HDTV Almanac - iTV: iDon’t Get It

[alfredpoor]

The Internet is buzzing with the news about Apple’s iTV. At the very least, this is a refreshing change from it buzzing with rumors about iTV. We all know that Steve Jobs is the master marketer of our time; he can turn a sow’s ear into a silk purse just by talking about it. The [...]

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[jvrichards]

My disappointment with the Roku box has been 1) Netflix does not provide current movies for streaming. 2) Netflix does not provide surround sound. 3) The movies look good but they don't look as good as a Blu Ray disc. I can't see that Apple TV overcomes any of these shortcomings.

[alfredpoor]

(3) I have not seen the high-definition Roku box, so I can't comment on how it compares with a standard DVD or with a Blu-ray disc. And I haven't seen the Apple product yet, but it clearly offers high definition movies from the iTunes store. (Whether or not an 802.11g connection is fast enough to stream that content without excessive compression is a different issue entirely, and I'll need firsthand experience before I can pass judgment on that.)

(1) As for the current movies, iTV is supposedly going to get day and date release of movies as they come out on DVD, so it will be much more current than the existing Netflix offerings. On the other hand, I can't imagine that Netflix is going to have to wait much longer to get access to more new releases for their streaming service.

Alfred

[alice]

I do not get it either . The HD content from what i gather is 720p and seems more suited to music streaming

[ccclvib]

Back to what excites you, I guess. Don't forget: most TV viewers, whether they have an HD TV or not, don't know 720 from 1080 from 480. They might, if pressed, begin to notice the granularity of 480 over 1080, but it won't make a difference. Steve Jobs knows this! ...and as far as he - and Apple - are concerned they'll be happy to sell you as low a quality anything (MP3 vs .wav, for instance) as you'll take.

I too often forget just how much in the minority those of who (obsess?) over video and audio quality appear to be. I'm reminded often by my neighbors and the folks who work with my wife. Just give them a picture they can see and sound that isn't so muddled they can't understand it, and they're just fine. I guess being a professional musician once-up-a-time was a bad thing. I never used to think so.