Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Revamped Apple TV to Offer Netflix Streaming?
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Not really a Big Deal as Ps3 Xbox,Nintendo Wii and my iphone all already do this...but what the dealbreaker will be is FACETIME..Im telling you guys its coming to apple tv....
I wonder if Apple is being very clever here - by allowing apps they are effectively letting the broadcasters sort out all the rights issues and producing their own apps. I'm sure Apple will insist on taking a small cut of any subscriptions paid to the broadcasters for acting as the middleman. If they're really clever, they'll offer to host the content on that new data centre and charge the broadcasters for bandwidth to make a bit more profit without having to do much work.
I think 1080p is pretty much guaranteed in hardware - after all, Blu Ray players are down to £50 in the UK and they have a single chip to not only decode the high bit-rate h264 video, but also decrypt the DRM (which takes a fair bit of processing power). Basically any ARM chip with a dedicated video accelerator will not break any sweat on 1080p (I recall even the iPhone 3GS could playback 1080p files when jailbroken). Apple may restrict the resolution, but why would they - people are building up 1080p home video collections now. Apple have always simplified technical terms for consumer devices - they will market it as HD so people can buy "HD" movies and playback their HD camcorder footage.
What I'd really like to see is the new model running an itunes server that can serve up media/sync to other devices thus, all the old ATV owners (like myself) who bought a new model would be able to use the new model to serve up media from a NAS to the older model, effectively boosting the storage to whatever size NAS you can get. That would be a nice tip of the hat to the current gen owners.
I agree that fullHD movies from the iTunes store are a few years away. Probably when the next video codec comes out - a 20GB BluRay file will probably shrink to 10-12GB with the same quality and thats when things will get interesting...
I think 1080p is pretty much guaranteed in hardware - after all, Blu Ray players are down to £50 in the UK and they have a single chip to not only decode the high bit-rate h264 video, but also decrypt the DRM (which takes a fair bit of processing power). Basically any ARM chip with a dedicated video accelerator will not break any sweat on 1080p (I recall even the iPhone 3GS could playback 1080p files when jailbroken). Apple may restrict the resolution, but why would they - people are building up 1080p home video collections now. Apple have always simplified technical terms for consumer devices - they will market it as HD so people can buy "HD" movies and playback their HD camcorder footage.
What I'd really like to see is the new model running an itunes server that can serve up media/sync to other devices thus, all the old ATV owners (like myself) who bought a new model would be able to use the new model to serve up media from a NAS to the older model, effectively boosting the storage to whatever size NAS you can get. That would be a nice tip of the hat to the current gen owners.
I agree that fullHD movies from the iTunes store are a few years away. Probably when the next video codec comes out - a 20GB BluRay file will probably shrink to 10-12GB with the same quality and thats when things will get interesting...
Exactly what i was thinking. If the upcoming AppleTV would match the lineup they probably make it unibody - this (and some capacitors, Ram and CPU chips inside) will probably make up for the speculative 99$ alone. There would be no financial buffer left for a "clever remote", letting alone the amount of programming work to the iOS.
Unless Apple would go out of their usual way and subsidize AppleTV massively (planning to earn the money on the content), this "AppleTV" might be nothing more than a simple, beefed-up iPhone/iTouch universal dock in Aluminum (maybe bigger in size to allow for using the iPad) and with A/V ports directly poking out of the housing (instead of needing an A/V cable for the dock connector as with the universal dock), bundled with some special software for streaming.
With such a setup the iOS could stay unchanged (=> no need for yet another code branch within the iOS world) and there'd be no need for some complex and thus expensive remote, as any existing iOS device would already sport all that's necessary (similar to the introduction of the Mac mini - only that the new slogan would be "bring your own iOS device").
With millions and millions of iPhones, iPads and iPod touches already sold worldwide, the potential customer basis would be more than sufficient. People who don't own an iOS device by now could be motivated to eventually buy an iPod/iPhone/iPad.
And it would be like always - people would shout at Apple for the high price for a "simple docking unit deluxe" and for ripping off people, self-appointed experts would explain why this concept could never fly due to noone buying a unit that needs an additional iOS device to function properly, while Apple would sell this like sliced bread, earning a comfortable margin per device...
Netflix support
This is the key to understanding the rumor. I don't think Netflix will ship with the device. But if it runs a version of iOS such that you can download apps on it then Netflix already has an app ready to go that can do that. Or possibly they've been given early access and have an update ready to go.
I think the iTV is going to be like an iPod Touch without the screen and battery making it much cheaper to build. The only real question is how the device will be controlled. Hopefully not with an Apple Remote!
This is the key to understanding the rumor. I don't think Netflix will ship with the device. But if it runs a version of iOS such that you can download apps on it then Netflix already has an app ready to go that can do that. Or possibly they've been given early access and have an update ready to go.
I think the iTV is going to be like an iPod Touch without the screen and battery making it much cheaper to build. The only real question is how the device will be controlled. Hopefully not with an Apple Remote!
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
So what changes in the future? Does bandwidth magically expand? Because the owners of the bandwidth are not going to cut profits to install major upgrades when they are the only show in town (or one of two shows, and the other matches their price, sells video subscriptions, and also has little to no incentive to expand bandwidth).
Get 1080p
TVs into lots of homes. As the numbers grow, studios will be seduced to test 1080i/p content in the iTunes store. No 1080p TVs in homes means NO seduction. We've had 720p for 4 years now. The world of video has moved on. Hopefully, Apple will too. Else, they'll sell less
TV units, only to those who accept "720p is good enough", "until there is content in the iTunes store", "until nation-wide bandwidth is upgraded for 1080p", etc. All excuses, begging to fuel sales of other solutions for those desiring a true head-to-head challenge for BD, satt/cable set top boxes, HD Tivo, WD HD boxes, and so on.Until the bandwidth owners feel the pressure, they don't "waste" money on nation-wide infrastructure expansion. Recall how AT&T's first reaction to being called out on limited 3G coverage by Verizon was to try to sue Verizon into stopping (the ads)- not sink a lot of cash into massively expanding their 3G bandwidth. Even now, they run their "97% coverage" commercials, not mentioning that that coverage includes a lot of 2G "edge" instead of 3G. And aren't these some of the very same companies in charge of many people's broadband connection (along with other companies that have a lot to lose if the public finds a good alternative to their lucrative cableTV plans)?
I want to be able to stream mkv and avi files. If it does that, I'll buy it just for that (if its $99).
<yawn>
Big deal, why do i need another device that plays netflix when I can use my TiVo, wii or iPad.
Wake me up when Apple allows us to record shows and authorize them for use on our iOS device of preference.
(I know, ain't gonna happen)
Big deal, why do i need another device that plays netflix when I can use my TiVo, wii or iPad.
Wake me up when Apple allows us to record shows and authorize them for use on our iOS device of preference.
(I know, ain't gonna happen)
It's more than TV on this thing..
Thing I never get is people are always talking about the TV as if that's all it does: TV.
It's about 50/50 for me using it for music and for TV. Mostly music probably. Controls all the speakers in my house what with Airport Extremes and remote speakers...I can turn off and on different rooms all from my iPhone Remote App. My entire library from anywhere inside or outside the house. That's bliss.
Don't get how people miss this feature. Now, if only they would add iTunes visualizations to it! Then I'd be a happier guy...but the TV is genius as it is - even without the over-hyped 1080P.
Thing I never get is people are always talking about the TV as if that's all it does: TV.
It's about 50/50 for me using it for music and for TV. Mostly music probably. Controls all the speakers in my house what with Airport Extremes and remote speakers...I can turn off and on different rooms all from my iPhone Remote App. My entire library from anywhere inside or outside the house. That's bliss.
Don't get how people miss this feature. Now, if only they would add iTunes visualizations to it! Then I'd be a happier guy...but the TV is genius as it is - even without the over-hyped 1080P.
Wow, I have the total opposite experience, I love Netflix streaming. FF/RW is a little unresponsive on TiVo, but some of that has to do with the TiVo controls, I find it to work very well on iPad and the new iPhone app using touch-based UI. And the more recent encoding look pretty excellent. There's SOME encoding artifacts, but not much more than you see on HD cable. Looks mighty good on a 50" plasma, although of course it depends on the the source, like I said the more recent HD encodings look a lot better than some of the early ones from a couple years ago. I personally don't see the lack of multichannel surround as a deal-breaker, but yeah, it would be nice to have it. Not sure if that something that can be added later to the stream or if the hardware would need to be modified.
I'd actually love to see Apple and Netflix get together instead of competing, that would be a media powerhouse.
If I know Apple well, iTV is nothing but a kind of Mac Mini sort of brick that will have ports to connect it to TV.
AppStore will be available on iTV as iTV OS will be iOS.
Now you can download whatever you want from AppStore and watch on your TV! This is iTV! Obviously you can download Netflix, ABC etc. Apps too!
AppStore will be available on iTV as iTV OS will be iOS.
Now you can download whatever you want from AppStore and watch on your TV! This is iTV! Obviously you can download Netflix, ABC etc. Apps too!
+1 had mine since it was released. Been barely turned off since then and used daily, and heavily by me and my family. I've definately had my monies worth. Happy to spend a few extra notes to get a new one if it did enough extra... Actually really looking forward to tomorrow. Fingers crossed
The rumors say it'll have hardly any, mostly likely just a flash memory based buffer of a few gigs. All going towards live streaming.
I hope they continue to support the old Apple TV as well. By the sounds of it, it should be just as capable as this $99 version.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
The rumors are that it will have virtually NO storage- everything streams from storage attached to your computer or via broadband Internet.
However, I hope we can attach local storage or use home network storage... and of big sizes if so desired.
well of course not! but there are tons of consumers that just need, mail, web, music, video, word processing!
I don't think it matters how much storage the device has. The current Apple TV streams just fine directly from iTunes. Just make sure your Mac or PC has enough disk space or get an external drive like I did. It works just fine.
I am so excited. I wasn't getting my hopes up for a new Apple TV tomorrow but this makes me a little optimistic again
This better just be a Netflix app because I don't want to be forced to use Netflix! Probably is, and Apple will highlight the app like they just did last time at the iPhone 4 event.
This better just be a Netflix app because I don't want to be forced to use Netflix!
Probably is, and Apple will highlight the app like they just did last time at the iPhone 4 event.
Probably very little storage. It is not likely going to be that kind of device.
Streaming content is the future. Everyone duplicating the same content 1 billion times is not the future.