Forget the other format, there's a new enemy

[hc666]

Apple TV... sounds stupid to me but apparently it will give Blu ray a go? I don't think so but that's just me.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/01/16/apple.format/

Rrrr i HATE downloads. The quality will suck.

[apollo92178]

Exactly, and let not even talk about the special feautures

[hc666]

Originally Posted by apollo92178

Exactly, and let not even talk about the special feautures

Yep!

And the audio will suck beyond sucking! Video will be compressed... rrrr

Worse than DD+ :P

[statikcat]

Pretty sure it is just for rentals. 4gb HD movies don't look too bad and work well to just rent something. I wouldn't worry about it too much. Still an improvement over DVD though.

[blugasm]

This is just for rentals. For all we know it might help spur HD adoption. People will get a taste with their cheap HD rental movie they downloaded and go out looking to buy a copy.

[bhampton]

It's rentals.

Some people will be into it but in general Apple TV has been a failure for Apple.

-Brian

p.s. I will take your suggestion and forget the other format though.

[Dynamo of Eternia]

If anything, though, Apple TV seems more like a threat to the rental market than to those who purchase their movies. I know some people around here rent Blu-Rays, but it seems like most are movie fanatics that buy more so than rent.

I don't see how this would compete with Blu-Ray, even if it was true Hi-Def from day 1.

[Nerdkiller likes BD]

I thought Apple TV was dead in the water.

[clyon]

Well I thought itv came out last year & was a flop?? Anyway, it doesn't say anything about HD PQ & HD AQ, time it takes to download, cost. One thing it does says your just renting the movie not buying.


I'am getting tried of hearing about Downloading movies, downloading did NOT KILL the CD.

[mkelley]

I have Apple TV (had for many months now) and it fills a niche but is in no way a replacement for BD or even television in general. Think of it as a video iPod that stays at home, if that makes sense.

What it's really good for is TV shows and/or home videos. I really like it for that, but I'd never watch a movie using it. The real deficiency in it is that it's like a TiVo only without the ability to record broadcast TV -- kind of crippled to begin with. If they ever figure this out they'll make a mint, but right now only video dillitantes like myself can really love it.

[glenn22]

I don't think Apple TV is going to be much of a threat to Blu-ray. Firstly, it's a rental service in which the movie is only playable for a 24 hour window, and secondly, not many people want to download movies yet, even music hasn't even captured 10% of the music industry sales. (they are hoping for that figure around 2010)

[Dynamo of Eternia]

Originally Posted by clyon

Well I thought itv came out last year & was a flop?? Anyway, it doesn't say anything about HD PQ & HD AQ, time it takes to download, cost. One thing it does says your just renting the movie not buying.

According to a new report I saw last night, they said that you could start watching a movie within 30 seconds of clicking to pay for the rental. It could be that the rest of the movie is still downloading (they didn't specify), but the movie could start playing.

However, it seems like it's mostly in standard def, because at the end of the report, they said what the prices for the movies will be, and they said "Add an extra dollar for Hi-Def." So, it's not like Hi-Def is the standard here, and it could be that it will take more time to start watching a Hi-Def movie, and I doubt the PQ and AQ would be as good as Blu-Ray.

The one thing that I think the news report got right was that they were pointing out how this could be stiff competition for rental services like Blockbuster, Hollywood video, Netflix, etc.

I don't think this will compete with physical disc SALES, and therefore won't do anything to hurt Blu-Ray.

[Icemage]

I don't consider AppleTV or any download service to be a major threat to Blu-ray in the near future.

(1) Quality concerns. Bandwidth is limited, and file size/storage is always a problem. The sacrificial lamb here will be PQ and AQ.

(2) Movies/TV shows are too long to be "impulse buys" the way music is. That's really part of the formula for success of iTunes; they were able to isolate the bite-sized pieces of a CD (individual songs) that persuaded people to buy those CDs in the first place. You can't buy a bite-sized piece of a movie, and you'd be hard-pressed to find a reason to buy only a single episode of a TV show.

(3) DRM. Boy, if people freak about BD+, wait till they get a load of what the future of downloading will be like. The content providers aren't stupid - they know they can't send this stuff out digitally without some form of encryptive protection, and I can see this level of paranoia becoming ever more important for things like feature films and TV shows.

[john_1958]

Originally Posted by hc666

Apple TV... sounds stupid to me but apparently it will give Blu ray a go? I don't think so but that's just me.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/01/16/apple.format/

Rrrr i HATE downloads. The quality will suck.

I agree they must like piracy
a person should buy dvds where its better pq

[hc666]

I hope you are all right.

I just hate how a big name like CNN advertises that this will be a Blu Ray competitor and maybe make ppl think twice about going blu.

Some ppl live on CNN and other news channels and have their heads filled with crap.

[aristotles]

It's a competitor for rentals but I have yet to rent blu-ray and I have not rented a DVD in over a year.

I see a number of impediments for download deliveries including:
- internet availabliity
- bandwidth caps
- internet outages
- data corruption/data loss.


I don't see it being used for anything more than "rentals" by people who use netflix or other non-B&M methods already.

[Blu-Beard]

Br doesn't have anything to worry about untill there is something that is truly better and that won't happen for awhile. I think the only thing to worry about is the average consumer will have so many choices and so much misinformation that they'll say "Screw it, this is all just so confusing. I'm gonna just stick with my SD"

[CAB]

I own one and use it to stream lossless audio (my own ripped CDs) to a small entertainment room or the house speakers. It beats the hell out of searching through 400 CDs or having to catalog a CD changer. I used to like it a lot more when Universal sold their TV shows stuff via iTunes.

I don't see how this competes with high quality HD. People have to start recognizing what the Blu-ray market segment is.

[Tanman19az]

Didn't this thing already flop? I read an article on all of Apple's duds and they said that Apple TV would be the next. I don't see anything special about it. It seems like there is a lot of Blu-ray haters out there tho. They can't accept the inevitable I guess.

[seto]

Apple TV is purely rentals and is no threat. It cannot even do 1080 spec. It is, in no way possible, anything near a threat.