It’s TV, but not as we know it

Plenty have already been written about the Apple TV, on how its features are limited and will be a massive flop to how it will revolutionise TV viewing. I think I agree to both point of views, because how you feel about Apple TV depend heavily on what TV is meant to you and how it fits into your life.

From the traditional TV viewing point of view, Apple TV is a strange beast. It is not a DVD player or a DVR, so it is not about replacing a piece of equipement that we already own. Apple TV 'merely' plays content from your computer on your TV, be it video purchased from iTunes Music Store or video ripped from DVD, etc. Nothing revoluionary there, is there?

But if you look at Apple TV from another angle. One where video content are no longer served by the few TV networks and I think this is where Apple TV will be the watershed device when we look back in 5 years time. DVRs, and to some extend DVD players, have changed TV viewing for many people. We are no longer tied to the TV schedules defined by someone working at a desk in the network. Now we can record shows that we want to watch and then watch them when we want to. If we take this one step further so now we also control what will be shown on the TV, this is what makes Apple TV so special and may take a while for content creators to recognise.

With video podcasts on iTunes, Joost, and other P2P 'sources', we are no longer tied to content any more. We are now empowered to find content that we want to watch when we want to. Of course many people have been doing this for a long time but it is not simply a few clicks of the mouse button and most consumers neither have the skills nor the time to find content this way. Apple TV, I feel, is the device that will bring consumer awareness to the possibility of decentralised TV content. And this raise in awareness will finally force content providers (TV networks, movie studios, MPAA, etc.) to realise the old model can no longer be the only model. The cat is out of the bag and if the content providers want to be rewarded for content they created, they need to help us find content that we want to watch, not actively blocking us and force us into the old revenue streams (TV, movie theatres, DVD).

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March 31, 2007 1

Apple TV and why I want one

I causally mentioned to my friend at work who is also an Apple user that I may get the Apple TV when it is finally out. His reaction was, "What? Why would you want to watch video blow up?"

I explained to him that I want to watch my video podcasts on the TV instead of in front of my computer, despite the fact I have a very nice 24" LCD monitor. My friend just rephrased his question and wanted to know why I would want to watch low resolutions video on my 46" HDTV.

Then I realised that he thought all the video podcasts on iTunes are sized for the video iPod. He did not know some video podcasts are in hi-def, such as MacBreak which is in glorious 1080p. Others such as Diggnation and Merlin Show are in decent quality 480p which should scale OK on the big screen. But the most important of all are the TV shows that we've bought from iTunes: Smith, NOVA, etc. which we would not watch unless it is easy to put onto the big TV.

Yes, there are cheaper ways to get video from our macs to the TV but Apple TV takes the hassle out of the whole equation. Do I really want to figure out how to stream video from my Mac Pro to my PowerBook (probably using VLC), then onto the TV using S-Video (i.e. no HD)? How would I control the playback? Certainly not through a remote control and an onscreen display that Apple TV would provide. Do all these worth $299? To me definitely, probably not for most of you geeks out there. But then, I just want to watch video from my computer on my HDTV, not doing my annual geek certification exam.

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March 5, 2007 2

From crepe to sandwich to Duran Duran

Before tennis this afternoon, Leah and I got off the subway at W14th and planned to go to Rue des Crepes for some food. But when we got there, it turned out that it had been closed! No more crepes! Frakking disaster! We were so looking forward to crepes!

In its place is a bespoke pressed sandwich place called Switch Pressed Sandwiches. We were dubious at first but since we needed some food in our bellies before the exercise we decided to give it a try. We ordered the Trojan Horse (ground lamb with beefsteak tomato, tzatziki, and fresh mint on rosemary focaccia) and it was delicious! We were very surprised since we had a very low expectation.

Rio

Another unexpected result was that they were playing Duran Duran's Rio while we were waiting for the sandwich, and that reminded me to search for the track on iTunes when I got home. Needless to say, I am writing this post while listening to Duran Duran! Ah, the 80's!

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January 21, 2007 2

I know I need new computer when…

Web browsers (Firefox or Safari) run slow when iTunes is playing.
I can type faster than the browser can display sometimes (think back to the 14.4kbps modem era).
iPhoto takes forever to load, to save changes of photos, or to exports to Flickr.
Video podcast in 320×240 resolution drops frames when played. Don't even think about HD or H.264 encoded video.
And most important of all, eiron has a faster computer than either of mine!

Having said all that, my G4 800MHz Titanium PowerBook has been with me for over 4 years. And forcing it to drive my new Dell LCD monitor @ 1900×1200 resolutions doesn't help the speed matter either.

Now, should I prolong the suffering and wait till after Christmas to see if there is any bargains or price drop? Or I can just pick up one of those speedy Mac Pro from the SoHo Apple Store this coming Black Friday, especially with the 10% discount?

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November 20, 2006 2

Newsnight as you go

Last week while I was browsing around iTunes Music Store, looking for new podcast to subscribe to, I decided to see how many new BBC podcasts had been added to iTunes since I last looked. So I typed in "BBC" in the search box and the list was pretty long. As I read down the list, I spotted the Newsnight video podcast. It is a short excerpt of the week's footage so it is a nice way to get the best digest of the program.

I didn't manage to watch the three episodes until late last night and a couple of minutes into the first one, I wondered what file format BBC is encoding the podcast. A quick check in iTunes showed that it is just plain mp4 video, and I then wondered further whether my Nokia E61 will play it.

E61 on Titanium PowerBook

So I dug out the USB data cable and connected the phone up. The memory card showed up as a disk on my Mac desktop and I just dragged the file into the disk. A few minutes later I had it on my phone and RealPlayer was playing the podcast in its fullscreen glory! The video quality is pretty good. I didn't notice any dropped frames and the sound from the speaker is adequate for a talking head program. Battery life, of course, suffers when you play video on the phone but that is to be expected.

Anyway, after that it was just a matter of entering the long URL for the podcast into the Nokia Podcasting app on the phone. Soon it was download the latest episode onto the phone via the Wi-Fi connection. This is especially cool for me because I can't play video on my 4G iPod (obviously) and I am waiting for the next generation before upgrading. Being able to play video on my phone means I have less of an excuse to buy the 6G iPod when it comes out.

So now I have even more content to keep me occupied as when I am stuck in a subway train. One thing still annoys me though. Why can't all audio and video podcasts on iTunes uses non-DRM, non-proprietary format like BBC. How about that Apple? Can I have iTunes New Music Tuesday in regular mp4 audio format, may be as an alternative to the special one you've been using? I don't care for the album arts and chapters, I just want to listen to the podcast on my phone!

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