Next-Generation Apple TV Renamed 'iTV', Utilizes Apps, Lacks 1080p?

[chaosconan]

iConsole

I would prefer the name iConsole and have Apple write couple of killer apps called

iTV watching tv or movies either through streaming or downloads
iGames games written for iOS native and purchased from Game Store
iEmulator powerful emulator that lets you play NES, SNES, GG, Wii, DSi, PS1, PS2, PS3, PSP, and on an on.

Break App store into three different types of stores
1. Apps Store
2. Games Store (games written for iOS)
3. Emulator Store (license with publishers who wrote all those old games for Nintendo, and Sony)

And just update the emulator to support different platforms as it grows.

 

[studio¹³¹]

i am reminded how lame 720p is every time i watch sports (or anything else w/ constant motion / graphics) on my 50" HDTV -- my old sony projection HDTV was 57" + 1080i and i can totally tell the picture difference...

 

[bretm]

720p should be fine.
Most people can't distinguish 1080i from 720p anyway.

True. 720p is generally sharper. 60 progressive frames per sec vs 60 interlaced fields (each being 540 lines) is often better. Notice how stations like ESPN broadcast in 720p.

 

[nxent]

i don't think apple knows yet what they want to do with the itv. i think for the most part, people who have an iphone , tv or whatever, will have a mac or pc; in which case all they really need is a conduit for streaming their video content from the computer to the tv... kind of what the airport express provides for audio. and then maybe you want to give it some storage capacity for folks interested in playing their video on a tv outside of their home network. a reasonably priced simple device as this would interest me.

the app store part of this adds an entirely different dimension. i think we're talking about two different products. the app store has lots of games. and lots of games on the tv means we're essentially talking about an apple console. an apple console means competing with the likes of the wii, xbox, and sony and will obviously take some serious thought, if this is indeed what they want to do. i think it'd be interesting if this did evolve into a full console, one with a steam like market place. this would take a lot of work on apple's part. or they could just buy nintendo...

 

[Cloudane]

Can't see them calling it iTV again, especially in the UK.

I can believe the lack of 1080p though. Apple do tend to stay a few paces behind the march of technology these days (still no USB3, scarce/expensive SSD options, lack of Blu-Ray to mention a few) and Jobs would probably just quote one of those (bulls**t) graphs that claim you can't see the difference between 720p and 1080p at a certain percentage of distances anyway.

Just buy a Mac Mini and put Plex on it...

 

[jp102235]

Some of these posts seem to say 1080p doesn't matter....

Specifically:
720p is sending 1,280 x 720 pixels or 921,600 pixels at 60 complete frames per second.
1080i is sending 1920 x 540 pixels or 1,036,800 pixels at 60 complete de-interlaced frames/sec (that is what is actually there, your TV makes it into a 2,073,600 interlaced image for a complete merged image at 30 frames per second.

and finally the champ, by a significant margin is 1080p which is full vertical resolution as well as horizontal resolution, 2,073,600 pixels at a complete 60 frames per second.

you are making 1 big HUGE assumption: that you are getting RAW pixel data from the source - not even over the air HDTV is uncompressed. No matter what the resolution - its the compression (and the associated artifacting) that's going to show you the difference, just think: a crappily shot youtube video looks the same on your iphone as on your macbook, as on your acd or even your 60"tv. Sadly there is no real good benchmark for measuring quality of broadcast that is foolproof - just check the videophile forum discussing bitrate of video - that's your key metric - resolution is secondary.


j

 

[MacMan67]

i am reminded how lame 720p is every time i watch sports (or anything else w/ constant motion / graphics) on my 50" HDTV -- my old sony projection HDTV was 57" + 1080i and i can totally tell the picture difference...

That has nothing to do with 720p vs 1080p, what it has to do with is the inferior refresh rates and ghosting current flatscreen TVs exhibit. Why do you think the focus is on 120 and 240 Hz refresh rates on the new LCD televisions.

I had an old Hitachi 1080i projection set (yep, the 3 gunner) with a DVI input which provided far better picture than my 600 Hz refresh plasma, and my 120 Hz LCD TV.

the only difference in picture quality you will notice on these sets would be if your close, if your setting at or farther away than the recommended viewing distance for the particular set, you won't see any difference.

 

[Salacion]

I would prefer the name iConsole and have Apple write couple of killer apps called

iTV watching tv or movies either through streaming or downloads
iGames games written for iOS native and purchased from Game Store
iEmulator powerful emulator that lets you play NES, SNES, GG, Wii, DSi, PS1, PS2, PS3, PSP, and on an on.

Break App store into three different types of stores
1. Apps Store
2. Games Store (games written for iOS)
3. Emulator Store (license with publishers who wrote all those old games for Nintendo, and Sony)

And just update the emulator to support different platforms as it grows.

I so wish this would happen, but alas, it won't. Sony won't be giving up exclusivity to its games, no way in hell. Plus, if anything, Apple would choose casual gaming, a-la Wii, over hardcore gaming. PLUS, proper hardware is pricey.

I wish, but no.

 

[dgalvan123]

MLB AT Bat Netflix Hulu, ABC, I can go on.

Please do, and include GAMES!

Think of all the new games that have come out on iphone. Think of all the ones that have received the "HD" treatment for iPad. All of those available on your big-screen HDTV. At no additional cost (assuming you already bought them for your other iDevices).

Think of all the old-school classic video games that have been ported to iPhone/iPad, which will now be available again on your big-screen TV.

 

[notabadname]

Can't see them calling it iTV again, especially in the UK.

I can believe the lack of 1080p though. Apple do tend to stay a few paces behind the march of technology these days (still no USB3, scarce/expensive SSD options, lack of Blu-Ray to mention a few) and Jobs would probably just quote one of those (bulls**t) graphs that claim you can't see the difference between 720p and 1080p at a certain percentage of distances anyway.

Just buy a Mac Mini and put Plex on it...

Steve just doesn't want us to get a taste of 1080p. If we did, people might realize what they are missing in blu-ray and true HD, and Apple may finally be pressured to open up to compatibility with the format they actually supported in optical drives.

 

[lilo777]

That didn't seem to stop them with "iPhone" or "iPad". Someone else owned those already too.

Very different cases. Those trademarks were for marginal products. ITV is the name of the corporation. I doubt they will sell it for cheap.

 

[Streethawk]

I have to agree with others, my xbox 360 has been able to stream 1080p for ate a while, any device offering 720p just won't sell.

 

[ChrisGonzales90]

Steve just doesn't want us to get a taste of 1080p. If we did, people might realize what they are missing in blu-ray and true HD, and Apple may finally be pressured to open up to compatibility with the format they actually supported in optical drives.

and yet he has 1080p on the new 21" imac

 

[TorontoLRT]

and WTF is it with Apple and adding apps to everything;

You realize apps means applications right? Without apps, the iPhone and iPad wouldn't be able to use anything but the functions included with them!

 

[gugy]

Please 1080p.
Not because of iTunes but because as a guy who owns a 60" plasma display is really a blessing. Watching blu-ray movies is just breathtaking.
Yes, I have my library of dvds and blu-ray that eventually I would like to add it all to a hard drive and play locally on my AppleTV. While iTunes store is great for many things the lack of 1080p is lame but understandable due the bandwidth constraints.
I just want Apple to provide a simple solution for people who have their own libraries of movies and videos. Not just another fancy way to consume content from iTunes.

 

[lilo777]

I have to agree with others, my xbox 360 has been able to stream 1080p for ate a while, any device offering 720p just won't sell.

There are tons of options for those who want to have a nice IPTV/game console these days: XBOX, playstation, HTPC etc.

But iTV will have one big advantage - it'll have aluminum case!

 

[KVH]

And those articles, all from around 2006 and written by home theater enthusiast bloggers, are mistaken.

I trust this guy more than anyone else.



Ever hear of the Faroudja chip?

Yes, I do know of Farouja and what his video processing can do. That is taking this to the next level. Not all tv's, dvd players, rcvr's has that kind of processing (or better) built in. His processing improves on "all" video so to include it in the discussion is a moot point at best.

All I was saying was not including 1080p in the new "iTV" isn't the end of the world like some people are making it out to believe. That's all. Bringing in an outside video processor doesn't count =)

 

[NT1440]

Lets assume its the standard 25% - 40% Apple margin.

Isn't that their hardware margin? As far as I'm aware no one really knows how much apple makes from itunes. It may just be their way of exposing people to the apple ecosystem to make the switch.

 

[chaosconan]

Err... the issue of trademarks is a little bit more complicated than case sensitivity, it's not a damn password. Trademarks live in the spoken language domain as well. Good luck with pronouncing iTV and ITV differently.

They could always try their luck with iTube, though.

Fine.... Simple problem. Just call it iHDTV. Problem solved.

 

[notabadname]

you are making 1 big HUGE assumption: that you are getting RAW pixel data from the source - not even over the air HDTV is uncompressed. No matter what the resolution - its the compression (and the associated artifacting) that's going to show you the difference, just think: a crappily shot youtube video looks the same on your iphone as on your macbook, as on your acd or even your 60"tv. Sadly there is no real good benchmark for measuring quality of broadcast that is foolproof - just check the videophile forum discussing bitrate of video - that's your key metric - resolution is secondary.


j

I agree on compression / bit rates. My post was just to address one variable. But if you are sent a 1080p feed, even if compressed, as is the 720p feed, you are removing one considerable artifact from the image; your tv's processing to turn one, already compressed product, into a different resolution. It is like uncompressing a 4x6 JPEG file and then converting it into a 5x7. You will have a better final image if you had compressed the original reference file to the 5x7 in the first place. Direct TV broadcasts some channels / programs in 1080p now, and while certainly not anywhere near blu-ray data rates, the images are noticeably better on my 70 in screen (than the 1080i). And I am sure the data rates for their 1080p channels are not at twice that of the 1080i or 720p, as the theoretical resolution would be, but it looks much mo' betta.

 

[lilo777]

You do not need to wait for for Apple to give you a solution

Please 1080p.
Not because of iTunes but because as a guy who owns a 60" plasma display is really a blessing. Watching blu-ray movies is just breathtaking.
Yes, I have my library of dvds and blu-ray that eventually I would like to add it all to a hard drive and play locally on my AppleTV. While iTunes store is great for many things the lack of 1080p is lame but understandable due the bandwidth constraints.
I just want Apple to provide a simple solution for people who have their own libraries of movies and videos. Not just another fancy way to consume content from iTunes.

Just use Windows Media Center for this. Watch this demo that shows how to store/play your ripped BluRay movies on WMC.

 

[admanimal]

I have to agree with others, my xbox 360 has been able to stream 1080p for ate a while, any device offering 720p just won't sell.

I agree. Any modern consumer device meant for using software on a TV must support at least 720p or it is doomed to fail. Right?

 

[andy721]

Should be called iPointless or iAMexpensive not no free cable tv shows here, just buy a LED TV say 40+ inches and a DVR box you'll be set. Enough is enough apple.

 

[cleric]

Wow this thing sounds lame as hell, Apple just needs to port the AppleTV interface over to a Sigma Designs chip and that its maybe offer 2 models a streaming/network sotrage only model $99 and one with a hard drive for $150 or $200 depending on drive size.

 

[Master Chief]

It is more likely that the iTV is an app running on your iPod Touch, iPad and/or iPhone. I mean. Why would you want another small device, one that basically does the same thing as your iDevices?

And when it is only $99 then I think that there has to be some sort of subscription involved, simple because Apple can't even get the parts for it, for that price.