Comments on: Apple TV 2.0 = HD DVD Format Irrelevant?

By: Bob

Bob — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 22:22:06 +0000

It should come as no suprise that early editions of this HD device will operate at the minimum or less. With the small file size, it really will only approach DVD quality. Apple is mainly a marketing/design company more than a true hardware pioneer. I’m not an apple hater. I have a MBP and really wanted to be exicited about streaming HD content to my home theatre set up. But until they allow larger files, more codecs, and atl least lossless audio, I’ll wait.

The only way have have been able to enjoy my IPOD is to only download in lossless from original CD’s and not purchase through Itunes.

By: manny

manny — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 11:29:03 +0000

I 100% agree with Craig on this.
Also, for me, the whole downloading movies thing is so wrought with problems and quality issues that I just can’t bring myself to seriously thinking it is about to usurp DVD…yet.
Until average consumer DL speeds get to the point where a 1GB file is done in under a minute or maybe 2 minutes, I can’t see it replacing DVD

By: Matt W

Matt W — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 01:13:20 +0000

I’m looking forward to it as a feature. Just waiting for the update to come in.

By: Brian Arnold

Brian Arnold — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 15:35:00 +0000

I’d toss my hat in with the HD snobs.

I have an Xbox, and so I went with HD DVD simply because it was cheaper. I have the Planet Earth series, Heroes season 1, and a couple of other things, that look absolutely glorious in 1080p quality. Thanks to the Xbox, I was able to freely watch the first episode of Heroes in 720p.

Now, don’t get me wrong, 720p is pretty. It’s quite pretty. But, I can see a difference and love my 1080p.

The AppleTV can’t do 1080p, so for now, it’s not even something I’d consider. I think eventually there’ll have to be an AppleTV 3 that can push 1080p before it’s real competition for HD DVD or Blu-ray. I think it’ll happen, maybe in a year or two, but it’s going to have to be physical hardware changes, so it’ll be awhile. I’m honestly a little surprised they didn’t do it now.

Then again, perhaps most consumers could care less. I mean, iTS sells inferior quality music but is doing amazingly well.

By: Erik J. Barzeski

Erik J. Barzeski — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 14:45:30 +0000

I agree largely with Craig. Yawn.

By: Craig

Craig — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 14:28:49 +0000

I am an HD snob. The announcements at this years Macworld did nothing but make me yawn. Apple has done nothing but catch up to the rest of the industry, and overcharge for rentals just like the rest. If you have ever seen Blu-ray or HD-DVD in action…meaning on very large TV, 60″ or more, or a projector, you would know Apples 720p will never compare. The sound included with the HD downloads, some only stereo, dobly 5.1, also cannot compare to uncompressed or lossless audio codecs. Overall Apple TV is fine for those that don’t know, or don’t care. There are a lot of them so Apple will be alright. But why would anyone pay $230 bucks or more for a machine that does nothing but take what you have on your computer and put it on your tv? XBOX Live, and soon Sony Home, already do that and play games. Apple TV will never compare.

By: stephen o'grady

stephen o'grady — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 13:21:49 +0000

speaking of the decline in CD sales over the holiday season, Marc Andreessen said the following:

“OK, now look at those numbers and tell me with a straight face that the DVD business isn’t going to go through the exact same thing in a couple of years, and that HD-DVD and Blu-Ray aren’t already the walking dead.”

Apple TV is a part of that, but ultimately i think the format war is already lost - and neither will win.

By: Luis

Luis — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 12:31:36 +0000

Alex, that’s so true. I’m so close to buy a Blu-ray player, but now I’m waiting on Apple and the so-called HD content. If it’s as good as they advertise it on HD content, I’ll be getting the AppleTV instead.

By: derFrankie

derFrankie — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 09:42:26 +0000

Here in Europe things are a bit different. The major problem for apple would be the different languages and different copyrights to cope with. For example, I live in italy, but my mother tounge is german. I can buy german DVDs and watch german free-tv over satelite but there is no way to see german pay-tv as they don’t have the rights for italy.

Same on internet. If I want to access the video archives of german tv stations (mtv overdrive for example) I get noticed that my country is not supported.

Assuming that the rights owner want to make most of their revenues we will have restrictions here in europe and this will put many customers on the way to buy a physical disc instead.

By: Bruce

Bruce — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 07:49:15 +0000

I simply can’t imagine downloading from iTMS the equivalent of the 12 DVDs that make up the three volumes of the Lord of the Rings Extended Editions. An HD version of the same would be even worse. Ditto some of those amazing BBC series like Walking with dinosaurs, Blue Planet, Life of Insects, etc. Hours and hours. If all the couch potatoes were doing this, kiss your global bandwidth goodbye.

By: Eric Cheng

Eric Cheng — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 06:46:42 +0000

I am an HD snob, and I do not like overly-compressed video. But I have to say that the stuff they were showing at MacWorld looked pretty good. I’ll do a Blu-Ray vs downloaded HD movie comparison when I get into my new place, which has a 1080p projector.

By: Alex

Alex — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 05:07:43 +0000

No, I just now had time to blog about it. And most people I’ve discussed it with have not mentioned this particular item as a compelling feature, or one they had considered.

By: Eric

Eric — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 05:05:43 +0000

You just now picked up on that?

It was all over Gizmodo and TechCrunch just moments after the movie rentals were announced.

By: Michael Sitarzewski

Michael Sitarzewski — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 04:35:15 +0000

Apple TV is 720p, HD-DVD and Blu-Ray are 1080p. That doesn’t matter at all to me since my wimpy HD TV is only 720p. There are HD snobs that will only watch 1080p content unless it is TV broadcasts, which are 720p or 1080i

It solves the problem for me assuming that the same content is available via AppleTV or the XBOX. Right now the choices are really slim.

comcast On-Demand has been delivering HD content for a while… when it works it is pretty neat too.

By: Andrew Luter

Andrew Luter — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 04:19:09 +0000

We will see when my update comes….but tend to agree.