Hands-on with the Apple iTV prototype
By Ryan Block 
posted Sep 12th 2006 3:02PM
posted Sep 12th 2006 3:02PM
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pretty slick
What, exactly, is "wireless" about this?
I see three wires coming out of this thing - exactly the same number as coming out of my cable box, and one more than comes out of my DVD player.
The iPod/iTunes announcements today were neat, but the video stuff was all pretty meh.
Thanks for trying on the resolution issue. I am a little worried that they haven't come out and said 1080i or such..
Um, and Apple copying Microsoft is apparently ok now? Media Center Rip-Off if I've ever seen it.
Are you really this stupid?
Ryan,
No chance you were a track star in high school...how fast can you grab it and run?
Nice Sony HDTV.
And, those overpriced, 640x480 IMovies are going to look great up-rezz'd and stretched.
Judging by the resolutions available at Apple's site, it'll probably by 480p/720p/1080p.
I love the interface! Sexy is back!!
Odd. I was going to link to this story on Fark, but on their submissions page my hand was slapped and in a red font was told, "sorry, we can not accept submissions from that site." That's a new one. Just submitted the fat-ass 9" long Swiss Army knife story to Fark a few weeks ago.
Seems silly to include HDMI and Component Video but NOT support 1080i, no?
Would be silly not to do 1080p
what was that usb 2.0 plug attached to?
So ... it's a media center extender for itunes? LOL shesh
this on top of the "games for 5$" is just laughable... i mean xbox live anywhere lets it be on Vista / 360 / and Mobile Phones and most of those games are around 5$ also (For the basic zumas etc) so why would i pay the same for just playing it on the ipod?
Lets see linksys or dlink will release a 199$ extender for WMC and make it smaller than the current ones to compete... whats really "the big deal" about iTV i mean its just an extender just its itunes centric why are people goin nuts over it. lol
upon futher inspection, that's not the USB, it's the HDMI. but what is that USB port gonna be for anyway?
Adding a HD?
did u see the remote for it, or is it just the reg apple remote?
Hmmmm..... Could we see a lawsuit pending with British broadcaster ITV ?
I doubt this thing has the horsepower to play back 1080i MPEG2 .TS files.
..and I love how Apple's press says that Apple is "Apple forges path to digital living room". Yeah right. Ever heard of Windows MCE? For $300 I built a Windows MCE box that plays back 1080i content flawlessly thanks to an GeForce 6600 and Nvidia's excellent Purevideo decoder which means GPU-assisted decoding negating the need for an expensive CPU. Doesn't get any better than MCE + MyMovies right now, sorry.
Yeah, you built one. But you're a smart guy.Look around Jiggsaw, the thousand or so other guys like you constitute a user base on the - what- macro level. Apple build stuff for the rest of us. People with more money than sense, grammas, technophobes. And folks who don't give a shit about the magic inside the box.
Well, first off, if he built it with hdmi out for three hundred, then he spent at least a good amount of time researching where to find the best parts for the job at the best price.
Also, his box must be small, and eye catching. laff.
or he's just lying -
i think it's a great idea for $299
all depends on how it plays my higher rezed avi files, after i bring them to mp4 land of course
bet all that "adware" and "spyware" look great at 1080i/1080p
I agree with you, Jiggsaw. MCE has been around for a loooong time and even many opensource media centers have come out. Ofcorse everyone's gonna' say that Apple got it first. As for your MCE computer I'd really like to know what you've got in it.
Oh, and by the way, labuss, what you just said is just Apple crap comming from a Mac user.
I'm curious about what's in the $300 box as well.
Personally, I'm sick of the Mac hype --and-- the Bill Gates bashing.
Apple could quote your post in their next MacWindows commercial, and you would make their point for them. You are among the relative few who can even understand what you have said, let alone build such a device. The rest of the world, if they are to have something like this, will simply want to open the box, plug it in, and have it work.
The iTV would be very interesting IF it acted as a remote display for your computer. I really want a web browser that displays on a large, wide screen tv but guess I will have to buy a nintendo wii to get that feature.
There are lots of media players around, does this do hdtv?
So plug your computer into your TV.
Where is the link to the iTV on the www.apple.com website?
That's not a USB2 cable, it's the HDMI.
And it is pointless to have HDMI and Component if the max resolution is 640 x 480. It looks to me like the content is what's holding this up, not the hardware. My guess is that Apple have given out this much detail to generate market demand that will help it force the hand of studios (although they launched the iTunes Store with only Disney, so they could have done that for hi rez too). When was the last time super-secret Apple let the press see hands on demos of prototype hardware..?
Any idea if it's got a hard drive? I'm wondering if it syncs with your PC or if you have to leave it on all the time.
I also wonder if they'll have rentals on the iTunes store. For me that makes much more sense that buying stuff digitally. The appeal of being able to rent a massive online catalogue of movies would be amazing.
Jiggsaw,
At around $100 for the graphics card and $100 for Windows (at least) it doesn't leave a lot to build the rest of the Media Center...
What I want to know is if you'll be limited to iTunes-purchased video and audio. A Mac w/ the appropriate codecs will play back DiVX, XVid, etc., via FrontRow, but what's under the hood here? Is this just a nextgen FrontRow running on flash with a couple gigs of buffer and a handful of locked-off "approved" codecs?
Nice Job guys! This is great first hand coverage.
Cheers!
I'd love to see a future Engadget piece on where we think Apple is going with this. Do we think Stevie J is about to try to put the Cable & Sat TV co's out of business. He can distribute VOD and give you the means to keep it locally with his DRM. He's got a huge digital distribution infrastructure, and now he's getting more content and giving consumers more ways to consume it. If I could subscribe in iTunes to every show in my TiVo season passes, I'd be pretty happy to do so and tell Rupert to take his D* bill and stick it where the sun don't shine. They'd have to figure out solutions to live events (sports), but they could be in an interesting spot to use iTV to do to TV networks what the iPod did to traditional radio!
why can't they make the mac mini do all this, it seems every1 forgotten that we been waitin for a media centre mac mini 4 a year now!!
Can hardly wait!
So its an Airport Express with video. Yawn. And there I was thinking this was going to keep me from buying the Tivo 3.
Russ, I wouldn't hold my breath. If you want your HDTV to be your computer monitor...hook it up. I don't think that's what the iTV device is for.
HDTV playback is definitely the $300 question. A device like this doesn't need "horsepower", per se. It needs a decoder chip, like what sits in my LinkPlayer2 DVD player and can decode HD content from my Mac: MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DIVX, WMV. It certainly can be done. I hope this does it.
Announcing a product, features, price point that isn't coming out yet? Yeah, Apple must be pressuring someone. I'd guess it's the movie studios, saying hey, this is how we'll bridge the gap between computers and TVs. Get on board or get left behind. Unfortunately, that doesn't speak to HD support. Here's hoping...
add another 100 dollars and you can do the same with an xbox 360 while playing games.. I think the price is not relative to the competition...
This is the reason I modded my original xbox...I'll take XBMC any day.
An ethernet cable for...folks without wireless?
Steve's Pixar adventures will insure that Apple maintains the closed market approach, specially with the Yahoo movie deals last week...how long before Apple buys Yahoo...? Oooo the synchronicity...
"add another 100 dollars and you can do the same with an xbox 360 while playing games.. I think the price is not relative to the competition...
Posted at 3:41PM on Sep 12th 2006 by sal [ ! ]"
i must be missing something... but is the required XP MCE needed on the host computer now $0? i keep seeing this said... and i could've swore i've seen a dollar amount attached to getting your XP host turned into an XP MCE machine.
and technically... doesn't the same priced $299 360 Core also act as an Extender? or not?
Wonder what ITV (Independant TeleVision) will think of Apple using their brand like that
iTV is the projects internal code name and will not be the final product name.
They're using a Sony tv, ahhhh alert the media/fanboys!
Is this thing a really small Mac, or a really big iPod?
For those of you who keep posting your cheap media PC comments I'd like some links with details on what you bought and how you managed to get anything that doesn't sound like a freight train noise wise.
I've got a Media PC. It cost $1299 but is totally silent. Don't stand near it though because the PentiumD in the sucker puts out a heat wave that will melt you during the summer, and keep a room warm in the winter.
Seriously i'd love to see some low cost HTPC options out there. But if you want em dead quiet like everything else in my theater room you add a $1 in front of the 300 most of the time.
So basically this is like a media center extender similar to the linksys for Microsoft's MCE. That's probably why it is so cheap. For a second I thought it was somewhat of a full system able to play dvd's. But from what I am reading its not. They are definately on the right track here but, if you have a dvd then no one really wants to go to the other room or upstairs to stick it in the mac then run downstairs to view it. Install a dvd player and its a go.
It should be called IdontdoTV.
Where's the tuner/dvr?
In the Settings Menu, there is an option to 'Unpair Remote'. Looks like there will be a bluetooth remote...
The USB will probably be used with a "Cable Card" reader that will be an extra fee. Then you can have the "iTV" as your digital tuner for viewing content from your cable operator.
Too bad to see yet another TV interface using pure white color in it's menu. It makes my Television FREAK out.
I've stopped watching these keynotes because they've become so much hype and so much disappointment. I've come to the conclusion, if you want something, you have to do it yourself.
I'll keep a mac mini, coverflow, frontrow, delicious library VLC and media central.
"For $300 I built a Windows MCE box"
I'd like to know how you legally did that.
Brian,
That's there in existing Macs that use the IR remote. They've used the familiar terminology, but it's not Bluetooth Pairing. There must be some kind of remote ID carried in the IR signal because you can pair a Mac to a particular remote (though by default they accept signals from any).
I hope the images above are the last we'll see of a highlight-based menu in any upcoming Apple consumer electronics-oriented product. Coverflow (allright, iTunes then) just screams TV! TV! Out of my way jumping highlight and list-based menu, cover art and massive previews want to show themselves!
Let's just assume that the horrific-looking list-based menu in the images above is for prototype's sake and the Quartz Composer/Core Animation-based UI with rich content-related visuals will replace this stone-age, TV-unfriendly and MCE/Frontrow/Yahoo-Go/MythTv/Freevo-like UI. Inspire me...
Im surprised to see that no one has mentioned the DLink DSM-520. Functionality seems pretty close, and $100 less
Jiggsaw,
you got me wanting to build my own now! I would like to find out more from you about it.
I see comments asking about tuners and I see a USB port and I thought "Hmm, that'd be perfect for a USB 2.0 TV Tuner." Could this be an optional add-on when it comes to market? It'd be right in there with Apple's 'low-mid-high' product line-ups and it'd a nice way to keep initial costs down for those that just want an easy way to use their media on their desktop with their tv without having to relocate anything, while allowing those that want to enhance the machine to do so.
This thing is great. It has teh potential to be the hub for the media experience. The USB will probly be used to sync your ipod with the unt. So if i brought my ipod to your house i can hook it up to the TV vial ipod dock and watch a show/movie that i have.
The biggest suprise is that it supports HDMI and COmponent. Def a hint that it supports HD in some form. This can potentialy be huge. Imagine the real winner of the format wars being Apple.
Imagine just DL a high-def movie on the ipod and watching it with this. No spending $1000 on a BlueRay or a HD-DVD. With the implimitation of coverflow it seems more and more likely of having a truely digital movie collection.]
Also for those people gripping about not having a tv tuner. In the next few years most people will have HD on their tvs. And to get that HD you have to have a cable box of some sort. THe cable box could connect to the iTV via hdmi or component? Then you have tv, movies, music, and all the other stuff just in one unit.
NICE WORK APPLE!
OMG, iTV is the codename. Steve Jobs said during the show that they were going to come up with a better name.
And yes, it has ethernet coming out the back, but it also has 802.11 wireless networking.
Interesting though they didn't say what kind of 802.11, so maybe it'll be n?
There's something that everyone is forgetting about this. Yes, this is an airport Express with video, but it means more for the consumer end of things.
This would go in the den, away form the computer. For the $300, you can access any of the media on your computer. Yes, that's what the XBOX360 does, but it's not a gaming system, but it doesn't have a large footprint in your entertainment center.
It's also not an XBOX360, that's a positive.
Apple's always been about usability, and from the looks of it, you simply hook this up to the wall and it should work.
It's not a media center PC, the Mac already is one. This is an addition to the Mac. Despite how much you might have paid to put an MCE box together for yourself, the average consumer isn't going to know how or want to build their own dedicated PCs.
Much like when the iPod debuted, this box will get the job done, and get it done well. It's not the most fancy thing on the block, or the flashiest, but (I bet) the interface is going to be slick and easy to use and (I bet) it will be easy to set up as well.
That's a Belkin PureAV HDMI cable...Nice!
http://catalog.belkin.com/PureAV_detail.process?Product_Id=178779
Quicksilver
Problem 1: You could only fit 2 or 3 HD movies on the current Ipod
Problem 2: It would takes days to download the movie even if the movie industry agreed to let Itunes sell the movie.
This device is no more than a streaming device with a nice interface. They should've just updated the Macmini with Super Front Row, HDMI, TV tuner, and optional high definition drive. I can't justify spending $300 for a device that will stream data that is already on my computer somewhere else in the house. I could just buy a number of existing devices to do that. I'll stick to my PS3/PSP combination for my multimedia/gaming needs. Hopefully my current ipod won't die on me for awhile, so I don't have to purchase anything for the next year.
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What, exactly, is "wireless" about this?
I see three wires coming out of this thing - exactly the same number as coming out of my cable box, and one more than comes out of my DVD player.
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Because it does have 802.11 built in.. they just have it wired to the network in that image, most likely to maintain a high data throughput. Plus there were a LOT of wireless devices around there, lots of interference.
I ended up with 5 wires on my DVD player (3 for component video, 1 optical audio, and the power). T
first clarification i thought i would interject -- according to engadget's coverage, the iTV, as steve jobs put it, is a code name, and not the real name of the product ("they need to work on that" -- or something to that effect).
Chances are, DivX will not be supported. It will primarily support their proprietary formats because one thing is for sure about Apple, they like to have full control over the user experience. If someone did a crappy (of course legal...right?) rip of a video file and it got in the hands of someone with this device, saw the crappy quality, they would blame the apple device, not the original encoder.
I will admit complete noobness on codecs, however, which comes to my question to you all -- from WWDC two years ago when they introduced h.264, they mentioned full scalability as being a key feature of that format. Not sure what that translates to but i think video will be higher quality than one person's comment above of "only 640x480"? Do correct if I am wrong.
- $300 for an MCE, surely that is without tax and reused parts. I would like to see your invoice for that system (as you have had time to see that it is completely flawless, it wasn't built with today's prices so no wishlist newegg links please - last i checked, a low ball guess for geF 6600 would be $80, valid copy of MCE is $150, with tax, leaves you about $50 for the computer).
- $300 for an MCE, and a remote that will make any joe confused to heck (or they will know perfectly how to use it... that is, the 10 of the 50 buttons the remote is capable of).
I already have one of these. It called a Mac Mini with Vista RC1, dual TV tuner displaying 720p on a 1080i 32" LCD TV. And, an XBOX360 in the bedroom for games and remote Media Center in 1080i. Yum!
Anyone who thinks this is a Media Center ripoff is straight up retarted.
This is not a computer. There is no NOISY fan. There is no SPINNING hard drive.
This little bugger streams your media off a computer that sits somewhere else in the house. Preferably a sound proof networking closet. That damn machine is LOUD, and I'm trying to HEAR the movie.
This is not a TiVo replacement. It's meant to get the media you get online onto the big screen in the living room without having to wire it to the computer. Of course, with EyeTV running on the computer, you could capture all your shows and then watch them wherever you want. In the bedroom. On the sofa.
I already have a Mac mini as my media center. When this comes out, my mini becomes my home media server, and these guys get connected to every TV in the house.
If you think this is just a knock-off, you don't know what you're talking about.
Hopefully this will force Microsoft to release a MCE Extender that is actually worth a darn. Xbox 360 this, 360 that... I want small, quiet, and affordable for multiple rooms. I would think most XP Pro users who upgrade to Vista will upgrade to the version with MCE capabilities, so there better be some sweet extenders to go along with it. Come on Microsoft, what have you been doing since you released the first extenders!?
MCE w/ DVR + extender should be able to beat iTunes TV downloads + iTV. I'm not paying for cable TV so I can pay for shows again in iTunes. Go ahead and have a built in store if you think that's what everyone wants. DVDs are cheap enough and easy to rip to a HDD. We don't need movie downloads as much as an affordable and elegant way to extend our digital media to every room. Oh yea, not just mp4 or wmv either. ALL of our media.
About HD output questions : It is HD! Steve actualy did an HD demonstration... remember the photos slideshow?
I think that is the only HD output we will get from that thing. If there is no ultra huge buffer inside (ram or hd), I cannot see how it could get HD streaming through simple wireless connection!
Another thing. Major difference between Airport Express and this: The airport doesn't drive the streaming. The iTv does.
But they should sell this thing at a lower price. Even if they loose money. Because this will really push movie sales on the Store. And they also need to add renting for movies.
I do hope that Apple will "support" some type of desktop streaming as well as streaming "content" (e.g. music/tv/music) so that televisions/monitors can be used as alternate Mac displays (I realize that there will be a delay with such a streaming process when you're viewing your Mac's desktop.)
What's the purpose of showing three soft photos of the rear view and two of the front? Since I could have gotten all the information I needed from a fuzzy one of each, I'd have rather seen more of the screens.
Daniel Lee,
The full scalabilty of H.264 refers to the fact that the codec can be usefull for compressing small content for use on the web, or for compressing large HD content. It DOES NOT mean that a small web video can be scaled up to HD.
Before Apple implemented H.264 into Quicktime, Sorenson 3 was their coded of choice in the movie trailers section of their website. Mpeg 2 is also fairly comparable to Sorensen 3 in terms of quality and file size.
Those codecs are really quite good at compressing video, but only within a certain set of parameters. For example, if you try to compress a large HD video using one of these codecs, such as something in the 720 or 1080 ballpark, you are very likely to get an excellent picture, but the file size will be enormous. Conversely, if you compress something very tiny, 320x240 or smaller for example, you will get a very, very small file size, but the image quality will suffer. But if you try to compress something in between, like say DVD resolution (72x480) you'll get a pretty good balance of both.
H.264, in effect, combines the best of the two extremes. You can compress large HD content and get an excellent picture while still maintaing a manageable file size. And by manageable, I mean smaller than if you used Sorensen 3 or Mpeg 2. It's still quite large.
As for smaller videos, you'll get tiny file sizes as well as a nice clean picture (at that size anyway).
Plus, if you take the same video, and compress one version using H.264 and another using Sorensen 3 or Mpeg 2, assuming you've matched the compression settings as best you can (this can be tricky), you'll find that the H.264 version will look very similiar (maybe a bit better, maybe a bit worse) to the Sorensen 3 or Mpeg 2, but will have a noticeably smaller file size.
Broad efficiency. That's the strength of H.264.
Anyway, I hope that this overly long and boring set of information helps you out.
Haven't you guys ever heard of Elgato's EyeHome? This thing is the exact same thing, but with HDMI and it plays Apple's DRM stuff. I love my EyeHome with the exception that it can't play h.264 and my protected files. I am able to stream HD stuff flawlessly over my wireless network onto my plasma without any problem, it works great.
Two things are uncertain:
1. Will it stream other codecs and how the little box will handle those?
If the answer is NO to the first question, it would only be a matter of a third party tool to convert files into high res .mov files, that could be added to the iTunes Library. It raises question number two:
2. Will it be able to handle those high resolution h.264 quicktime files well?
If it won't, power-users (true HD and everything) will still have to stick to more expensive Mac Mini based setups. If iTV's interface is the next version of Front Row, it will be available standalone aswell sooner or later. 640 by 480 sounds a bit low, if stretched to, say, 1280 by 720. I guess we will have to see.
Used Xbox: $105 shipped
400GB IDE HD: $108 shipped
Xbox Media Center Extender (for remote): $42 shipped.
Much cheaper than buying iTV. And I can play MPEG4.
Here we are again. Apple is ready to beat the competition flat even though it's joining the game late. iPod defeated almost every MP3 player out there. Now the iTV will beat all the media center PC's out there and make it mainstream.
i don't know where you guys are getting the 640 by 480 from for Movies, (probably because the video shows are that rez), but i just watched a full length movie and the resolution is far higher than 640x480.... however, i can't quite tell what it is, it appears to be close to DVD if not the same... it is not HD though, but guess how soon they will start doing those...
what i'm dissapointed in, is there are no rentals for $3.00, you have to own them at $10, or $13... i want to own some, but i'd rather have rental too...
jon.
"I doubt this thing has the horsepower to play back 1080i MPEG2 .TS files."
The Roku PhotoBridge was able to do it and it is dated hardware.
I lovemy Roku Photobridge, too bad the power supply died, known problem, have to replace it. What made the PB so great is all the third party apps. I ran my 2 TB HDD array for my music, movies and photos and there was no need to have a huge bulky and noisy PC. At $300, it was more than worth it. On top of that, it is the only one with the kind of features it had that actually supported windows, samba, nfs and OSX shares. It seemed all other had to run some crappy software in order for it to work, screw that.
My only two complaints, Roku's support, while they did update the software, it never left Beta before they discontinued the product. The second was due to the embedded ATI chip, it could not do mpeg4, which mean not divx or the like. They are apprently working on a new version, due out some time next year. If they keep the thing open like they did for third party support, I will be all over it.
I will keep my eye on this iTV though, if it is hackable and doesn't require some bullcrap propritary software to be installed. It could possibly edge out the new Roku product as long as they are on par for features.
errr...XBMC Rules, your X-box only plays out at NTSC (or PAL) resolution. This thing does HD. bzzzt!
Well, this is a MASSIVE announcement. First, I believe this is a precedent for pre-announcement on Steve's dime. Second, this finally gives people a way to see both video and audio with DRM (meaning legally purchased and of high quality) on their TV and PC / Mac at the same time.
Oh, and for the people not "getting it" yet-- they will start with DVD quality now and move to HD as bandwidth makes it a reality. Remember, it's only a good idea until Apple does it. Then it's bankable. This could even mean more affordable broadband as a REAL NEED is put forth to millions of households for a change.
zargon, if it streams from iTunes...iTunes 7 allows playback of divx/xvid media just by having the file saved as a (tiny) reference movie and dropped into iTunes, assuming you have the divx codec installed.
component becomes RGB via SCART in Europe?
The same crowd that bitches about this is the same that complains that the iPod doesn't have a built-in radio, flashlight, GPS unit, and stream 1080p video.
It's about simplicity, elegance and ease of use. When will you get ever get that? What made the iPod so popular? Ease of use... good design.... and the elegant iTunes software. What makes you think Apple is going to cram every bit of obscure Slashdotter tech into this box?
AND it's 1.0 prototype. So don't expect everything and the moon with the first release.
Yawn. How is this any different than my DSM-520 running along side my TVersity sever? It can handle just about every single codec/format I throw at it and is linked via usb 2.0 to my 500GB Western Digital MyBook. Yes Divx, TS, VOD, Pictures, Music, you name it. The D-Link was under $200...and released nearly a whole year before this locked down proprietary (you know it will definitely not be supporting the UPnP AV / DLNA standard) iTV nonesense. This is nothing new people...we've been streaming media from servers to our TVs for quite some time.
He did say we call it iTV "internally".
Just a little side note, they said that the movie downloads were being offered in 640 x 480 size. That doesn't mean the iTV device is ONLY able to display a resolution that big. It just means that's the resolution of the movies they are selling.
And it's probably a safe bet that as more companies start signing on to the iTunes Movie Store that they will be increasing the resolution in order to get a competative edge.
And just because you have an iTV doesn't mean you HAVE to watch movies from the iTunes store... In the same way iTunes plays music from outside the store.
And one last thing, it's unlikely that this device is packing a 250GB HDD in it to display all this media. I am assuming it functions in a way that allows you to browse media that is shared with it from connected computers via WiFi or Eth0. So you could have 1 of the these for every TV and one storage Mac and access different content on each device.
HD content through this device will not be MPEG2 - it will be H.264. This means smaller files, faster streaming, better scaling at a smaller file size. Therefore your HD content - from other sources (not ITS) and your DVD Rips (encoded with H.264) and your TV Shows will all stream via iTunes to this box either wired with the Ethernet port or through 802.11(probably N) wireless.
james
I suspect it will likely support 720P and 1080i (possibly even 1080P) over HDMI and component since jobs talked about HD photo slideshows. The question is does it have the horsepower (hardware or software)to decode HD video. My guess is not - otherwise I'm sure Jobs would have touted this feature. Maybe it's undecided yet though.
Also HD video would require too much bandwidth to stream in realtime so you would have to buy your movie, download for several hours, and then watch - not super appealing I guess.
DVD's resolution is 720x480. The pixels aren't quite square, so when you watch it on a normal monitor you effectively get 640x480.
heavens...guys, this is an HD streaming device...totally knocks socks off any existing $200 box. ANd...no, component doesn't become RGB scart in europe...it stays component , for connecting to HD video displays, like the HDMI connection.
My question is whether or not this device really will play any content it can reach on your home network (Xvid, DivX, mpeg-2, avi, mp3, jpg -- you name it). I currently use Front Row on my MBP this way, with a few extra aliases stuck into the Videos and Pictures folders to point to network shares, and it works well. If the iTV can do the same things format-wise, then I'm all over it.
Craig...thats the million dollar question. I'm getting itunes 7 to show xvids by using a QT reference movie to the .avi, with divx codec installed for qt. So, it should stream.
Based on the form factors and the USB cable could this be connected to a mac mini? Just thinking.
DBX00,
How are you calculating the size of an HD movie?
H.264 at Full HD (1920x1080, 24p) has a data rate of around 7-8 Mbps. With an 80GB iPod, you could store 1300+ minutes (22+ hours) of video.
If you "settle" for Regular HD (1280x720, 24p) then you could get 35+ hours of video on an 80GB iPod.
Correct me if I am wrong but, is there not a conspicuous absence of both composite and S-video out on this little box? IF all they are offering is 480i? 480p? Video, what is the point of having such fancy outputs that most smaller TVs lack the capability of dealing with. Can this confirm the dream of a HD IT(media)S?
Let's get focused here. Apple rewards those who buy into their view of home digital media.
1. You pay for content.
2. You get it online, or you go to a store, pick up a DVD or CD, and you rip it in iTunes.
3. You play your newly gotten goods on a handheld device.
4. You play it at home on your mini or new 24" wallmounted iMac.
5. You get to make 5 copies of each song, who knows how many for video.
Also, look at other facts:
1. iTunes Movie downloads are 640x480, which is already better than non-"HDTV" resolution.
2. This is a wireless device.
3. HDMI/DVI means that digital instead of analog information is communicated. If it's HDCP compliant, it means it supports copy protection.
So:
1. The iTV is not a TV recording device. The interface does not have a menu item for recorded broadcasts. Just different categories of things you might have purchased from the iTunes store, or Podcasts.
2. This does not support 1080p or 1080i wirelessly. There's just no way. At this point, it doesn't have to stream anything more than...640x480. Over HDMI, that resolution could look pretty good on a good 1080p HDTV.
3. Apple does not subscribe to the broad view of the HTPC, meaning one specialized computer sitting in your home theater setup. They don't care if you want to watch or record TV on your Apple computer. They won't stop you, but they don't facilitate it as a company. In fact, they don't even need you to own more than one computer, nor does that computer have to be located anywhere in particular. If you want to watch a TV show, they want you to buy it online on the computer you're using to watch the show, to put it on your iPod, to make it available to any other networked computer, and now to send it to your TV. If you want to watch a new DVD release, you instead can spend somewhere between a movie ticket and a DVD (basically around the price of a soft porn movie rental at a hotel...or so I hear) to get the movie in a half hour and play it as many times as you want on your shiny, white, or sometimes black, networked and portable handheld devices.
4. When they do release a wireless video iPod, it will also stream content around the network.
5. The big human interface development in this product is that wireless media streaming + video support = graphical menu interface. You could stream tunes all over the place before, but now you can run your TV like an iPod with virtually unlimited storage space and an enormous screen. For about the price of an iPod.
So if you are trying to figure out how to hook your iPod up to your home theater and add a wireless remote control, or you're thinking of getting a mini just to access your network video files, you can stop and pick up one of these. The quality will probably be much better than any video dock.
Interestingly, although they look very similar, you would never need to put the iTV and the mini in the same place.
Reminds me of Disney Moviebeam
I think everyone is missing an obvious answer ...
What if iTunes streams the 640x480 data, and the iTV upscales it to 720p or 1080p?
If a $299 DVD player can upscale....
If the iTV can upscale as well as the OPPO DVD player, this could be a great addition to my future Westinghouse HDTV, Receiver, speakers, DVD player, etc. purchase ;-)
And if the iTV can also stream and upscale DVDs converted with Handbrake....
$299 may very well be a steal.
just my $0.02US
justme
They didn't say everything would be in 640x480. I think people should just wait and see what exactly comes out next year and not talk sh--. I mean honestly, that thing is awesome, and Apple is really doing a great job. It's not a sh-tty Widows Media Center thing. It's better, and will definitely be better when it is officially released. Mark this down... they will make the resolution at or near HD soon enough, but it doesn't make sence according to the download speeds people have access too right now.