News

Apple TV Limitations Aired Out

Wednesday, March 21st, 2007 at 5:05 PM - by

The Apple TV, designed be iPod-like in its simplicity, may be too simple, according to BusinessWeek.

While the Apple iTunes store is the only source for on-line purchased iPod music, Stephen Wildstrom noted that, " The video world, by contrast, is fragmented into incompatible sources and formats....The $299 Apple TV set-top box, designed to move video from your computer to your TV, can only play movies and TV shows from iTunes."

The author doesn't dispute that the Apple TV works very well, given that limitation. The issue is that there are so many other video sources, the question arises as to whether mainstream customers will consider the Apple TV a broad enough solution to invest in.

"You can't view streaming video directly from the Web, so no YouTube," Mr. Wildstrom explained. "You can't even stream a DVD being played on your computer over to your TV set." [That's a well-known copy protection and licensing issue.]

The BW author concluded by wishing that the Apple TV could simply be the one-stop source for all video.

Whether that's practical, whether Apple can achieve that, and whether the market place is willing to accept the Apple TV limitations in exchange for simplicity will be interesting to watch as time goes on.

16 comments from the community.

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Mar 21, 2007 5:22 pm

hmmm.

i'm suprised over the limitations he found irksome.

1. playing back a dvd from your computer? well I guess a college student who can't buy a dvd player might benefit from this, but uh... dvd players are $30 these days. apple can't compete with that.

2. streaming video? are you kidding me? thats a joke right? you do that on a computer, chump. AppleTV is a set top box designed to move video from your computer to your tv. not from an arbitrary web source.

3. Only stuff from the apple itunes store? right. right. right. so that new feature in quicktime... the export to AppleTV feature... are you saying that doesn't work?

another under-researched article trying to steal the thunder of a smart product.

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Mar 21, 2007 6:48 pm

While some may view this guy's opinions as heavy handed, all DRM-issues aside it's a pretty annoying "ease of use" pitfall that a DVD inserted into a Mac can not be played via the ?TV.

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YodaMac said:

member since 21 Mar 2007 with 17 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Wed Mar 21, 2007 7:18 pm

I think he stated above that it's not an "ease of use" issue, but rather an industry copyright issue, that does now ALLOW a Mac to stream a DVD to Apple TV. It's not an option right now.

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Mar 21, 2007 7:51 pm

Still, I wouldn't pay $300 for a box to just watch iTunes movies. Especially since iTunes movies are just movies, no special features. (And there are some movies for which I _want_ the special features, although for most I can skip the redundant "Making Of" )

True, a DVD player is $30, so that's fine. But it also means Apple could slip one in to a $300 device.

Though I'd agree with not doing it since most ppl don't get the $30 version, but some larger, more expensive one.

I'd like to see how well the Export to AppleTV feature works.

I _would_ like to play YouTube videos on a TV, because that would be cool, but its a completely unneccesary extra.

I would also like to import my DVDs to iTunes so that I could select a movie from a list, not going through a space-consuming collection of DVDs near my TV. It would be more convenient.

So, for a box that does just what AppleTV does, I would pay maybe $100. I don't see what the $300 is for. (I guess its for the hard drive and network card. But I still don't think the functionality justifies that price.)

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Engine Joe said:

member since 29 Jun 2004 with 412 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Wed Mar 21, 2007 7:56 pm

I'd like to see how well the Export to AppleTV feature works.

So try it.

I would also like to import my DVDs to iTunes so that I could select a movie from a list, not going through a space-consuming collection of DVDs near my TV. It would be more convenient.

It'll NEVER happen. And it's not Apple's fault.

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Mar 21, 2007 8:44 pm

YouTube content can be added to iTunes with PodTube, DVD's with handbrake/mediafork.

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Mar 21, 2007 8:53 pm

Engine Joe:

Never say never. As soon as the movie industry figured out how they can make money from it, someone will release a legit DVD-to-iLibrary "process". Whether that'll be iTunes, some other software, or a service is wholly dependent on if, when, and how the movie industry comes up with "the most profitable solution."

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Terrin said:

member since 29 Jan 2006 with 350 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Wed Mar 21, 2007 9:11 pm

Actually any video that Quicktime can play can be streamed to Apple TV. Quicktime has an export to Apple TV option.

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Terrin said:

member since 29 Jan 2006 with 350 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Wed Mar 21, 2007 9:14 pm

Fair-use would allow one to stream a legally acquired DVD to your own television. Instead, the issue is Apple most likely does not want to piss off the movie studios who really could care less that such action would be legal. Apple after-all is trying to get more movie content on iTunes. Allowing the streaming of DVDs would not make the studios happy.

Quote
YodaMac wrote:
I think he stated above that it's not an "ease of use" issue, but rather an industry copyright issue, that does now ALLOW a Mac to stream a DVD to Apple TV. It's not an option right now.

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Mar 21, 2007 9:26 pm

Engine Joe said:

member since 29 Jun 2004 with 341 posts, , send him a message or view his profile

>>I would also like to import my DVDs to iTunes so that I could

>>select a movie from a list, not going through a space-consuming

>>collection of DVDs near my TV. It would be more convenient.

It'll NEVER happen. And it's not Apple's fault.

----------------------------------------

It's already happened... The program y'all need is called "Instant Handbrake" it's free and it works great.

Try it, you'll like it. I do...

Hanover

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Terrin said:

member since 29 Jan 2006 with 350 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Wed Mar 21, 2007 9:26 pm

Actually, Apple TV is good for quite a bit of things. It is like Apple's Airport Express on steroids. First, it can stream any content that either Quicktime or iTunes can play. Besides iTunes movies, this is nice for a lot of video that can be found on the internet (even the naughty ones), as well as movies people might edit in iMovie or Final Cut Pro. If you make home videos, you can quickly see your edits on your television. Second, it can stream your iTunes music to your television tuner, which in turn could be connected to your stereo. Third, soon it will be able to stream all your photos, which is a great way of sharing them with family. This third element does not yet work. I suspect this is because Apple is dealing with making it compatible with Window's photo software.

For what it is worth, I think the hype about Apple TV is overblown. The device is not for everybody, but only for those who have a lot of content on their computers that they want to view on the television.

I would like to see Apple TV improve in a few ways. I would like to be able to surf the internet from within Apple TV. I would also like to be able to view Keynote and Powerpoint presentation using Apple TV. In addition, I think you should be able to control iTunes from within Apple TV. Finally, I would like to be able to broadcast to my television using iSight. My thinking is you could interrupt a broadcast, for instance to tell somebody watching television to do something (e.g. go to bed now).

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Mar 21, 2007 10:47 pm

Everyone is MISSING the one KEY element the AppleTV DOES NOT have:

The ability to record TV from the airwave (let alone satellite or cable digital).

And Apple WON'T provide this, because they sell the shows on iTunes.

Instead, you need to spend another $150 for a USB-based TV tuner/recorder (ElGato's EyeTV, for example).

So, for $450, you get all the features you want.

And, in regards to DVDs, rip 'em to disc (then delete them after you watch it).

MacSpudster

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DaiMac said:

member since 29 Jun 2001 with 952 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Thu Mar 22, 2007 7:54 am

A few things:

If you want to watch YouTube videos on your TV for less than $300, try the Nintendo Wii (if you can find one). The built in web browser (well you have to download it but its free for now) can handle YouTube video, if not much else.

As to the lack of TV capture capability, with the future of OS TV formats both broadcast and cable/satellite still up in the air why build it into a new piece of hardware? Its the same reason we don't see Blu-Ray or HD-DVD drives built into Macs yet, once the issue is "settled" to Apple's satisfaction we'll get them.

Finally, the FUD that can be summed up as "AppleTV can only play iTunes purchased content!! Run to the HILLS!" is nothing short of stupid. Of course AppleTV will play other content, formatted properly. Just as your iPod won't play those AVI files until you run them through a converter, same here. Of course there are still people who don't understand that about iPod, so maybe I expect too much. What remains to be seen is if AppleTV will be able to host additional codecs like DiVX with software plugins the way QT on a mac does.

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josephclark said:

member since 09 Mar 2007 with 1 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Thu Mar 22, 2007 8:29 am

Rumor or not it would be stupid for Apple to totally ignore the potential of including gaming capabilities.

The perfect device for me would be an Apple TV/Nintendo Wii hybrid with a DVD playback. That would be worth

$500 to me and I think a lot of other people.

http://www.appletvconverter.net

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gslusher said:

member since 13 Nov 2002 with 2003 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Thu Mar 22, 2007 5:06 pm

As a note: the reason that the Apple TV requires an EDTV or HDTV is that it has only HDMI and component video outputs. There is no composite or S-video output. Check the user guide on Apple's support site.

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A guest said: (hide)

Mon Mar 26, 2007 4:42 am

Quote
Guest wrote:
Engine Joe said:

member since 29 Jun 2004 with 341 posts, , send him a message or view his profile

>>I would also like to import my DVDs to iTunes so that I could

>>select a movie from a list, not going through a space-consuming

>>collection of DVDs near my TV. It would be more convenient.

It'll NEVER happen. And it's not Apple's fault.

----------------------------------------

It's already happened... The program y'all need is called "Instant Handbrake" it's free and it works great.

Try it, you'll like it. I do...

Hanover

Yep. IH is a handy app, very good for the pod.....but I get obvous pixellation on a large screen. Can it do HD?

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