Apple HDTV Coming to Your Living Room

[Shane]

Apple® today premiered Apple TV™, an easy to use and fun way to wirelessly play all your favorite iTunes® content from your Mac® or PC on your widescreen TV, including movies, TV shows, music, photos and podcasts. Using Apple TV’s stunning new interface, anyone can quickly browse and view their entire collection of digital media from across the room using the simple and intuitive Apple Remote. Apple TV easily connects to almost all modern widescreen televisions, and will be shipping in February for just $299.

Apple TV has a 40GB hard drive to store up to 50 hours of video, 9,000 songs, 25,000 photos or a combination of each and is capable of delivering high-definition 720p output...

[url=http://www.hdtvmagazine.com/news/2007/01/apple_hdtv_comi.php]Read the Full Article[/url]

[glinde]

While I'm always intrigued by new technology releases from Apple--they seem to get things right so much more than their competitors--I must admit that I'm a bit surprised and disappointed that this thing only offers 720p. A quick scan of the articles and blogs on this site would demonstrate to any afficianado that 1080p is the hot new technology, and 1080i has been a standard for some time.

I can understand the bandwidth limitations of wireless streaming of HD signals, but I would at least hope that Apple is working quickly to improve the iTV to the most cutting edge capabilities in the near future.

Am I asking too much from the guys in Cupertino?

[stevekaden]

I have to actively support Apple in this. Let me beat old horses: Rome wasn't built in a day; There is no such thing as a free lunch; and project managers have to kill the engineers to ship a product. (Read as: they got this out in time for the show.)

This is clearly another good step towards the same end game as electronic audio media. I hope this will not become another MP3 and stay mediocre but in the end we need a plasticless, near hardwareless medium/players. No plastics, no toxins and wasted energy, landfills space etc.

And then there is the convienence. With Verizon FIOS creeping into our neighborhoods, very highspeed downloads are within grasp. And we already have other on Demand formats. The future can handle full HD, the present maybe no so well.

I waited 55 years for HD video media, I expect to wait only a little more for instant access, full fidelity, on demand/private ownership-access media all of which will not leave a physical footprint.

And Apple of course will make look really cool and operate like it was part of us!

(But also note: their 720p is based on 480i content - so it's worse than it appears - and depends on scalering one in the Apple TV box, and maybe another in your HDTV.)

[glinde]

I agree with your recognition of this progress. I need to do more reading/research to learn exactly what Apple is doing to push the envelope over platforms like the Xbox 360 and various PC (wireless) streaming platforms.

As far as the 480i limitation, is that still the case if you own Quicktime Pro and download/save HD movie previews and other HD content? And certainly if you have some other digital source of HD (e.g., a HD camcorder), that would supply you with better than 720p content that presumably must be downscaled, right?

[Shane]

This is not a hardware limitation or engineering decision, it is based on the content. Since the iTunes store was built from the bottom-up to support the iPod, high definition was not initially in the plans. They have since added it, but the content is limited to 720p resolution. So to deploy a box that supports anything more would be a waste (presently). Besides, next year they can announce 1080p with a 2nd gen. box and get another $300 from us ;-)

- Shane