New Media Content Distribution System?

[Multimedia]

If I Can't Possess It Locally, I Won't Be Buying Anything Globally

I'm not going to subscribe to .mac so Apple can possess my purchases. Draconian protection scheme is a deal breaker for me.

 

[mdavey]

If it is as slow and awful as iDisk then this will be awful

More importantly, it could again make the rest of the world second-class citizens to America. American users are reporting that trailers in FrontRow now playback flawlessly (possibly Apple have tweaked their infrastructure?).

But those of us in Europe can't guarantee a big fat network pipe all the way from our pretty little villages across the ocean and on to Infinite Loop. Our trailers take approximately twice as long to download/cache as to play and if FrontRow starts playback too soon, we get freezes and breaks.

Having said that, I am looking at this from the perspective of 2005 and my 512k 'broadband' line. Within the next two years, most UK ISPs expect to be offering their customers 8Mb connections so this point could become moot within just a couple of years.

 

[rosalindavenue]

Right now I pay DirecTV $60 a month. I pay Netflix another $17. That's $77 a month for content I'll never "own" (and don't want to). I don't know about you, but I'm not one of these guys with a DVD collection. Once I watch a movie or television program, I'm done. I don't need to watch it over and over and I don't need to pay $20-per-film to watch something once.

Music is different[...]

Amen. Other than the Star Wars films (for my kids as much as me) and a few Pixar flicks, the average person has no interest in owning a sagging shelf of DVDs. Even a very good movie does not bear watching more than once or twice.

As far as the rumor goes, I think the .mac rumor will probably be in error. I have seen front row's ability to quickly and seamlessly stream video; this is what apple is going to do, in my opinion-- sell non-owned downloads for a couple of bucks, maybe allowing two viewings and no burns. The 21st century blockbuster. No one will mind, aside from the packrats who feel obligated to have a sagging shelf full of crummy Hollywood product.

 

[Lepton]

The article mentions downloading to iPods. I think we can assume the ability to download to your computer as well. But it might be optional to do so. You could leave it on .Mac and stream it, perhaps optionally caching/saving it to the HD as it comes in.

And remember that iChat requires a .mac identity, but you do not have to actually subscribe to .mac to have and keep it. This may work similarly to that.

You are going to need some kind of account for billing purposes. We have .mac and iTMS and the Apple Store, it's all consolidating, just add this video store to it.

Also, note the way Front Row lets you view online movie trailers. It's streaming them straight into Front Row - unlike all the other media it works with, it's not calling upon iTunes or any other program to do it. A tweak here and there and it could be grabbing videos from online as well.

Things are converging...

 

[ddrueckhammer]

If Apple really intends on selling full movie downloads, then they have two options: make their standard hard drives really, really big, or offer online iDisk storage to all who want to buy a movie. It seems that Apple has gone with the latter. If they are smart, they'll not make this iDisk plan the only option for viewing the movies. Full quality (in some flavor of H.264 HD, 720p or otherwise) downloads should be available to those with the necessary internet bandwidth and local storage capacity. Lower quality, iPod ready downloads should come with the same dual-storage options. If you have the iPod version locally, then you should have access to the HD version online and for download to an external storage medium (DVD or HDD).

The whole content delivery paradigm that we have now with the iTunes Music Store would have to be overhauled. Music works pretty well with a pay-per-download system (allowing the user to keep copies of the song on several local machines and iPods). Moving to a larger file like a movie and you run into storage capacity problems right away. Assume for now that Apple is still going to use the line that "this is all to boost iPod sales". This means iPod versions like the current TV and Music Video content will have to be available and at the forefront. Full versions would only be of interest if Apple comes out with a DVR Mac mini. This new iDisk idea makes the DVR option all the more interesting.

What if instead of simply recording TV content like a TiVo DVR, the mini was you local storage site for all the Movie content you download from Apple. The mini would become the focus of the Movie Store just like the iPod was the focus of the Music Store. Sell more HD movies to boost Mac mini sales!! The mini would need a much larger hard drive (or two) to make this work, but it is possible. By offering dual-downloads of both HD and iPod sized files Apple would also keep the mini from having to bear the brunt of H.264 encoding for all the movies you choose to download. Click to buy the movie and you instantly* get both formats (*minus the download times). For those without a mini (or a suitable PowerMac with 500GB+ storage) you can always leave your HD content online in you .Mac iDisk and just take the iPod sized file with you.

If all this is tied together with a sweet marketing campaign, flawless software, speedy downloads, and signature Apple hardware, it just might work!

I agree with you on everything but would add that Apple needs to add another app for downloading full video content. iTunes and the ITMS is getting pretty cluttered with the addition of TV shows and Music Videos IMHO. I think another app should be added specifically to manage video content downloaded and manage this content in the Movies folder, not in the Music>iTunes> folders.

 

[mhouse]

I just reinstalled my OS and I had to re-authorize my tunes I had bought. I also bought most of them on my laptop. So now i only have 3 'lives' left ! I did by the blo**dy music, it seems a bit unfair. Does it ? It looks like I will have to buy the music again in a few years when I have run out of DRM 'lives'

Dude, you can only have five authorizations *at once*. You can drop any of them at any time and use them for another machine. If you no longer have access to said authorized computer, just call Apple. They'll drop them for ya.

 

[rosalindavenue]

I agree with on everything but would add that Apple needs to add another app for downloading full video content. iTunes and the ITMS is getting pretty cluttered [...]

Its already been done; or at least prototyped-- Front Row. Find someone with a built-in iSight iMac and check it out-- it is flawless with movie trailers. Take the same computer, go to iTunes and try a full screen download of a trailer from iTunes-- it takes forever. Apple has already figured this out, at least a way to stream the content, with no waiting.

 

[ddrueckhammer]

Its already been done; or at least prototyped-- Front Row. Find someone with a built-in iSight iMac and check it out-- it is flawless with movie trailers. Take the same computer, go to iTunes and try a full screen download of a trailer from iTunes-- it takes forever. Apple has already figured this out, at least a way to stream the content, with no waiting.

I know but for some reason I can't get my mind around this...It seems like Front Row is more of a Media Center Type app..not really for sitting at your desk and calling up but more for viewing on a screen from 10 feet away. For the OSX desktop I still think there should be another app for organizing video which also takes in some of the features of Delicious Library like cataloging your DVD library as well. Also, as I said before I don't like how iTunes organizes video downloads under the music folder and not movies....

 

[mhouse]

Not A Subscription Service

Woah. What's with all the hostility? What's so hypocritical about a subscription model for TV and movies? That is, *if* they introduce such a model at all. Seems to make sense.

Right now I pay DirecTV $60 a month. I pay Netflix another $17. That's $77 a month for content I'll never "own" (and don't want to). I don't know about you, but I'm not one of these guys with a DVD collection. Once I watch a movie or television program, I'm done. I don't need to watch it over and over and I don't need to pay $20-per-film to watch something once.

Music is different, which is why Steve was so adamant that their *Music* Store not be subscription based. Are you saying that Apple would be acting hypocritically by going to a subscription based Video Store? Because, I don't see how the two are related. Music is very different than film and TV in this sense.

Nothing I read suggests this is a subscription service. Storage is cheap. Very cheap if bought in bulk. Here's the way I read it:

1. You buy movie or TV show and you *own* it
2. You can access the movie immediately if its in your cache or wait for it to DL if it isn't
3. You will be able to transfer it to a video iPod
5. Having an iTunes account doesn't cost you anything now and I doubt this will either
5. Unlike iTunes, your files will be stored on Apple's servers rather than your HD
6. If you don't have high bandwidth, you can't download feature films anyway so what difference does it make?
7. On the road? Plug your iPod into a hotel TV
8. I see nothing that implies a subscription fee at all

No, its not perfect but as someone else said I think its pretty good. Good enough to make Apple a ton of cash.

 

[Mechcozmo]

I agree too. Not to mention the fact that iDisk is always horribly slow. It'll be interesting to see how this develops.

And if you're on dial-up?

 

[kukito]

Well if they do HD h.264 and expect users to mac mini, it's going to have to have one HELL of a processor since decoding 1080p requires a dual 2.0 G5!

ATI comes to the rescue with Avivo. The only thing needed is a Mac compatible X1000 series video card. According to CHIP.de, even the lowly X1300 will be able to handle the decoding effortlessly.

 

[texasmafia]

And if you're on dial-up?

If you are on dial up you have no business trying to download video

 

[Starfall]

I have no problems with this rumor, if it is true.

I think the idea that I must be able to keep something locally for it to really be "mine" is rapidly becoming antiquated, certainly with respect to digital information. I don't keep my money locally, for example, but instead I rely on technology like the internet to allow me to access it whenever I need it. As long as I can access my money as I please, I consider it "mine" wherever it is actually stored.

With ultra-wide broadband coming, and the eventual ubiquitous reach of wireless technology, why should I care that my copy of "Wallace and Gromit" is on some server in Cupertino instead of on some shiny disc in my drive? As long as I can access it whenever I want, it will seem like "mine".

That being said, all of the whiz-bang technology required for this to work is not quite here yet, so there will be some growing pains for sure, but I think it's great that Apple has apparently been laying the groundwork for this new way of digital distribution. I'll be willing to put up with some early glitches just to get an early up-close look at what things are going to be like in the coming years as all of these technologies mature. That's one of the things that I love about Apple's products - using them is often like getting to play around in an R&D lab. There will be glitches and short-comings, but the "Wow" factor is pretty high.

Sign me up.

 

[ebunton]

Edit: sorry double post...

 

[ebunton]

Apple wouldn't force you to sign up with .mac just to get videos. You already have an Apple ID right...? (from using iTunes)
I think it would be just included free when you download. Like the shopping cart feature in iTunes.

 

[EGT]

And if you're on dial-up?

Tell me about it. I'm on ISDN! Ok, faster than 56K but still painfully slow!

 

[sfhc21]

Wasn't Netflix supposedly working on technology to stream their service over the internet? It looks like Apple just may have beat them to it.

At first, I wasn't too impressed with the streaming concept. But if it works well, looks as good as a DVD, and I can somehow take it on my laptop or Video iPod if I wanted too, I will no longer need Netflix....or Blockbuster.

I can't wait to hear Steve lay out the details.

 

[beatle888]

Pretty freaking useless if you ask me. I mean you can't even bring it down to a laptop to watch it on the go? Umm OK....whatever.

hehe, come on. do you really think that apple wouldnt be able to solve a problem like that if they did go down this road? If thinksecret is close to being correct about this rumor, then im sure theres more to it that only apple knows about.

apple will let you download if you want...they already do that with itunes. dont get turned off just because thinksecret might not have all the facts.

 

[MarkCollette]

I'm thinking of the living room. I don't take my 50" HDTV with me on a plane, so it doesn't bother me that this content might not be portable.

Last time I took my 50" HDTV with me on the plane, the bastards made me pay for TWO seats! Plus I think I got radiation poisoning from being so close to the TV.

 

[ddrueckhammer]

The only scary thing about this is that Cable/DSL providers like Verizon and Comcast could block or limit traffic coming from Apple's or any other content providers sites so that their own content delivery systems can take off. I have a feeling that Verizon isn't spending billions putting in fiber-optics across America with 15Mbps so that someone else can sell us our content...

 

[ddrueckhammer]

hehe, come on. do you really think that apple wouldnt be able to solve a problem like that if they did go down this road? If thinksecret is close to being correct about this rumor, then im sure theres more to it that only apple knows about.

apple will let you download if you want...they already do that with itunes. dont get turned off just because thinksecret might not have all the facts.

It looks like this problem may have already been solved as others have said look at the FrontRow movie trailers...They are instantaneous at VERY good quality. If they can provide a streaming service via the internet it would work very well assuming hollywood and the ISPs cooperate...(I went and looked at my friends new iMac just to check this out earlier tonight...)

 

[dicklacara]

The only scary thing about this is that Cable/DSL providers like Verizon and Comcast could block or limit traffic coming from Apple's or any other content providers sites so that their own content delivery systems can take off. I have a feeling that Verizon isn't spending billions putting in fiber-optics across America with 15Mbps so that someone else can sell us our content...

It ain't the cable providers that will deliver this... it's the telcos... and they are hungry!

 

[bbyrdhouse]

....

It's just like renting a movie from blockbuster...once you pay for it, watch it, you return it and it's gone!!

Well, this would be fine if you understood up front that you were essentially renting the content. Also the price would have to be cheap (compared to buying a DVD $10 - $25.00) maybe $3.99 per movie. Suppose it would download to your HD and would expire in 3 days or 5 days and then become unusable. Then I could see what you are saying.

I think that if Apple would use tiered pricing for the content that there shouldn't be a problem if people wanted to D/L. Say, $3.99 for a streaming version or $7.99 for a downloadable version for use on the 5G iPod and $12.99 for a high quality downloadable version that you could back-up to a single or double layer DVD.

I mean it just seems silly that you can purchase movies from Wal-Mart for $10.00 why is it such a big deal to make available the same movie for download for say $7.00 or whatever. Seems to me that movie companies would jump all over this because it would actually save them money in the long run by not having as much overhead.

I can at least understand where the recording industry comes from because they have several songs per cd, and don't want you buying only one song, but movies on the other hand only have one movie per DVD.

C'mon stinkin' movie companies get off your high horse!

And Apple quit playing softball, seems to me that you are in the drivers seat with the massive success of ITMS. Other networks and production companies will eventually get on board. You have a good thing going don't mess it up with this "streaming mess". Besides some clever programer will then feel challenged to create an App that lets you capture the stream to your hard drive and this will only make P2P and piracy worse.

Don't automaticly assume that everyone is a thief, it is an insult to honest people. (Like when you go to Wal-Mart and they feel that they have the right to investigate your bags before you leave the store. Dang it I bought it with my money so it belongs to me now and I don't want you touching my merchandise!... It just peeves me that they assume that their customers are thieves. I've got to the point where I don't like to go anymore.)

 

[Platform]

Don't do this.......c'mon iDisk....WTF

 

[qtip919]

This is soooo silly and clearly is a first attempt at appeasing the rediculous media companies.

This is sick and wrong.

I take in video content in almost EXACTLY the same what I take in music content. The only difference (for me) is that I demand a much higher quality experience for my video content since I watch everything on a DLP HDTV. The two things I have downloaded off of the ITMS have been unbelievably low in quality, and hence I would never do it again.

So, I just dont understand the demand to do something different than what we are currently doing on the iTMS. Sure, there will be bumps along the road, and holes will need to be patched. But are we really targeting the right problem? Fix ILLEGAL FILE SHARING and an iTMS type solution for video will turn into a major cash cow

Step into the 21st century people!