Big news from Apple -- moving towards becoming a Media Center?

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Big news from Apple -- moving towards becoming a Media Center?

Frontrowmusic20051011 Big news from Apple today was introducing to things that should interest you. One is the remote control software called Front Row that is shipping with new iMacs. The other is that you can finally buy TV shows on iTunes for $1.99 an episode.

The new iMac + Front Row package looks pretty similar to the first versions of Microsoft's Media Center XP. You have simple access to your music, photos, videos, and DVD player, all from a small iPod-like remote. It doesn't look like they're concentrating on sending the video to another room or to a larger screen, but if you live in a small apartment or dorm room and don't need to send video out to a larger screen, backing away from your iMac and using the remote could be a pretty good solution for an entertainment PC.

The other big milestone is that iTunes now offers TV Show downloads. This is really big, almost as big as the launch of the iTunes Music Store in the first place. Before the iTunes Music Store came out, record company execs could often be heard decrying the state of music piracy through downloading and my take on it for the past few years has always been if you could sell songs cheap enough in an easy to get to place, you could fairly easily move music fans away from pirate channels. Apple has sold millions of songs now and shown that it is possible to convert downloaders to customers if you give them a chance to pay.

TV and Movies are in the same spot music was four years ago. If you missed a show last week your only legitimate means to see it are waiting months for a repeat or a year to buy the show DVD if they release one. But you can often find shows available for download online. Given that iTunes is selling them for $2, the low price quickly outweighs the work of finding a show and waiting for a bittorrent download (not to mention any legal risks in doing so).

Here's to hoping that ABC is the first of many networks to sign on and that movies are next. Also, it would be great if Apple could eventually send HD quality video that could be streamed to a home theater system. One things for sure -- the first steps have been taken and they're the hardest -- Apple is the first to offer paid TV show downloads and they've got a new media center package for sale. I can't wait to see what Apple has in store a couple years from now.

update: Thomas Hawk has a post about this subject as well.

by Matt Haughey October 12, 2005 in News

Comments

Its pretty dissappointing that TiVo wasnt the first company to offer TV show downloads for a fee - especially because at this point theyve got the most seemless way of transfering the downloaded content between devices (PC to TV / TV to TV). The new PC to TiVo functionality is a really big piece of this puzzle, but its still a really difficult process to prepare downloaded files for transfer to TiVo - would be totally awesome if I could buy a show for $2.00, download it to my PC for mobile viewing, or transfer it to my TiVo for TV viewing. Again, really dissappointing that TiVo couldnt work out the requisite licensing agreements to make this happen first...

Posted by: New York at Oct 12, 2005 11:43:27 AM

While I love the idea of the Mac becoming more Media Center-like, I think Apple now has a compelling reason to NOT add DVR features. If they are going to be in the business of selling shows and movies, then it isn't in their interest to have consumers recording them via cable.

I'm not saying that this completely rules out having some TiVo style features on the Mac in the future, but it makes it all much foggier. However, some great third-party solutions are still around. I just don't think we'll be seeing iMacs and minis with cable tuners.

Posted by: Jason Coleman at Oct 12, 2005 12:10:34 PM

Now that Apple's started the snowball rolling down the hill, I think they will be aggressively trying to pump more and more video content through the mac/itunes/ipod. That means TiVo ToGo support (really surprised this didn't come today - probably a bad sign, as I'm sure Apple tried for it), way more shows on the iTunes store, more video related products (Airport A/V, MacMiniHTPC, HD Powerbooks, Asteroid, etc.), TV tuner support, and maybe even the DRM holy grail: a way to put your DVDs onto your computer and iPod. Sure this is a purely speculative, pony-rific wishlist, but in terms of the business decisions, I think it's clear that Apple will be all for integrating content from a wide variety of sources. If you've been following Apple's stock over the past 24 hours, despite tremendous revenue growth and all these cool new toys, it's down due to less than stellar iPod sales. This will surely be at the front of their minds as they evaluate compatibility with other content (OTA, TiVo, etc.), and they will almost certainly make choices that will drive $399 iPod sales rather than try to protect their $1.99 TV downloads.

Posted by: Rory C. Berger at Oct 12, 2005 1:39:40 PM

I was excited at first, but now that I read Thomas Hawk's comments above and Paul Boutin over at Engadget, it seems the video quality is not anything to write home about. I think they are missing the boat on that. And instead of building a monitor with a processor, what they should have done is put all of this in a Mac Mini that could be hooked up to a TV. That is what I think people want.

Posted by: Michael Pate at Oct 12, 2005 2:06:25 PM

*yawn* 2$ for low res crap? Pay more, get less, the apple way. It is to laugh.
Sorry is there DVI out or something on that thing, looks like 20" is your ONLY playback avenue. No tuner support? Sure the remote has less buttons, the product dose less. I'm disappointed, I thought Apple would introduce a Strong competitor into the HDTV arena, but this is just a gimmick, and not a very compelling one, to drive pod sales. This is not going to create even the slightest bubble of competition and innovation in the PVR market place. Bummer.

Posted by: Griffon at Oct 12, 2005 2:11:40 PM

I'm really disgusted that the BBC did not take the opportunity here to market new *Doctor Who* in the States through the iTunes Store. Majorly disgusted.

I am disappointed that Apple didn't take this opportunity to bring out Pre-N Airport products.

I also have my fingers crossed that Apple sees the wisdom in giving the iPod Photo/iPod Color owners a firmware upgrade to officially enable video since those products have the feature crippled. That means more potential iTunes video customers which beats expecting those very same owners to run around and buy a new iPod less than one year after their initial purchase.

Posted by: The Jeremy at Oct 12, 2005 4:45:45 PM

I've got my Mac Mini hooked up to my LCD TV now for watching DVDs, movies. Adding FrontRow and the remote would be nice, but it seems like it comes with the iMac only.

Would be a nice add-on to the Mini, if there's a way to get it separately.

Posted by: Mike at Oct 12, 2005 6:51:53 PM

I've got my Mac Mini hooked up to my LCD TV now for watching DVDs, movies. Adding FrontRow and the remote would be nice, but it seems like it comes with the iMac only.

Would be a nice add-on to the Mini, if there's a way to get it separately.

Posted by: Mike at Oct 12, 2005 6:54:36 PM

Griffin: the "low res crap" looks decent enough on my iBook. Here's a screenshot:

http://tinyurl.com/7joqz

Is it HD? No, but it takes 10 minutes to download and it's more than good enough for your average tv viewer, IMO. Tivo's "basic quality" setting is blockier than this.

Posted by: adm at Oct 12, 2005 11:38:30 PM

My one big complaint is the aspect ratio. I have become used to watching shows in the widescreen format. While I think this is a step in the right direction I will continue to get my shows from other sources.

Posted by: Peter Eschenbrenner at Oct 13, 2005 3:47:29 AM

That picture is supposed to be better than Tivo... and it's on a laptop... that looks terrible.

Posted by: Jimmy at Oct 13, 2005 4:36:58 AM

LOL, if that is what you are getting from Tivo there is something wrong with your setup. That is just fugly and again highlights the awful resolution that you are being asked to shell out cash for. Maybe that would look ok as a postage stamp, but even marginally blown up it looks like crap. Stretch that across a 50" screen, I think not. Apple should not be taking retarded little baby steps to enter the battle, though I don't think that is their goal at all. This just a vid pod release gimmick, nothing more. Serously, don't wast your time trying to polish a turd.

Posted by: Griffon at Oct 13, 2005 12:27:22 PM

Griffon, who is telling you to stretch it across a 50" inch screen? Do MP3s or AACs sound as good as the CD? Are they supposed to? No. The point of downloading TV from iTMS is not that it is high-res. It's that it is a workable, convenient, cheap alternative. iTunes has sold how many hundreds of millions of songs? Think about that for a second, and then come back at me with your "This sucks because it won't look good on a 50-inch screen" argument.

You can see the blood vessels in the guy's eye, for god's sake, and you're complaining about and saying it's a "turd"? Give me a break. Apple makes plenty of mistakes, and I'm happy to point them out (as you can see from other posts on my site), but letting people download the most popular shows on TV in 10 minutes is not one of them.

ps. If your Tivo recording's "basic" quality isn't blocky and fuzzy, then there's something wrong with your setup. Namely that you're not recording on "basic" quality.

Posted by: adm at Oct 13, 2005 3:00:45 PM

So, how long before Apple and TiVo hookup? I mean, why can't TiVo owners select from pre-recorded content that is already stored on Apple's servers? It seems that Apple would be able to easily gain market share by selling content to the 3 Million (what is the number up to now?) of TiVo owners by allowing TiVo's software to access the Music Store. In addition, all the other DVR's could also point to the stored data.

Am I missing something here?

Posted by: Joe at Oct 13, 2005 9:14:29 PM

Joe: Your idea is a good one, but it seems to me that TiVo has missed the boat. Apple sailed off in it. Apple doesn't need TiVo anymore. They have their own nascent media center, a content delivery system, and a portable all-in-one player.

ps. sorry for taking up so much space on this thread.

Posted by: adm at Oct 13, 2005 11:33:19 PM

I'd be suprised if FrontRow didn't make it onto a revised mac mini sometime in the near future.

Posted by: Steve at Oct 14, 2005 3:13:53 AM

Adm: I realize that Apple doesn't need TiVo, (in some ways I am surprised that Apple doesn't just buy them), but more to the point, it seems like a slam dunk for Apple to allow the TiVo units to access the Apple Music store. This give Apple instant market penetration, and allows them to work out some of the bugs on their home system. In fact, Apple could simply let any DVR have access to the music store and let whomever buy whatever was available. TiVo is just the biggest brand, thus more visible.
my.02
(shutting up now)

Posted by: Joe at Oct 14, 2005 7:27:44 AM

I'm excited by the technology but I think there is a dark cloud to this silver lining that is not all Apple's fault. Inevitably, increased access to multimedia sources of info could have a depressing impact on literacy rates. For my rant on this topic go here:
http://ddmcd.squarespace.com/living-with-technology/2005/10/14/ipods-and-declining-literacy.html

Posted by: Dennis McDonald at Oct 14, 2005 7:49:39 AM

Joe that is total gibberish, they are selling TV content, it needs 'work' on my TV for it to be meaningful or retain any value.
This is a painfully pallid and weak offering, perhaps that is the fault of the IP owners and this is all Apple could do, I don't know. But the point is that it has zero value to anyone with a net connection and good system or any 16:9 box when contrasted other ways to get the content. I don't want to watch TV on my computer, it's busy recording TV for me to watch on...well my TV duh. If I need to dumb the content down and send it something with a small screen great, down scaling is easy, up scaling as we can all see, not so much.

ACC and MP3's do SOUND better when piped through a high quality sound system, yet this offering looks worse on a better delivery method, which is the only valid comparison between the two concepts.

Actually I have D*TV HD Tivo so it's doing direct write, if my tivo looked like yours I would have tossed it out a window. I do have a replay 4040 and it's images look much better then what you have their but then no I don't run that in low quality either, why would I? Why the hell would you for that matter, buy a bigger drive geez. Your acceptance of low quality certainly doesn't make me want to accept it, get it?

Bottom line, iTune vids look awful their is no two ways about it, the fact that your fine with it looking bad and feel that two bucks is a fair price for it dose not change the fact that it technically has poor character characteristics as demonstrated by it's low bit rate, grainy and artifact full appearance, bleeding bits, bad grey tones, pale color saturation..etc. it's that simple.

Posted by: Griffon at Oct 14, 2005 11:33:09 AM

Griffon, thanks for taking the high (if somewhat dismissive) road in the part of your response that was directed to me. I concede your point that the iTunes video is not great looking. But maybe you can see things from my point of view: I love high quality and audio, but I'm willing to sacrifice some of that for convenience. I can store more low-res video on my Tivo than I can high-res (as is true, by nature, for everyone's analog-sourced tivo) and I don't care about watching Law & Order in high-res. So patchy, blocky, fuzzy, video with pale saturation is just fine with me, especially since it means I can store 100+ shows and some movies on my 130GB (semi-hacked) TiVo. I guess I have an opinion that differs from lots of other readers: in the end, it's just TV.

Posted by: am at Oct 14, 2005 12:42:59 PM

The importance of the apple announcement is not the fact that the content can be downloaded for viewing on a portable viewer. The fact that individual programs can now be downloaded for a tiny fee is the beginning of a major trend in TV-Internet convergence.

Unfortunately, Apple & Microsoft are both a little behind the curve. Other companies, like Brightbox, allow people to watch such programs where they're used to watching them -- on their Television.

See this video-blog for details: http://brightboxblog.com/ppdeagle

Posted by: Lee Matthews at Oct 20, 2005 8:16:19 PM

The iPod has USB 2.0 and the TiVo Series2 has USB 2.0. Just for an experiment, I plugged my iPod into my TiVo, and guess what it did! It came up with the familiar "Do not disconnect" screen, as if the TiVo were a computer. Why can't the TiVo connect to my iPod, and better yet, why can't I get my TiVo to update for all these new features like TV-over-IP. It's funny, whenever I see a TiVo being used on television, it almost always looks way cooler than mine! Does anybody else notice this? Is this the difference between a TiVo-brand box and the other TiVo boxes?

Posted by: Devin at Jan 2, 2006 6:27:52 PM

Posted by: Devin at Jan 2, 2006 6:28:12 PM

Excellent blog.
The Brightbox mentioned above shows that the media centers future can be spread via alternative marketing schemes. The big mover in the market seems to be Apple. With 48 million iPod sold and video iPods only recently reaching market, Apple seems to be playing a waiting game for the market to mature further. Small form factor computers are only started to appear and look a dam site better that hi-fi PVRs. Apple's Mac Mini has a number of features that set it asside form the rest as a low cost start. Firewire disk mode allows the unit to boot from an external drive, like a second life. They can be externaly expanded without opening a box. It runs on low power components reducing heat and power that will make it run longer without an oil change. A much forgotten Mac feature is it's ability to schedule a timed power on or off for when you are not home, again increasing the life of the Media Center. The alternative variety of software for a mac media centers such as Front Row, Centerstage and GenieCommands.

Posted by: James at Jan 25, 2006 7:25:00 AM

Big news from Apple -- moving towards becoming a Media Center?

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