basically what I had heard from jump this year about July, except that 8X AGP, and the MP4 enabled iTunes. It will be interesting to see what happens. I cannot remember the last time that MacOSrumors was correct on a rumor so we have to take this with a grain of salt you know.

Anyway, hope it is true.
 
Originally posted by dantec
M4??? What is that? Are you guys talking about hardware accelerated iTunes visualizations?
Click to expand...

m4 as in mpeg 4, the codec that is included with qt 6 and deals with video and aac audio... ie. itunes will be able to handle the new codec which allows for better quality with smaller filesize (supposedly).

the mpeg4 licensing issue is what has been holding up the release of qt 6 for so long... or is at least part of the problem
 
I'd heard about the 8xAPG, and we'll all saw the red mobo that was up for sale at ebay and its 'odd' port, so the firewire 2 / USB 2 possibility is definitely there. But for Apple to incorporate so many changes, well, thats awesome if they can do it. We'll have to wait and see.
 
So just a question... what does hardware have to do with MP4?

Are you trying to say that iTunes will be hardware accelerated with MP4?? It doesn't make sense. I don't see apple adding a chip inside thier machines just for Mp4.
 
MP4 AAC

MP4 and AAC aren't they same thing are they? I thought AAC is what MPEG4 video uses for sound tracks. I've never heard of MP4 audio. All I've heard is that AAC is superior to MP3 in everyway. Can someone shed some light on these audio codec differences please.
 
Yeah right.

Mac OS Rumors? Ha. There's a reputable source for ya. The Expo's announcements won't come close to these rumors. Someone may ask, "What are you? Some kind of expert? How do you know?" And I'd say, "Fair question. Here's a fair answer: history. History dictates that Apple has never come close to these kinds of grandiose rumor realizations during their bi-annual shows."

I sincerely hope I'm wrong, but I just have no faith in Apple breaking any major barriers anytime soon, if ever. I'd be happy if they just came close to keeping up.
 
Anyone remember the iPod and MOSR??? They thought it would be some digital home device, or something like that. So way off! I mean they could have said the iPod was a coffee machine and they would have been closer!
 
my head is starting to spin a bit...mostly because I did not keep up with this discussion a couple months ago...

Does this mean that anything mp3 compatible won't be the same with mp4?

Will mp4 be backwards compatible with mp3?

What will happen to portable mp3 players, other than the iPod, which do not rely on software updates in order to be on top?

my apologies for my ignorance ahead of time... ;)
 
Originally posted by eyelikeart
my head is starting to spin a bit...mostly because I did not keep up with this discussion a couple months ago...

Does this mean that anything mp3 compatible won't be the same with mp4?

Will mp4 be backwards compatible with mp3?

What will happen to portable mp3 players, other than the iPod, which do not rely on software updates in order to be on top?

my apologies for my ignorance ahead of time... ;)
Click to expand...

No there is no such thing of MP4. (not to my knowledge). In MPEG 4 the audio codec is called AAC. It is not backward compatible, you will have to convert everything in iTunes to AAC (only if u want to). The advantages are smaller file size & better quality.

Yes the iPod will make it. It has an ARM processor, and those are fine to upgrade. Plus none of the iPod's system software is on ROM or RAM (stored in a folder on the hard drive). So if Apple decides to release a patch, it will be able to handle the files.
 
Ogg Vorbis

I wouldn't hold your breath for Ogg Vorbis support just yet; it looks like Apple is doing a 'bet the company' kind of thing with MPEG4.

I've been testing out MP4/AAC, and it completely blows me away. The quality is astounding, especially for small file sizes that you could deploy on the Web. IMO, it makes MP3 *and* Ogg Vorbis kinda pale in comparison.

My thinking is that it'll take the Ogg Vorbis dev crew a year or two to catch up with MP4, which will be a good thing, since the MPEG4 licensing stuff pretty much blows.

But, to reiterate, MPEG4 really rocks as a codec. Since I haven't bought an iPod yet, I've decided I won't buy an iPod until MP4 is supported. It's that good.
 
MPEG-4 vs. MP4 - terminology

MP4 really is a bad way to market MPEG-4. Well, actually, MP3 is the one with the problem. Most here know this, but to those who don't, MP3 does NOT stand for MPEG-3; it's short for MPEG Layer 3 (see http://www.iis.fhg.de/amm/techinf/layer3/index.html for details) as in MPEG-1.

There's also MPEG-2 (which is used by DSS Satelite and DVD's) who's audio layer is called AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) and now, MPEG-4. MPEG-4 also calls it's audio layer AAC.

I don't know if there even is an MPEG-3 - mabye the MPEG people skipped it to avoid confusion with MP3.

If MPEG-4 AAC takes off the way Apple hopes it will, I would bet that it will get tagged "MP4" by the marketing people though.

Just realize that MPEG-4 AAC is NOT MP3 and that portable MP3 players won't be able to play them...

... unless they are upgradable like the iPod! :D Personally, I bet the iPod is capable of playing them (with a firmware update) today. This would make it the 1st "MP4" player on the market with a userbase already there!

Sweet! :D
 
USB 2 -- NOT!

Don't believe any rumors that contain a claim that Apple will be adopting USB 2.

Ain't gonna happen.

Apple is still fighting for FireWire's acceptance, and some camcorder manufacturers are thinking of going USB 2 over FireWire. (Sony.)

Apple is also pushing for digital still camera manufacturers to use FireWire over USB or USB 2.

For Apple to do USB 2 on Macs now, wouldn't jibe.

Apple isn't interested in lending the USB 2 standard a helping hand at this point.

I think eventually Apple will go with USB 2, but not any time soon.

Probably late 2003 at the earliest. (I'm guessing.):confused:
 
How bout: USB 2.0 one macworld after firewirre II or gigawire.

For example lets take MWNY: Powermac with Gigawire and USB.

MWSF: Powermac with Gigawire and USB 2.0

Apple would do this, forcing the camcorder developers to support them. All of this Aple buying these 3d moddeling apps, dvd authoring and camcorder apps all makes sense. Apple wants to make the complete video authoring system (with burning, editing and 3d modeling i.e. special effects). That way they can force their standard to component makers, or like Sony, so that their main customer is Apple and they must support their technology.
 
AFAIK, mp4 is the three letter file extension for MPEG-4 video (and possibly audio). Why they couldn't have called it .mpeg4 is beyond me. No modern OS has trouble with a three-letter file extension.

It's a silly extension, but then, naming MPEG-1, Layer 3 .mp3 is also silly.
 
I think FireWire is the future, and I would support in Apple steaming on ahead with it, it simply kicks USB a$$!
And to me there seems to be more and more hardware that supports firewire.
Apple have put firewire ports in theirs machines for as long as I can remember (was it first standard in the good ol' iMac?), PC's are still behind, there are not many that come with it even now, they stuck with the s-l-o-w speeds of USB.
When I got my iPod (firewire of course) and told my mates how quickly it could shift the music from the Powermac to the iPod they couldn't believe how fast it was. :D
 
Originally posted by eunuchs
AFAIK, mp4 is the three letter file extension for MPEG-4 video (and possibly audio). Why they couldn't have called it .mpeg4 is beyond me. No modern OS has trouble with a three-letter file extension.

It's a silly extension, but then, naming MPEG-1, Layer 3 .mp3 is also silly.
Click to expand...
I should think they're just keeping up with the norm, pretty much all file extns are 3 characters long.
.jpg, .mov, .bmp, .exe, .app, .dll, .ini, .inf...
I know there are also some 4 character extns, .jpeg, .mpeg, .tiff, but I don't know of any other file type with a extn of 5 characters as you are suggesting (.mpeg4)
 
Originally posted by verbose101

I know there are also some 4 character extns, .jpeg, .mpeg, .tiff, but I don't know of any other file type with a extn of 5 characters as you are suggesting (.mpeg4)
Click to expand...
All those extensions date back over a decade. Even .app, with it's NextStep lineage.

I admit, there aren't exactly (m)any 5-letter extensions, but what's stopping them from introducing one? Even .mpg4 would be better, imho.
 
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