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More Rumblings on Apple Video iPod

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the only-a-matter-of-time dept.

Chris Holland writes "Beyond the WSJ Story, Om Malik gives us inside information obtained by Business 2.0 Magazine about the Apple Video iPod. 'Steve Jobs has spoken with Disney President and soon-to-be CEO Bob Iger about ways to license various Disney content for a video iPod, according to an internal Disney email I have obtained. That could include anything from clips from ESPN and ABC News to short cartoons.' "

2 of 297 comments (clear)

  1. ESPN content, now there's something useful... by jmp_nyc · · Score: 5, Interesting

    While I wouldn't want to watch feature films on a 45 minute bus ride to work, it would be great to have a podcast of the hilights of last night's games to watch...
    -JMP

    1. Re:ESPN content, now there's something useful... by buro9 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I used to work for Premium TV and was the poor bugger largely responsible for creating their searchable video archive which included the ability to create videos from clips of soccer games.

      Basically video arrived in and was edited down to highlights, and meta data applied to describe each clip within that highlight. The video and meta data is then uploaded, and the end user can search it to watch a specific clip or construct their own highlights packages (want to build a movie of your 20 favourite goals ever? sure thing, etc).

      Anyway... this was all designed for the web. The problem that we encountered that I think will be encountered here is the usefulness of the web to display content that has been created for a different medium.

      Film of soccer games was specifically created to be viewed on a television. With various presumptions about the size of a viewers TV set.

      When reduced in size to fit within a 320x240 area on a web page, and then encoded to be streamable and downloadable with convenience, what do you think happens?

      Well firstly, that player who looked huge is only an inch high. Next that white ball he was kicking has become a dot. The ball disappears occasionally. The picture is mostly green.

      What needed to be done is that the video should have been reshot with the destination in mind. Wide shots of the pitch do not work when you have a few inches of available on the viewable device. Fast action moments (when most of the skill and elegance of a player is executed) blurs and is not clear when encoded too much.

      The same thing applies to almost any other sport.

      And importantly... it applies to music videos.

      Most music videos are designed for TV playback, a large viewing area. They will not instantly work when transferred to a very small screen. Though they do have a better chance than films which were designed for even larger viewing areas.

      On a tangent, Premium TV now work with Playboy TV and the searchable archive I created has been refactored to accomodate porn. Now that is true recognition of the value of the tool I built ;)

      On another tangent, imagine video podcasts. Especially when combined with the "build your own highlights" type thing that I mentioned above. iPods would be good devices for talking heads, and to construct documentaries and news from multiple sources and catch up on the latest on the way to work would be cool.

      So not all great, but there are some silver linings to such a product.