Apple TV failure due to it’s limited video format support
October 17, 2007
The Apple TV has been a bust for several reasons. The Apple TV is fettered to the embarrassingly anemic and expensive library of third-rate movies available in the iTunes Store. Enter the iPod.
“People already had huge amounts of music when the iPod came along,” said Jorge Gonzalez, editor of Zeropaid, a news website devoted to file sharing. The Apple TV could have been in a similar situation with modern file-sharing technologies like BitTorrent and Usenet, but it’s designed to play video encoded only in H.264 and protected H.264 (the locked format used by the iTunes Store).
These limited video formats aren’t commonly found on the file-sharing networks. One of the main hacker forums, AwkwardTV, makes it clear it does not advocate using Apple TV to watch pirated content.
“The problem is that iTunes on Windows is just terrible for watching videos,” said Lowell Heddings, an enthusiastic video consumer. It’s super easy to acquire almost any video content, from popular Korean soap operas to obscure science documentaries.
“There’s been an explosion recently of TV shows and movies online,” says Gonzalez. Mostly mainstream network shows.”
Public trackers like The Pirate Bay and Mininova appeal to beginner and intermediate file-sharers, says Gonzalez, but advanced users might login to dozens of private trackers, often dedicated to particular categories of video content: movies, TV series, documentaries, independent films.
“I can download virtually any episode of virtually any TV show that I want. If Apple made it easy for Apple TV owners to tap this incredible and almost limitless on-demand library, the device would likely catch on and become a staple of geek living rooms everywhere. Until then, Apple TV will be relegated to the same small scrap heap that holds the Power Mac G4 Cube and Apple’s other failures.
Via Wired
Apple future product… a Smart Media Commander?
August 27, 2007
This is pure speculation on my part, so let it be clear.
With Apple releasing the iPhone and now possibly the “iPod Touch” with 16:9 large screen touch display wouldn’t it make sense if Apple also turned those devices in “Smart Media Commanders”?
OK, what is a “Smart Media Commander” you might ask. Good question! What do you want it to be? Is my answer.
A “Smart Media Commander” is an evolved remote control based on a WiFi touch screen device. The WiFi nature of the iPhone (and possibly the new “iPod Touch”) could allow it, with the right software, to interact with any of your WiFi enabled Mac hardware.
This could allow you, from you couch, to select you Apple TV unit and then control it using your iPhone touch screen. The basic Play, Pause, Keyboard Typing, Up, Down, Left, Right, Menu, etc would be possible. The iPhone touch interface could also change based on the context of what is on our Apple TV screen.
For example, if you where on the YouTube section the iPhone Smart Media Commander screen could display a list of available video to play while the Apple TV is playing a video in Full Screen. Find a video you like on the iPhone Screen, select it and the iPhone User Interface gives you the choice of “Queuing” the video or “Play it right away”.
During a Photo slide show presentation the User Interface could allow you to Pause, Rotate, Zoom, Delete, etc, the picture on your big screen TV.
The Smart Media Commander could also allow you to “Buy/Rent” video from the iTunes store and get them to play right away on your Apple TV.
The Smart interface could also be used to deliver targeted “Advertisement” to the iPhone GUI while a freely available show playback on the big screen. It could give you the option of pausing the main video and jump to a web page, or ask if you would be interested to receive more information via a subsequent email, etc.
Really, your imagination is the limit on what such an interface could be. I sincerely hope to see it come to life in the months to come.
YouTube Live on Apple TV Today; Coming to iPhone on June 29
June 20, 2007
CUPERTINO, California—June 20, 2007—Apple® today announced that iPhone™ users will be able to enjoy YouTube’s originally-created content on their iPhones when they begin shipping on June 29. A new Apple-designed application on iPhone will wirelessly stream YouTube’s content to iPhone over Wi-Fi or EDGE networks and play it on iPhone’s stunning 3.5 inch display.
In addition, Apple announced that YouTube is now live on Apple TV™. Users can download the free software update using Apple TV’s built-in software update feature, and then easily navigate through YouTube’s familiar video browsing categories or search for specific videos. YouTube members can also log-in to their YouTube accounts on Apple TV to view and save their favorite videos.
“iPhone delivers the best YouTube mobile experience by far,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Now users can enjoy YouTube wherever they are—on their iPhone, on their Mac or on a widescreen TV in their living room with Apple TV.”
To achieve higher video quality and longer battery life on mobile devices, YouTube has begun encoding their videos in the advanced H.264 format, and iPhone will be the first mobile device to use the H.264-encoded videos. Over 10,000 videos will be available on June 29, and YouTube will be adding more each week until their full catalog of videos is available in the H.264 format this fall.
The combination of H.264-encoded videos plus iPhone’s built-in Wi-Fi networking, stunning 3.5 inch display, and custom YouTube application with its multi-touch user interface results in the best YouTube experience on any mobile device.
Update:
This was discussed back on June 3rd in this post about YouTube moving to h264 for better AppleTV and iPhone support.
iPhone has a special YouTube player that you can launch right from the home screen. So now you can access and browse YouTube videos wherever you go. And when you find a video you want to send your friends, iPhone can even create an email with the link in it for you.
Watch Youtube on the Apple iPhone demo video.
MyTVPAL.com, Yet another TV over the web provider
June 15, 2007
In the age of Internet TV the battle over eyeballs will be won by the service provider who can provide a wide variety of content with high video quality that plays instantly over low bandwidth over both PC and TV.
With MyTVPAL.COM you can view over 1000 + free live TV channels and thousands of video on demand movies, documentaries, extreme sports, Travel, and IMAX 15/70 formatted titles, in DVD and High Definition streaming instantly on their PC via PC Player and TV via set top box. MyTVPAL streams instantly over any 1.5mbps or better connections.
Unlike other content service providers such as XBOX, Apple TV, Cinema Now, Movielink, Babelgum, Joost, and other PC and set top box video on demand service providers that offer a slow download and / or unstable P2P only solution’s with sub DVD picture quality, and no live TV channels.
MyTVPAL.COM offers both live TV channels and video on demand content that instantly streams from DVD quality up 1080p high definition over 1.5mbps and up.
In terms of service provider offering MyTVPAL.COM believes that users should have the choice to view content via pay per view or no charge through user targeted advertising.
MyTVPAL.com only support Windows PC clients right now. It is not know if a Mac client is in the work or not. Right now Joost is one of the few native solution for Mac users. Babelgum is said to work on a Mac version of their client at the time of this writing.
[Source http://www.directtraffic.org/]
YouTube moving to h.264 for better AppleTV and iPhone support
June 3, 2007
The relationship between Apple and Google keep showing it’s head more and more! Something tell me that the recently announced YouTube support of h.264 will also enable the Apple iPhone to play YouTube content when the phone launch on June 29th 2007.:
According to Moody, the YouTube update will take place in stages, beginning with the free software update for Apple TV owners in mid-June. At launch, “thousands of videos designed for Apple TV” will be available, with additional thousands added weekly until the entire YouTube library becomes accessible to Apple TV users this fall.
When asked what “designed for Apple TV” meant, Moody said that YouTube will soon be encoding videos in the H.264 streaming-efficient compression format preferred by Apple TV, and that all new videos submitted to YouTube as of the mid-June launch of the AppleTV update will be playable by the device. From then until fall, YouTube will be encoding its entire back-catalog in H.264 format, adding videos in chunks until everything is accessible to Apple TV users. Direct links and the on-screen keyboard-based search engine mentioned in our previous update will bring you to current and old videos alike.
h.264, also known as MPEG-4 AVC (Advanced Video Coding), is a video compression standard that offers significantly greater compression than its predecessors. The standard is expected to offer up to twice the compression of the current MPEG-4 ASP (Advanced Simple Profile), in addition to improvements in perceptual quality. The H.264 standard can provide DVD-quality video at under 1.5 Mbps, and is considered promising for full-motion video over wireless, satellite, and ADSL Internet connections.
YouTube is currently streaming all it’s content using the Flash Video format known as FLV. It is not expected that YouTube will force anyone outside AppleTV and iPhone users to play the new format when it becomes available.
[Via iLounge]
Rumor: AT&T planning IPTV for Apple TV in 2008?
May 31, 2007
Maybe this shouldn’t come as that much of a surprise, but when AT&T execs talk about having a long and close relationship with Apple, they’re not just planning on putting out future iPhones. A well-connected source tells Engadget that AT&T and Apple are working on adding IPTV capabilities to the Apple TV beginning sometime next year. (A launch window hasn’t yet been determined, Engadget source says that plans are still being worked out.) It is beleived that it’ll be something like AT&T’s U-verse TV service, but it’s still way too early to say whether this would be a blown-out offering a full package of channels aimed at replacing your current cable/satellite service, a more limited selection of on-demand programming, or whether it’d even be available to non-AT&T subscribers.
[Source Engadget]
YouTube Coming to Apple TV
May 30, 2007
CUPERTINO, California–May, 30, 2007–Apple® today announced that it’s bringing the Internet’s most popular originally-created content from YouTube to the living room with Apple TV™. Beginning in mid-June, Apple TV will wirelessly stream videos directly from YouTube and play them on a user’s widescreen TV. Using Apple TV’s elegant interface and simple Apple Remote, viewers can easily browse, find and watch free videos from YouTube in the comfort of their living room.
“This is the first time users can easily browse, find and watch YouTube videos right from their living room couch, and it’s really, really fun,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “YouTube is a worldwide sensation, and Apple TV is bringing it directly from the Internet onto the widescreen TV in your living room.”
Thousands of the most current and popular YouTube videos will be available on Apple TV at launch in mid-June, with YouTube adding thousands more each week until the full YouTube catalog is available this fall. With Apple TV’s stunning interface and simple Apple Remote, users can easily navigate through YouTube’s familiar video browsing categories or search for specific videos. YouTube members can also log-in to their YouTube accounts on Apple TV to view and save their favorite videos.
Apple TV seamlessly integrates with iTunes® to wirelessly play a user’s favorite content from a PC or Mac® on their widescreen TV, including movies, TV shows, music, photos and podcasts. Apple TV users can choose from over 500 movies and 350 TV shows in near DVD quality; over five million songs; 5,000 music videos; 100,000 podcasts; and 20,000 audiobooks from the iTunes Store (www.itunes.com). Users can enjoy their favorite music on a home entertainment system and view slideshows of their photo albums on a widescreen TV.
Apple today also announced that it is offering a new Apple TV build-to-order option with a 160GB hard drive. The new larger hard drive offers four times the storage for up to 200 hours of video, 36,000 songs, 25,000 photos or a combination of each.* Apple TV is easy to connect to a broad range of widescreen TVs and home theater systems and comes standard with HDMI, component video, analog and optical audio ports. Using high-speed AirPort® 802.11n Wi-Fi wireless networking, Apple TV can auto-sync content from one computer or stream content from up to five additional computers right to a TV without any wires.
[Via Apple]
Want Joost on your Apple TV? Here is how
May 30, 2007
Details on how Joost can be launched on AppleTV can be found in awkwardtv.org wiki. Joost seems to behave normally under AppleTV once it is set up. However setting up and configuring channels is not easy and it is recommended that you do your channel configuration on an a mac before transferring the files to ATV. Joost has fairly good support for the Apple remote but does not have the capability to exit using the remote. However it is fairly easy to crash Joost and that exit that way. All testing for this How-To was done on an Intel mac and Joost for Friends 0.10.3
Find out how to do it by reading the full Wiki post.
The Apple TV is a set top box manufactured, marketed and sold by Apple. It is a network device designed to play digital content originating from any Mac OS X or Windows computer running iTunes onto an enhanced-definition or high-definition widescreen television. Apple TV can function as either a home theater-connected iPod device or a digital media receiver, depending on the needs of the user.
Thank you Brian Moura for the tip!
