AppleTV vs Blu-ray

[blu-backer]

I'm sure some people will say that HD downloads are the future and Blu-Ray's victory over HD-DVD is meaningless. I still don't buy into it and reading this makes me happy that I chose Blu-Ray and will be sticking with it for a while. I have no desire to line Apple's pockets.

http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/art...he-comparison/

[ryoohki]

Originally Posted by blu-backer

I'm sure some people will say that HD downloads are the future and Blu-Ray's victory over HD-DVD is meaningless. I still don't buy into it and reading this makes me happy that I chose Blu-Ray and will be sticking with it for a while. I have no desire to line Apple's pockets.

http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/art...he-comparison/

For it to because mainstream every need to have AppleTV in their home and unlimited bandwitdh account + very high speed.

[Sporty]

Originally Posted by ryoohki

For it to because mainstream every need to have AppleTV in their home and unlimited bandwitdh account + very high speed.

Yeah it's still years away, but the article was just comparing PQ of both, and you can see AppleTV looks like crap

[hardcore_canadian]

If Digital Downloads take off, i hope Apple is at the forefront, and not Microsoft. Then Like I've stated before, i hope Pirates kill it

[blu-backer]

Originally Posted by Sporty

Yeah it's still years away, but the article was just comparing PQ of both, and you can see AppleTV looks like crap

I, for one, am seriously hoping that AppleTV dies a slow and miserable death.

[thunderclap]

While digital download for movies and television makes sense from a rental standpoint, I don't get the interest for purchase. Considering how big the files would be storage will end up being an issue. Also, what about special features? If it does take off I can see it working for the film itself but how will one get the supplemental material?

[Animusmors]

Digital downloads is a lost cause right now. Don't get me wrong, I love apple's products and I love Blu-Ray since i got my PS3. But, I would like the apple Tv if it had recording functions. The movies look like crap compared to Blu-Ray so does the sound. I think it's a good concept and it IS the future but only the future after Blu-Ray. By the time the download technology is out of it's infancy, we SHOULD have storage crystals instead of hard drives......like Superman's set up.

[bilbravo]

Originally Posted by thunderclap

While digital download for movies and television makes sense from a rental standpoint, I don't get the interest for purchase. Considering how big the files would be storage will end up being an issue. Also, what about special features? If it does take off I can see it working for the film itself but how will one get the supplemental material?

I think this is the biggest issue here. After seeing the comparisons (which also all look like they were paused and taken with a camera--so there is still much to be said about the actual difference one would see in person) the AppleTV looks pretty good. So the difference isn't visual, but instead owning vs. renting. Who cares how you get the movie when renting, and if it looks almost as good--people probably won't care. But for owning, you want the best quality--and you want to have it on a disc. Storing on a hard drive isn't going to work right now (if they're as big as they need to be for the quality) and people won't want to have to stream it every time they watch it.

[ryoohki]

VOD IMHO are wayyyyyyyyyyyyy more convienient that Digital Renting

Example here in Quebec we have 2 solution

40$/month, 20gig down, 10gig up
70$/month, 100gig up/down...

We are 3 people in the house, 3 computers. I use about 22 gig/month (without the Radio Streaming) alone without doing anything major

New pack are coming in soon

30mbits download, 30gig up/Down limit (50$/month)
50mbits download, 50gig up/Down Limit (80$/Month)

So you see. Speed is getting up.. but bandwitdh down.. why? because bandwitdh cost ALOT OF MONEY and those who are providing it charge more and more and more..

So here it's not viable. VOD is part of the cable package and there's not bandwitdh attached to it..

[LynxFX]

I hate this argument with a passion:

It’s also worth noting that the Blu-Ray Disc’s biggest video and audio advantages are real, but will be lost on many HDTV users. Since the majority of HDTVs sold before 2007 were not capable of displaying true 1080p output

Yes, because not everyone can take full advantage of it we shouldn't care about it. Let's see, nearly every single dvd owner in the early days and still a vast majority of them now can't even take advantage of anamorphic DVD's but we faught hard to make sure that it became the standard because sooner or later those owners will upgrade their tv and they'll wonder why their non anomorphic discs look funny on their new tv's. Same situation here, 1080p is the future and it actually got here much faster than I ever thought. Producing content for 720p owners is extremely shortsighted but I expect nothing less from Apple.

[Blu-Beard]

Originally Posted by LynxFX

I hate this argument with a passion:

Yes, because not everyone can take full advantage of it we shouldn't care about it. Let's see, nearly every single dvd owner in the early days and still a vast majority of them now can't even take advantage of anamorphic DVD's but we faught hard to make sure that it became the standard because sooner or later those owners will upgrade their tv and they'll wonder why their non anomorphic discs look funny on their new tv's. Same situation here, 1080p is the future and it actually got here much faster than I ever thought. Producing content for 720p owners is extremely shortsighted but I expect nothing less from Apple.

Not everyone can afford a Ferrari so we should get rid of those too. And not every guy can get a hot girl so let's get rid of those also. Sounds like a winning philosophy to me

I know, stupid analogy but so is that arguement and that's why I ran with it.

[BluStar88]

Originally Posted by Sporty

Yeah it's still years away, but the article was just comparing PQ of both, and you can see AppleTV looks like crap

I own apple tv it is crap.. can't compare quality


it takes me like 2-3 f@*#ing days to dowload a movie or a show. and the quality isn't that good.

I do like using it for tv though as I can't get american cable in china.

[BStecke]

If the quality got up there with Blu-ray I would use Apple TV for rental purposes in a heartbeat. It'd be a much more worthwhile investment than Netflix/Blockbuster, at least at this point. I'd still purchase the movies I really want.

[TheTenth]

The internet speed will not allow enough speed to give good quality to everyone, as bandwidth would die if millions of people were downloading 50Gb files at the same time, so it would work for occasional use, replacing rent imo.

[J_UNTITLED]

Blu-ray provides the superior video and sound quality... enough said.

[camper]

Originally Posted by BStecke

If the quality got up there with Blu-ray I would use Apple TV for rental purposes in a heartbeat. It'd be a much more worthwhile investment than Netflix/Blockbuster, at least at this point. I'd still purchase the movies I really want.

By the time the infrastructure will be able to handle Blu-Ray quality movies, the next big thing will be out and digital downloads will not be capable of handling that either.

Unless they start laying terabit fiber instead of gigabit.

~Camper

[LSK6453]

I am planning on getting an Apple TV in my new apartment mainly for music, but I may rent a movie or 2.. It is cheaper than going to Blockbuster.

[FallenAngel78]

Of course Apple is going to say that digital downloads are the way of the future. After all they want as many people as possible to have an Apple TV. But there are a few problems with that thought (on top of the fact Blu-ray is the superior technology)

1. Hard Drive Size. The average collection would need terabytes of hard drive space to accommodate the files. Not sure about anyone else but I have had my share of defective hard drives and wouldn't want to lose my entire movie collection as a result
2. Bandwidth Limits. Unless ISPs are planning to introduce unlimited bandwidth limits it is not currently feasible to be looking at HD digital downloads. At most I would be able to download 1-2 movies a month before going over my limits.
3. Download Speeds. Currently I can get speeds of 10 MBps. Even with that it takes a long time to download a video file
4. Content. I live in Canada and right now a lot of the content available in the US is not available here from the iTunes store. It has only been recently that we can get TV shows. We still can't get the films (as far as I know). Meanwhile I can go down to Future Shop and buy it... or order it from Amazon. The content obviously has to be there to make it work

Perhaps in the future downloading really will be the way to go. But we are nowhere near that point yet. For now the future looks Blu.

[PeteS]

Originally Posted by FallenAngel78

[*]Bandwidth Limits. Unless ISPs are planning to introduce unlimited bandwidth limits it is not currently feasible to be looking at HD digital downloads. At most I would be able to download 1-2 movies a month before going over my limits.
..For now the future looks Blu.

A recent news article from Feb 13, 2008
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,330584,00.html
"Comcast Defends Slowing Down Internet Traffic"
paints this pretty clearly. Internet providers aren't ready for widespread downloads. Comcast was sending reset packets to end download sessions.