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New Apple TV ad

Seemed rather boring, and not compelling at all. Looks like they're targeting those people my age that listen to "classic rock" and are afraid of anything that's too new and different. :D

It just didn't feel like an Apple commercial to me...
 
Just saw it on the Tonight Show on KUSA - 9News. Odd because I turned my head to the TV about half a second before it came on.

Cool iPod thing on the homepage, too. I might have to make it my avatar because the PowerPC thing was funny at first, but it's a little boring now.
 
srobert said:
So far I've found :apple:TV is one of the hardest brand name to querry on the internet (google, youtube, etc) so you get relevant results. :(

":apple:TV" is a no go
"Apple TV" gets you mostly other Apple products or non Apple TV sets
"ATV" gets you mostly stuff about all-terrain vehicles.
Click to expand...

Huh? What search engine are you using? I googled "Apple TV" and the very first result was Apple's site. Every other result on that page was relevant to the :apple:TV
 
queshy said:
And Apple TV is pretty much useless for people in Canada.
Click to expand...
There's no iTunes Store in Hong Kong but I find many great uses for the ATV. Five uses actually.

1) Thousands of photos I have on my Mac can now be viewed on my TV.
2) Will rip all my DVD collection and sell the originals to free up cabinet space.
3) Stream all my music to my home stereo in the living room instead of listening to them on my Mac in another room. I use to hook up my iPod but that solution has made the iPod battery life worse! I've ripped all and got rid of boxes of CDs.
4) Encode all my Karaoke dvds/vcds and have them in a complete and organised list. It's much better than to keep changing disks to the songs you want to sing. Keeps the mood alive. I hope Apple will update the iTunes/ATV to allow TV Episode Playlists. If it's there, I haven't explored it.
5) Helps me manage my content wisely and efficiently my Mac. Before the files were "just there". Now they come to life.
 
Thanks For The Ad. How Did You Record And Prepare It For Upload?

Renovatio said:
Good ad! Glad to see more Apple advertising during prime-time!

In case anyone is interested in seeing better resolution than YouTube I have captured a full 1920x1080 HD version of the ad and uploaded it here:

http://www.eaglegfx.com/AppleTVCommercial.mov

Enjoy :cool:
Click to expand...
Thank you. Would you mind sharing how you recorded and converted it - i.e. your workflow with what software please?

Man that is PERFECT work. My EyeTV Recording is 60MB. Excellent quality and only 26.4MB.
 
I Can Cancel My Cable

wordmunger said:
Well, first I need to save up for a wide screen TV. Then I'll have to decide whether it's worth it to pay $10 for movies I can get for $3.99 on my TiVo. I think I'll pass.
Click to expand...

I won't Pass -- I have no TiVo. Want to cancel my Cable and prefer to own my movies.

Factoring all this in, no late fees, no monthly subscriptions (like the Netflix I NEVER used) and AppleTV is for me.
 
imacdaddy said:
There's no iTunes Store in Hong Kong but I find many great uses for the ATV. Five uses actually.

1) Thousands of photos I have on my Mac can now be viewed on my TV.
2) Will rip all my DVD collection and sell the originals to free up cabinet space.
3) Stream all my music to my home stereo in the living room instead of listening to them on my Mac in another room. I use to hook up my iPod but that solution has made the iPod battery life worse! I've ripped all and got rid of boxes of CDs.
4) Encode all my Karaoke dvds/vcds and have them in a complete and organised list. It's much better than to keep changing disks to the songs you want to sing. Keeps the mood alive. I hope Apple will update the iTunes/ATV to allow TV Episode Playlists. If it's there, I haven't explored it.
5) Helps me manage my content wisely and efficiently my Mac. Before the files were "just there". Now they come to life.
Click to expand...

1. Yes, photos would be nice for too, I'm not sure though if :apple: TV supports Aperture library
2. I dont have many DVDs, but I do have about 15-20 GBs of movies (700MB-1.3 GB each), so being able to play them on TV without hassle can help :). But I use my iPod for this purpose now, I keep 3-5 most recent movies on it and watch them on my SDTV (my iPod is docked near my TV-stereo system).
3. I use AirPort Express now for this. Used to play music through iPod, but stream it now when we got another APE. Why did your battery got worse? You dont have iPod pluged in to power while playing music?

:)
 
It's a bad ad I think. At no point does it mention the fact that the "it" that was on your computer and iPod and is now on your TV is iTunes. People will think "Oh, video on my TV? How revolutionary. Scoff."

The Apple TV should have been called the iTunes TV in the first place, to lessen confusion.
 
To me that ad screams, "You, too, can have a dysfunctional family". Whatever happened to the family watching a movie together?
 
Rod Rod said:
Yup, it was a joke! I'm sure it matters for some people in Canada that they can't buy movies or TV shows on iTunes. However, the Apple TV is not useless in Canada.

Most people find it easy to convert their music for iTunes (and the iPod). Converting video for iTunes (and the Apple TV) is easy too.
Click to expand...

How do people rip music from CD's to iTunes? I don't recall the exact procedure, but isn't it basically just few mouse-clicks away? Does iTues offer similar method for ripping movies from DVD's? No it does not. You need to use third-party tools. And the actual ripping and conversion takes hours (correct?), whereas ripping music takes just minutes. Also, it should be noted that ripping those movies is illegal. And, ripping music produces a copy that is almost 1:1 identical to the original. How about movies? does the copy contain the DVD-menu's, subtitles etc.?

No, ripping movies to iTunes is nowhere near as easy as ripping music to iTunes. Music-ripping is something anyone could do. Ripping movies goes well beyond the means of many computer-users.

Being precluded from an online store does not kill the usefulness of the device.
Click to expand...

No it does not. Especially if we are talking about music. But movies and tv-shows? Geeks might enjoy ripping their DVD's to iTunes. Joe Sixpack would not enjoy it. The process is nowhere as easy as ripping music.
 
MrSmith said:
To me that ad screams, "You, too, can have a dysfunctional family". Whatever happened to the family watching a movie together?
Click to expand...

That's what I thought from the YouTube clip--three people not on speaking terms. But thanks to Renovatio's HD clip, I can see it's the same guy in every scene. The message is more, "You too can despair alone in a big empty house with your toys, never glancing at the sunny world outside."
 
MrSmith said:
To me that ad screams, "You, too, can have a dysfunctional family". Whatever happened to the family watching a movie together?
Click to expand...

Well, I really like Shaun of the Dead but the Mrs. hates it. I also like Star Trek, but the Mrs. hates it. Bladerunner? Same thing. Band of Brothers? Same. Monty Python? No-go. Black Adder? Nope.

Notice a pattern here? Yes, there are movies and tv-shows we both enjoy. But there are loads of movies and tv-shows that only one of us enjoys. And sometimes I might just want to watch something she's not that interested in (and vice versa).

And no, me and Mrs. liking different movies and tv-shows does not mean that we are "dysfunctional family". since when does the taste in movies and tv-shows imply the "functionality" of a family? Does watching television together imply a "functional family"? Are we supposed to define a functional and dysfunctional families through their television-habits? Yes, gathering around and passively sitting in front of a screen is a clear sing of a "functional family".
 
Evangelion said:
How do people rip music from CD's to iTunes? I don't recall the exact procedure, but isn't it basically just few mouse-clicks away? Does iTues offer similar method for ripping movies from DVD's? No it does not. You need to use third-party tools. And the actual ripping and conversion takes hours (correct?), whereas ripping music takes just minutes. Also, it should be noted that ripping those movies is illegal.
Click to expand...

Ripping music is also illegal, you know? Go read the text on the back of any legal CD box.
 
Multimedia said:
Thank you. Would you mind sharing how you recorded and converted it - i.e. your workflow with what software please?

Man that is PERFECT work. My EyeTV Recording is 60MB. Excellent quality and only 26.4MB.
Click to expand...

No problem ... took a little trial and error to get a compressed+good quality clip ... here was my process:

• EyeTV Hybrid recording exported to "MPEG Program Stream"
• Opened the MPEG file in MPEGStreamclip
• Export to Quicktime Movie:
- Compression: H.264
- Limit Data Rate: 6000Kbps
- Unscaled frame size
- Deinterlace video

All in all took about 15 minutes on my 3Ghz Mac Pro (probably less if I was babysitting it) Funny because exporting with the H.264 codec and 80% quality with multipass took three times as long and the video looked like crap.

Hope that is helpful :)
 
eXan said:
Ripping music is also illegal, you know? Go read the text on the back of any legal CD box.
Click to expand...

Not to start a debate about the legalities ... but I believe when Evangelion referred to movie ripping being illegal it is because you are actually breaking encryption in the DVD-ripping process ... which is black and white illegal.

CD's are a bit more fuzzy because the only thing that is technically "illegal" is the "copying and distribution of copyrighted content" ... meaning that if you are ripping the CD to your own library you are not doing anything wrong ... which is why Apple can provide support for it in iTunes without record company lawsuits.

So essentially the only difference is the encryption-breaking vs. not. If movies did not have encryption, I am sure we would have better access to convert them to our private media libraries because such a process would not be illegal.

I could be totally wrong, and I am not a lawyer ... but this is my best interpretation of the law.
 
This Ad indicates to me an’ emergency reaction scenario’ has been invoked within Apple - probably initiated by Steve - to jump start the Apple TV sales.

I’m thinking this is like the original Mac all over again in that it’s trying to ‘create’ or jump start a market rather than satisfy one that already exists. That’s why this ad is just so ‘we can’t spell it out any simpler than this - this is what it does’ - except already it suggests, superficially to me, that it’s ‘for mac users only’ - oh and mac users with an LCD Widescreen TV...

Things I’d still like to see to make this product fly ;

1: Black text over a nice textured white linen style backdrop maybe?. Can't one of my photo's be a 'TV backdrop' ??? Where are the kind of screen overlays and animation that appear in iDVD that make you go ‘wooh’. The graphics not as fun and varied as they should be for an Apple device. It wants a DOCK not a menu!!!. The dock is the best way of making ‘woooh’.

2: It needs a CD/DVD player. Most importantly it’s so you can actually REPLACE/(justify) a new piece of kit under your TV!. I'm going to be playing my DVD's for at least a decade yet!.

3: $50 cheaper but with 80gig HD. Yes, I know it’s a ‘streamer’ but people like to hoard stuff on their HD - why else do they buy ipods over cheap flash players...not everyone want to boot the mac to watch a movie..

4: Needs to support ordinary TV’s with a built in Scart or S-video out and clearly indicate 5.1 optical out!. Simple as that. It could be 10 years before the last SD TV get’s put in the junkyard...before that as the ‘living room’ TV get’s replaced the current CRT widescreen will be sent to the kids room and they are more likely than anyone to want an Apple TV, especially if it’s a cut down ‘mac-hack’ fun centre. HD is great but even Apple aren’t HD ready.

5: Full direct access to all of Apple Trailers (including legacy), Youtube and a ‘best of the web’ Apple hosted ‘made for TV viewing’ pick of the internet. Top 1% of entertainment sites sort of thing ‘tweaked’ on the fly for TV viewing using the ‘web clips’ widget they’re developing.

6: logo the WORD name 'APPLETV' as one word to fix the google black hole before Apple TV get's sucked into it!. Suffix the product as an 'iStreamer' just in case that takes hold instead of Apple TV

If it has all this stuff I’d buy one ; and I’m a Mac and an ipod user.

...and the next Ad needs to show a mixed house - Mac and PC's streaming...a) to remove idea's of mac elitism b) to proove it's possible c) to awaken the PC users that this is something they might like
 
psychofreak said:
Proper commercial and All are hugely different things...
Click to expand...

You are hair-splitting. Seriously. Hair-splitting does nothing to improve your argument. Just because there are some home-projects and the like that do not use encryption, does not make my argument any less valid. Or do you think that people are buying AppleTV's solely to watch their home-videos on it? I doubt it.

Seriously: give it a rest already.
 
I love my aTV; the only link missing in the chain is the poor selection of movies from iTunes; how can the almighty iTunes store be so far behind Amazon in terms of the number of movies it offers?
 
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